Dane Rudhyar - The Fullness of Human Experience

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Born in Paris, Dane Rudhyar (1895-1985) was ru!y a Renaissan"e #an,having

gained distinction as a composer, pianist, poet, painter, and prolific author in the fields of

astrology, philosophy, and psychology. His creative work was often considered ahead of itstime, and his writings show an insight into the trends of the future.

Rudhyar received the Peabody award for music in 197, and his compositions have been

performed in ma!or concert halls. He held honorary doctorates from the "alifornia #nstitute

of $ranspersonal Psychology and %ohn &. 'ennedy (niversity. He is recogni)ed

internationally as one of the leading figures in the field of transpersonal astrology and

philosophy.

Rudhyar is author of books too numerous to mention, including Asro!o$y o% Persona!iy

and The P!aneari&aion o% 'ons"iousness. He authored five *uest books including

'u!ure, 'risis, and 'reaiiyand the book to which this one is a se+uel, Rhyh# o%

ho!eness.

alley proofs for The *u!!ness o% Hu#an E+erien"ewere finished before Rudhyar-s

death on eptember 1/, 190. #n his final talk in arch, celebrating his 92th birthday, he

said3 4$he power that held my whole being as a lens to bring ideas to a focus will be

released when # go. Perhaps when the person # appear to be is gone, it may be easier to

tune up to that mind5power and what is beyond it 6 the wholeness of spirit, the freed

seed.4


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'HAPTER OE

Pre!ude and Basi" The#es - 1

The urose o% his .oo/ is o .rin$ o a #ore "on"ree and e+erienia! !ee!

fundamental concepts of the philosophy of perative 8holeness, which # outlined inmetaphysical form in Parts ne and $wo of my recent book, Rhyh# o% ho!eness. $o

fulfill such a purpose, # shall rephrase in more psychological terms some of the ideas

previously formulated, and define what is involved in characteristically 4human4 situations at

the level of personal eperience, yet without losing sight of the all5inclusive frame of

reference, the cyclic ovement of 8holeness.:1;

ome of the implications of this cyclic structure and the manner in which it should be

approached have re+uired a more complete treatment, and the first chapters of this book

are devoted to such a process of elucidation. $he concept of structural invariance and the

way aleatory developments resulting from individual 4free4 choices are reabsorbed into the

cyclically unfolding pattern of the ovement, will bring, # believe, a deeper understanding of

the twin factors of spiritual "ompassion and karma. $hese ac+uire a new and revealing

meaning when related to the ideal of personhood, and the appearance in the earth5field of

the upreme Person 6 prototype of the state of personhood 6 at a crucial moment in the

planetary cycle.


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condition, definable as 4personhood,4 on the basis of the great cycle to which # have

referred as the ovement of 8holeness.

8hat is to be meant by being a person> 8hy are human beings today determined to

operate as autonomous individuals characteristically able to make responsible decisions>

$his basis evidently depends on the particular nature of the

choice being made? yet, whether or not the person reali)es it, anydecision implies the

acceptance of an approach to life and the meaning of eistence which has metaphysical

and@or religious roots.

ost religions or spiritual philosophies assume as an incontrovertible fact of inner

eperiences :particularly in states of intense meditation or ecstasy; that human persons are

essentially spiritual entities :ouls or onads; that, having emerged from 4the ne4 :od or

the


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terms of cause and effect.


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'HAPTER TO

ho!eness and he E+erien"e o% Periodi" 'han$e - 1

The dyna#is# o% ho!eness

8hen a definable or identifiable boundary can be given to an energy field in which the

activities of a number of elements are functionally interrelated, this field constitutes a4whole.4 $he wholeness of this whole results from the coeistence of a state of #u!i!i"iy

:the many elements the field encompasses; and a state of uniy:the fact that these

elements are circumscribed by boundaries;.


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develop a mode of operation 6 a procedure, strategy, or device 6 which makes possible

the repetition of pleasurable :and in general 4desirable4; eperiences, and the avoidance of

painful ones.


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'HAPTER TO

ho!eness and he E+erien"e o% Periodi" 'han$e -

The e+erien"e o% i#e

Aecause the eperience of time undertones all other eperiences in which change is

involved, # shall at once pay special attention to what is in fact implied, though largely notunderstood, in it $he eperience should be differentiated from that of the continuum of

change, because while 4change4 should not be considered as raving any beginning or end,

4time4 as an eperience always has a beginning, and it must also end. Aetween the

beginning which was in 4the past4 and the end which will occur in 4the future,4 a 4period of

time4 etends. $he sense of time is not only related to the etension of such a period, but to

a sub!ective personal factor, the desire for some kind of change to occur during that period

of time. $he speed at which time is 4passing4 while the satisfaction of the desire for a

particular :or generali)ed and imprecise; change has to be waited for, gives this time5flow a

specific character. $he waiting for the end of the period may be relaed or tense? time may

seem to pass slowly or +uickly.

< peasant who has sown seeds must wait, perhaps while hungry, for the new harvest? theindividual student also waits for the results of a test which may determine his entire career.

$his waiting 6 a so often repeated human eperience 6 constitutes the eperience of time.

8hen referring to it, the psychologist or philosopher speaks of 4sub!ective4 time. 4b!ective4

time, on the other hand, deals with periods whose beginning and end are established by

eternal events which a collectivity of human beings can observe and use to define and

measure set periods of activity or rest 6 for instance sunrise and sunset, the full moon, the

rise of vegetation in the pring.

$here is actually nothing mysterious about time, ecept the strange ways in which this

basic, common eperience of perpetual change has been interpreted. $he many

interpretations that have been presented by religions and philosophies simply reveal how

difficult, if not incomprehensible, it has always been for human beings to have o waiforthe satisfaction of their desires. $he near5impossibility of an 4instant fulfillment4 of one-s

desires :the passionate ideal of the hippie generationD; has been translated into the binding

power of time? and the fateful nature of this power has been feared, especially with the

reali)ation that death ends the period when even the aniety or anguish :an$sin erman;

of waiting no longer eists. aking a god of 4$ime4 and trying to identify one-s

consciousness with his subliminal nature does not help the situation. Eeither does modern

science-s attempt to divorce time from actual human eperience and make it a dimension of

the hybrid intellectual frame of reference, space5time. Eor does the philosopher-s

interpretation of time as an innate category of the human mind make individuals feel better

as they wait for the distant fulfillment of their epectations. $he division of time into past,

present, and future, and especially into 4moments,4 the length of which can be measuredaccording to the collectively accepted schedule of activity of a particular community or

nation, is also an ineffectual solution to what should simply be considered and accepted as

the basic fact of eistence3 the succession of ever5changing situations which any organi)ed

whole has to meet.

$he fact of change implies the eperience of succession, or se+uence. ne sensation

4follows4 another, even if the first merges unnoticeably into the second. $here is continuity

when no mental activity has yet differentiated any one eperience by relating it to a


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possible recurrence and a desire for or fear of that recurrence. #f two eperiences follow

each other, one must come a%erthe other. $his is what is meant by se+uence. < series of

changes constitutes an ordered or structured se+uence of eperiences. #t is only when these

are entiti)ed by the mind as events, having an assumed ob!ective eistence e+erna!to the

eperiencer, that the modern intellectual finds it possible to !uggle pictures or abstract

symbols to which a 4time position4 is attributed. uch a 4position4 can only have meaning ifa starting point for the measurement of ob!ective units has first been established, and the

concept of periods of time has developed in the interpretative mind.

$he beginning and end of a period are established by what # have called 4markers of time.4

$hese are normally provided by common human eperiences, such as sunrise and sunset,

or the appearance of new vegetable growth in the pring? but every society makes its own

markers of time in order to differentiate periods of activity from those of rest #f no period of

time 6 no interval between beginning and end 6 is considered, only a continuum of

changes is eperienced. $his continuum is, strictly speaking, 4time5less4? it does not involve

time. Eevertheless it implies the se2uenia!iyof eperienced changes. #t is interpreted by

the mind as a succession of events and a series of situations, many of which recur

periodically.arkers of time are special moments. $hey are the alpha and omega of a series of events

or, in the absence of consciously noticeable changes during the in5between 4passing of

time,4 of non5events. oments are changes upon which a sub!ect, waiting or deliberately

preparing for the eperience of desire5fulfillment, focuses his or her attention. ome of the

energy of the whole organism is 4tensed toward4 what is happening. 8e can measure the

interval between such occurrences, as well as the speed at which they pass and attract the

consciousness of the sub!ect during a period of waiting.

