Category: Desani

The Tacit Dimension Continued

By claiming that man is moved by moral and intellectual passions, having a universal intent, and bearing upon an inexhaustible reality, [holds to a] “law of human nature” which “defies all mutation.”1

Everywhere the potential operations of a higher level are actualized by their embodiment in lower levels which [however] makes them liable to failure2

Some live in one world -in the whole – considering the manifest illusory. Some, the opposite. And some go back and forth. I guess it depends on one’s proclivities, predisposition. You can hold that metaphysical duality, relative existence is not real. But honestly, unless you are a hermit perhaps meditating in a high Himalayan cave guarded by a snow leopard, you live, more or less, in the world of the common man surrounded by things in their millions, which do not necessarily detract from the ultimate reality however considered. Whatever one is facing one can maintain commitment to the ground, the unchanging substratum from which arises the intelligibility of the whole cosmic reality. Being constrained to experience the world from a personal, limited aspect, I don’t know and can’t really know, being bound by what amounts to illusions, yet tacitly, relying on the ineffable fountain of sensory input, I extend my little self and binding it with that primal plane somehow adopt explicit knowledge, give that to the world, and then committed to hope, live the best life possible within my capacity and the grace afforded my undeserving self.

Polanyi’s work, thought, is a continuation, an enhancement of Western, ancient philosophy, of Existentialism, of Phenomenology, of the Scientific modes of knowledge, and of the modes of Religion and Art, too, and in spite of the steep learning curve previously mentioned I continue studying and making notes. The essays in “Intellect and Hope”, also mentioned in a previous post, are my primary focus here. “Intellect and Hope” is concerned with Michael Polanyi’s Tact Dimension but in covering that subject the authors bring to bear their knowledge and understanding of Western Philosophy in general. I am grateful for the references to Descartes, Rousseau, Goethe, Sartre, Kierkegaard, Kant, Husserl, Whitehead, Hegel, Saint Augustine, Aristotle, Plato, and others. These references add perspective to Polanyi’s thought and generally outline those individual author’s scholarship as they apply their study to Polanyi.

My perspective as anyone can plainly see is from the standpoint of the thought developed over millennia in the East. There are fundamental differences between this ground and that of the philosophers mentioned above, steeped as they are in the Western tradition. Polanyi’s approach to philosophy and science being a product of western thought my appreciation of the differing approaches of these systems is further enhanced. And while I am more inclined to the contributions from the East I am yet sympathetic to the obviously great efforts and commitment to truth I see in the Western tradition.

A case in point is in order here. Plato and Aristotle used  craftsmanship and idea in developing their epistemology which, writes Helmut Kuhn in his essay “Personal Knowledge and the Crisis of the Philosophical Tradition” in “Intellect and Hope” is similar to Polanyi’s. Plato and Aristotle’s thought that “art partly perfects what nature is unable to finish and partly imitates nature.” This is closely akin to a favored idea I’ve adopted from the Judaic tradition, that man can be thought of as co-creator with God. Further, Kuhn writes, “[the] heuristic model is a form of man’s rational intercourse with nature rather than dominion over nature. There is no room in this view for a Cartesian ego”, Kuhn goes on. Furthermore, he says, “It is not the eye that sees or the ear that hears, but I see with my eyes and hear with my ears.” He says “The ego is the center of spontaneous activity and the principle of hierarchical order”…so, the soul is superior to the body, is in a strata above that which is materially manifest.

These are great thinkers and the benefit from studying them is incalculable. In the final analysis there will be differences but what matters more is we all share the courage to take up the path, to hopefully find out as much as is possible to mere humans, the truth of the Real, of life’s meaning and purpose. Because of the overriding importance of process in the ontological insights of the nature of the real I remain convinced that no final answer to any such queries are available but the discovery of possible approaches is. As Soren Kierkegaard suggests, God can keep his secrets but  let us participate in creation by learning and understanding to the limits of our personal ability. Our path is a continuous searching out of God’s secrets.

It’s telling that Descartes’ methodological approach relies on mathematical certainty – I disagree that mathematical rigor is to be sought as a paradigm for all thought – Cartesian thought seems to divide nature; but so does ancient Western philosophy. Notably, Descartes was a mathematician and like the surgeon who sees every ailment as remedied by the scalpel, he similarly applies mathematics to every philosophical problem. We live in our bodies and so ratiocination proceeds from our bodily existence along a mentally directed path. Duality is a built in feature of this. Descartes proclaims “I think therefore I am” establishing that duality in being and in he who thinks. Instead of “I think therefore I am” it might be wiser, on reflection, to acknowledge the process, thinking, and thus eliminate the duality. The thinker thus maintains the status of being engaged in thinking, whereby the thinker, thinking, and being are streamlined into one. The three elements are not separate but make up three aspects of the phenomenon.

This, to me, properly maintains the focus of the self directed process by assimilation of man to God which Polanyi thought as the apogee of indwelling. There is indwelling of a primary order when we contemplate the stars, submicroscopic particles, cobblestones. The next higher indwelling involves biological knowledge. The tertiary is of psychological, sociological, historical knowledge. Polanyi’s scheme.

Fundamental to the understanding of human nature is the idea of a hierarchically ordered universe. “…the gradual acquisition of knowledge is an ascent of the soul rising from lower types of reality to more elevated forms … [and should be taken] as aspects of man’s assimilation to God.” These strata are an “…affirmation by which we…accept an object as existing…less sharply separated from existence itself.” Therefore, at the apogee, God is not at all separated from being while at the other end of the scale, a cobblestone, or a star are “sharply separated from existence.” This is an achievement of direct and reflective knowing. “Hence existence attributed to God has a different meaning than intended by existential judgments.”3

Polyani: “…tacit knowing’s [functional import] guides me from proximal, interiorized, particulars to the interpretation of a coherent, distal whole.” My thought: The “I think” of the cogito is (an) interiorized particular of an [illusory] coherent, distal whole. The motive of discovering a certainty, an irreducible substratum, negates the coherence of this distal whole. This follows from the nature of grasping, the desire to own the real.

Cartesian thinkers, notably Sartre, consider the “I” radically other than the real which is the given, the “out there” – This from  Marjorie Grene (first essay in “Intellect and Hope”). The given is the opposite of the “I”; it is exterior, not the body. Well, true, we commonly think of perceptions as out there and the perceiver as operating from within a body. What is the truth of this? Is the subject really separate from the object? Is the world one or many? Do manifestations in the world have an independent, separate, monadic, existence?

Grene puts it thusly for Sartre: “…we are a negation, a hole in being; our manner of being is a disintegration of a unity, a flight from ourselves, and, inexorably, it is failure. And in this condition the only honest attitude is dread…” I tend to construe this as critical of, not only Sartre, but Descartes and dualism in general. I suppose Sartre would prefer we stay in our body where we belong, are not estranged, in his view, from the “out there.” We should, in other words, dread leaving our body from which there is actually “No Exit”. What if we couldn’t find our way back?

