Emptiness and Illusion - Two Truths - Heart Sutra - Ultimate Reality

Sanskrit manuscript of the Heart Sūtra,
written in the Siddhaṃ script.
Bibliothèque nationale de France

Mind/Body Dualism

This little essay started as a discussion of mind/body dualism with a friend. Out discussion then proceeded with a comparison of materialism and idealism. Then my friend made the following point, after I brought up the illusory nature of reality, 

"If you feel that physical reality is an illusion, kick a rock as one materialist has argued. That is unless you think the pain you feel is an illusion. That takes an awful lot of denial."

Illusory Nature of Reality

In my opinion, the concept of "illusion" is not well understood in this example. My understanding is that idealism does not deny perceived reality, it simply states that our sensory inputs are quite different from the realization of an objective reality existing outside of our mind. Of course, when we kick a rock we feel pain; idealism does not deny our pain (or any other perceived or imagined sensory phenomena). 

Physics Declares No Solid Objects Exist

Physics explains that when we kick a rock we feel pain because of the strong electron-electron repulsion force between the rock and our toe. Physics tells us that the rock and our toe (or any perceived "solid" object) are really just clouds of invisible particles held together by powerful electrical forces and that solid objects are mostly empty space. Therefore physics declares that there exists no such thing as a solid object despite our painful toe. The illusion is the apparent perceived solidity of objects. 

With that said, we don't go around saying, "Ouch! The volume of mostly empty space that I perceive as my body just experienced a strong electron-electron repulsion force with the volume of mostly empty space that I perceive as a rock." Practically speaking, we just say "F**k, I just stubbed my toe on a rock!" 

What is an electron really? Have you ever seen an electron? If you have not perceived an electron directly using your senses, does it exist outside of your mind? 

Do We Live in a Dream?

We perceive apparently external objects and have strong feelings in our dreams, but the objects in our dreams are not objectively real; they do not exist outside of our mind. This is why the illusory nature of reality is often likened to a dream.

Phantom pain is pain that feels like it's coming from a body part that's no longer there. Synesthetes can often “see” music as colors when they hear it, and “taste” textures like “round” or “pointy” when they eat food. The rock that we kicked that caused us pain is mostly empty space. The examples of the illusory nature of the reality perceived by our senses are endless. 

We only see 0.0035 percent of the Electromagnetic Truth

As humans we are in many ways limited by what our senses can directly tell us about the universe, that's why scientists invent instrumentation that extends our senses. The entire rainbow of radiation observable to the human eye only makes up a tiny portion of the electromagnetic spectrum – about 0.0035 percent. We are in this way misled by our visual sense. We feel that what we see is "real" and existing outside of ourselves, however even if you trusted your eyes 100% this is only 0.0035 percent of the electromagnetic truth.

Expansive knowledge of the universe has been gathered with the invention of powerful instruments used to explore the microcosm and macrocosm. It is the mind that developed and tested the theories upon which these tools were created. It is the mind that engineered and developed these tools. It is the mind that gathered the data from these tools which then found patterns in the data and developed new theories, more sensitive tools, etc., etc.

Flying on Instrument Readings

Pilots are taught to fly by their instruments and trust the data from their instruments and not their own senses. I underwent some pilot training in the Air Force Academy and experienced first hand how our senses can be easily fooled. For example, lots of disorienting fun can be had by spinning in a chair LOL. In aviation, a graveyard spiral is a type of dangerous spiral dive entered into accidentally by a pilot who is not trained or not proficient in instrument flight when flying in instrument meteorological conditions. 

Our survival in this highly technological world is dependent upon our ability to cognize data delivered to us by instrumentation and not by our unaided senses. This is another way to understand the illusory nature of perceived reality. Of course, we must perceive the instrument readings through our senses, however it is the mind that must intervene and draw conclusions from the instrument data in order to decide how best to act.

Science is flying on instrumentation. The enormous amounts of instrument data analyzed on a daily basis by human minds is unimaginable. This instrument data has extended the human neurological system far beyond what can be perceived. Our best knowledge and understanding of conventional truth are conceptual models derived empirically and mathematically by the mind. The mind has elevated our understanding of phenomena and describes with greater and greater accuracy conventional truth. 

Two Truths - Conventional and Ultimate

The ever-evolving mind in this way has developed conceptual models of conventional reality far beyond what we can directly perceive. However, I believe that ultimate truth is beyond what even the mind can understand. 

