Wednesday, April 05, 2006

I Went Down to the Crossroads, Tried to Flag a Ride

Overslept due to my cold. A short and cryptic post, submitted for your higher bewilderment.

*****

So, we apparently have a terrestrial heredity that extends back through higher primates, lower mammals, fish, plants, single cells, and across the dark abyss to insentient matter.

On the other hand, we have a vertical heredity that extends through various degrees of being--various powers, principalities, rulers, and thrones--all the way up until we reach Brahman, the Absolute, the One, The Father in Heaven, J.R. "Bob" Dobbs.

Our "frontal self" comes into the world the usual way, while another part of us is imaginately conceived, or "word made flesh." Unlike the horizontal word of DNA and natural selection, this is the vertical word of "supernatural" election. (I put supernatural in quotes, for nature herself is supernatural, as anyone who appreciates the transcendental beauty of the mythematical equations governing the big bang can tell you.)

There was a time, not too long ago, when human beings were not aware of their vertical descent from above, any more than animals are. Again, if you think of our humanness as situated at the innersection of the horizontal and vertical, it took some time for homo sapiens to realize their place in the vertical.

One cannot even know of the horizontal until consciousness has lifted above it. Otherwise we are simply immersed in our perceptions and engulfed by the senses. But as consciousness ascends, one begins to realize that the vertical is also a "world" in its own right.

After all, homo sapiens was genetically "complete" by as long ago as 200,000 (or as recently as 100,000) years. And yet, either way, we don't see much evidence in the archeological record of "vertical liftoff" until about 35-40,000 years ago, with the sudden appearance of beautifully realized cave paintings, body decoration, musical instruments, statuary, widespread burial of the dead, etc.

Clearly, vertical liftoff had begun, into a nonsensuous dimension of transcendental Love, Truth and Beauty. For what would motivate an erstwhile ape not just to paint, but to do so with such refined delicacy of line, shade, and contour? Why bother?

But vertical progress for humans is frequently stalled--both collectively and individually. Human beings have reached many historical impasses, or crossroads (frankly, we are in a somewhat nasty one right now). In reality, these are not "horizontal" impasses. Rather, they are vertical impasses. How to "flag a ride" up and out?

Overcoming these world-historical obstacles is not a matter of additional horizontal evolution. That process is basically over, although recent research seems to demonstrate that some additional evolution has been going on at the margins.

But even if certain brains have been getting a little bigger or smarter, it is not our hardizontalware, but our vertical software--or aloftware--that counts. You can have a gifted IQ but still languish below on the vertical launch pad, a point that is obvious if you consider the sorry state contemporary academia. Plenty of big-brained primates there, all messed up with no place to grow (that is, "up").

What we might call the "resurrection body" is your perfect self, unencumbered by the accidents and distortions of horizontality. It is actually already there calling you--wherever there is--just waiting for you to catch up.

Have you ever been acquainted with your resurrection body? I'll bet you have. Again, this is one of the main purposes of religious language--to provide a means for talking about an otherwise immaterial and nonsensuous dimension. Light, transparent, bright, free... these are all Idjectives that apply.

In the gospels, it says that Jesus gave a few disciples the privilege of seeing his vertical body of light. What must that have been like? First, of course, the disciples had to "ascend" by themselves vertically, "high upon a mountain." There, within the orbit of their highest aspiration, Jesus' face "shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light." Then Jesus held a summit conference with two other luminous bodies, Moses and his shadowy double, Elijah! Wo. What was that all about?

Our physical body is on loan from nature, whom we must repay at the end of our days. "Thou owest nature a death." But as we said yesterday, looked at vertically, the body is descended from the spirit, not vice versa. Death, or disincarnation, involves separation of the vertical from the horizontal.

The Isha Upanishad expresses it thus (this passage is often read as one approaches the crossroads of death):

The face of truth is hidden by your golden orb, O Sun. May you remove your orb, in order that I who am devoted to truth may behold its glory.

May I behold through thy grace thy most blessed form. The Being that dwells therein--even that Being am I.

Let my life now merge in the all-pervading Life. Ashes are my body's end. AUMmmmmmmm... O mind, remember Brahman. Meditate on Brahman.


May we galactic hitchhikers flag a ride at the crossroads.

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

Advise you to avoid spelling Om "AUM". Connotations of sarin.

Incidentally, always appreciated Subgenius outlook. Some followers of Bob argue it's a joke disguised as a religion; others say it's a religion disguised as a joke. Pleased by this. Reminded of Zen, which sees jokes as valuable method of transmission of enlightenment.

What is the sound of one hand clapping? Whoosh.

Gagdad Bob said...

The thing is, "OM" is actually three syllables: Ahhhhhh, Oooooooh, and Mmmmm. Interestingly, if you do it properly, that is, deeply, you can feel the "Ahhhhhh" resonating in the belly region. As you transition to "Ooooooh," you can feel it rise from the heart into the throat. Then, with "Mmmmm," you can feel it right between the eyes & above.