Grene recognizes this bifurcation of the real not as denial of the self but as a polarity. She states that being is to be appropriated by passion – strong desire resulting in commitment – and self-surrender which is the means of finding ourselves. The idea she points to of Goethe’s that “Das Ewig-Weibliche zieht uns hinan” – “The eternal feminine draws us upward.” expresses a sentiment close to my heart. Polanyi departs from Sartre in that to him the person is totally responsible but instead of being focused “out there” it is an inwardness. I agree. For him discovery of the unknown, ferreting out its secrets, is based on, begins with, subsidiary awareness of being in a body. Understood, indwelling for Polanyi involves deep understanding of the elements that make up subsidiary awareness. These are relied upon without necessarily being the primary focus of attention. The backdrop for such indwelling is first of all being bound by our body. But I consider the body is not really the limit of our indwelling, for it, in turn, is fixed in the world itself. The deeper one’s understanding of our subsidiary awareness of being in the world – not just our body – the more meaningful our focal awareness, the more acute the input of our organs of perception whose focal point is the usually falsely presumed exteriorized multiplicity of the world, of relative existence. In other words, it is from the standpoint of the world itself that we focus on the world itself. It is a self study, the “other” of cartesianism being illusory. To replace the “out there” with an “in here”, according to some systems of thought, makes more sense. Yet I always allow that perhaps I don’t really understand, or that changing standpoints is not easily explained. What I am attempting is to come at the issue from the standpoint that the Real, Being, is non-dual. That we perceive duality is because we take the illusion of duality as real whereas it’s a presumption. I do see that there are systems of thought, particularly science, that depend on the reality of the appearance of phenomenal reality as being real in itself in order to work. Without data there’s nothing to measure and such data is ever concerned with appearances being taken as real in themselves.

Marjorie Grene mentions self-surrender which to me is comparable to the Kierkegaardian notion of resignation. I interpret this as denoting a sort of indifference, as in Eastern thought, which should be directly proportionate to self-surrender. To truly yield involves being indifferent which means effacement of one’s self; the putting aside of ego involvement. This, in turn  brings us to Polanyi’s adoption of commitment – Saint Augustine’s contribution – as a proper mode of being in a world void of our ego involvement. This Polanyian commitment is, I think, akin to faith; which is to say that not being able to appropriate certitude one gives over to faith, self-surrender, the outcome of one’s search for solutions to problems, scientific or otherwise. We only appropriate the truth by surrender to the real!

In this regard Polanyi realizes that eventually decisions must be made in our different types of endeavors. He realizes that these might not be perfect but in order to move forward one must take a risk, so, “let’s try this and see what happens” is often called for; some say when the frustration of solving a problem grows to a breaking point, “do something even if it is wrong.” Certainty is elusive even in the relative world, or impossible, given the nature of being as process. For the religious this is like saying “I leave that to the Lord.” This is an honest recognition of one’s incapacity to solve, overcome, every problem encountered; its also a recognition that abandonment of the subjective necessarily relents to a higher will. One might be committed to overcoming an obstacle, to working out a scientific theory, yet recognize the great difficulties involved. Everyone knows that discovery is aided by self-surrender, resignation to the outcome whatever it might be; passionate commitment is essential to bringing to fruition the efforts expended in a solution’s pursuit; and I would add, vulnerability. Consider reason an opening gambit which often begins with a mere “hunch,” a wondering if so-and-so is applicable. Having thus cracked open the portal we wait and perhaps are surprised when some light comes through sending us back to reason again which opens other doors revealing more light, or knowledge, if you like, of data, the stuff of phenomenal reality, the process. Back and forth, give and receive, a problem thus seemingly finds its own solution, which indeed is our hope.  Keep in mind, “according to Polanyi the hallmark of genuine knowledge consists in establishing contact with reality… where knowledge has an intrinsically ontological significance: it claims to reveal reality such as it is by itself.” One puts forth an idea, which if it is a good one, mobilizes supporting ideas thus leading to the opening of avenues for continued searches. Pre-existing, tacit, notions enrich, or perhaps, disrupt, but even so clear a path forward. In this, “Truth, through commitment, becomes the basis of a temporal event without being reduced to temporality.”

Marcel Proust in his “Remembrance of things Past” writes that reality takes shape in memory alone. And Aristotle said that every kind of learning starts from pre-existing knowledge, which makes learning a kind of remembering. Reason’s cracking open the portal is the utilization of tacit knowledge and furthers the development of explicit knowledge. Without tacit knowledge explicit knowledge is impossible. Also, “perception prefigures all our knowing of things.” Hope is the vehicle on which we depend to carry us from the opening of the portal to the emergence of explicit knowing which corresponds to as complete an understanding of the manifest as is achievable. And since reason always involves multiple things it should follow that tacit as well as explicit knowledge inevitably involves multiplicities. But what if there is really only one thing? Well then, the richness of the manifold must be taken as illusory. We are playing in a sand box filled with myriads of discrete items but our concern is not with the box as a whole rather with the play of how exactly, or as exactly as possible, we can define the relations of the parts. This is working with what we are given. This is using measurement for Scientific investigation.

Edward Pol’s essay “Polanyi and the problem of Metaphysical Knowledge” points out the apparent lower and higher forms of mind. He delineates the deductive mind as rational as opposed to the intuitive and agreeing with Polanyi places a higher value on explicit knowledge. Polanyi writes that the “…human mind is at its greatest when it brings hitherto uncharted domains under its control.” Aristotle, Plato, Descartes, per Pol, all share views of mind having the two levels deductive and intuitional. So what is Polanyi driving at here? I rather think, though acceding to these classical Western views of the mind, he is elevating the role of discovery, of self-surrender in contrast to the tendency to over emphasize ratiocination. The freedom to isolate “explicit knowledge” – which I take to be scientific in nature – is enhanced when rationalism and discovery work hand in hand. Sometimes its surprising the positive outcome to be had by just letting things take their natural course. Yield.

As for metaphysics, I don’t know. Is the idea of metaphysics based on a false sense of duality? One has perceptions of the world from within a body itself rooted in the whole world. So, the world perceives itself by virtue of an apparently embodied mind utilizing the organs of perception. We see, hear, feel, etc., multiplicities of things, apparently different from, or outside, the locus of the bodily organs. But are they really? Maybe I don’t have a full grasp of the issue. Paraphrasing Edward Pol, the Real, our experience of it, is always and only partly accessible, only its appearance, filtered by our organs of perception, is accessible. Conclude that which is “really Real” is not exhausted in the manifestation; this applies equally to our body. Our minds get  a snapshot of the process which instantly moves on. We do not ever get a clear picture if the picture rapidly changes. So we are left with a partial view not being able to “own” the process as it is in itself. My thought is that we are given enough to cope with reality but that given “also always hides it from us.” Pol uses Kant to somewhat define metaphysical knowledge. Kant’s idea was that such knowledge was inaccessible to reason. Fair enough. Note that personally, I think knowledge is necessarily always and only about relative being, the universe of objects, things. To say metaphysical knowledge makes no sense. Replace understanding with knowledge when considering metaphysical reality and you are a bit closer to actuality.

If one were to hold that metaphysics pertains to that which is not accessible to reason, that where reason ceases to function and intuition picks up one finds metaphysics I think they would be on the right way. I wish here to quote Pol again as it seems to clear up some confusion: “We now have to ask whether Polanyi’s doctrine is sufficient to confirm our capacity for metaphysical knowledge…In asking this we are not asking whether the doctrine purports to carry us beyond the merely phenomenal. We are asking whether it really does carry us there – that is, whether it confirms us in our right to “at least something of the domain that Kant held to be inaccessible to reason.” Regarding this note that Polanyi thinks there are degrees of being and that we can know at least some of them. “For the degree of being doctrine is logically incompatible with a distinction between the merely phenomenal on the one hand and absolute reality, being, Transcendence, or the thing-in-itself on the other. If there should be degrees of being and all the degrees should be phenomenal, it must still be true that a higher degree yields us more of being than a lower, so that the pejorative sense of phenomenal is blurred sufficiently for us not to wish to speak of the merely phenomenal. Something of being discloses itself in a phenomenon that has a higher degree of being than some other phenomenon.” Or, I’d say, than the mere appearance of the phenomenon itself. Question. What if, as some hold, there is no real distinction between phenomena and ultimate reality? Also, how can there be a something of being if being is eternal, without differentiation, infinite, boundless?

