The operations of nature are characterized by order and harmony.
.
For instance, the planets move in regular orbits around the sun
.
Water always boils at 100°C at sea level.
.
Apple seeds always grow into apple trees rather than some other kind of tree.
.
And electrons always carry the same electric charge.
.
In a world where regularity and order did not prevail, everything would be completely unpredictable and life as we know it could not exist.
.
These regularities are generally attributed to laws of nature, which are considered to be eternal and transcendent.
.
And to have existed in some sense before the birth of the physical universe.
.
According to Christian theology, these laws were designed by God and exist in His mind.
.
Although materialist science rejects the idea of God, it still accepts the existence of immutable laws.
.
How these laws can exist independent of the evolving universe and at the same time act upon it is something of a mystery.
.
As Rupert Sheldrake says:
.
For instance, the planets move in regular orbits around the sun
.
Water always boils at 100°C at sea level.
.
Apple seeds always grow into apple trees rather than some other kind of tree.
.
And electrons always carry the same electric charge.
.
In a world where regularity and order did not prevail, everything would be completely unpredictable and life as we know it could not exist.
.
These regularities are generally attributed to laws of nature, which are considered to be eternal and transcendent.
.
And to have existed in some sense before the birth of the physical universe.
.
According to Christian theology, these laws were designed by God and exist in His mind.
.
Although materialist science rejects the idea of God, it still accepts the existence of immutable laws.
.
How these laws can exist independent of the evolving universe and at the same time act upon it is something of a mystery.
.
As Rupert Sheldrake says:
They govern matter and motion, but they are not themselves material nor do they move. . . . Indeed, even in the absence of God, they still share many of his traditional attributes. They are omnipresent, immutable, universal, and self-subsistent. Nothing can be hidden from them, nor lie beyond their power.
A variation on the theme of nonmaterial laws is that rather than being eternal, new laws come into being as nature evolves and thereafter apply universally.
.
In other words, the creation of the first atom, sun, crystal, protein, etc., involved the spontaneous appearance of the relevant laws and rules.
.
A very different point of view is that the regularities of nature are more like universal habits which have grown up within the evolving universe and that a kind of memory is inherent in nature.
.
According to Sheldrake's hypothesis of formative causation, the physical world is organized and coordinated by morphic fields, which contain a built-in memory, and past patterns of activity influence those in the present by morphic resonance.
.
Sheldrake states that morphic fields are neither a form of matter nor of energy.
.
But it is strange that he rejects the idea that nonmaterial laws could act upon the material world, but then proposes that nonmaterial morphic fields in some way can.
.
If morphic fields are anything, they must surely be a nonphysical, more ethereal form of energy-substance, a possibility which Sheldrake does not altogether rule out.
.
Theosophy, too, dismisses the idea that nonmaterial, free-floating laws, beyond time and space, matter and energy, could not have any influence on the physical world.
.
It would also agree with Sheldrake that the laws of nature are habits, but goes further in saying that these habits are the habits of living entities.
.
As G. de Purucker says: 'This word law is simply an abstraction, an expression for the action of entities in nature'.
.
Within and behind the material world there are worlds or planes composed of finer grades of matter, all inhabited by appropriate entities at varying stages of evolutionary development.
.
The higher entities collectively make up the 'mind' of nature, which works through elemental nature-forces.
.
Strictly speaking, there are no mechanically acting laws of nature, for there are no lawgivers.
.
The spiritual entities on higher planes do not govern the lower worlds -- this is a relic of the theological idea of divine intervention.
.
Just as bodily processes such as digestion, the beating of the heart, respiration, and growth are normally regulated by our automatic will.
.
So the physical world is the body of higher worlds and the regularities of nature are the instinctual effects on this plane of the wills and energies of the entities dwelling on inner planes.
.
Sheldrake writes:
.
In other words, the creation of the first atom, sun, crystal, protein, etc., involved the spontaneous appearance of the relevant laws and rules.
.
A very different point of view is that the regularities of nature are more like universal habits which have grown up within the evolving universe and that a kind of memory is inherent in nature.
.
According to Sheldrake's hypothesis of formative causation, the physical world is organized and coordinated by morphic fields, which contain a built-in memory, and past patterns of activity influence those in the present by morphic resonance.
.
Sheldrake states that morphic fields are neither a form of matter nor of energy.
.
But it is strange that he rejects the idea that nonmaterial laws could act upon the material world, but then proposes that nonmaterial morphic fields in some way can.
.