The Yogacara school of Mahayana Buddhism investigates the workings of the mind, stating that only the mind or the representations we cognize, really exist. In later Buddhist Mahayana thought, which took an idealistic turn, the unmodified mind came to be seen as a pure consciousness, from which everything arises. This is what makes sense to me. 

Pure Consciousness

My friend often talks about what he calls, "Pure Consciousness," but I'm not certain if his meaning is the same as the Mahayana teaching. 

The Heart Sutra

The famous statement from the Heart Sutra, "Form is emptiness, emptiness is form," is also relevant. The Heart Sutra is a condensed exposé on the Buddhist Mahayana teaching of the Two Truths doctrine (conventional and ultimate truth). The Two Truths doctrine says that ultimately all phenomena are empty of an unchanging essence. This emptiness is a 'characteristic' of all phenomena, and not a transcendent reality, but also "empty" of an essence of its own. 

In the Heart Sutra, Avalokiteśvara (the Buddhist deity of compassion) explains the fundamental emptiness of all phenomena, known as the five aggregates of human existence: form, feeling, volitions, perceptions, and consciousness. This is interpreted according to the Two Truths doctrine as saying that teachings, while accurate descriptions of conventional truth, are mere statements about reality—they are not reality itself—and that they are therefore not applicable to the ultimate truth that is by definition beyond mental understanding.

Perfection of Wisdom Mantra

The Heart Sutra, Perfection of Wisdom mantra in Sanskrit is: 

gate gate pāragate pārasaṃgate bodhi svāhā

meaning

"gone, gone, gone beyond, gone completely beyond, awaken, rejoice"

A Question Of Ego: Who Am I If Not Ego?

If the Ego's greatest act of deception is to get oneself to believe that the Ego is who we are, then who are we?

Stated another way:

If I am not who I think I am, then who am I?

Good question. It is a matter of perspective. Ego is the mistaken perspective that we are an independently existing, singular self. We actually are a collection of experiences loosely tied together. All these experiences depend on a large number of causes and conditions. In truth, the ego is an illusion; there is no singular, separately existing, independent self.

Following is an image of the Buddhist deity Manjushri. Manjushri has the ability to see the nature of reality as it is. Manjushri is seen holding the flaming sword of Discriminating Wisdom with his right hand and a book called Prajñāpāramitā with his left hand. Prajñāpāramitā in Buddhism, means "the Perfection of (Transcendent) Wisdom." The word Prajñāpāramitā combines the Sanskrit words prajñā ("wisdom") with pāramitā ("perfection"). The Prajñāpāramitā sūtras suggest that all things including oneself, appear as thoughtforms (conceptual constructs).

Our stream of consciousness is composed of five senses, feelings/emotions, and higher intellect/reasoning. What we perceive becomes the reality of ego and ego is at the center of all this experience. One moment we are focused on listening to music, the next moment we feel a chill, the next moment is lost in a memory, the next moment the cat catches our eye, etc. From this stream of discontinuous experiences that involve various different perceptions and mental events we deduce that an ego or self exists. We feel that a separately existing self resides at the center of these perceptual/mental events. 

We experience the illusion of "self-awareness" in the midst of a seemingly objectively existing external world. We feel as if we are separate from others and an entire universe of separately existing objects, as small as atoms and as large as galaxies. The truth is that all things are temporary and inter-dependently existing. No-thing exists separate from any other thing. There is no external, objective reality. There are no separate, independently existing "selves" at all. There are no separately existing things at all. 

CAUTION: this is not the same as nihilism. This is not a negation of existence. This is a reinterpretation of our knowledge gained through experience. We are simply arriving at a greater truth derived from higher order reasoning. 

The truth is that existence is a collection of experiences tied loosely together. Reality is consciousness only. The mystery of the nature of human consciousness is revealed through meditation on the temporary nature of all things and the truth of selflessness. The Buddhists call this sunyata or emptiness. That is, experience is in actuality empty of separate, independently existing things and consciousness is empty of a self. 

No self is required to explain phenomena. Occam's Razor states that among competing hypotheses, the hypothesis with the fewest assumptions should be selected. The assumption of the existence of a self is unnecessary and should be discarded due to succinct reasoning.