William Poteat’s essay in “Intellect and Hope” concerns the “prelingual ground of human intelligence.” He says of the “active-passive quality of [his] relation to [his] own utterances” that they are primitive and irreducible. This “…parallels Polanyi’s tacit-explicit, subsidiary-focal, proximal-distal  … dichotomies which are the throw back to the ancient levels of the mind – in the Western tradition – deductive (reason), intuition dichotomies. Fair enough. But however prelingual the ground it nevertheless seems to me that language casts a dark shadow on thought such that uttering “I” think so and so might be construed to give a kind of certitude but that “I” is a word, a name, and thus a “dark shadow” obfuscating who, or what, actually thinks. My “I”, or any name at all never fully expresses that which is named. Thus the world is illusory and mythological “when the self deception of the mind is realized…all symbolism is bound to obscure what it intends to reveal.”4

My own: Language in this regard is not different from nature itself whose myriads of forms might be said to at least partially disclose ultimate reality. This striving is infinitely varied. It reveals not God but “casts shadows” thereon. Knowledge likewise. I think the ultimate reality is however ‘revealed’ when one comes to an (intuitive) understanding of this. Submitted – the greater the belief in the validity of the language or knowledge, the darker the shadow, the denser the obfuscation. Thus we should be careful that science doesn’t hide what it seeks to reveal just because we trust our measurements. Religion likewise, because we trust our faith. By reason’s application the world of sensory input is naturally transferred into the world of ideas, meaning, and purpose, by virtue of the naming process. First we notice, then name, then denote and then knowledge and understanding follow; but a caveat not to trust our name. Reason is only the opening gambit and should give way to intuition whereupon perhaps going back to reason another portal is set ajar calling on more intuition, and so on, back and forth. Important to note that Polanyi thought “science is a feature of the emergence of man and of mind in a cosmic and living process.”

As for the cogito itself Descartes might have tried “I am, therefore I think”.5 But nevertheless the cogito doesn’t, from my point of view, afford certainty at all, or meaning, or purpose. I think Descartes’ work is a patch on Plato’s idea that reason and intuition represent the mind’s dual levels, deductive and intuitional. It might be safe to say that the whole of Western philosophy is similarly a series of patches on this presumption that the world is explicable, that it is measurable and that should be the basis for our knowledge and understanding of the cosmos. Whether all our measuring is really approximate, a best guess, it still follows this program certainly bears fruit. The atom bomb, for instance, and being omnipresent on this earth using our highly developed – at least we think so – information technology, the discoveries of physics via quantum mechanics.

When I read the various works referenced here I am humbled and in awe of the prodigious commitments. These all are dedicated to finding out the truth and by a process of discovery do so with some consistency. But this is a geologically slow process requiring humility and the patience of a cobblestone. Who am I to decry their honest toil. I’m sure I don’t have the capacity or the scholarly underpinning for my critique to be taken seriously. Perhaps we should be satisfied with just a glimpse of the Real, Being. Substitute God for the Real, for Being and looking again at Ernst Cassirer: God evolves out of the impersonal, without attributes, to personal, and then back again to inexpressible, not bound by any word, back to immanence, an ineffable unknowable. Cassirer points out that “…as speech has a tendency to divide, determine and fixate, so it has also, no less strongly, a tendency to generalize…[striving] for a concept of Being that is unlimited by any particular manifestation, and therefore not expressible in any word, not called by any name.” I give you YHWH, purposely unpronounceable, without vowels. This, the “Word,” takes us to transcendence of the “Word.” Also, the skillfulness of the wise is to express with language what is inexpressible. That is attributable to Nagarjuna. Reason is required for this; the process of “if so-and-so,” then it follows, another “so-and-so.”

Also from Cassirer. The Word gives objective reality – at least that is the intention – the ground wherein subjective reality takes root. Thus begins the process of self realization whereby the subject’s seeing, knowing, understanding, culminate in merging with that from which it issued; that is the nameless presence or substratum. Yet, he says, being is not properly speaking an attribute of God, the eternal. God has no existence, other than by virtue of phenomenal beings. God has no existence, which would presume duality – only things have existence.  Being and self are distinct only in expression. The transcendent is inaccessible to language and conception. (and I would add, manifestation as such) But, drawing on the work of Max Muller and Muller’s  colleague, Codrington, ” …with every finite perception there is a concomitant perception, or, if that word would seem too strong, a concomitant sentiment or presentiment of the infinite; that from the very first act of touch, or hearing or sight, we are brought in contact, not only with a visible, but at the same time with an invisible universe.” That is your transcendental, your metaphysic – or as close as you’ll get. This seems to me a never spoken – to my knowledge – yet built in feature of Polanyi’s tacit dimension and those in his circle and, yes, those who preceded them in this line or mode of making sense of the deductive-intuitional levels of the mind and thus of the impedance of reason itself. Given, duality is necessary for self realization, and we should trust to Goethe’s feminine principle to bring seekers to an elevation where this can be appreciated.

Rousseau’s thought along with the others is foundational to that of Polanyi and I would bring him into this writing which will again take us to Kant and Goethe for comparison purposes.

There is no division between natural man and civilized man, ethical, moral man.6 Its a progression and stages are involved. So, 18th century thought is heading the wrong way dividing natural man from civilized. Yes, man was once more primitive, in a state of “nature”, but being reasonable and civilized are best viewed as a continuation, modification, of the primitive. It’s not as if somewhere along the way we retooled ourselves. So, in us, the first man still lives bearing the overlay of millennia of adaptations. Its like we all see the same world, but from differing aspects. This might involve various doctrines, call them paths, or approaches, which consist rather of a kind of shift of view-point, a modification of modes of thought. Thus the West meets or joins the East. Or as Desani benevolently said “if you had only one religion you would have only one view.”

Part of this overlay is the idea that faith is based on ethical or moral certainty – what there is of it – not reason. Reason comes into its own with the emergence of scientific modes and, more primitively, religious modes. In the development of our intellectual faculties comes the idea that there is no final cause for nature. Rousseau’s long walks in the forest engendered a romantic view of nature, simpler, true, than the sophisticated 18th century salon life’s. His statement that “All the subtleties of metaphysics would not lead me to doubt for a moment the immortality of my soul or a spiritual Providence; I feel it, I believe in it, I desire it, I hope for it, and will defend it to my last breath” is germane to the discussion at hand. He was committed, in the Polanyian sense, to this mode of being.

And Kant’s,  this is also germane, treatise on the Failure of All Philosophic Attempts at Theodicy wherein he decries the setting up of speculative reason as God’s defender saying that transcends the limits of reason resulting in sophistry. Cassirer: “Not only have all previous attempts at theodicy failed, but it can indeed be shown that they had to fail and will always have to. For it can be shown that our reason is altogether incapable of gaining insight into the relation between the world, however well we may know it through experience, and the highest Wisdom.”

This, regarding commitment, from Goethe provides some further insight.”He only deserves his freedom and existence who daily conquers them anew.” and also, more importantly, to my approach, “[The] eternal is revealed by the transitory.” That, indeed, is a statement from the highest wisdom. It is likely as close as anyone, anywhere, anytime, will ever get to true metaphysics. So, live your life with one foot in the here and now and one in the eternal. Its the best you can do.