< period of waiting may refer to a comple and difficult process of preparation for some final

fulfillment. #t may be a 4test4 which must be undergone, a surgical operation to be

performed, or a decisive meeting with a would5be lover or adversary. uch a period may

seem too brief to the eperiencing person, who may then complain of having 4so little time.4n the contrary, the feeling may be that 4too much time4 may still elapse before a desired

or feared event can occur 6 so much more waiting has to be enduredD #f we say that the

event occurred 4in time,4 we mean that we had accurately evaluated the interval between

that event and the beginning of the process leading to it. 8e had estimated the value of the

interval according to a standard of measurement defined by two markers of time. ur

measuring was accurate? but on what basis was the measuring done>

riginally, as far as human beings are concerned, time measurements have always been

made on the basis of the eperienceability and repetitiveness of situations referring to the

dynamic structure of some 4greater whole4 within whose field of activity the human

eperiencer operated. $hat structure provided him or her with standardi)ed markers of

time? and by so doing it made possible the measurement of repetitive periods of timehaving easily definable and commonly acceptable beginnings and ends. $he selected greater

whole usually was our planet? its daily rotation and its yearly revolution around the sun

evidenced a definite rhythm. ther kinds of greater wholes have been used3 a religion

featuring a series of feast days and centennial periods, the nation whose laws establish

periodical recurrences :such as the date of paying income ta;, or the schedule followed by

a business firm for which a person works. #n all cases, by establishing such markers of time

in the common eperience of a social community, the structure of the greater whole


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definitely affects the sense of time of the people of the community. #t affects their general

feeling of having enough or too little time, and of the speed at which this commodity is

being spent.

#n our 8estern civili)ation time is considered an ob!ective commodity of which a small or

large amount is available in the interval between two markers of time. 8e possess such a

commodity? it is a kind of wealth or power. $he amount which is ours to use can bemeasured, apportioned, and spent wisely or carelessly according to the vast number of

biological needs, socio5cultural re+uirements and personal ego5wants seeking satisfaction.

$hese wants may appear to be very personal #n fact, they follow a scale of values definitely

conditioned and often rigidly determined by a collective culture and religion, and by the

eample of parents and friends.

$he main events most people use for determining the amount of time available to them as

particular persons are +uite obviously the birth


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'HAPTER TO


4iin$ in he now

$he non5eistence of time after the period of beingness of anywhole has ended does not

imply the cessation of the continuum of change, or of the succession of situations producedby the cyclic interplay of the two principles of (nity and ultiplicity. $his interplay is what

human beings perceive as motion, or the dynamic character of 8holeness. otion implies

the unceasing assin$from one state of (nity5to5ultiplicity relatedness to the net $he

word assin$is stressed because as one deals with the process of change as a cyclic whole

:the ovement of 8holeness;, one no longer focuses attention upon moments of time, as if

they could be separated from one another, but rather upon the se+uence of changes.

Eevertheless, if one intends to define the eact relation of an eperienced event to markers

of time in terms of the activity of conscious, autonomous, and responsible individuals, one

has to refer to a precise moment assumed to have a specific character. ne has to i#e

:verb form; actions according to an eperienced or re+uired se+uence of time5entities

:moments; and the possible speed at which the actions can be carried out.#n order to make such a process possible, mind has to interpret the eperience of se+uence

:of before and after; in terms of the +uasi5dimensionality of past, present, and future. $he

individuali)ation of 4time units4 called moments and made :consciously or not; to resemble

living organisms that are born, mature, and die, is undoubtedly necessary when the ego and

its desires dominate the human situation. oreover, at this stage a clearcut distinction is

made between an eperiencing sub!ect and what it eperiences as if it were outside itself.

Aut this is only a phase, however enduring and tenacious, of the human eperience of

change on which the awareness of eistence itself is based. 8hether it is the

individuali)ation of the continuum of change or that of the state of personhood,

individuali)ation inevitably engenders a great deal of confusion and misunderstanding.

$he concept of action 4inthe present4 is particularly confusing. $he reason is that, strictlyspeaking, the present is only a dimensionless line of demarcation between past and future.

#t has no more dimensionality than, in geometry, the lines forming a triangle have

thickness, or a mathematical point has spatial etension. $he present separates the future

from the past but it is also their merging into each other. 8here the future meets the past

is a very vaguely defined yet etensive moment or series of moments called 4now.4 8hen

philosophers, psychologists and mystics speak of 4living in the now,4 they refer to a more or

less brief period of transition which actually has a time5dimension, though it may be

characteri)ed as 4timeless4 because of its special +uality as the moment at which the human

capacity for decision and action should be focused.

8hat is meant by 4living in the now4 :as we are acting or taking decisions; is to be neither

affected :or even haunted; by the memory of past eperiences 6 our own and@or those ofour ancestors, educators or associates 6 nor fascinated by an over5ideali)ed and unrealistic

sub!ective longing for a future state, or by an unrealistic, fear of what it may bring. #t is also

to face in a thoroughly awake condition of consciousness, and with focused intent whatever

situation may be !ust ahead.

$he situation has not come? it is not 4present4 =et one should be in a constant state of

readiness to meet it &or instance, if the driver of a car allows his feelings to dwell upon a

deeply depressing past eperience of frustrated love, or lets his imagination be entranced


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by the glowing mistiness of (topian epectations, so that attention is not focused on the

road, he may fail to react effectively to the erratic action of another driver suddenly in the

wrong lane, and a fatal head5on collision may occur. #n this case, of course, the computer5

like level of the mind may have been programmed or trained to react automatically in the

correct manner. Aut any training process implies a reference to and use of a knowledge

based on collective past eperience, and it even includes a certain amount of epectation 6the epectation of possible results.

8hen a modern philosopher5psychologist eulogi)es living in the now, he or she actually

means meeting life-s eperiences as an individual being no longer motivated and deeply

affected by the way of thinking5feeling5behaving which family and culture had imposed upon

mind5development since birth. $heoretically, living in the now should mean being totally

unconditioned by anypast Aut one is always conditioned by the past, whether it be the past

of the long process of biological evolution which built a human body and its brain, or the

past of a people and their culture which provided a language with definite words and a

synta establishing rigid structures of relationship between all the elements of eperience.

$he more intense :as well as traumatic or fame5producing; the events of the first part of a

person-s life have been, the more impossible it will be for the biological, psychic, andintellectual impressions of these events to be totally eradicated, especially if the person

claiming to live in the now has been motivated :consciously or not; by the occurrences to

build on them a philosophy of life.

$he phrase !iin$ in he nowmay be a convenient way of systemati)ing and perhaps

glorifying a somewhat self5conscious approach to human eistence, stressing the specific

+uality of a newly activated center of individuali)ed consciousness. Having succeeded to

some degree in freeing itself from the binding pressures of culture, and being eager to

emphasi)e the value and ecitement of that 4liberation4 6 however relative it may have

been 6 this new center of consciousness is, as it were, mythologi)ing its feeling5responses.

$he basic issue is always the nature or stage of evolution of whoit is that 4lives in the

now.4 Plants and wild animals live in the now, because life 4lives them4 in terms of itsindismissible needs and instinctual modes of response. #n his Bpistles, Paul states that he is

no longer a separate individual entity that 4lives,4 because od 4lives him.4 $o many

mystics and theosophists, living in the now implies living in he resen"eof od or the

4aster.4 Aut the reali)ation of such a 4presence4 should not be confused with what, in

relation to past and future conditions of eistence, is called 4the present.4 Eothing can be

donein the present, for the present 6 # repeat 6 is only an abstract line separating past

from future. =et it need not be considered a dimensionless line? it need not separate any

condition of being, if he assin$6 the moment of being 6 is eperienced as a presence,

as the dynamic aspect of 8holeness.

$here is motion always and everywhere. $hat motion is structured, operating as wholes of

change, as cycles or eons. Giving in the now implies a focusing of the attention of theeperiencing sub!ect upon one particular phase of the cycle of change. #n the fullest

eperience possible to a human being, any phase of the ovement of 8holeness is lived in

terms of what it reveals of the structure and meaning of the whole eon 6 thus su. se"ie

eerniais. $he moment is lived in the presence of 8holeness. $hrough it the entire cyclic

interaction of the two great principles of (nity and ultiplicity is envisioned.