We go through life in a fairly successful manner and make okay decisions even while under the false assumption based on the existence of an ego. We go through challenges, illness, periods of doubt, depression, pain and even mental anguish. Eventually we get to the end of our life and wonder what it was all about. Of course, waiting until we die to face the meaning of life is not the best strategy. Having to face death while clinging to an ego results in fear and mental anguish is not a good way to go.

If we are blessed with curiosity, a sense of wonder, or a sharp intellect, then we may explore alternative explanations for life's experiences even before we are faced with illness, pain and death. During moments of introspection and philosophical query we question the nature of what we are. The person seeking answers to life's mysteries may find that we exist on a wholly different level of reality than what is commonly held as actual reality.

To seek truth and meaning while facing the challenges of mundane existence is a spiritual warrior's path. It is a very difficult path, but it ultimately yields the greatest rewards. The spiritual warrior focuses the mind inward and sharpens their mental focus and inner calm. The spiritual warrior wields the flaming sword of Discriminating Wisdom to cut down falsely held beliefs, dispel the illusion of ego and clear a path to greater happiness and peace of mind.

Trinity: Dividing the Universe into Three

How do trinities work? This is a very deep question with answers on many levels. The levels exist in many domains of human experience and knowledge. It would take a lot of words to answer this properly.

The mind naturally divides the universe into three parts:

1. The subject or thought that our mind is considering in the moment, which is actually a set or collection of things.
2. Everything that we think is included inside this thought, or within this consideration set.
3. Everything that is excluded from our current thought, or outside the consideration set.

Because of this mental process our mind creates trinities. Every time we think about something we divide the universe into three parts. When we later recall our thinking process, we tend to generalize and think about the big picture which is the trinity of the situation. We think about the 'system' that our mind created when we thought about that particular consideration set. We look at the way we divided the universe with our thought. This is mostly not a conscious phenomena, but it is operational nonetheless.

One of the most powerful examples of how this innate dividing of the universe into three parts is Earth, Heaven and Hell. Primitive Human experience thought of their world as a flat plane that extended infinitely in all directions. Naturally this divides the universe into three parts: The Earth on which lives Humans and all creatures, Hell below and Heaven above.

Primitive Humans knew about the Earth on which they stood. They thought about their Earth intently and with great curiosity because their survival depended upon this knowledge. However, when they had time to think about the 'big' picture, they considered how the the universe must be divided into three distinct regions: Earth, Heaven and Hell. They imagined that beings must exist above and beneath the Earthly plane. They placed themselves in the 'big' picture and thought of a cycle of existence that must include the possibility of traveling to these other planes of existence, etc.

There are so many trinities that Humans throughout history have created that it is impossible to catalog them all. Searching the Internet for 'three' yields some interesting results. There is a very interesting website written by Michael Eck who has devoted his life to cataloging threes, see www.three.com and The Book of Threes.

From Wikipedia (and other sources) some interesting facts about three.

In Mathematics:

• Three of the five regular polyhedra have triangular faces — the tetrahedron, the octahedron, and the icosahedron. Also, three of the five regular polyhedra have vertices where three faces meet — the tetrahedron, the hexahedron (cube), and the dodecahedron. Furthermore, only three different types of polygons comprise the faces of the five regular polyhedra — the triangle, the quadrilateral, and the pentagon.

In Nature:

• A human ear has three semicircular canals.
• Humans perceive white light as the mixture of the three additive primary hues: red, green, and blue.
• Genetic information is encoded in DNA and RNA using a triplet codon system.
• Atoms consist of three constituents: protons, neutrons, and electrons.
• We perceive our universe to have three spatial dimensions.

In Religion:

• The Christian Holy Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
• The Hindu Trimurti: Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Shiva the Destroyer.
• In Hinduism the three Gunas underlie action, in the Vedic system of knowledge.
• The Hindu Tridevi.
• The Three Jewels of Buddhism.
• The Three Pure Ones of Taoism.
• In Kaballah the trinity is God, Torah and Israel.
• The three Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
• The Jewish Bible, the Tanakh has 3 sections: Torah, Nevi'im, and Ketuvim.
• There are three main divisions of Jews: Kohen, Levi, and Israel (Israelite).
• According to the prophet Muhammad, there are three holy cities of Islam (to which pilgrimage should be made): Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem.
• The Wiccan Rule of Three.
• The Triple Goddess: Maiden, Mother, Crone; the three fates.
• Gurdjieff's Three Centers and the Law of Three.
• The three Doshas (weaknesses) and their antidotes are the basis of Ayurvedic medicine in India.
• Hegel's dialectic of Thesis + Antithesis = Synthesis creates three-ness from two-ness.
• Saccidānanda, Satchidananda, or Sat-cit-ānanda is a compound of three Sanskrit words, Sat, Cit, and Ānanda, meaning truth, consciousness, and bliss respectively. The expression comes from Hinduism and is used in yoga and other schools of Indian philosophy to describe the nature of Brahman as experienced by a fully liberated yogi or saint.