Some final thoughts. I find and place myself in the traditions of the East, mainly India, but also Tibet, and China, and Japan, though, of course, I was raised and live in the West, though I have visited China, Japan, Vietnam. Some think of the distance between East and West as infinite but I don’t. Its one world. The circumstances of my search for a meaningful life when I was a very young man led me away from the West towards the East where I began to take serious note of the beauty, the congruence, of Eastern spiritual culture. The authority of the seekers of wisdom taking hold in my malleable condition was a further draw. Their consensus was a source of comfort. But simultaneously I was opening doors in the Western traditions too that also bore on my nascent wonder of these matters of meaning and purpose in life. No doubt, my admittedly primitive earliest exposure to such things, via the religious administrations of dogmatic Pentecostal doctrine, were at minimum, precursors to this latter spiritual predisposition. As mentioned above, the various doctrines encountered, call them paths or approaches, …”consist rather of a kind of re-description, a shift of view-point, a modification of modes of thought where we all see the same world but from differing aspects.”7 The place of intuitive insight began dawning on me; I became aware of the task of becoming a more skillful perceiver. One must learn, somehow, to see with one’s eyes, to hear with one’s ears. Faith, belief, took on new form along with beauty, love, knowledge, understanding, wisdom, and freedom. I still am, with geologic slowness, going through a paradigm shift from my earliest religious experience. The role of my teachers, benefactors, can’t be over stated. I realize how primitive man remains. Now I find I have a vision of reality which no criteria of verifiability or testability apply. I do not see, I refuse to see, that the East rivals the West or that Christianity rivals Buddhism or that ratiocination rivals intuition.

The aspects of Ultimate Reality represented by the spiritual pursuits of mankind are perhaps without number. None are completely false; none completely true. Nothing manifested, nothing in relative existence, exhausts the potentiality of that which endlessly issues forth into the transitory. “The eternal is revealed by the transitory.”

There is a divine mother, a Devi, Devi Durga. Images of her, crowned with a halo of blinding light, show faces of unsurpassed beauty as well as unsurpassed cruelty. She displays many arms, faculties, holding many different things, Destructive weapons, things of beneficence, a flower – a mountain lily. These are not seen by all. Her enemies know the weapons; her supplicants the flower, and whose appeal is to the sky “sweet sky, let kindly clouds shower pearls and jasmines on holy Durga.”8 To them the cruel face is not seen and the weapons held in abeyance.

How reality is approached largely determines the revelation of an aspect, a standpoint; we make our own point of view by our personal commitment, our strong intention. The artist’s view is thus somewhat different from the religious and likewise for the scientific and the philosophical. None are exactly alike. Neither are they irreconcilably different. A wise person sees them as complementary. A wise man understands that for every person the ultimate reality is a little different; this is a feature mistaken by some as a bug. My personal experience as a mere child of the Pentecostal view of reality is still here underpinning my continued search in my dotage for life’s secrets. Now I live only for those rare moments when I am vouchsafed a glimpse of the divine’s closely held intimate truths.

  1. Carl J. Friedrich’s essay “Man, The Measure: Personal Knowledge and the Quest for Natural Law” in “Intellect and Hope” ↩︎
  2. Carl J. Friedrich’s essay “Man, The Measure: Personal Knowledge and the Quest for Natural Law” in “Intellect and Hope” ↩︎
  3. Helmut Kuhn’s essay “Personal Knowledge and the Crisis of the Philosophical Tradition” in “Intellect and Hope” ↩︎
  4. Ernst Cassirer, Language and Myth, translated by Susanne K. Langer, Dover Publications, New York 1946, 1953 ↩︎
  5. Ego sum ergo cogito “appears in some of Descartes’ works, such as his posthumously published “The Search for Truth by Natural Light,” where he expressed the insight as “dubito, ergo sum, vel, quod idem est, cogito, ergo sum” (“I doubt, therefore I am — or what is the same — I think, therefore I am”)” – from internet search ↩︎
  6. Ernst Cassirer, Rousseau, Kant, and Goethe, Harper Torchbook, 1963 ↩︎
  7. C.B. Daly’s essay “Polanyi and Wittengenstein” in “Intellect and Hope” ↩︎
  8. G.V. Desani, “Hali and Collected Stories” McPherson & Company, 1991, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96 – the Preface ↩︎

Concerning U Chan Htoon’s paper on Buddhism

Blaise Pascal, Pensee number 84: It is with rash insolence that we belittle the great to our own measure, as when talking of God.

Matthew 11:27 Neither doeth anyone know the Father, but the son, and he to whom it shall please the son to reveal him.

Matthew 7:7 Those who seek God find him.

We live on a planet orbiting what is known as a main sequence star, that is, rather common place. Our sun orbits the galactic center and is imbedded in a so called arm of its galaxy; the Milky Way galaxy. The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy. It has several arms and is disk shaped with a bulge at the center. The approximate distance from the sun to the center of the galaxy is about 26,600 light years. (When I studied astronomy some years ago that number was thought to be 30,000.) The diameter of the whole system is approximately 100,000 light years. It takes 225 million years for the sun to complete an orbit around the center of the galaxy. Now the sun, as a main sequence type star, has an expected life span of nine billion years of which it has lived about half. That means that it has completed about 20 orbits and has about the same number to go during its remaining life. The Milky Way contains between 100 and 400 billion stars.(A 2020 article on this.)

That gives a little perspective to what follows, I hope. Everything I know, understand, and so forth, is nothing more than a fly speck on the moon. So, as is said nowadays, your mileage may vary. I certainly have no more standing than anyone else to comment on the subject matter at hand. It is by the Lord’s blessing, I suppose, that I have such inclinations in the first place.

U Chan Htoon, former Justice of the Burmese high court, spoke to the Sixteenth Congress of the International Association for Religious Freedom at the University of Chicago, August 12th, 1958. In 1961 G.V. Desani delivered the lecture “Vipassana Bhavana, Yoga, and Other Topics” to the diplomatic corp at the Israeli ambassador’s residence in Rangoon, Burma. Justice Htoon was in attendance.

In Buddhism we try to avoid the use of the word “spirit” because this may be taken to imply some kind of enduring entity…

He then goes on to claim it should be understood, rather, as a psychic process. I take this to mean it does not endure except in a (local) relativity-complex in the same sense that for movement (of bodies) to exist there must be a multiplicity of “bodies”, that is, more than one. Movement is relative only. More on this later.

It is further stated that “…rebirth is not the reincarnation of a “soul” after death, but more precisely it is the continuation of a current of cause and effect from one life to another. There is nothing in the universe that is not subject to change, and so there is no static entity which can be called a “soul”. A being is the totality of five factors; material, the physical body, sensations, perceptions, volitions, and consciousness. “All these factors are undergoing change from moment to moment and are linked together only by the causal law – the law that ‘this having been, that comes to be.’ Hence Buddhist philosophy regards a being not as an enduring entity but as a dynamic process.”

He goes on the claim that Nibbana is permanent and characterizes it as release from the realm of becoming, samsara. It has no qualities, no relative values which always require, what he calls a “relativity-complex”. Positive and negative attributes depend on one another for their existence, for instance. Also, light(ness) and dark(ness) being opposite poles of a “relativity_complex” depend on one another for their existence, too. Neither is absolute. In the Desani lecture cited above the claim is also made that Nibbana (Nirvana) is permanent.

Michelson and his colleague Morely, tried to establsh the absolute existence of the aether. Many thought at the time that it was required to have a universal medium whereby light was propogated. He found instead that the aether did not exist. Subsequently Albert Einstein explained that the speed of light was dependent on the (an) observer. The speed of light is only relative to an observer. Einstein also said, relevant to this, that there is no natural rest-frame in the universe. This leads me to speculate that were the universe a single body light would not exist, just as movement wouldn’t. There must be that relativty-complex. Also, I find it interesting that Einstein wrote, per Mr. Htoon, that “if there is any religion that is acceptable to the modern scientific mind, it is Buddhism.” I tend to claim, however, that Buddhism is not a religion because there is no personal God. Buddha never claimed to be a Lord or God in the flesh. Jesus was circumspect in this. He did say “I am the truth, the life, and the way. No man cometh to the father except by me.” Also, “Believest thou not that I am the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me…” John 14.

Commentary:
God can’t have self experience without descending into matter and assuming corporeal form(s). The “Word” is made flesh in order that God, the Divine creative spirit can have self knowledge. That is, in this writer’s mind, the purpose and meaning of life. The story of Jesus Christ is a metaphor for this. And, of course, the so called “relativity-complex” of Justice Htoon is required for this. This writer makes an assumption that the actual stuff of which we are made, the same as the sun, of course, has a kind of self awareness based on sentient forms compounded of the same stuff.