$his interaction operates always and everywhere, yet it is ever5changing. Aecause

variations are possible it is always new? yet, as we shall see, it is also invariant in its total


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structure because every variation is balanced by a compensatory action. How puny is any

4now4 unless one can feel in and through it the immense resonance of the whole cycle 6

the 4always and everywhere4 of unconditioned 8holenessD

=et the destiny, function, or dharma of humanity re+uires both that the epansive power of

desires for self5actuali)ation and that the capacity of the mind at the human level to

ob!ectify, entiti)e, analy)e, and measure, should eperience their fullest possibledevelopment in an. $he pressure of the principle of ultiplicity compels men and women

to focus their attention upon parts and the mutual interaction of these parts, rather than to

resonate to the rhythm of 8holeness in any whole. $he same pressure leads the human

mind to di#ensiona!i&ethe continuum of change. $hat pressure must be obeyed during

the phase in the evolution of human culture in which the dominant desire of the sub!ective

factor in human eperience is to epress itself as an ego. $he ego is unconcerned with the

deep tide of human evolution because it feels essentially separate from other individual

persons with conflicting ambitions. $hen the human mind has to measure all it perceives,

because it is urged to control the energies latent in nature for the satisfaction of ever5new

desires.

$he most crucial and fateful application of the power to measure is the measuring of time 6time now ob!ectivi)ed as a commodity and no longer whole, no longer cyclically structured?

the time of stop5watches and electronic interferometers and of the abstract e+uations of the

Binsteinian $heory of Relativity.


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'HAPTER TO


O.6e"ie i#e, "ausa!iy, and he #easure o% i#e

$he foregoing discussion dealt with the eperience of sub!ective beings who have desires

:or at the biological level, vital needs; and seek satisfaction of them in and throughsituations able to provide it. $his satisfaction has two basic features3 the process of

fulfillment 4takes time,4 and it usually involves the concept of causation 6 a definite

se+uence of cause5and5effect, the effect being the cause of further effects. #f the principle of

causality as it is usually understood today is to be taken as universally true, the categories

of 4before4 and 4after4 are also to be given an absolute character. < cause occurs before its

effect. #t occurs in what has ambiguously been called 4linear4 time. < particular cause,

believed to be past or present, can be epected to produce a definable future effect.

$hus interpreted, a series of eperienced situations assumes an ob!ective character.

b!ectivity, however, refers to the fact that a re!aionbetween the eperiencing organism

and another entity occupies the mind-s attention. < sub!ective eperience, on the other

hand, refers to the change directly affecting a whole organism and its centrali)ingconsciousness. 8hen a person is burned by a hot stove in the dark, there is in the

eperience itself no immediate reali)ation of the stove as a source of heat. However, the

mind is called upon to establish both the eistence of a hot stove and the precise character

of the gesture which brought about the relation between the hand and the stove. Relation

generates ob!ectivity. $he world around us is ob!ective only because we relate to its many

components.

$herefore what is involved in giving ob!ectivity to time 6 and in a similar sense, to space 6

is the fact that when consciousness is dominated by mental processes, it deals primarily

with relations rather than with eperienced changes :events; in themselves. b!ective time

refers to the succession of changing relations? ob!ective space, to a comple group of

4positions4 occupied by entities with which a human being can, conceptually if not actuallyand eperienceably, relate himself in terms of measurable 4distance4 :proimity or

remoteness;. 8hether we refer to ob!ective time or dimensional space we are dealing with

a su.srau# o% re!aedness? that is, with an abstract factor or principle of eistence

without which there could be no eperienced relation. 8ithin this substratum, events occupy

positions. $he substratum 6 whether it be space or time, or today in science space5time 6

contains time5se+uences and@or space5positions? but in either case the relations between

eperienced events and entities are at least partially determined by their distance :in spatial

terms; and by the before5and5after succession :in terms of time se+uence;. pace and time

are assumed to be empty containers.


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effects, but even by the transformation of the before5and5after se+uence. "ausation is, of

course, an eperience common to all human beings? yet today the mind claims the ability to

imagine time5se+uences not sub!ect to the cause5and5effect :or even before5and5after;

se+uence, as well as space5relations between masses which would not obey gravitation. #n

a gravitation5free universe, the concept of physically measurable distance would not be a

determining factor in controlling the motion of spatially5determined entities.#f we think of a measurable space .eweenentities, or of measurable time .eweenthe

emergence of a desire and its satisfaction, we have to give space and time a definitely

o.6e"iereality. $his reality can only have an altogether abstract character, difficult to

understand and impossible to eperience. #t is a construct of the mind which may reveal the

natural way for the human mind to operate at this stage of the planet-s evolution. $he

activities of human beings seemingly re+uire such an abstract frame of reference in which

events occur and physical masses are located. Bvents and material ob!ects must have

positions in space and time, for with5out positions there can be no way of measuring when

and whereto act 8ithout one5directional causation se+uence :before5and5after;,

commonsense daily epectability and the scientific prediction of events would be impossible.

uch an impossibility would deny any meaning to human efforts at transformation and tomoral values, since any act might cause any reaction. &or the mind to assume the reality of

such a non5ordered situation would be in fact suicidal. uch an assumption would separate

mental processes from the eperience of being as an integrated whole in a consistently

organi)ed structure of situations to which a meaning can be given. $his is in fact only

possible through the use of words and relations between words divorced from

eperienceable reality.


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'HAPTER TO


The a" o% #easurin$ is #os !i/e!y an i#oran arof even the most primitive types

of cultural and collective activities. Aut the principle of measurement in ancient times wascertainly not what it is understood to be today in a 8estern world mentality which, because

of the spectacular way in which the principle has 4worked,4 has made it the basis of the only

kind of scientifically acceptable knowledge. Eot only the practice of measurement, but also

the concept of 2uaniyas a defining factor in all relations, have ac+uired 6 particularly

since the sith century A." in Bast5editerranean regions 6 a rather new and all5pervasive

character. 8hat seems to have been a mostly intuitive sense of proportion and rhythm

became intellectuali)ed and ob!ectivi)ed by the increasingly precise reference of events to

standards of measurement accepted by philosophers and scientists all over the world.

8hen Pythagoras taught his disciples how to refer personal eperiences of tone to a

measurable length of vibrating string :the monochord;, he may have given the impetus

which led the reek culture to glorify the practice of measuring and the meaning of

4proportion.4 =et for him, Eumber and Proportion were not merely abstract concepts but

were cosmic principles which could be eperienced directly, or at least reflectively.

Pythagoras is said to have been able to eperience the 4usic of the pheres4? but when he

referred to planets and the spatial intervals between them, and to what became known as

the Pythagorean scale, he was not thinking of the physical mass of celestial bodies, but of

principles of organi)ation of what he already knew to be a sun5centered cosmos

:heliocosm;.

#n ancient reece the term ine!!e"had a highly spiritual meaning, essentially differentfrom the modern use. 8hat was then the 4new mind4 was a mind of pure relationship and

proportion, rationality, and beauty? and its measuring power was believed to be the means

to give concrete, eperienceable form to cosmic order. $his concreti)ed order was the

invariant foundation of 4the Aeautiful4 #t was only during the fifth and fourth centuries A.".

that an abstract formalism developed, substituting itself for the e+erien"eof pure

proportions.:1;

$he monochord was a rather crude instrument? and so were the sundials and clocks used to

reveal the time at which the bells of churches and city halls were rung as vibrant markers of

time for a whole integrated community. Aut as social and business processes became

increasingly comple and re+uired more precise 4timing4 of eactly when to begin and end a

particular activity, time5measuring devices became more eact $hey also became

individuali)ed, providing for each person his or her own time, thus breaking up the

wholeness of personal eperience into a series of fragmented happenings.