An ascending word if ever there was one.

Anonymous said...

I'm jumping in - you rock, Bob! With the OM(G)ing, it does ascend through a smile.
H

Gagdad Bob said...

Yes, with a little practice, you can get the
OM to "tune in" and resonate at any particular level where you feel "blocked."

LiquidLifeHacker said...

Bob--- There was a time, not too long ago, when human beings were not aware of their vertical descent from above, any more than animals are. Again, if you think of our humanness as situated at the innersection of the horizontal and vertical, it took some time for homo sapiens to realize their place in the vertical.


But Bob, Man did know his vertical at one time....Adam knew God, it was after the fall and through sin that the separation pulled man away into the dark...so my question is on the "evolution of spirit" is about growing out of that darkness as that being the starting point? Is the start of the evolution of the spirit in the darkness of sin or would you say it started before the actual fall way before even the garden or before Adam's creation?

Gagdad Bob said...

Obviously--obvious to me anyway--the story of Adam is a story of the time before time. The "fall" understood esoterically is a fall from timelessness--from the vertical--into horizontality. The fall is repeated on a moment-by-moment basis, again, outside time.

LiquidLifeHacker said...

ok...so the start of the evolution of the spirit starts (if we can put it into some time frame for our minds to comprehend it) where? At the time of the fall when man was separated from God? Meaning we are trying to "evolve" our spirits back to where we were when man "knew his vertical?"

Anonymous said...

Bob and LLH,

Interesting.

Your exchange brought to mind Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam,". It never occurred to me to think much of the fact that Adam is, physically, a fully developed (evolved?) human being in that moment before God touches him.

When we discuss "evolution" vs. "creation" few seem to take into account that we may have existed before we were created; that we evolved to a certain point and then God "created" us by giving us consciousness - or inserting a soul. After all, it is our soul and our consciousness - not our physical body - that defines us, so it seems odd that emphisis when we talk about creationism is always on what God physically created...and how our own physical forms came to be - such as 'Oh, we didn't come from apes!'

However, if we came from dust...why couldn't we have been a single cell, a fish and an ape in between?

Well, anyway, I'm just thinking out loud here...Bob's pretty much gone over this - it was just that visual that made it click for me.

Oh, and I don't mean to stir up some tired evolution/creation/literalist ruckus here...these are just fleeting observations without basis.

Although, Bob, can you (or any of our other resident scholars) explain an esoteric understanding of The Rib?

LiquidLifeHacker said...

Khan,
Here is another thing to ponder...

Maybe our bodies were made to be more...because WHAT IF Adam and Eve had chosen to obey God? What if the choice had gone the other way? Because I think there is that possibility that our bodies were formed to last forever too in the beginning...maybe that is why the brain has such a hard time giving it up in the end? When the sin took place and the wage of sin was to die in these bodies...maybe it was a de-programming of what was meant to be in the first place had free will allowed it to be?

Anyway...what's your thoughts on that?

gumshoe said...

"The "fall" understood esoterically is a fall from timelessness--from the vertical--into horizontality."

the "expulsion from the Garden"...
(in medieval pics Adam and Eve are shown ushered out thru a Gate)...
could hardly be a more horizonatal image.

Not the one that first came to mind...but it has the imagery too:

http://www.paradiselost.org/
img/3carl.jpg

and another of Adam & Eve by Massacio:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/
wikipedia/commons/3/37/
Masaccio-TheExpulsionOfAdamAndEve
FromEden-Restoration.jpg

Bob - maybe a few comments
on the Renaissance convention of
"perspective" (binocular vision,
focused on a dissappearing distance...OR, drawing the viewer INTO the horizontal distance)

http://faculty.evansville.edu/
rl29/art105/img/linear.gif

http://www.artsalive.ca/img/thf/
histoire/4_4appia.jpg

http://images.amazon.com/images/
P/0847818608.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg


in mediaeval art,similar in some ways to Chinese landscape painting,
there is an "all=at=once" presence
of the elements of the image being presented as being in "one(surface plane".

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/
commons/thumb/c/c1/Chinesischer_Maler_des_11.
_Jahrhunderts_%28I%29_001.jpg/
300px-Chinesischer_Maler_des_11._Jahrhunderts
_%28I%29_001.jpg

LiquidLifeHacker said...

"understanding of The Rib?"

Mabye it was important for Adam to acknowledge Eve as part of himself? Because it made them one in flesh didn't it?

LiquidLifeHacker said...

Thanks Gumshoe for the urls to the pictures!

gumshoe said...

the "flat" medieval (& Christian) imagery in painting,prior to the conventions of perspective(the Florentine Brunellesci is credited with inventing graphical perpsective) had a simliar feel to the Chinese landscape linked above:

http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Arts/
Images/frikolaos2.jpg

http://www.contracosta.cc.ca.us/Art/
Images/EarlyChrDuraEuropaSynagogMo.jpg

LLH,you're very welcome.