If morphic fields are anything, they must surely be a nonphysical, more ethereal form of energy-substance, a possibility which Sheldrake does not altogether rule out.
.
Theosophy, too, dismisses the idea that nonmaterial, free-floating laws, beyond time and space, matter and energy, could not have any influence on the physical world.
.
It would also agree with Sheldrake that the laws of nature are habits, but goes further in saying that these habits are the habits of living entities.
.
As G. de Purucker says: 'This word law is simply an abstraction, an expression for the action of entities in nature'.
.
Within and behind the material world there are worlds or planes composed of finer grades of matter, all inhabited by appropriate entities at varying stages of evolutionary development.
.
The higher entities collectively make up the 'mind' of nature, which works through elemental nature-forces.
.
Strictly speaking, there are no mechanically acting laws of nature, for there are no lawgivers.
.
The spiritual entities on higher planes do not govern the lower worlds -- this is a relic of the theological idea of divine intervention.
.
Just as bodily processes such as digestion, the beating of the heart, respiration, and growth are normally regulated by our automatic will.
.
So the physical world is the body of higher worlds and the regularities of nature are the instinctual effects on this plane of the wills and energies of the entities dwelling on inner planes.
.
Sheldrake writes:
The habits of most kinds of physical, chemical, and biological systems have been established for millions, even billions of years. Hence most of the systems that physicists, chemists, and biologists study are running in such deep grooves of habit that they are effectively changeless. The systems behave as if they were governed by eternal laws because the habits are so well established.
This could also apply to the effectively invariable mathematical principles governing the structure of the hierarchies of worlds and planes, visible and invisible, composing universal nature.
.
Ten, for instance, was regarded as the 'perfect number' underlying the structure of the universe by many ancient philosophers, including Pythagoras.
.
A hierarchy of worlds may be said to consist of ten planes or spheres, each divisible into ten subplanes.
.
All these planes interpenetrate, but because they are composed of energy-substances vibrating at different rates, only the lowest, physical plane can be perceived by our physical senses.
.
How have galaxies, stars, planets, and the incredible diversity of life-forms that we find on earth managed to evolve?
.
Sheldrake suggests three different ways of viewing the creativity of nature.
.
It could be ascribed
.
(a) to blind and purposeless chance,
.
(b) to a creative agency pervading and transcending nature,
.
or (c) to a creative impetus immanent in nature.
.
Ten, for instance, was regarded as the 'perfect number' underlying the structure of the universe by many ancient philosophers, including Pythagoras.
.
A hierarchy of worlds may be said to consist of ten planes or spheres, each divisible into ten subplanes.
.
All these planes interpenetrate, but because they are composed of energy-substances vibrating at different rates, only the lowest, physical plane can be perceived by our physical senses.
.
How have galaxies, stars, planets, and the incredible diversity of life-forms that we find on earth managed to evolve?
.
Sheldrake suggests three different ways of viewing the creativity of nature.
.
It could be ascribed
.
(a) to blind and purposeless chance,
.
(b) to a creative agency pervading and transcending nature,
.
or (c) to a creative impetus immanent in nature.
.
He says that a decision between these alternatives can be made only on metaphysical grounds and on the basis of intuition.
.
From a theosophical viewpoint, the first hypothesis is unacceptable since chance does not play any role in nature;
.
Chance is merely a word that conceals our ignorance.
.
As physicist D. Bohm and science writer F.D. Peat remark: 'What is randomness in one context may reveal itself as simple orders of necessity in another broader context'.
.
According to the second hypothesis, creativity descends into the physical world of space and time from a higher, transcendent level that is mindlike.
.
While theosophy accepts that there are superior, causal, mindlike planes behind the physical world, it questions Sheldrake's assumption that such realms would have to be completely changeless and 'beyond time altogether'.
.
All the planes interact and evolve, though the higher planes are relatively more enduring than the lower.
.
The third hypothesis states that creativity
He says that a decision between these alternatives can be made only on metaphysical grounds and on the basis of intuition.
.
From a theosophical viewpoint, the first hypothesis is unacceptable since chance does not play any role in nature;
.
Chance is merely a word that conceals our ignorance.
.
As physicist D. Bohm and science writer F.D. Peat remark: 'What is randomness in one context may reveal itself as simple orders of necessity in another broader context'.
.
According to the second hypothesis, creativity descends into the physical world of space and time from a higher, transcendent level that is mindlike.
.
While theosophy accepts that there are superior, causal, mindlike planes behind the physical world, it questions Sheldrake's assumption that such realms would have to be completely changeless and 'beyond time altogether'.