8hen changes which affect and to some etent transform an entity :or group of entities;

are measured in precise +uantitative terms, what is measured has to have an ob!ective

character? it is perceived as being eternal to the measurer. oreover, the entity in
http://www.khaldea.com/rudhyar/fhe/fhe_c2_p5.shtml#a


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+uestion must have a beginning and, however remote it may be, an end. $he process of

change being measured should be divisible and commensurate with a previously accepted

standard of measurement. 8hile in olden days the standard of measurement necessarily

had some kind of relation to the eperiences of the measurer 6 a life5span, certain

proportions of the human body, etc. 6 in modern science the units of measurement, at bothends of the scale of +uantitative values, no longer have any eperienceable or even

rationally imaginable meaning. $his leads to the belief that what the atomic scientist and

astronomer attempt to measure actually belongs to a level of being which transcends, if not

the human condition of eistence, then at least the interpretive power of the modern mind.

#t makes one suspect that the most basic postulate of science 6 i.e. that 4laws of nature4

are true everywhere in space and at any time :even at the Aig AangD; 6 is not true,

because the method and perhaps the very concept of measurement apply only to the space

4in the neighborhood4 of the measurer 6 which may mean in astronomical terms our ilky

8ay galay, or what the eperience of human eyes can observe and directly measure.

ne might phrase the issue differently by asking whether man should trust his mental

processes of interpretation rather than his senses. o stated, the issue seems easily

answered by the obvious unreliability of human senses in many well5known situations. =et

what is unreliable are the sense5perceptions of an indiidua! hu#an .ein$. $hey are

unreliable because they originate not only from one local point of observation, but also from

the specific perspective of a particular culture? and perhaps above all because they are

affected by the sub!ective state and the desires :unconscious though they be; of an

individual perceiver and eperiencer.

$he preceding statement, however, should not be construed to imply that anything

depending upon a sub!ective factor is unreliable 6 though this is the general approachtaken by modern 8estern science. $here could be a unani#ousas well as an

indiidua!i&edkind of sub!ectivity, and # shall deal with the former when speaking of the

Pleroma state of being. #ndeed, a gradually emerging desire to base collective decisions on

a consensus :thus the principle of unanimity; rather than on ma!ority rule has recently

become noticeable. $his may be not only because of the irrational assumption that the

decision of 01 of a people is wiser than that of I9, but also because of the deep feeling

that anything having a fundamental human validity should involve the whole of mankind. #t

should command unanimous acceptance at the level of sub!ectivity, rather than in terms of

a system of intellectual concepts mathematically proven to be 4true.4 Aut how could all

human beings reach a state of unanimity of desires> How could they a!!have the same

desire epressing a unified, all5human sub!ective self as they are confronted by a

fundamental eperience implying a crucial choice>

a!ority rule and the statistical approach in general are concepts whose validity is evident

where strictly intellectual processes operate. $hey belong to the level not only of formalistic

theories, but to the concept of form itself. odern science has recogni)ed the pitfalls of such

thinking by stressing the need for any eperiment to be repeatable under varying


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circumstances for a relative consensus of trained observers and theorists. Gikewise, modern

democracy since the foundation of the (nited tates of


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'HAPTER TO


aura! i#e is :od;s i#e


20/147

known should be available to anyone, at any time, in any place, and under any conditions,

are very new factors in the development of the human mind. #n all previous cultures the

value of knowledge and the advisability of imparting it have been conditioned by the state

of being of the person who would receive that knowledge, and therefore by the epected

use this knower would make of it. $his use is evidently motivated by the nature and +uality

of the knower-s desires 6 thus by the level at which his or her sub!ective self operates 6which in turn depends upon his or her state of evolution as a living organism of the homo

sapiens type and as a participant in a sociocultural system of organi)ation. cience is

usually considered today as the product of a basic human impulse to ascertain more and

more facts, and to discover the invariable laws according to which matter, life, society and

individual persons operate. Aut only in our mind5dominated culture is this impulse to know

isolated from its basic, even if unconscious, motive3 the control of the power which can be

released and used in any situation a human being may face.

$here are evidently many scientists motivated in their research and their comple

intellectual operations solely by what can be rightfully called the 4search for knowledge.4

Aut it can be so defined because such persons have their consciousness focused mainly at

the level of intellectual processes of formulation and :more specifically; formali)ation. $hemind factor dominates their eperiences, at least at the level of culture and institutionali)ed

social relationships. $hey are born to take new steps in the development of the collective

mind of their society. #t is their dharma? and naturally they give to their :in some instances;

obsessive impulse a meaning to which a high social value is attached.

$he desire to control is in itself a fundamental characteristic of the human state. Aecause

human beings can to some etent control the se+uence of natural changes and introduce

into it unnatural releases of power, they are able to take, "ons"ious!y and de!i.erae!y,

the net step in the evolutionary process operating within the all5inclusive field of activity of

the earth as a planetary organism.


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what # shall soon define as 4"ompassion.4 n the other hand, the desire to control

situations for the sake of eperiencing, at the level of the ego, a sub!ective feeling of power

and personal or collective pride, inevitably leads, sooner or later, to destructive results. $his

kind of desire unfortunately is very powerful in the approach our modern civili)ation takes to

time. Aehind such an approach is the increasingly feverish multiplication and

compleification of desires which the consciousness of the individual person, operating atthe ego level of sub!ectivity, seeks to cram between an immense number of narrowly

separated markers of time, and especially of course between the two fundamental ones 6

birth and death 6 the beginning and end of measurable time.

Aecause an over5stimulated mind presents to the ego an unaccomplishable array of

possibilities to be desired, there seems to be never 4enough time4 to actuali)e them. $he

more time is measured in small units, the more crowded it becomes, and the more the end

of time, death, is feared. =et if the individuali)ed consciousness could rela into a state of

desirelessness and accept the cyclic rhythm of change, death could be but a rite of passage

from one level of eperiential situations to another.

$he fragmented concept of measured time finds its opposite in the reali)ation of the

wholeness of time. $he isolated moment so rapidly passing, and the aniety of 4not enoughtime4 can vanish or be transcended when the consciousness accepts the cyclic nature of

eistence. "yclicity is indeed the dynamic aspect of 8holeness.


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'HAPTER THREE

The 'y"!i" =ru"ure o% he 7oe#en o% ho!eness - 1

A.sra" aerns and e+erien"ed sy#.o!s

8hen a person-s attention is focused upon a repetitive series of common humaneperiences indicating the working of a cyclic process, three basic approaches are possible3

the person may try to live as fully as possible the unfolding, concrete situations as they are

being eperienced one after the other? the most noticeable events may be given a symbolic

character revealing their meaning in terms of the whole process of change? or general

principles may be abstracted from the se+uence of events, indicating the way the process

and all similar ones are structured.

$he first approach is eperiential and mostly personal, re+uiring an open and holistic

response to each event as it is eperienced in itself, with a minimum of attention given to

its causes and probable conse+uences. $he second or symbolic approach is concerned not

only with the events and the eperiences they engender, but also with the relation between

these events considered as phases of a whole process. oreover, it is involved with the

meaning of the effects of these events in terms of more or less common human needs or

desires, and with the possibility of influencing or controlling these effects. $his approach

stresses the value of interpersonal communication by means of symbols or myths able to

transmit information. $he knowledge this information is meant to convey refers specifically

to the development of a consciousness of processes, and thus of wholes of eperience

within definable periods of time.

$he third approach seeks to ascertain the structural character of any cyclic series of

developments produced by a basic and recurrent situation. #t 4ab5stracts4 operativeprinciples, not so much from the events and the eperiences they elicit as from their

se+uence and essential character. $he character is 4essential4 in the sense that it has a

fundamental relevance to situations which in themselves may greatly differ, if only because

they operate at different levels of eperience. $he situations differ eistentially, but the

sru"ureof the process relating the situations is understood to be the same. #t is

invariant, however varied may be the outer, empirically analy)able events it interrelates.

uch a structure can only be discovered through the operation of the human mind when a

particular level of mental development has been reached, at least by the intellectual

vanguard of mankind. Historically speaking, this seems to have occurred during the sith

century A.", particularly in #ndia with autama the Auddha, and in the reek world.

$he circular pattern indicating the cyclic se+uence of phases of the ovement of 8holeness,

first presented in Rhyh# o% ho!enessand reproduced here with a few changes in

terminology, is the product of this abstract approach. #t gives a diagrammatical form to the

ever5changing but symmetrical relationship between two fundamental principles. (nity and

ultiplicity, which in psychological terms may be interpreted as sub!ectivity and ob!ectivity.

$hese principles alternately wa and wane, producing an oscillatory type of motion. Eeither
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can ever totally overpower the other.