Furthermore, its my premise that U. Chan Htoon didn’t fully understand Judaism and Christianity. Consider Exodus (the Bible), Moses asks God “Who shall I say sent me?” Tell them, God replies, “I Am sends you.” Being itself sends you. I don’t find anything corresponding to this in the lecture.

So, the meaning of Jesus; God descends into matter in order to “re-emerge” an enlightened (fully self realised) being. Why wouldn’t one say the same of the Buddha? and that such beings, all sentient life for that matter, become, along the way, co-creators of the Real, the world. Certainly, it is put forward that Jesus was in hypostatic union with God, the Father. Why couldn’t the same be said for Buddha; 100% man but 100% God, too? Wasn’t he an Jagatguru? Having escaped impermanence in the permanence of Nibbana would one be considered to have also reached the seemingly impossible hypostatic union with the Divine creative spirit, or whatever you want to call it? Would that bit of the sun stuff of which we have the pleasure to be co-compounded realised once and for all exactly what it is? That fly speck? One would needs discover this for oneself.

Said another way, man (sentient life forms) supplies the cosmos with individuality while the cosmos gives man, in return, universality. Enlightened beings realise this whether said explicityly or no. This from my mentor. And this, too, seems relevant: “where the concentration is, there is the persistent, the lasting, the permanent. That to which attention goes is that which returns. In a sense to attend to something is to put consciousness into it, to bring it to life, to self awareness.” Put another way, if there is no observer there is nothing. Also,the recursive process that results in rebirth must be said to gain in vitality by the concentration, self awareness, of the successive lives so attached.

Kamma or Karma, as well as the precept that nothing endures, is permanent, and thus, there is no “soul” that carries forward through successive lives, is best understood, I think, when the Real, the world, is considered as a recursive phenomenon. Recursion, the Fibonacci sequence is the best example I know – 0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13….. – Zero is the still point, of course, wherefrom the “beginning”. It is necessary for any meaning or understanding whatsoever. So, every instance of the Real is a product of the preceding (instances). It is a fractal wherein knowing the still point you know it all. Yes, its a mystery but, clearly, out of nothing comes nothing (Ex nihil, nihil fit). This is why its impossible to explain, why the talk about the ultimate having no attributes, why when the journey is completed one arrives at the beginning but knows the place for the first time. Something happens during the process, the journey! Consciousness? Moreso, all that is happening now added to all that has ever happened equals all that will ever happen. This is, to me, how karma can be grasped. To recap, the purpose of the existence of the elements of recursion in the “relativity-complex” is to source new instances which have no permanence in themselves. They are made to fade. The process, however, is a kind of permanence in the same sense that a river, though ever changing, remains the river, and the instances, drops of water, merge eventually into the sea through ever widening banks. Poetically, they widen to embrace the sea.

Further, as Desani puts it here, For whatever activity undertaken, there is a spirit for that doing and that spirit in time gets a life of its own, gets self awareness as it goes on. These acts eventually become forms of worship. Doing good enhances goodness. Goodness is the reservoir drawn from when acts of kindness are done. And it is thereby increased. These acts are like accretions. Charity grows by use. Doing right this time makes it easier the next and so forth. Of course, it works the same for evil doers. A murderer draws on a different kind of reservoir to do his evil. His evil adds to that and the next time it is easier to follow that path. Evil begats evil, one reaps what one sows. It works that way. Love, Beauty, Truth, begat more of the same, too.

The lecture’s full title is Buddhism and the age of Science. I can’t find it on the net except to purchase but my copy is a Wheel Publication No. 36/37.

This writer’s view is quite different especially concerning what is said about Science. I think they fail to understand Science and its place in the total scheme of human endeavors. I see it, as did Philosopher R.G. Collingwood, as an emergent phenomenon along with art, religion, and other modalities of being in the world. Collingwood’s scheme compares to Soren Kierkegaard’s in that Kierkegaard views faith as such a mode of being. Art, religion, science, history, then philosophy is how Collingwood describes the recursion of these modalities.

It is philosophy that Collingwood thought was the natural culmination of the preceding elements. He describes them in detail, their successes and failings. Here, I write of his work in this regard. Soren Kierkegaard’s work is much more difficult to grasp but I go into it to. Here.

I said above that Buddhism could be thought of as not being a religion in the sense of Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, and so on. Perhaps it could be better understood as coming after philosophy in Collingwood’s progression, after faith in Kierkegaard’s. If these modes, art and the rest, are truly like the Fibonacci sequence then philosophy is not the final element; neither would Buddhism be were it included. The Sun is, after all, middle aged. Having 20 more orbits to make around the Milky Way, 20 more galactic years to live, I’d imagine we’ll have ample opportunity to plumb the depths of Reality’s infinite malleability.

Collingwood describes philosophy as “consciousness returning on itself”; like a fountain. Pretty image. I think it is a prototype of what Buddhism and, also, the esoteric teachings of the yogis, is. My mentor’s writings give the best jumping off place for what might be the next big thing in mental culture.

In working this up I am indebted to David Warren and his piece on God’s Existence, here. I love this quote: “For science, or human knowledge more broadly, God is not an hypothesis, but an Axiom. Start in Aristotle, if you will, to see that the world has no purchase on sense, without the Unmoved Mover. The “Five Ways” by which the inevitability of God was demonstrated by Thomas Aquinas, and the related ways in which this was done by others before and after him, are easily misunderstood, because they are not proofs of an hypothesis but recursions. They show, without the “God Axiom,” that there can be no causation, no change, no being in itself, no gradation, no direction to an end. We need a Still Point, from which to depart. It cannot be hypothesized. It is too simple for that. You need to assume it even to contradict it.”

Finally, I write here about entelechy, the end within. According to Buddhist thought there is no end, no beginning, only the process has any claim on reality. So, any end within dependes on a local framework, a relativity-complex, in Mr. Htoon’s usage. I’d put forward that if you must have a concept of the end within then go with Mr. T.S. Eliot’s beautiful notion that after all our struggles, trouble, turmoil, conquests, losses, “we arrive where we started but know the place for the first time.”

Personal Observations on Desani’s Piece “A MARGINAL COMMENT ON THE PROBLEM OF MEDIUM IN BICULTURES”

“Oh, how sweet to be alive! How good to be alive and to love life! Oh the ever-present longing to thank life, thank existence itself, to thank them as one being to another being.

“This was exactly what Lara was. You could not communicate with life and existence, but she was their representative, their expression, in her the inarticulate principle of existence became sensitive and capable of speech.”

Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago, Copyright 1958, Pantheon Books, Inc., New York, page 325

“….reality takes shape in memory alone….”

“…it yet belonged to an order of supernatural beings whom we have never seen, but whom, in spite of that, we recognize and acclaim with rapture when some explorer of the unseen contrives to coax one forth, to bring it down, from that divine world to which he has access, to shine for a brief moment in the firmament of ours.”

“We do not receive wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves…[The lives you admire] …having been influenced by everything evil or common-place that prevailed round about them…represent a struggle and a victory.”

Marcel Proust, Remembrance of things Past, Vol. I, Vintage Books, September, 1982 pps 201, 381, 923-924

This piece by Desani describes his personal struggle reflected in the creation of his literary works Hatterr and Hali. He uses himself as an example to elucidate all literary creation and its combination into human cultural traditions and propagation across varying, disparate, societies. The opening quotes are different ways of stating points he raises in his essay by literary geniuses who, I think, draw from the same reservoir.