.
All the planes interact and evolve, though the higher planes are relatively more enduring than the lower.
.
The third hypothesis states that creativity
depends on chance, conflict, and necessity . . . [I]t is rooted in the ongoing processes of nature. But at the same time it occurs within the framework of higher systems of order. For example, new species arise within ecosystems; new ecosystems within Gaia; Gaia within the solar system; the solar system within the galaxy; the galaxy within the growing cosmos.
Again, while blind chance has no part to play in the theosophic scheme, creativity is rooted in the processes of nature, and is closely associated with 'higher systems of order', which would include higher planes and subplanes.
.
In fact, the creative agency -- or rather agencies -- referred to in hypothesis
.
(b) dwell in these higher spheres and are the source of the creative impetus referred to in hypothesis (c).
.
Sheldrake does not recognize the existence of superior, causal worlds, though he does recognize the existence of a nonmaterial realm of morphic fields of various types.
.
But what exactly is the relationship between this realm and the physical world?
.
A new morphic field is said to come into being with the first appearance of a new system, whether it be a molecule, galaxy, crystal, or plant.
.
These new patterns of organization arise through a spontaneous, creative jump and thereafter guide the development of subsequent similar systems and become increasingly habitual through repetition.
.
However,
.
In fact, the creative agency -- or rather agencies -- referred to in hypothesis
.
(b) dwell in these higher spheres and are the source of the creative impetus referred to in hypothesis (c).
.
Sheldrake does not recognize the existence of superior, causal worlds, though he does recognize the existence of a nonmaterial realm of morphic fields of various types.
.
But what exactly is the relationship between this realm and the physical world?
.
A new morphic field is said to come into being with the first appearance of a new system, whether it be a molecule, galaxy, crystal, or plant.
.
These new patterns of organization arise through a spontaneous, creative jump and thereafter guide the development of subsequent similar systems and become increasingly habitual through repetition.
.
However,
at every level of organization, new morphic fields may arise within and from higher-level fields. Creativity occurs not just upward from the bottom, with new forms arising from less complex systems by spontaneous jumps; it also proceeds downward from the top, through the creative activity of higher-level fields.
Sheldrake suggests that all morphic fields may ultimately be derived from the primal field of the universe, and considers the possibility that this universal field could be connected with previous universes.
.
Fields play a fundamental role in modern science: matter is said to consist of energy organized by fields. '
.
Fields,' says Sheldrake, 'have replaced souls as invisible organizing principles'.
.
He even goes so far as to liken the universal field of gravity to the Neoplatonic conception of the world soul.
.
Although clearly an exaggeration, since the world soul is something far higher and more spiritual than the fields known to physics, the behavioral and mental morphic fields postulated by Sheldrake may be regarded as higher-level fields and bear some resemblance to what in theosophic thought are called the animal soul and human soul.
.
Virtually all religious and mystical traditions teach that our physical body is merely the lowest level of our constitution, and that there is a higher part of us that survives physical death.
.
Although Sheldrake does not explicitly consider the possibility of survival and reincarnation, there is nothing in his theory that rules them out.
.
Interestingly, he argues that morphic fields never completely vanish when the species or entity they organize dies:
.
Fields play a fundamental role in modern science: matter is said to consist of energy organized by fields. '
.
Fields,' says Sheldrake, 'have replaced souls as invisible organizing principles'.
.
He even goes so far as to liken the universal field of gravity to the Neoplatonic conception of the world soul.
.
Although clearly an exaggeration, since the world soul is something far higher and more spiritual than the fields known to physics, the behavioral and mental morphic fields postulated by Sheldrake may be regarded as higher-level fields and bear some resemblance to what in theosophic thought are called the animal soul and human soul.
.
Virtually all religious and mystical traditions teach that our physical body is merely the lowest level of our constitution, and that there is a higher part of us that survives physical death.
.
Although Sheldrake does not explicitly consider the possibility of survival and reincarnation, there is nothing in his theory that rules them out.
.
Interestingly, he argues that morphic fields never completely vanish when the species or entity they organize dies:
When any particular organized system ceases to exist, as when an atom splits, a snowflake melts, an animal dies, its organizing field disappears from that place. But in another sense, morphic fields do not disappear: they are potential organizing patterns of influence, and can appear again physically in other times and places, wherever and whenever the physical conditions are appropriate. When they do so they contain within themselves a memory of their previous physical existences.
This would explain how the characteristics of ancestral species, even those extinct for millions of years, can suddenly reappear.
.