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speak of such a state as the eperience of 8holeness 6 an eperience which nevertheless

inevitably takes different forms at different levels of being.:1;

$he long period during which humanity evolves from a primitive, strictly biological and4natural4 state to that of spiritually 4#llumined an4 constitutes the predominantly ob!ective

series of phases, which are given a mythical interpretation in terms of the daily cycle of

human consciousness on this rotating planet. $his is the stage of 4waking consciousness.4

ankind, in both an individual and a collective sense, has a function to perform.


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beings mean by the term 4personality4 or 4personhood.4 =et because in such a condition of

being, as well as in any other. 8holeness must include the operation of both fundamental

principles. (nity and ultiplicity, an eperience of the neness which would absolutely

eclude the drive toward ultiplicity is impossible. #n the odhead, a tremendous surge of

"ompassion arises which, as we shall see, takes the ideal form of a new universe which willprovide a 4second chance4 for the failures of the past universe to eperience 8holeness in a

fully re5 awakened state.

< new cycle thus begins at the symbolic idnight hour with the odhead-s vision of what is

needed to offset and neutrali)e the negative memory5remains and waste5products of the old

cycle. $he envisioned ideal gradually assumes comple archetypal forms, and a moment

comes :the symbolic unrise; when a tremendous surge of 4creative4 power arises out of

the undefinable immensity of pace 6 a surge which theologians have interpreted as the

"reative


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'HAPTER THREE

The 'y"!i" =ru"ure o% he 7oe#en o% ho!eness -

The #eanin$ o% sy##ery

$he circular diagram of the cycle of being printed here does noalways refer to time as ameasured factor. 8hen the Hindu Puranasspeak of periods of cosmic manifestation

:#ananaras; and non5manifestation :ra!ayas; of Arahman as being e+ual in terms of

years, the statement is relatively meaningless insofar as the pralayas are concerned. $ime,

as the ob!ective factor to which human beings respond when they measure the speed of

changes between markers of time indicating the beginning and end of a period, can have no

eperiential human meaning when there are no clocks, no moving celestial bodies, no atoms

in the process of disintegration to serve as standards of measurement. #f a specific length is

given to pralaya, conceived as the 4non5manifestation4 of Arahman, it can only be because

one assumes that the states of manifestation and non5manifestation in the whole cycle must

be of e+ual duration. $he cyclic pattern is assumed to be symmetrical. Aut the word

sy##eri"a!must be given a very broad meaning which suggests 4correspondence4 rather

than what geometry calls symmetry. ymmetry should be understood in a +ualitative rather

than +uantitative and measurable sense. $he oscillations of a pendulum are measurably

symmetrical, but the development of material and biological systems during one of the four

+uarters of the circular pattern :from unrise to Eoon;, and whatever is implied in the

activity and consciousness of Pleromas in the opposite +uarter from unset to idnight, do

not have to be symmetrical in terms of measured time. =et the process of involution 6 from

idnight to Eoon 6 develops in a manner that can be called symmetrical to that of the

process of evolution from Eoon to idnight. #nvolution and, evolution are processes ofopposite polarities, and in terms of the wholeness of the cycle they are complementary and

symmetrical. $he symmetry refers to the structural factor, but not necessarily to eistential

realities.

ne could evidently imagine and postulate that there is no essential structure, no definable

order in the series of changes in the relation (nity5to5ultiplicity. 8hatever happens and

produces the impression of change in human organisms could be interpreted as a random

se+uence of alterations in the relationship of the eperiencing organism to its total

environment. =et the periodic recurrence of many situations characteri)ing human eistence

assuredly implies the eistence of at least a considerable degree of order. oreover, the

reali)ation that our eistence takes place within a field of ordered activities displaying

definite :if not always easily definable; structural characteristics, seems essential to the full

development of human consciousness. #f there is random motion in the universe, this

randomness may be attributed to the activity of the principle of ultiplicity? but while

always present, it is nevertheless balanced in human situations by a factor of order. #ndeed,

the essential drive in the constitution, destiny, or dharma of humanity is the attempt

constantly to increase the reali)ation of that fundamental order and to give it a wider, more


27/147

inclusive scope. uch an attempt is collective and takes the form of a culture.

Bach culture seeks to define this universal order in a specific way, and to establish a set of

structural principles. #n most cultures these principles are thought to be the dictates of a

creative od? but the classical sciences, which for centuries have dominated the 8estern

mind, speak of these principles of order as natural Gaw. $he term !awunfortunately evokesthe eistence of a law5giver? and science has no way to eplain how these Gaws of nature

were imposed upon the release of cosmic energy in a postulated Aig Aang. #f we refuse to

accept the reality of such a causal se+uence of "reator and "reation, the bipolar cyclic

pattern of the ovement of 8holeness may be considered the Gaw of Aeness. #ts structure

is very simple and repetitive.


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'HAPTER THREE

The 'y"!i" =ru"ure o% he 7oe#en o% ho!eness - 3

Hu#an %ree wi!! and he ro"ess o% read6us#en

#n its most divine aspect, "ompassion takes the form of the odhead-s desire to give to theat least partial failures of the past universe a new chance to eperience 8holeness fully and

concretely. "ompassion inspires the vow Aodhisattvas are said to take as they renounce,

through immense periods yet to unfold, the supreme bliss of Eirvana in order to be able to

assist 4all sentient beings4 on this planet in eperiencing this state of +uasi5absolute

sub!ectivity and oneness. $his assistance undoubtedly takes forms it is impossible for the

ordinary human mind to picture, because they refer to the evolution of humanity as a

whole, and indeed of the earth as a planetary being.


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the word #oion. Eewton-s laws of motion imply the eistence of material entities moving

through space considered as an empty container? but such entities are not directly and

originally eperienced. $he mind of a recently born child gives to a series of recurrent

changes, periodically affecting his or her biological organism in a pleasantly or painfully

remembered way, the character of entities 6 a character further emphasi)ed and set by thenames attributed to them by his or her family.:3; #nfants and primitive people who interpret

their collective eperiences in animistic terms seem to think of motion as the result of some

entity-s a"ions. Bven at the sophisticated and rationalistic level of classical Buropean

thinking, the "reation of all material entities was an act of od who, as causeless &irst

"ause and 4Prime over,4 created them 4out of nothing4 :e+ nihi!o;, very much as a

dramatist imagines a new situation which he intends to make into a play, but whose

development has a will of its own and needs to be watched 6 a thoroughly

anthropomorphic conceptD

< much5needed alternative is the idea of perpetual cyclic motion without beginning or end.

$here is neither beginning nor end in the sense that a whole of motion :a cycle, an Bon; can

be made to begin with any phase of the movement.


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30$he process of formation of the ego is discussed in my book P!aneari&aion o%

'ons"iousnessand in the booklet Beyond Personhood:an &rancisco, "alifornia3

Rudhyar #nstitute for $ranspersonal


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'HAPTER THREE

The 'y"!i" =ru"ure o% he 7oe#en o% ho!eness -

> is hard o "on"eie how he inarian sru"ureof cyclic being can be maintained

under the conditions of perpetual variability which the human situation makes possible. nehas to postulate the operation, through "ompassion and karma, of a metacosmic power

able perpetually to read!ust all dise+uilibratory individual actions generated by human

desires and individual free will. $he myths of many religions provide a guarded eplanation

of various ways in which such a process of reabsorption :or karmic neutrali)ation; takes

place. "lassical reece believed in the actually unimaginable work of the three &ates

:7oiraein reek, Par"aein Gatin; continually weaving the ever5changing patterns of

interpersonal relationships and intercultural events? a blind procedure, for no human

consciousness could possibly envision the +uasi5infinite compleity of the meshing of more

or less individuali)ed lines of read!ustment. $he unmeasurable number of crossings of

event5lines, which not only every human being but humanity as a whole, the planet, the

solar system, etc. lives through as eperienceable situations, cannot be interpreted

ade+uately in terms of what is now popularly known as 4synchronicity.4 8hat happens as an

apparently significant coincidence :significant to some individuali)ed mind; at a 4moment4

isolated from the entire cycle of time is not the important fact. $he entire meshing of

destinies within a whole of balanced motion is involved.