He writes that “Literature is life-histories, a response by individuals to life, to love and hate, and both the makers and the readers need to have, from individual experience and formed habits (cultural involvement), the capacity to move and be moved.” Quoting William Butler Yeats he says ” …I think profound philosophy comes from terror. An abyss opens under our feet… whether we will or not, we must ask the ancient questions: Is there a Reality anywhere? Is there…God? Is there a Soul?

Proust writes “…reality takes shape in memory alone…” Desani says this another way: “Inspiration arises from consciousness…as a reservoir of memories.” He goes on to say “Art, for all the explaining, is a mystery: and original imageries, for all the exploring, the greater mystery.” So, we do not receive high Art but discover it for ourselves in a continuous struggle that becomes a victory.

His Hali, he says, rejects “…an impersonal, amoral, indescribable, unknowable, all and nothing, a loveless, godless abstraction [called the atma].” Hali’s was a “…God of of Love and Beauty, and it was from fulfillment, not defeat, that he willingly surrendered his life.”

Pasternak wants to, and succeeds, in communicating with Being itself, when he realizes that his Lara is The Real made flesh. Desani has Hali write that he would “…seek still, seek a thing of glory…and see what no mortal ever saw before, a vision of such enchanting awful beauty, that a mortal would die! [To behold which as a mortal would mean death.] “He found his vision in a human, his Rooh, of whom he said ‘…the God I prayed to was not holier than thou, none holier, none! …Garland wert thou, the garland of God, to seek which I sought a temple, and thee I found!’

This writer believes “there is an order of supernatural beings whom we have never seen, but whom, in spite of that, we recognize and acclaim with rapture when some explorer of the unseen contrives to coax one forth, to bring it down, from that divine world to which he has access, to shine for a brief moment in the firmament of ours.” Professor Desani does that in this little essay, and indeed, in all his writings, in his life, in our memory of him.

Todd Katz hosts this essay at this link. I’ve also linked to it here at Desni.net

Nadi Shastras – Personal Notes from Readings by Prof. Desani

This has been crossposted with an introduction at http://professordesani.blogspot.com/

Nadi Text, June 29, 1980

If there is only one religion, you will have a partial view of the world.

Treat all life as your own, small and large.

Nundi Deva and Shiva Yogi are the “speakers.”

This text spoken before Buddha. Talks of Jainism, Buddhism before they appeared in the world and says one more religion will appear in Kaliyuga – Christianity.

The Lord incarnated, it said, as Buddha, Christ, Desani, etc. Eleven parts of the Lord.

Gives birth date, place, time, etc., parents, horoscope, of Buddha, Christ, Desani.

Of Christ, “He is Immanuel, Deva Kurna (sp.). There was a comet in the sky for three days. They fled to Egypt, to avoid edict of government…..” His color is green, he is Love… “Twelve disciples, St. Paul wrote history.”

Crucify: Prana left body, and they killed his physical body, Prana in Maya Svarupa (illusionary form) appears later. (He is risen.) He will appear in Maya Svarupa to some few devotees.

“After 1984 the people will get very angry. The government will do anything they want.”

(aside: When you get angry evil beings get inside you. Buddha said if you control anger you could control the world…)

“Water will be bad, there will be bad gasses in the air, the food will be scarce.”

“Why so many Shastras for Desaniman – 42? They are like God’s treasures. Desaniman will know their purpose.” (He gleans them for publishing.)

The five elements (Punja (sp) Bhutas are parts of Prakriti) are in the body. These perform their function, but they should receive proper help from the 6th sense, reason. Purity follows using 6th sense to control five elements.

(aside: Prakriti is conscious. This is the basis of magic.)

The same Tattvas do not apply to all religions.

“You are to control your mind and do Dhyana,” then say, “Thy will be done.”

If love of the lord is used for love of the self then it is not true Bhakti.

1983 – He might move to another country to avoid bad effect due to planetary positions. Might die in 8 years or 1988.

Prana/life and body are different from each other.

Sin and virtue go with Prana at time of death.

Atma (behind the body and Prana) is pleased by talk of Bhakti.

______________________________________

Nadi reading July 5, 1980

Gives 36 Tattvas – essential things | Dance of the Lord

Shiva – Rudra (speaks)
Shiva Yogi is there – This being has been identified with Desaniman – they are the same being.

The body is Shakti, life is Prana.
The Lord lives in us always.

All things happen according to the will of the Lord, if you are a Bhakta.

If you have affections for others, you have affection for the Lord.

Anger causes early death.

We should do good for other Bhaktas.
Do not speak against anyone. It will act as a curse, a bad deed. Such deeds reduce Satguna (sp) in one. Do not use poisonous words against others. If our state of mind is at peace, others will be at peace..

Avoid making friendships, takes away from Bhakti.

Karma affects even the Gods, their deeds.

We should not delay doing our works, our good works.

Shiva is Prana. The Lord, preserver, creator, destroyer.

Keep Atma in Bhakti, keep Prana dedicated to the Lord. (Jivsamadhi, 24th dance (of the) Tattvas.)

Do not desire status, high position. Do not be hasty, if something does not come to a Bhakta then have an aversion for that.

Upadesha – instruction.

We must love our families.
The (red) Lord – destroyer.
If the Atma is not pure, the Lord will destroy it.

Our bodies are Shri Yantras. The Divine Lord, the Divine Father are in the heart.

In the 32d dance, the five recede to the first, radiance. If the 5 – Punja Bhutas – are controlled they become “friends.”

Reduce salt, sour, hot, irritants, bitter: five elements reveal themselves as tastes, too.

Not too much sweetness.
Sweetness causes knowledge.

Anger is encouraged by hot (and meat), sour, salt, (but these) should be added in balance, then the kundalini does not get exaggerated, instead there is sukha, ease.

To avoid (or during) sickness due to imbalance of these tastes, take milk, and milk curds. Take these tastes occasionally with no harm, take without greed, take as blessing.

Instruction: Take food offered from Bhaktas, accept all, decline none.

_________________________________

Nadi reading November 29, 1980

#1 “He is 72 (DOB, Jul. 1, 1909) He is ‘form of the Lord’ “

#2 “Shiva Yogi is disciple of Nundi Deva. Shiva Yogi meditates in the Himalayas waiting for Desaniman to die, come to him.”

Text instructs: “Guard against self worship!”

Text mentions: “Faults in the sun.” – sunspots – or power from the sun…. “After 18 years (i.e., 1998) it will hit the earth at ‘scattered points’. After this time ” a handful of grain for one gold. People will eat leaves. In a given country if 50% of the people are Bhaktas, the country will survive.”

Used in Puja: Cardamon and cloves
Text instructs: “Do not use powers – ever! Do not break any laws.”

3rd text

“He (Desani) is disciple of Nundi Deva (and) also Patanjali, also Markande (sp). He, Nundi Deva, has five disciples. In all the nine continents there are very few Bhaktas. Desaniman wrote Shastras in all incarnations.

4th Text
Rudra and others speak in this text. Text says to Desani: “do not eat at night. May do Zen, Yoga, with no object. The Atma is like an abode of the Deva. If one speaks against Desani he loses his merits.”
Text mentions Auro-Bindo, 83.
Text says: “Death is a great, peaceful being.” “A good Bhakta worships with no expectation.”

Offerings: Deepa (lights), Dupa (incense)

Spoken aside: “Do not build temple…”

Text says: “Nundi Deva has greatness of Rudra, myself.

Aside: Keep in mind the Yantra is a material form of the Deity: Prevents one from doing wrong things.

Text says: “In 1981 1/8th of population has Deva Bhakti.”
Text instructs: “Should avoid bad people.”

This Shastra was recited 5 – 10,000 hears past.
4th text ends thus: “Shibum, may peace be.”

____________________________

Nadi readings Winter and Spring 1979 and 1980

Notes from 5 Nadi Texts G. V. Desani read to us.