A phenomenon known as reversion, atavism, or throwing back.
.
There are also many examples from the fossil record that suggest that particular evolutionary pathways are repeated:
.
Organisms with features almost identical to previous species appear again and again.
.
Taking this idea a step further, is it not conceivable that the same individualized higher-level 'fields' could manifest repeatedly in physical form and provide a thread of continuity between one life or embodiment and the next?
.
Theosophy proposes that all entities -- atoms, animals, humans, planets, suns, and universes -- reembody, i.e., pass through cyclic periods of activity and rest, manifestation and dissolution.
.
They are all informed by spiritual monads which use the different forms offered by the various kingdoms of nature to gain evolutionary experience.
.
Evolution is without conceivable beginning and without conceivable end.
.
Everything exists because it has existed before, and no development or achievement is ever lost but remains imprinted on the astral light or âkâsha, which acts as a sort of memory of nature.
.
As H.P. Blavatsky puts it: 'the spiritual prototypes of all things exist in the immaterial world before those things become materialised on Earth.'
.
A phenomenon known as reversion, atavism, or throwing back.
.
There are also many examples from the fossil record that suggest that particular evolutionary pathways are repeated:
.
Organisms with features almost identical to previous species appear again and again.
.
Taking this idea a step further, is it not conceivable that the same individualized higher-level 'fields' could manifest repeatedly in physical form and provide a thread of continuity between one life or embodiment and the next?
.
Theosophy proposes that all entities -- atoms, animals, humans, planets, suns, and universes -- reembody, i.e., pass through cyclic periods of activity and rest, manifestation and dissolution.
.
They are all informed by spiritual monads which use the different forms offered by the various kingdoms of nature to gain evolutionary experience.
.
Evolution is without conceivable beginning and without conceivable end.
.
Everything exists because it has existed before, and no development or achievement is ever lost but remains imprinted on the astral light or âkâsha, which acts as a sort of memory of nature.
.
As H.P. Blavatsky puts it: 'the spiritual prototypes of all things exist in the immaterial world before those things become materialised on Earth.'
Everything that is, was, and will be, eternally IS, even the countless forms, which are finite and perishable only in their objective, not in their ideal Form. They existed as Ideas, in the Eternity, and, when they pass away, will exist as reflections. Neither the form of man, nor that of any animal, plant or stone has ever been created, and it is only on this plane of ours that it commenced 'becoming,' i.e., objectivising into its present materiality, or expanding from within outwards, from the most sublimated and supersensuous essence into its grossest appearance. Therefore our human forms have existed in the Eternity as astral or ethereal prototypes .
In other words, when the cycle of evolution on a particular planet comes to an end, all evolutionary forms and pathways remain imprinted as 'reflections' on the higher planes.
.
When the next period of activity dawns, these memories or seeds of life will be reawakened and reactivated, and provide the prototypes and blueprint for the new cycle of evolution.
.
All things are therefore constantly building on the achievements of the past; we follow in the footsteps of what has gone before.
.
There was never a time when nothing was.
.
Our brain-minds tend to find this idea rather daunting and prefer to impose at least an absolute beginning before which nothing existed and at which moment the universe came into being out of nothing.
.
But the idea of something being created out of literal nothingness is an illogical fantasy:
.
The Occult teaching says, "Nothing is created, but is only transformed.
.
Nothing can manifest itself in this universe -- from a globe down to a vague, rapid thought -- that was not in the universe already .
.
However, the existence of evolutionary plans and prototypes by no means implies that everything is rigidly predetermined, for although the higher levels of reality help to coordinate the lower, the lower levels retain a degree of autonomy and creative freedom, and the plan itself is modified by each cycle of evolution.
.
On the subject of God, Sheldrake writes:
.
When the next period of activity dawns, these memories or seeds of life will be reawakened and reactivated, and provide the prototypes and blueprint for the new cycle of evolution.
.
All things are therefore constantly building on the achievements of the past; we follow in the footsteps of what has gone before.
.
There was never a time when nothing was.
.
Our brain-minds tend to find this idea rather daunting and prefer to impose at least an absolute beginning before which nothing existed and at which moment the universe came into being out of nothing.
.
But the idea of something being created out of literal nothingness is an illogical fantasy:
.
The Occult teaching says, "Nothing is created, but is only transformed.
.
Nothing can manifest itself in this universe -- from a globe down to a vague, rapid thought -- that was not in the universe already .
.
However, the existence of evolutionary plans and prototypes by no means implies that everything is rigidly predetermined, for although the higher levels of reality help to coordinate the lower, the lower levels retain a degree of autonomy and creative freedom, and the plan itself is modified by each cycle of evolution.