Gagdad Bob said...

Prehaps in creating woman, God was just "ribbing" Adam.

Actually, the rib is pregnant with meaning, so to speak. Being that something has been removed from man, it means that a part of himself--close to the heart, by the way--is forever located outside himself.

Now, in order to be "whole" again, one must love the missing part located outside the self. So it seems to be an injunction against narcissism.

It is also interesting that man is made of a primitive substance--dirt--while woman is composed of organic substance. She is "life" through and through. Men are closer to their animal nature, and women clearly have a civilizing effect on that. Or at least they used to. That is just one of the inherent female powers that feminists have worked tirelessly to destroy.

Perhaps it is also an injuncion against worshiping the female, which is the default state of horizontal man. One does not worship one's own substance. Unless perhaps one is a postmodern artist....

Anonymous said...

Listen you guys.
Drop what you are doing and read this now. It's linked from LGF as well.

http://www.dansimmons.com/news/message.htm

JWM

Anonymous said...

I should have added:
OT

JWM

Anonymous said...

Well, today is my day to mess up the comments section. Sorry. Link won't work. Check LGF for the time traveler thread

LiquidLifeHacker said...

Yeah gumshoe...great site...I liked the one that allowed me to check out another site that had alot of cool pictures that are not under copyright! WooooooHooooo
Thanks so much!

Hey Bob, yeah...I agree with the injunction against narcissism...and I also think the "rib" has alot of meaning too, for example in Ephesians 5
28So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
29For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: 30For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

jwm, I am having a hard time accessing that site, but is this the time traveler article?

Anonymous said...

Interesting:

http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2005/06/16/brazilian_doctors_uncover_michelangelo_code/

Fifteen years ago, U.S. doctor Frank Meshberger pointed out the figure of God and his surrounding angels in the "Creation of Adam" panel resembled a cross-section of the human brain.

He believes Michelangelo was equating God's gift of a soul for Adam with the divine gift of intelligence for mankind.

LiquidLifeHacker said...

jwm--Well, today is my day to mess up the comments section. Sorry. Link won't work.

HaHa....I bet all those hits blew them right off the server!

Anonymous said...

LLH and others: the link is to author Dan Simmons' web site. It is to a short story entitled, "Message From a Time Traveler".
Over at LGF Charles has it in a thread- Simmons: Message from a time traveler.
Simmons' site is probably crashing from all the hits from LGF. Be patient. This piece chilled the bones right out of me. Normally I wouldn't throw an OT in like this, but this piece is exceptional. Lisa will love it.

JWM

LiquidLifeHacker said...

Anyway jwm...why don't you give us a little review of what you read?

I am a bit aware of the article, as ummmm...its been said that it is not really science fiction message from Dan, but more of an essay kinda hiding as science fiction!
*wink wink*

Tell us all what you thought of it...I am off to put it on my blog!

LiquidLifeHacker said...

Jwm,

Have you not read the "prophet of doom?"

Anonymous said...

LLH:
Posted on your blog.
Haven't read P.O.D., but I'll check it out.

JWM

LiquidLifeHacker said...

Ok JWM...hey...lets all guess what the "three words" were!

I put the link on All Things Beautiiful too so thanks again for making me be patient enough to stand in que for the server. I had tried earlier today to access it and couldn't.

Anonymous said...

Delenda est carthago


JWM

Lisa said...

JWM- Absolutely spot on! Unfortunately, I am afraid that may be our future, if we don't speak out soon! Knowledge is power!

On the lighter side of life, my butt was on TV today! ha ha! When will I ever get to write that again?!

LiquidLifeHacker said...

Lisa...welcome back...and ummm girly tell us all about your celeb in front of the lens day! We all wanna know!
--------------------


jwm---guess I can't top that! That was excellent what you chose!

*digging my toe in the dirt back and forth...looking down searching for words*

ummm ok, here's what I think might be those three... With scotch wet lips the time traveler might of said right before he left...


"Know Your Enemy!"

Anonymous said...

NO. Must be something any time traveler from 100 years in future would remember, as he said. Something that would sting them, but mean nothing to us.

What the traveler said was, quite simply, date of next 9/11.

"Phoenix, October Twelfth"
"Seattle, November '07"
"August Twenty Third"
"Vatican, May 2"

LiquidLifeHacker said...

Rorschach, that's "boo dark" but yeah...I can see it being something like that in code...yeah

Anonymous said...

I am certain that God was ribbing us.
:^)
Oh, uh, hi dear.
Want rib's for dinner?

LiquidLifeHacker said...

Rorschach and jwm,

I slept on it and woke up with what the three words HAD TO BE...

"I'm you're grandson"

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