Text instructs: “avoid over indulging 5 tastes: sweet, hot, sour, salt, irritants.”

Text gives: The meritorious deeds: 1. To worship, to be mindful, meditate on the Lord. 2. To offer light to the Lord, e.g., night light burns always in (his) prayer room. 3. To help elderly person.

Text says: After 1984 (there is) much world trouble. At that time there will be a great meeting of great beings to decide the fate of the world. It will be like the end of the world.

Text says: “Bhaktas should guard against mistakes. The Guru will know, and advancement will be retarded…The power of the Guru accrues to the disciple in time…not necessarily in this life. It is the Bhakta’s duty to renounce one article of food…To keep good health use nine grains, wheat, rice…..; meat eaters, including fish, should take extra water. To eat meat is permitted but it causes some trouble to the Bhakta. No greens at night. Greens can be taken four days a week; Peas two days a week. The nine grains are taken separately, not mixed. Take beans once a week. Take black beans (not available in U.S.) daily for strength. in worship offer fruit then take yourself as blessing.”

Text says: If you want something, offer it. We should avoid cruel, wicked people.

Text says: In March, 1980 the force that was at the base of his (Desani’s) spine will rise to the top of his head.

Text says: First there are two things (Personal note: Aristotle also concluded this): The Lord and the Prime Substance: Purusha and Prakriti. For the Lord, give up worldly pursuits. One should gather Puja things. We can follow any profession, just follow path of daily worship. Avoid politics.

Desani needs piece of lead and brass.

There are one or two cruel people – he rejects them.

Text says: “To each according to the quality of his worship.” during Kali Kali (?Kali Yuga?) only one in one thousand will have love of the Lord.” “From 1984 those who seek sexual gratification will suffer greatly.” “There are many demons born as men now, they are the thieves, etc.”

Text predicts: Acid rain, bad air, and so forth. Says some countries will be ruined by this. 1984 – 1989 (I’m not sure I took this down correctly) After 89 things will change again (maybe for) the better, somewhat.

Another text now – 6 in all today – I said 5 above (?) over a period of months.

It seems that Desani read to us for five hours straight.

Saturn periods come to everyone. (Note: Use intelligence during these Saturn periods to avoid injury, accidental death.

Another Text on future 10 years.

5085 = 1984: From then there will be bad troubles. Prices will increase, everything will be new, new level of evolution, times will see increase of knowledge in people of the world. Good grows with the bad. This text says to get Guru Bhakti, the five senses should be pure, (one should) speak truly, be moderate to get (have) the grace of the guru, to get divine strength.

“To each his own Karma. Thus we grow strong.”

Saturn transit – November, 1978.

This text says to: “Treat the great light as the Lord. But he will appear in other forms too. Worship the feet of the Lord; that is, do not aspire for highness. When approached by the Lord, should he appear, get up! One should gesture supplication – hands together. Offer anything you are fond of.”

“If you chant 108 times a day, that is good (enough).”

Aside: Mr. Pele (in India) types these texts. He is virtually blind. Mr. Murthi (also in India) translates. In a former life they helped Desani build shelters for pilgrims.

His text says: “To the Yogi, the benevolent look of the Lord is wealth, not gold, land, etc.”

“It is natural to have some enemies. Leave it to the Lord. Some enemies are from former lives.” (as are family members, wife, children, etc.”

“Even bad people have some goodness in them,” says the Lord benevolently.

“Each person who comes to Desani did so in former lives.” Pele and Mr. Murthi helped (him) build shelters and asked to have their current role in this scheme (as typist and translator).

“The Deva says bad acts are his responsibility too, because they are ‘in him’. Desani says, “this is very great of him.”

“Desani talks only for a reason, not for gossip or ‘passing time’. “

“Incline to the Lord and power comes. Never desire power or show it off for any reason.”

“The Devil is a great fool; he can be fooled if you are clever.”

“If there is less suffering in a country it is because of the people’s intelligence, which follows from good deeds.”

“He will give silver square to persons he owes debts to, people who helped him in former lives. This article stays in the ‘Cottage of the Lord’ for six months while he puts spirit in it. It is a Chakra. He should collect expenses for them. This Chakra will get them (the Bhaktas) divine wealth. Moreover, with the power of the Chakra the Bhakta will have a good life more or less free of the suffering of most people in these bad times.”

“From the base of his spine the divine nerve has gone to the eye; it is time for it to go to the lotus at the top of the head.”

“The rising of the moon is like the rising of the Kundalini. For Desani, in March, the rising of the Kundalini will be full.”

Aside: “Confucius said death is a blessing as are all Universals.”

“Desani will think that whatever comes to him is enough.”

Pele and Murthi lived with him, helped him to construct shelters in a former life.

Aside: Desani says if you constantly give in to your appetites you merely serve the five elements.

“This is his fifth life. When he goes it will be like a Yogi leaving his Samadhi. His Prana goes to a tree in the Himalayas where Nundi Deva meditates. This being then rises and goes to a mountain…..”

Desani says his guru told him to have a willed death.

“The body is our property, not us. It is to be controlled.”

“Only because of the merit of Bhaktas, the Universe is not destroyed.”

“The great beings will assume illusionary forms for a talk about the World’s fate.”

“A short person with six letters in his name will write against him in 1982, then come to him asking pardon.”

“The Atma (Christian Conscience) will tell us it is not good to deceive. If we ignore it there will be untimely death. The voice of conscience causes guilt, which causes death.”

guilt = death

This age is called Kaliyuga. Kali = iron “In 30 and in 100 years people (will be) are smarter, live longer. There will be much sensual gratification, but also Dhyana is being done.

The eighth dance of the Lord. Dance – Tattva

“At time of death the Prana leaves through one of nine doors (orifices). Then the Prana goes to Yama Puri (City of the Dead) to await rebirth. Full Yogis go to Parma Purusha (indestructible). His Prana can hence assume a living form at will.”

-end of text-

New Text

“Some of Desani’s disciples will publish Shastras too.”

Text refers to following text.

-end of text’

New Text

I think this Shastra is the Devi speaking to the Lord of Wisdom. She is the Divine Mother. He has Elephant head.

Aside: “The Devi is different from the Lord, and eternal too.”

To Desani: “Cut salt by half or three quarters.”

Devi repeats that mentioned in first Shastra, “nine grains correspond to nine planets.”

Aside: About 5000 years past only seven planets (circled the Sun). One split in two. Desani lived then too.

“Cut back on salt. Take fruits with grain if possible.”

“Sickness follows if formal practice is not completed. If practice is begun (108) it must be completed. Offer fruit then have as a blessing.”

“Desani is now 71. When he is 82 a person (name like a poison) will come to him. For no reason, in a former life, this person was an enemy. Desani is instructed to be friendly to him (by this Shastra).”

“Do not speak of siddhis. People will not understand; They will be confused, angry, etc.”

“If offerings aren’t available, do it mentally…. ‘I make a flower of my life (or breath) and offer it to you’ “.

End of Shastra

New Shastra

“A few more texts (are) to come.”

Aside: Desani equates death and solitude. I think he said death and the Prana’s being in Yama Puri is solitude. He said that (Milton or Blake ?) had what appeared to be a holy radiant being appear to him once when he was trying to conjure the Fiend. ‘Go Away! It’s not you I want,’ he said. But lo!!! It WAS the Fiend.”

End of this text

End of today’s reading from the Nadi Shastras

________________________________

This text I didn’t date

“In the beginning all people were Devas. Then they fell to lower Worlds.”

“Desani’s five lives were all in the Kaliyuga.”

Aside: “Why is it (the World process) happening? It is a divine secret, a secret of the Lord. This creation is more man’s than the Lord’s, so to speak.”

“It is very difficult to see the Lord these days. It is the times.”

“1992 -1993 – fire hits planet.”