.
On the subject of God, Sheldrake writes:
a view of nature without God must include a creative unitary principle that includes the entire cosmos and unites the polarities and dualities found throughout the natural realm. But this is not far removed from views of nature with God.
He points out that instead of the theistic notion that God is remote and separate from nature, God could also be considered as immanent in nature, and yet at the same time as the unity that transcends nature.
.
He quotes fifteenth-century mystic Nicholas of Cusa: 'Divinity is the enfolding and unfolding of everything that is.
.
Divinity is in all things in such a way that all things are in divinity.'
.
St. Paul put forward a similar pantheistic idea, saying that Deity is that in which 'we live, and move, and have our being' (Acts 17:28).
.
The divine can certainly not be anything less than our grandest conception, and must therefore be infinitude itself.
.
But if divinity is infinite, it cannot be outside nature, for otherwise there would be no room left for the universe!
.
Divinity is the universe -- not just the physical universe but all the endless hierarchies of worlds and planes which infill and in fact compose the boundless All.
.
Divinity is therefore immanent, omnipresent, and the root of all things.
.
Since it is greater than any of its individual expressions, it may also be regarded as transcendent.
.
Theosophy is therefore pantheistic in that it recognizes a universal life infilling and inspiriting everything without exception, containing everything, contained in all.
.
Sheldrake calls this panentheism, since he defines pantheism as the view that divinity is immanent in all things, but not transcendent.
.
But this is a rather arbitrary definition.
.
Infinitude is composed of an infinite number of world-systems, and within any particular hierarchy of worlds all the entities that have passed beyond the human stage may be termed spiritual beings or gods, meaning beings who are relatively perfected in relation to ourselves.
.
And the aggregate of the most advanced beings in any system of worlds may be regarded as divinity for that hierarchy.
.
But this is not God in the traditional sense, for there is no god so high that there is none higher.
.
Everything in our hierarchy of worlds derives from the same divine source and is destined in the fullness of time to return to it, there to rest for untold aeons before issuing forth again on an evolutionary pilgrimage as part of even higher worlds.
.
Evolution is a fundamental habit of nature and proceeds in cyclic periods of activity and rest, in a never-ending, ever-ascending spiral of progress in which there are always new and vaster fields of experience in which to become selfconscious masters of life.
.
David Pratt
.
The above was taken from DP's comments on Sheldrake's ideas about how it is.
.
He quotes fifteenth-century mystic Nicholas of Cusa: 'Divinity is the enfolding and unfolding of everything that is.
.
Divinity is in all things in such a way that all things are in divinity.'
.
St. Paul put forward a similar pantheistic idea, saying that Deity is that in which 'we live, and move, and have our being' (Acts 17:28).
.
The divine can certainly not be anything less than our grandest conception, and must therefore be infinitude itself.
.
But if divinity is infinite, it cannot be outside nature, for otherwise there would be no room left for the universe!
.
Divinity is the universe -- not just the physical universe but all the endless hierarchies of worlds and planes which infill and in fact compose the boundless All.
.
Divinity is therefore immanent, omnipresent, and the root of all things.
.
Since it is greater than any of its individual expressions, it may also be regarded as transcendent.
.
Theosophy is therefore pantheistic in that it recognizes a universal life infilling and inspiriting everything without exception, containing everything, contained in all.
.
Sheldrake calls this panentheism, since he defines pantheism as the view that divinity is immanent in all things, but not transcendent.
.
But this is a rather arbitrary definition.
.
Infinitude is composed of an infinite number of world-systems, and within any particular hierarchy of worlds all the entities that have passed beyond the human stage may be termed spiritual beings or gods, meaning beings who are relatively perfected in relation to ourselves.
.
And the aggregate of the most advanced beings in any system of worlds may be regarded as divinity for that hierarchy.
.
But this is not God in the traditional sense, for there is no god so high that there is none higher.
.
Everything in our hierarchy of worlds derives from the same divine source and is destined in the fullness of time to return to it, there to rest for untold aeons before issuing forth again on an evolutionary pilgrimage as part of even higher worlds.
.
Evolution is a fundamental habit of nature and proceeds in cyclic periods of activity and rest, in a never-ending, ever-ascending spiral of progress in which there are always new and vaster fields of experience in which to become selfconscious masters of life.
.
David Pratt
.
The above was taken from DP's comments on Sheldrake's ideas about how it is.
No comments:
Post a Comment