It is no surprise that most of the major religions have a highly significant trinity in their teachings. What I find curious is that perhaps the most significant trinity of Human existence: Father - Mother - Child is not represented. The Christian Holy Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Ghost comes close. Do you think that the Holy Ghost is a substitute for Mother? Some reports state that the Blessed Virgin Mary is venerated more than Jesus Christ as a Christian Deity.

An interesting web page The Christian Goddess talks about this issue. See http://www.northernway.org/goddess.html  (My highlight below).

Many theologians and scholars believe the Holy Spirit written as, Pneuma in Greek every time it appears in the New Testament, is a feminine being.  Note that Pneuma is a neuter word in Greek, but in Hebrew the word Ruah (Spirit) and in Aramaic the word Shekinah (Presence) are feminine words and imply a feminine divine presence.  The Holy Spirit is possibly a Christian Goddess, not a mysterious invisible member of an all-male Trinity "club."

Plato also conceived of a triad consisting of Beauty, Symmetry and Truth. Bucky Fuller talks about this in Synergetics.

Fig. 542.02 Tetrahedral Analysis of Plato's Triad: The triadic concept of Beauty,Symmetry, and Truth inadvenently omitted the function of the observer. The tetrahedron is the unique symmetrical set of minimum interrelationships.

Copyright © 1997 Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller

Talisman: Head - Heart - Ground

I would like to share with you a talisman that I created (see photo below). It is made of three large glass beads, stainless steel wire, and leather. The talisman empowers the actions of the wearer by connecting our Head, Heart and the Ground of reality. 

• The top Head bead symbolizes intelligence, reasoning, logic, skill and knowledge.
• The middle Heart bead symbolizes wisdom, openess, compassion and loving kindness. 
• The bottom Ground Of Reality bead symbolizes truth, faith, hope, realization of the union of life and death, the understanding of the interdependence of all things, and insight that all time (past and future) and all space exist in the here-and-now.

The connection between Head, Heart and Ground is what the power of the necklace is all about. Living our life with our Head and Heart working against each other is disastrous. 

• Many times our Head wins and the Heart loses out. We experience success, but we feel empty inside.
• Sometimes the Heart wins out over the Head. This leads to impulsive acts that do not make sense in the big picture.
• When we lose connection with the Ground Of Reality then we wander without direction and purpose. 

However, when all 3 are connected and working together then we act with generosity, discipline, patience, energy, clarity, and wisdom. Our life has purpose, meaning and direction and we positively affect everyone around us.

Synergetics Geometry Studio

MISSION STATEMENT 
A STUDIO where positive IN-tention and pure, unstained action of body, speech and mind, occurs spontaneously IN the moment, aligning effortlessly with the natural rhythmic cycling of the IN-wardly spiraling, self-IN-terfering, associative material energies, and the OUT-wardly spiraling, radially expanding, dis-associative, light energies, provided by Earth, Sun, Moon, planets, stars and galaxies, IN harmony with the most subtle vibrations of cosmic consciousness, universal law, truth, beauty, symmetry and awareness of the IN-terconnectedness of self and all other beings.

A STUDIO where such positively intended vectors of body, speech and mind, forming a minimum, triangular, right-hand spiral unite with a minimum, triangular left-hand spiral comprised of the vectors of truth, beauty and symmetry to form a Synergetic abstract tetrahedral minimum system, which being the IN-tuitive, IN-tellectual heart of the STUDIO, divides the entire universe at this locus into three consideration sets:

1. The micro-cosmic volume of un-manifest no-thing-ness and all beings taking refuge IN-side the STUDIO
2. An integrated, holistic, creative-living system comprised of structural, architectural, mechanical and elemental valving sub-systems of the STUDIO itself
3. The macro-cosmic other-ness of all energies and beings, both positive and negative, OUT-side the STUDIO.