8e can, of course, establish boundaries separating the line of read!ustment of an assumedly

individual and uni+ue person. Peter or %ane, from the lives of other persons? but if we do

that, we in fact isolate what we take to be the cause of a series of effects from the comple

group of desires that emerged from the sub!ectivity factor in Peter-s or %ane-s eperienceslargely as the result of their relatedness to family, culture, and the whole planet.

&or the individual person, the choice is nevertheless open. He or she may accept the karmic

confrontation and the %u!!implications of the situation confronting the individual 6 thus

restoring 8holeness and re5attuning oneself to the rhythmic flow of the ovement. He or

she may also repeat once more the ancient disturbance and deepen the need for future

karmic impacts, unless a power of "ompassion is able to act within and transfigure the

situation.

#f, however, we think of indiidua!i&edkarma, we have to accept the idea of 4something4

to which this karma clings and can be transmitted from one biological organism and

personality to the net. $his 4something4 has been understood in two basically different

ways3 as an individual supernatural and spiritual entity that periodically reincarnates, or as

a set of 4imprints4 which karma5producing desires, thoughts, and acts have made upon a

postulated substance or substratum of being :often referred to as 4astral light4 or 4akhasa4;.

$hese imprints condition the formation of the structure of a new body and personality,

giving it the possibility of either erasing the imprints or deepening them through repetition.$he first way of dealing with the problem of karma5transmission is most generally accepted

by anyone believing in reincarnation.:; $he karma5affected spiritual entity may be thought

of as a od5created individual oul as a perpetually eistent monad, as an a#an

essentially identical to the universal Brah#anthough appearing to be an individual entity.

$he alternative solution has been most clearly advanced by autama, the Auddha, in his

ana#adoctrine, and the transmitted karmic imprints are known in Auddhism as the

s/andhas. $he concept introduced by the philosophy of perative 8holeness is closer to

the latter interpretation than to the first. #t may indeed be very close to what autama

might have said if he had not deliberately avoided any metaphysical speculation. #nstead,

he solely concentrated on the basic situation concretely evident in the lives of human

beings, without relating it to pre5 or post5human phases of an all5inclusive cycle of

being.:5; He apparently was solely concerned :at least in his public message; with the

healing of the suffering5producing stresses :du//ha; he saw inherent in the human

situation. Perhaps an alternative approach is possible which, by integrating the human

situation within an all5inclusive cycle of being, gives it a more acceptable and ealting

meaning by presenting it as a necessary transition 6 indeed a prelude 6 to a more5than5
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human condition, the Pleroma state.

#f one imagines a metaphysical, mystical, non5eistential condition transcending the human

situation in an absolute sense, and if one speaks of it as perfect Aliss or subliminal ecstasy,

it seems obvious that what is evoked has to be understood as the opposite of whatever one

has felt to be limiting, imperfect, and a cause of suffering, aniety, or impotency in one-s lifeas a human being. $he od of most theologies has, in a perfect and sublime condition, all

the +ualities a human person longs to have but does not possess. < state of consciousness

called mystical may give a human being who has concentrated upon and visuali)ed images

of perfection and unchanging bliss the sub!ective feeling5reali)ation that he or she has

reached such a state for what seems a timeless moment. Aut it is a sub!ective state, and no

hu#ansituation can occur that would give it the character of actually changeless

permanence. #n order to reach it, other factors in the situation 6 implied in the personhood

of the mystic 6 have to be not only devalued, but in a very real sense paraly)ed. $he

resulting situation thus is no longer 4whole.4 < feeling5eperience of unification or oneness

may be reached? but as we saw, the principle of (nity is only one of the two components of

8holeness. "an we or should we try to deny any reality to the principle of ultiplicity> #f we

do, the very possibility of 4being4 is denied. Aut then 4who4 is it who denies> $he very act of

denial is an affirmation of beingness.

8hat is fundamentally at stake is the interpretation given to the human situation in general

6 and secondarily to any particular and personal situation being eperienced. #t is a

+uestion of whether or not one somehow assumes that the eperience is ousidethe

situation which mind 6 one-s own mind 6 interprets. Aut nothing can 4be4 outside the

ovement of 8holeness. 8hat 4is4 may be a step in the direction of 4light,4 or one in the

direction of 4darkness.4 Aut, as noted earlier, both directions are implied in 8holeness, !ustas (nity and ultiplicity are inherent and inseparable factors in any whole. Eevertheless,

from a strictly human point of view, the ideal of encompassing (nity is closer to the idea of

8holeness than the evident fact of the multiplicity of cells in the single body of a person.

$hese many cells can be separated from one another? yet if separated they die as cells

:thus as units of organi)ation; unless a biologist, by giving them food 6 the energy

potential in material aggregates 6 maintains their beingness as units.

#ndeed, human evolution is the gradual process during which the 4Presence4 of the principle

of (nity becomes an ever more powerful factor in the most basic situations. $hese,

however, operate as vast currents in the oceanic depths of being, they allow storms to

agitate the surface of the water. $he power of the principle of ultiplicity, no longer

e+erna!i&edin a multitude of slightly different biological features, is inerna!i&edin

typically human situations. $his may take the form of ambition and hunger for power and

wealth of a multitude of egos 6 as the craving of an artist for originality, of a scientist to be

the first to make a discovery, or of a mountain climber to reach the peak of ount Bverest.


34/147

minimi)e their importance and power.

< psychology and an ethics of 8holeness have to be based on the inclusion of a!!factors in

any situation. < metaphysics of 8holeness must take into consideration and encompass

every possibility of relationship between the principles of (nity and ultiplicity 6 including

those in which one of the two principles is near!y, but not +uite, all5powerful. < religion of8holeness should include od within the cycle of 8holeness :in whatever form this

Presence may be conceived or felt; as one of these etreme states of being? and an and

Eature should be included as well. uch a religion also should not shrink from the reali)ation

that od must have a polar opposite, and that the fullness of eperience possible for the

odhead has to be balanced by the devastated emptiness of whatever is represented by the

condition of nearly absolute ultiplicity.:;

Toa! in"!usionis the unavoidable attitude of whomever understands and is ready, willing,

and able to apply the concept of perative 8holeness to any situation with which he or she

is confronted and accepts to live through and endure. $his is an etremely difficult attitude

to maintain. #f what it implies is clearly understood at an intellectual level, the acceptance of

any situation at an emotional level will be made easier.


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'HAPTER *OUR

The Hu#an =iuaion - 1

The 7oe#en o% ho!eness

as a "y"!i" series o% siuaions

#n this book the word siuaionis given a very broad meaning which includes yettranscends its ordinary use. < situation is one of the many possible ways in which a phase

of the ovement of 8holeness is actuali)ed. $he character and inherent +uality of that

phase refers to a particular relationship between the dynamic polarities of being. (nity and

ultiplicity. # speak of a 4situation4 whether the principle of (nity or the principle of

ultiplicity is dominant? thus, whether that situation occurs in a physically ob!ective

universe or in a mostly sub!ective realm of being that may be called 4divine.4 $he odhead

state is a situation? so is the life5span of a biological organism.


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more than reflect 4divine4 modes of consciousness.


37/147

destroy all natural human organisms. Bsoteric students assume that this kind of matter5

energy appertains only to the highest 4etheric4 sub5planes :sith and seventh; of the

physical world, while what we perceive as solid, li+uid and gaseous matter refers to the

first, second and third sub5planes 6 the fourth :fire; and perhaps the fifth :more specifically

mental; are related to all radical transformation and personal metamorphosis.


