Perennial Philosophy

“Unfortunately our Western mind, lacking all culture in this respect, has never yet devised a concept, nor even a name, for the union of opposites through the middle path, that most fundamental item of inward experience…

…It is at once the most individual fact and the most universal, the most legitimate fulfillment of the meaning of the individual’s life.”

—Carl Jung

The greatest questions that human beings ponder are variations of two fundamental lines of thought:

What am I?

Why am I here?

Unfolding the answers to these questions is indeed an individual’s unique path. Most everyone, by means of the nature of their personal journey, formulates and attempts to define and create personally satisfying solutions to these questions as they mature. Through the ages, one consistent approach central to this process of self-introspection has been put under the umbrella of what has become to be known as Perennial Philosophy.

In Perennial Philosophy, contrasts of all types are to be experienced, and an elusive “middle ground” outlook or perspective is to be determined by each observer or individual. Contrasts can be simply expressed as “two poles” of awareness. These poles define the boundaries of an in-between state or mix of possibilities particular to the lens of perception each individual employs.

When the sum of all in-between states of observation/experience attains a certain “flavor or equilibrium,” a realizing person is elevated to a level of consciousness that implicitly derives answers to these fundamental questions as a normal condition of being. In other words, classical enlightenment must be experienced - not intellectualized. Intellectual pursuits can and do help to bring about this state of consciousness, but they are merely tools not necessary for accomplishment.

Metaphors are required in describing such a paradigm because this rarefied state of awareness is fundamentally derived and only has meaning relative to an individual’s life. Seeking and finding a figurative center of experience that sparks this level of conscious living is the goal of a practitioner of Perennial Philosophy. Thus, attaining a balance in life is the usual metaphor used in referencing this systematic approach to accessing greater possibilities in perception or consciousness. Consciousness at its root can be defined as an ultimate ground or base awareness coupled with some degree of free choice.

Common Contrasting Elements

Light <--> Dark

Hot <--> Cold

White <--> Black

Male <--> Female

ETC...

Examples of Subjective Higher Level Contrasting Elements

Sweet <--> Sour

Sharp <--> Dull

Pleasure <--> Pain

Health <--> Sickness

Compassion <--> Loathing

Extroversion <--> Introversion

Generosity <--> Thriftiness

Egocentric <--> Non Egocentric

Humor <--> Humorless

Moral <--> Immoral

Good <--> Evil

Objectivity <--> Non Objectivity

Rational <--> Irrational

Skepticism <--> Belief

ETC…

Contrasting Elements of Physical Description

Digital <--> Analog

Non Continuous <--> Continuous

Particle <--> Wave

Left Brain <--> Right Brain

DNA strand 1 <--> DNA strand 2

ETC…

An ascending spiral staircase symbolizes an evolving effort to find an optimum center.

With consciousness being an ultimate basis of awareness on which the contemplation of opposites is considered, then all perceptions are rooted in consciousness by this logic. Consciousness is what is experiencing and/or generating all of these contrasts at any level of organization. Consciousness is the human experiential realm. Consciousness (awareness and coupled choice making) is the metaphorical soil that the tree of life in all of its manifestations grows. With no soil, no tree is possible.

Given the aforementioned, somewhat nebulous, definitions in metaphor, how can one “unpack” consciousness in a more descriptive, perhaps more general manner in terms of application and understanding? Consider that the organization of contrasts is most economically done in a compounding process or construction of “threes”:

Perennial Philosophy requires two poles that generate a spectrum of “middle values.”

The two dimensions of length and width are required to generate height.

A point and a line are required to make a plane.

Mathematical logic is based on equivalence statements and non equivalence statements.

The atom is composed of three basic entities, the proton, the neutron, and the electron. All matter particles are organized in three families by means of mass, spin, and charge…

The primary forces in physics are currently thought to be the strong force, the electroweak (electromagnetic+weak) force, and the gravitational force.

Light has both a wave and particle description.

Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity form the core of current physical description.

In color logic or theory, two base colors create a third unique color. The color spectrum is organized by primary, secondary, and tertiary color wheels…

Two different DNA strands when combined create a new sequence or code.

A left hemisphere and a right hemisphere compose the cerebrum of the human brain.

Male and female generate offspring.

ETC…

It appears that consciousness, the mind of the universe, the source, the prime mover, the “force” naturally expresses itself in a Tertiary Construction or Process of Three where two elements produce a third condition or outcome in description… Alex Vary encapsulates a tertiary construction of awareness with the definition of the mind loop:

"… the mind loop is depicted as spanning three strata: (1) the superstratum (the transcendent domain of pure thought), (2) the mesostratum (the mediating domain of information, signals, energetic fields), and (3) the physiostratum (the domain of temporal-objective material reality—the cosmos and its many worlds). Indeed, the mind loop is envisioned as extending from the … superstratum to the material physiostratum world via signals through the mesostratum." [excerpt from page 41 of We Are God - Incarnate]

In a visual image most likely expressing the same basic idea and construction, Japanese monk Sengai Gibon (1750–1837) painted the picture below. “He was of the Rinzai School, one of the three main schools of Zen Buddhism in Japan. Known for his controversial teachings and writings, Sengai tried to make the difficult lessons of the Renzai sect accessible to the public… Sengai’s work represents Zen Buddhist wisdom, with motifs completed by calligraphic inscriptions―his most famous work, often called The Universe, shows only a circle, square, and triangle.” [excerpt from Zen Master Sengai by Katharina Epprecht]

The painting has long puzzled people. The ink tones vary from grey to black, and the three shapes overlap as if to suggest interconnection between them. D.T. Suzuki, who introduced Zen to the West, interpreted Sengai’s painting to represent formlessness and infinity, in accord with his view of emptiness as the essence of enlightenment. [excerpt from webpage https://www.greenshinto.com]

The Turning Point takes all of the above observations (viewpoints /perspectives) as valid with "formlessness" equated to pure, unlimited potential and incorporates them into a model of the universe encapsulated at Giza via the window of Nonspecific Geometry:

1. The square (hypercube) represents the physiostratum (the digital material “reality” of everyday experience).

2. The triangle (the spinning pyramid) represents the mesostratum (the mediating /balancing domain of information transfer).

3. The circle (sphere) represents the superstratum (the analog, transcendent ground of thought /experience symbolized /coded by two related circles of differing /contrasting diameters).

In The Turning Point's analysis, the physiostratum can be visualized as a projection of the superstratum (consciousness) by virtue of the action of the mesostratum - the spinning pyramid (the mediating /balancing domain).

See website blog “mini” lessons for a more comprehensive presentation of the interconnectedness of Perennial Philosophy and Nonspecific Geometry and how it relates to the message of Giza…

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