“During a period when we suffer blows we are in a Saturn period and the Karma of past lives works itself. He warns to be very careful not to do additional wrongs. He says to do additional Bhakti then.”

“He will not know who the bad people are who come to him.”

“One should control one’s mind. Live in the law. Do not show off divine wealth.”

“There are Bhaktas who indulge (strong) desires, who have weak minds, who will, in their next lives have the same attachments.”

“In that passage he calls them great Bhaktas, that is, with attainments.”

Karma – inordinate desire
Lobha -greed
Krobgh – anger
Moha – (self love) attachment
Ahankara – pride

“There are four periods. The best are the longest. Together they are known as a great period. After (illegible word) have run there is total destruction.”

“Desani was born in a ‘special way’ in each period.”

Bhakti – act

“He reads texts because they help us.”

Chakra – anything round.

end of this Shastra

__________________________________

Nadi reading June 21, 1980

Three texts today

Palas – effects

second text: “All conjectures by man about creation are false.”

“After 1984 people over fifty (will have) eye problems. This and pain causes lack of sleep.”

“Before going to sleep do worship of the Deva. Bow down to the Deva.”

“To avoid bad effects during these years (one should) control Panca Bhutas (5 elements).”

“To use siddhis (powers) one must abandon compassion.” Desani says it is better to live simply, not to abandon compassion.

sixth sense – mind

“The mind and the five elements control his (Desani’s) appearance in illusionary form before Bhaktas. He does this by intention, and the appearance lasts for several seconds. He gives some words then goes.”

“When we do wrong the soul/self will be troubled. This is conscience. Blows come to the body. That is, debts of Karma are paid by physical pain.”

“If anyone says one scripture is right over the other, his mind will be affected.”

“The ‘third eye’ opens at the Lord’s pleasure.”

“The four Vedas are held in a fist (silence).” *

“The Deva sits in the place of the Puja.”

“One should have fear/awe in that presence.”

“To deal with evil people or beings is a sin.”

“Taking liquor and meat causes sickness. Those who do this cannot become good Bhaktas.”

“After 1984 Desani will be like a ‘new Yogi’ in the world. He will be shown awe by all who meet him. He will be famous the world over. He has more Nadi texts than any other Yogi.

end of these 3 Shastras.

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Nadi reading August 9, 1980

Recited by, or to (?) patron saint of Southern India.

21 years from now half of world’s population will have love of God.
Half of world’s population will be destroyed by then too.

One of the texts read today says he will make a sanctuary (for himself). Personal note by your writer: Myself, and Josh Farley, and Lynn Hough, and Allan Smith did subsequently add on a little room in the back of Blossom Burn’s apartment into which he moved and for a period of some months followed a vow of total silence. During this time when I saw him he would ‘speak’ to me in sign language.

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Nadi reading around August, 1982

Three texts read this day.

This year Saturn is in 8th house – no one can fight it. Mentions “spark from the sun” – destruction.

2nd text from Five Faced Lord: It is divine knowledge of God that grants us happiness.

Don’t see or know a difference between dukha (difficulty or pain) and sukha (ease).

He says our purposes are wrong… (meaning the purposes of modern man)

Doctrines are not different (meaning doctrine of Shankarachariya (sp) and his detractors, I think)

Postures for exercises, he says, shouldn’t be done by older people.

3rd text: Narada. In every period there are seven sages. Rule for Bhakti, 18 steps among which are to listen with pleasure, satisfaction, to words about things divine. To see temples. To recite mantras. To have images. To avoid over eating. Not to be in search of money. Not to be egotistical. To go the forest, solitude: this is the way ??? from world attachments. To conquer death (former merits are needed) then you’re not affected by dissolution of Universe.

There are several kinds of Yoga.

Should not change mind.

Highest Yoga is to become one with supreme Lord. Then comes powers.

To BE the creator, destroyer, sustainer.

The people of the Kaliyuga can’t understand the Upanishads. Desani said he’s been ‘yelling’ this. Then the Nadi writer says, “some will understand when explained by the proper people.”

Ages of man
four Ashrams – rooms?

6-25 learns all through Yoga/learns how at 6 years ???
25-50 householder
50-75 seeks solitude, goes into forest
75- attains sunyasi

They, the Nadi writers (in this) text, are having court, Sabha, assembly. One says, “will not the wealth of the divine knowledge be diminished by the telling of it?” “No, rather it will be increased,” comes the answer.

One said Yogis could stop the coming disaster. He also said the people could stop it (since) it stems from “bad thoughts”.

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Nadi reading April 18, 1981

The real powers of these Lords (the 3 forms – we have made the form!)

The Mantra’s sound spreads through (to every) particle in the (one’s) body. This is how the Punja Bhutas are controlled, for Sadhus.

Worship sitting – face North
Eating – face South
Don’t face West – mind won’t rest.

For Bhaktas. Assume particular posture. Plank, yellow cloth, maybe a chair. These procedures key the mind into religious mode.

Says to rise before dawn, do chores, then worship at dawn.

Manus – Lords

Before 1994 or 1998 (?) a great light falls on the people. This will shatter and go all over. Some call it a planet, meteor.

It is Lord’s will. Good Bhaktas stay away from the (subject). Some will be saved.

Desani gets permission of the Lord to pass away. After death he still gives words, moves about in the world; he still helps people.

Recite/say Mantras to conquer demons in us.

Propunga – net

Many Manus, good people – are born now to help in these bad times.

“The Lord’s grace is all. Mantra is all.”

Light of the sun
If Bhakti increases destruction from light of the sun decreases. (I think he means on a planetary scale.)

What do we do?

Aside: “We weigh, we don’t sell, buy. We weigh!”

* I’m reminded of Soren Kierkegaard who wrote that God stands before us with arms outstretched, hands closed. In one hand he offers the ultimate secrets to the Universe. In the other he holds the eternal searching for those. We should choose the eternal seeking and let God keep the greatest Truths, Wisdom, for himself. So says Kierkegaard.

Note from Meeting with Desani

Look closely at where we come from. We are on a journey. We need tools, devices. Take from the past those good procedures as instruction from a revered teacher. Use them carefully, and when the present generation gives them up to the future our children will enjoy and appreciate what we did. Our acts should leave a residue, an accretion, on the gemstone of human history that gives clarity and brilliance. They will, if we seek knowledge, love, truth, and beauty, and do good deeds according to standard cultural norms.

Besides the great lord who is omnipresent there are everywhere smaller lords too. Some are tiny, infinitely small.

For whatever activity undertaken, there is a spirit for that doing and that spirit in time gets a life of its own, gets self awareness as it goes on. These acts eventually become forms of worship.

Knowingly or unknowingly our acts, ritualized and regularly played out, constitute worship, praise of spirits. The meditator eventually becomes the object of meditation.* These spirits range from the infinitely small to the infinitely large, from the most terrible evil to the most beautiful good, and so on.

Doing good enhances goodness. Goodness is the reservoir drawn from when acts of kindness are done. And it is thereby increased. These acts are like accretions. Charity grows by use. Doing right this time makes it easier the next and so forth.

Worship must have been discovered not invented.

Where the concentration is, there is the persistent, the lasting, the permanent. That to which attention goes is that which returns. In a sense to attend to something is to put consciousness into it, to bring it to life, to self awareness.

If born a warrior one concentrates on being such. One works at the tasks of warriorhood, makes the craft a permanent feature. So the warrior lives on generation after generation, life after life. The consequence is that the craft gets more efficient as time goes on. The power of war machines grow. The display of the hardware more and more glorious, awesome. There is no end to it except maybe annihilation. Probably the essence of the warrior is the death wish. The wish to be free.

*From the Bhagavad-Gita “Worshipers of spirits and goblins go to spirits and goblins, worshipers of the departed fathers go there, worshipers of me come to me.” (Krsna)