A STUDIO where the micro-cosmic volume of un-manifest no-thing-ness IN-side the STUDIO resonates with the positively IN-tended right-hand spiraling vectors of body, speech and mind of the beings IN-habiting the STUDIO, resulting in un-IN-hibited and IN-spired re-structuring of material and energetic natural resources with-IN the STUDIO, thus re-forming the resources IN-to ART-SCIENCE-TECHNOLOGY physical artifacts that re-flect the left-hand spiraling vectors of truth, beauty and symmetry, which ultimately re-IN-forces the abstract tetrahedral minimum system at the heart of the STUDIO.

A STUDIO where such positively IN-tended right-hand spiraling vectors of body, speech and mind of the beings STUDIO IN-habitants spontaneously, and safely IN-teract with material and energetic natural resources with-IN the STUDIO to creatively form spiral-orbital re-structurings of these resources, thereby un-knotting the self-IN-terfering, associative physical structures of the material resources through the controlled application of sacred spiral radiating, dis-associative energies, ultimately forming artifacts that re-flect truth, beauty and symmetry which may then be propagated and distributed OUT-side the STUDIO to benefit unlimited numbers of beings.

A STUDIO where the creative activities of STUDIO IN-habitants are supported by the structural, architectural, mechanical and elemental valving sub-systems of the STUDIO, which itself is an IN-spired artifact (tool for creative living), IN harmony with IN-habitants' physical and meta-physical requirements, thereby forming a REFUGE that both protects and nurtures while simultaneously enabling the safe and un-IN-hibited manipulation of material and energetic resources for the purpose of positively IN-tended artifact development.

A STUDIO where the macro-cosmic other-ness of all energies and beings, both positive and negative, OUT-side the STUDIO are brought IN-to the compassionate awareness and creative consideration of STUDIO IN-habitants, and because the STUDIO IN-habitants' physical and meta-physical positive growth requirements are met elegantly and efficiently IN harmony with the planet's regenerative systems, the STUDIO IN-habitants spontaneously, with wisdom, IN-telligence and skillful means, safely leverage the un-bounded, IN-spiraling associative and OUT-spiralling dis-associative cosmic energies, carefully applied to physical and energetic resources, empowered by the structural, architectural, mechanical and elemental valving sub-systems of the STUDIO, to form ART-SCIENCE-TECHNOLOGY physical artifacts to be distributed to beings OUT-side the STUDIO, in a manner which reflects the axioms of truth, beauty and symmetry at the abstract of heart of the STUDIO, forming a sacred bond of realized IN-terconnectedness with those beings receiving the artifacts OUT-side the STUDIO, ultimately expanding the STUDIO's positive vibrations at the most subtle level of cosmic consciousness, following planetary lines of energy, causing sympathetic vibrational modes in all planetary GREAT CIRCLE wave lines, thereby healing planetary dis-harmony, resulting in planet-wide peace and happiness.

30 Transcendent Virtues
by Tom Greenbaum

Glass Art Meditation

● Happily there are times when creative visualization, followed by creative action, brings forth into physical reality an artifact which exceeds the inspiring concept. I am fortunate to experience this joy in multiple fields of endeavor.

Several of my designs in the fields of architecture, computer science and digital art have risen to this level. However, I anticipate my greatest joy will be in the creation of kiln formed glass objects. I say this because my recent creation, ‘Thirty Transcendent Virtues’ has been most rewarding.

I met the great architect and inventor R. Buckminster Fuller while studying architecture in college. Bucky inspired me to explore spherical geometries.

Creating a single golden rhombus in fused glass is virtuous. But successfully joining thirty glass rhombus in a spherical rhombic triacontahedron is transcendent. The individual glass facets join together with an embedded copper wire network to form a unique glass vessel that encompasses space, color, light, movement, texture, transparency, reflection, and radiance in a whole greater than its parts.

Meditation upon this glass art object enables self to witness symmetry, beauty and truth beyond self. Please visit the Karmatetra myglassart Gallery

A Song By Gampopa

I offer you the following song by the Tibetan Buddhist saint Gampopa. Gampopa lived in Tibet from 1079-1153. Gampopa founded the monastic tradition of the Kagyupa, which is the lineage of my teacher. My teacher, the venerable Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche, has written a book on the teachings of Gampopa called Instructions of Gampopa. He is the abbot of Karma Triyana Dharmachakra Buddhist monastery in Woodstock, NY.