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'HAPTER *OUR

The Hu#an =iuaion -

>n a su.se2uen "haer > sha!! "onsider #ore %u!!ythe meaning of the upreme

Person and the influence #t has upon the evolution of personhood and of humanity as a

whole. # should nevertheless state here that the effectiveness of the prototype of anyinstrumentality intended to bring about the large5scale transformation of whatever it is to

replace can only be demonstrated when this prototype is reproduced in a large number of

specimens of the same type. $he odhead-s olution proves ade+uate and successful to the

etent that the personhood of the upreme Person will be replicated in many human

persons as yet to evolve. $hese beings, now ready or karmically impelled to eperience the

human state, had known varying degrees of failure in the past 6 or from another point of

view, are the heirs to the 4karmic residua4 :or s/andhas; of ancient failures. Replication

here, however, is a comple process, because !ust as failure can take an immense variety of

forms, so the 4redemptive4 process of "ompassion and karma must be ad!usted to each

category of persons and events. $he upreme Person, therefore, has potentially to embody

an etremely comple olution.$he human situation implied in the concrete application of this multilevel olution to a

myriad of specific types of failure must also be immensely comple and differentiated.

oreover, it has to be worked out at the various sublevels of a strictly human kind of

substantiality 6 thus, in terms of the actual eperience of human beings operating at

different stages of the evolutionary process. $he process of karmic redemption or

neutrali)ation re+uires the development in earth5time of a long series of cultures, in some

cases operating simultaneously on different continents. Bach culture presents a limited

collective kind of solution befitting the basic needs of persons born in the society, or even

more specifically in one of its particular classes or religions. Bach group has its own

collective desires and epectations through which it has to face its karma and work its

4redemption.4 < culture is inspired at the core of its collective being :its 4psychism4; by oneof the basic aspects of the immensely comple upreme Person. $his one particular aspect

becomes the spiritual source of the culture. #t embodies itself in a secondary kind of


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practices, or had gained through intuitive, suprasensible and metalogical contacts with their

already developed higher mind, or with Pleroma beings who helped them to understand the

deeper ob!ective meaning of their eperiences while on the Path.

# shall return to the meaning which can be given to the polari)ation of the symbolic

idnight@Eoon phases of the ovement of 8holeness and its relation to the upreme

Person. # should nevertheless state here that this polari)ation constitutes a situation inwhich the most etreme values of the polar trends toward (nity and ultiplicity can be

integrated. $heir integration is the supreme manifestation of 8holeness because in it the

tension between (nity and ultiplicity reaches a degree of maimum intensity. $he stresses

this tension produces in the ovement of being are the greatest possible. $his maimum of

tension and stress characteri)es the human situation. #t is the foundation re+uired for the

development of what is ambiguously called human 4free will4 6 the capacity to choose

between alternatives.

everal possibilities of action or thought may be possible, yet ultimately there are two basic

alternatives3 on the one hand, the way that is attuned to the increasing power of the

principle of (nity after the Eoon point of the cycle? and on the other, the way which resists

that increase and clings to the desire for an ideal of individual or group power. $he firstalternative leads to what may be termed spiritual 4success4 during the human period of the

great cycle of being? the second, to at least partial failure.

#n most cases, failure means not having been able fully to apply, in terms of concrete

eistential events and decisions, the particular solution envisioned by the odhead and

formulated by the celestial Hierarchies with reference to a specific set or collection of karmic

deposits when a period of choice in the person-s :or humanity as a whole-s; life5cycle comes

to an end. #n a planetary sense, this crucial moment after which no fundamental choice is

possible has been symboli)ed as the separation of the sheep from the goats. $his process of

separation does not refer to a final 4%udgement,4 since many superficial improvements may

still occur. Aut a no5longer5modifiable limit is nevertheless established, which defines what

is possible to whatever has evolved so far.8hen one tries to understand and to accept or re!ect 6 partially if not totally 6 any

situation, the ossi.i!iyof transformation is the basic factor to consider. $he sub!ect :4#,4

the individual who assumedly has the capacity to choose; may desire a radical

transformation, and mind may present various procedures or a specific and formali)ed

techni+ue to achieve what 4seems4 to be the 4heart-s desire4? but neither desire nor

techni+ue can become concretely and substantially actuali)ed unless a third factor

ade+uately operates. $his factor is oen"y. $he power to perform the action which has

been chosen has to be latent in the situation. #t is not latent only in the sub!ect considered

as an entity in itself, or in the mental processes formulating a possible method of

achievement? yet it is potentially related to both the sub!ect and the mental factors. $he

three factors are interrelated in the new eperience.$o assert that an individual meets a situation and eists apart from it in a mysteriously

sub!ective yet conscious manner is confusing and unrealistic. < sub!ect does not 4have4 an

eperience which the particular situation elicits. $he sub!ect is an integral component of the

situation, and does not essentially eist outside the eperiencing. Bach new or old situation,

each eperience implies a sub!ective factor which belongs to it, !ust as it implies the

operation of mind5processes and the release of kinetic energy 6 i.e. of the power to act.

Bvery eperience is triune. $he ovement of 8holeness is a cyclic series of situations giving


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rise to eperiences to which the sub!ective factor of desire gives a particular purpose, and

the operation of mind a particular meaning. Aut these eperiences must, first of all, be

possible. Purpose and meaning re+uire the possibility of fully eperiencing the situation 6

any situation.

fifth :more specifically mental; are related to all radical transformation and personal

metamorphosis.


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'HAPTER *OUR

The Hu#an =iuaion - 3

A ho!ono!o$i"a! iew o% hu#an e+erien"e

#n ordinary use, the word e+erien"e, whether as a noun :4y wife had a wonderful

eperience4; or as a verb :4# eperienced much pain4;, implies an eperienceer. 4omeone4in a particular situation 4had4 an eperience. $he situation gave rise to or produced an

eperience affecting the consciousness and the state of wholeness of abeing. $his being

eisted as an organismic whole before the situation occurred which affected him or her as

eperiencer. $hough he or she may be affected by what took place, the eperiencer is

believed to retain his or her identity ousidethe situation which gave rise to the

eperience. 8hat is considered 4the same4 situation may be eperienced differently by

several entities, each reacting to it in a particular manner according to his or her nature and

character. Gikewise, the same person may be assumed to have different eperiences arising

from different situations. #n all cases the fact that an eperiencer considers an eperience

as 4his or her own4 implies the seemingly incontrovertible feeling of eisting outside the

eperience, even if the latter deeply modifies the state of being with which the eperiencerhad until then identified himself or herself 6 his or her self5image.

&rom the point of view of the philosophy of perative 8holeness, and also according to the

ana#adoctrine constituting the foundation of Auddhist thought :at least in its public

aspect;, no situation is ever the same. $here is likewise no eperiencing sub!ect having a

separate permanent being as an a#anoutside the situation he or she eperiences.

ituations always change, and so does the sub!ective factor inherent in them. #n ancient

reece, before Parmenides apparently introduced the dualistic notion of being and becoming

6 a notion which has plagued 8estern civili)ation ever since 6 Heraclitus had asserted that

no one crossing a river at different times eperiences the same water. Aut in the same

century, the Auddha taught in #ndia that the person who at different times enters the ever5

flowing stream is also not the same person.


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impotency producing an epectation of failure. #n the first case the memory factor has its

source in mind. $his may be the mind of the individual person faced by the situation and

remembering one or more similar events, or the collective mind of a culture, a particular

religion, or social class that impressed forcibly upon the personal mind a doctrine or a

particular way of life which ecludes numerous possible responses to rigidly defined

situations. #n the second case, the lack of attention :or even more, the sense of not beingable to rise to the occasion; has its roots in some organismic lack 6 thus in an ineffective

presence of 8holeness, and :at the biological level; the absence of vital energy.

"onsciousness, as an operative aspect of 8holeness, condenses itself into a sub!ect when

an organi)ed whole a""esto eperience the confronting situation.


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need, not only of humanity but the whole planet considered as the Barth5being within which

mankind fulfills a definite function, is not what is usually called 4altruism.4 Eevertheless, we are accustomed to give to eperience a

narrow significance. 8e reduce it to the human level at which personhood develops? we

identify the sub!ective factor in 4our4 eperiences with the whole person of which we

assume 4#4 is the independent and at least essentially transcendent sub!ect 6 in religious

terms, the individual oul. $he result is, # believe, a fundamental kind of psychological

confusion, unavoidable as it may be in a period of transition between two levels of being.

#n the net chapter # shall attempt to show how the operations of the three basic factors in

eperience can be at least broadly or abstractly envisioned throughout the entire cycle of

8holeness. 8e shall then be better able to give to ersonhoodits fullest and mostessential meaning. #t has such a meaning in the upreme Person whose appearance in the

field of eistence of the Barth5being occurs at the symbolic Eoon of the ovement of

8holeness when the rise of the principle of (nity begins. =et this prototypal meaning will

only be reali)ed in the fullness of human nature on a transformed earth, when the human

cycle ends and the Pleroma of the Perfect 6 the seed remnants of our humanity 6 pursue

their evolution in a realm of being in which the drive toward a state of all5inclusive neness

increasingly yet never absolutely overpowers the trend toward ultiplicity.