Gampopa sang:

I sing a song from the dharmadhatu of great bliss.
I speak these words in the state of wisdom,
Thus resolving the truth of nonduality.

This compassion that is free from attachment and that benefits others --
Seize firmly as supreme upaya.

This coemergent consciousness --
Seize firmly as wisdom.
When uncertainty arises, that is it.

These discursive thoughts of fixation --
Seize firmly as dharmakaya.
When one experiences this, the essence is seen.

Sights and sounds, the habitual patterns of labeling --
Seize firmly as ultimate truth.
When uncertainty arises, that is it.

These discursive thoughts are the birth of fixation.
When one has mastered this, the truth is seen.

If one desires to realize the truth of this,
Practice continuously, like a river.
Rest loosely, without further fabrications.
Rest naturally without seeking further.
Rest easily without thinking.

Experience and realization are one.
When realization is uninterrupted, that is it.
When it is as limitless as space, that is it.
When one sees one's mind as Buddha, that is it.

Now, I may have realized the true dharmata.
Fixation may have been self-liberated.
Without thinking, I may have spontaneously achieved realization.

This is not ordinary, and is not for the ordinary.
This cannot be understood by great learning.
This cannot be known by great knowledge.
This is not for the labeling of discursive thought.

I remain on the path of blessings.
I attend to the words of the guru.
It is the faithful who achieve realization.
Is your realization like this, all you great meditators?
This should not be told to everyone.

You might find the following definitions helpful when reading the poem:

• Dharmadhatu - "realm of dharma", the true nature that permeates and encompasses phenomena. As a space or realm, then, the realm of dharmas is the uncaused and immutable totality in which all phenomena arise, dwell, and pass away.
• Dharmakaya = "body of the great order", the true nature of the Buddha, which is identical with transcendental reality, the essence of the universe. The dharmakaya is the unity of the Buddha with everything existing.
• Dharmata = "nature of the dharmas", the essence that is the basis of everything. Synonymous with Buddha-nature. Dharma = the cosmic law, the great "norm," underlying our world; above all, the law of karmically determined birth.
• Upaya = "skillful means or methods", upaya is the activity of the absolute in the phenomenal world, which manifests as compassion. From the standpoint of enlightened understanding, individual beings are not perceived as suffering, since nothing exists other than the dharmakaya, the absolute. However, when regarding the universe from the point of view of compassion, enlightened beings recognize suffering, which arises from attachment to forms, everywhere. In order to liberate beings from their suffering-ridden state, enlightened beings (boddhisattvas) devise all possible means (upaya) helpful toward the attainment of nirvana. These are supported by the limitless compassion of the dharmakaya.

First Karmatetra Blog

Don't you think that Karmatera has a nice rhythm to it? The Karmatetra blog is my place on the web, in which I can expouse my unrestrained, pseudo-scientific, philosophical babble.

Karmatetra is my invention; a joining of Karma from Sanskrit meaning "deed" and tetra from Latin meaning "four". I thought it would be interesting to create a name from both eastern and western roots. This reflects my own desire to form a synthesis, within myself, of the best of both eastern and western traditions.

So, Karmatetra means "four deeds". I try to remember to do these four things every day:

• Be Generous
• Be Compassionate
• Be Patient
• Be Intelligent

Tetra also represents the tetrahedron. I would like to reference R. Buckminster Fuller's "Synergetics" Figure 542.02 - Tetrahedral Analysis of Plato's Triad. Bucky added SELF to Plato's triad of TRUTH, BEAUTY and SYMMETRY. The triad is flat, planar and therefore, non-existent in the 3-dimensional universe. Adding SELF creates a tetrahedron which is in Bucky's words the, "unique symmetrical set of minimum interrelationships". It is the the primary system of intellect; SELF witnessing the universe of TRUTH, BEAUTY and SYMMETRY. It is the observer-plus-the-observed.

Credits:
I owe a lot of my inspiration to R. Buckminster Fuller and his many incredible writings. To really understand the universe, you should read Synergetics, Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking and Synergetics 2 now fully integrated into one volume online by Robert W. Gray.

If you get a chance please visit the full, unabashed Karmatetra website.