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'HAPTER *>?E

The Three *a"ors in E+erien"e

and Their 'y"!i" Trans%or#aion - 1

=u.6e"iiy and desire#n the preceding chapter the factor of sub!ectivity was shown to result from a condensation

of the 8holeness of an organi)ed whole whose attention had been aroused by a developing

situation. $his whole is organi)ed, in the sense that it is based on and structured by a

particular value and +uality of the cyclically and symmetrically unfolding relationship

between the principles of (nity and ultiplicity. $his whole thus operates as one of the

many manifestations of a particular and definable phase of the ovement of 8holeness. ?E



The e+endiure and reoenia!i&aion o% ener$yBnergy, understood in its most fundamental nature, is the product of a dynamic state of

relationship. $he concept of 8holeness implies such a state, whose two polarities are the

principles of (nity and ultiplicity.


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devotion to the


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#t must do so because the principle of ultiplicity aggressively dominates the realm of life5

systems, and the principle of (nity can only maintain the operation of the system as a

whole between two markers of time, birth and death

0$wo entities occupying the same area of space at the same time are not related? they

constitute a single entity. $he concept of knowledge through what is assumed to be

4identification4 is the result of a semantic confusion. Perfect resonan"eis meant, not

identification. imilarly, a reflection is not the 4real4 source of the light5rays.

30ee Rhyh# o% ho!eness, chapter twelve, p. 19, for a definition of science.
http://www.khaldea.com/rudhyar/rw/rw_c12_p1.shtmlhttp://www.khaldea.com/rudhyar/rw/rw_c12_p1.shtml


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'HAPTER *>?E


and Their 'y"!i" Trans%or#aion -

A he so"io"u!ura! !ee!,the process of negentropy assumes the character of4information.4 #n childhood one may refer to it as the process of education? but what is

usually called education is actually instruction. $o be 4in5structed4 is to be fed informational

data, operational formulae, and officially tested and validated techni+ues.


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begins to overcome that of the trend toward ultiplicity, which by then is in retreat and in a

defensive role. #n the Pleroma type of organi)ation the process of repotentiali)ation leads to

an increasing condensation of energy.

pace itself is being condensed. $his condensation process is the polar opposite of the

cosmic scattering and differentiation of energy which followed the 4"reation4 of theuniverse, now given a new form :perhaps as mythologicalD; as modern science-s Aig Aang.

$he repotentiali)ation of energy through a hierarchical series of metacosmic and

predominantly sub!ective Pleroma states leads to an a!#ostotal concentration of energy

and space. pace is condensed into an increasingly small area, yet can never be reduced to

a mathematical point. oreover, all +uantitative values and the possibility of measurement

are evidently not applicable to such a 4divine4 state. #n this odhead state everything may

seem possible, and potential energy might be considered infinite. =et as immense

"ompassion arises, the olution envisioned has to balance and eactly fit the karmic

remains of the by then concluded cycle. Bverything is possible that is needed.

Bnergy is always there, available? but the character of that available energy is determined

by the balance of power of the two principles of (nity and ultiplicity in that particular

phase of the ovement of 8holeness. $he availability of the power is also related to the

nature and material characteristics of the locality at which energy is to be used. 8hat we

call 4matter4 is a condition in which energy has reached a degree of stability. atter :or in a

more general sense, substance, whether or not it is 4physical4; is energy in form? and as we

shall presently see, form :in the true sense of the word; is the basic product of the mind

factor. However, this is mind operating at a cosmogenetic, biogenetic level and, during the

human period of evolution, as builder of the comple structures of a vast series of cultures.

Bach culture is intended to stress a particular aspect of the supreme ideal of personhoodwhich the odhead had envisioned during the idnight phase of the great cycle.

8hat is needed of the infinite potential of energy available to the odhead at that idnight

moment of reversal of cyclic motion is used by the divine ind, acting through what past

mythologies have called 4celestial Hierarchies4 of Auilders of the "osmos. However, the

mobili)ed energy is operating within the divine ind, of which these Hierarchies are

differentiated aspects. Bach Hierarchy releases a specific type of energy which eventually,

during the evolutionary development of humanity, will be characteristically available to a

particular series of cultures. Human persons may become 4agents4 for the release of the

energy or the basic archetypal structures that a Hierarchy, with which the persons are in

tune, has created.

$rue 4creativity4 is the ability to reflect and concreti)e an archetype eisting at the higher

level of mind. "reativity should not mean merely or essentially personal 4self5epression.4 #f

it does it has to be considered the release of internal tensions. ost of the time, however, it

refers to the making of a product which answers the desire of a group of human beings, and

may bring some kind of profit. Aut productivity should not be confused with creativity.

#nternal psychological tensions do undoubtedly generate some kind of energy5but emotions


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operate at a level essentially different from that of cosmic or evolutionary movements.:;

$hese are attuned to what is intended and possible in terms of the karma5neutrali)ing

process. $hey work hrou$hpersonhood, but they ac+uire the particular character and

often inconsistent rhythm of emotional releases :perhaps interpreted as self5epression;

engendered by the desires of a sub!ect :#, myself; having separated itself from the cyclicprocess and intent on proving its freedom of choice. 8hen this occurs, personhood becomes

a means which insists on being an end in itself. $his happens when mind provides a

rationali)ed interpretation and !ustification for the desires of the sub!ect of whom it has

become a servant. $hat mind, however, may refer to a collective type of mentality

superimposed upon the individual situation, whether this mentality is traditional and

religion5based or the product of a generation-s revolt against past standards. ind can

indeed be a tyrant after having begun as a servant.

0ln my earliest work Ar as Re!ease o% Power:19/2; # stressed this distinction between"yclic :or "osmic; otions and personal emotions, particularly in the chapter 4


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'HAPTER *>?E



7ind< iner#ediary, inerreer and e"hni"ian

#n any situation a desire is aroused. #t may be an unconscious or a conscious desire? it maybe the taken5for5granted motive that once led to the formation of a habit 6 a sub!ective

manner of reacting to an often repeated situation. Aut however it manifests, and whatever

the name given to it, the desire factor is operating, epressing a sub!ective state of being, a

preference for a particular type of response.

$he desire5motive re+uires the release of some kind of energy in order to be actuali)ed? yet

many psychologists and philosophers do not seem to reali)e that the sub!ective factor never

deals dire"!ywith energy. < third factor, mind, is needed as an intermediary. ind has to

operate not only as a linking activity but as an interpreter and :in the broadest sense of the

word; a technician.

#n a famous illustration, the dualistic ankhya chool of philosophy in old #ndia spoke of

urusha:spirit; as being lame, and ra/rii:the substratum of matter5energy; as beingblind. Purusha is being carried over Prakriti-s shoulder, showing the way to the blind. $his is,

however, an incomplete and misleading image? for while Prakriti may be blind, it is shown in

the story to be organi)ed as a body able and trained to walk, while the seeing Purusha can

somehow choose :or is led to choose; one of several possible options in directing the steps

:the operational activity; of Prakriti. < third activity is implied in the activities of the pair.

$his factor 6 mind operating at the biological level as a generic formative principle 6 has

given an organically effective structure to the vital energies of the integrated collectivity of

cells of the body? this body can at least walk. $his same factor, operating at the level of

culture and personhood, enables the desire to reach a goal :or at least to follow a definable

direction; and to translate itself into a directive or order which can be transmitted to and

sufficiently understood by the blind body of Prakriti.Aecause the operations of mind are manifold and assume varied aspects, the whole range of

the mind-s activity is not recogni)ed for what it is. =et these activities should never be

absolutely ignored or denied, !ust as a sub!ective and a potency factor can never be entirely

absent from any situation. $hey may at most be rendered temporarily ineffectual or

intentionally paraly)ed in some special and abnormal eperiences. $he inactivity of any one

of the three factors may indeed be valuable in some special human situations, but such an

inactivity can only be a means to force an issue which has produced intense stress and

tensions. #n the best possible cases it may produce a state of etremely focused 4at5tention4

to the possibility of solving a problem posed by human free will? and free will is the strictly

human ability of the sub!ective factor to detach itself from a situation and operate as an

eternal and assumedly unconditioned sub!ect.#n one identifiable mode of activity or another, mind operates in all situations, thus in all

phases of the g

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Dane Rudhyar - The Fullness of Human Experience

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