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.

The Activity Of Meditation

I would like to explore the idea of stillness during meditation. I believe that many people who do not meditate mistakenly think that meditation is all about being very still. However, stillness is not what I achieve when I meditate. In my experience, meditation is filled with activity and creativity. Allow me to explain what happens when I meditate.
One of the first books that I read on the practice of meditation by a highly realized Tibetan Buddhist teacher is Meditation In Action, by Chogyam Trungpa. The title itself says a lot about what the book reveals. I mention it here because of our ongoing discussion of meditation, creativity, activity and stillness.

From the description of Meditation In Action:

"He explores the six activities associated with meditation in action—generosity, discipline, patience, energy, clarity, and wisdom—revealing that through simple, direct experience, one can attain real wisdom: the ability to see clearly into situations and deal with them skillfully, without the self-consciousness connected with ego."

From the book, opposite the title page:

"The design on the cover is based on one of the seals of the Trungpa Tulkus (reincarted Trungpa Lamas). It is the Sanskrit word "Evam", meaning "Thus" and is used at the beginning of all sutras "Thus I have heard". At another level "E" represents the passive, and "Vam" the active force in the Universe. At a still deeper level "E" represents Emptiness, and "Vam", the Clear Light."

The multidimensional symbol of "Evam" is another reason I thought it appropriate to include the book cover here. There is no doubt that the creation of the seal of the Trungpa Tulkus was developed from a deeply meditative state. This is an example of the act of creation of a graphic symbol artistically developed to convey a profound multidimensional meaning. Furthermore, this symbol represents both the unity of passive and active forces in the universe, and the unity of emptiness and clear light.

For me, there is no stillness, even while seated in deep meditation. The universe is constantly in motion. The meditative technique includes body awareness. All my senses are working while I witness my breath going in and out, my heart beating, the incense filling my nostrils, the sight of the flickering candle, environmental sounds, the stress of the muscles in my arms, legs, spine and neck, etc. In addition, I practice walking meditation, which in that case involves walking around in circles. Sometimes meditation involves mental analysis. The practice of a Puja requires chanting, hand gestures, visualization techniques and sometimes playing a musical instrument or manipulating a ritual object. So there is activity of all sorts during meditation.

Really the only difference for me between mundane activities and meditation, is that meditation removes ego and increases realization of the ultimate nature of reality.

What happens for me during Vipassana (insight) meditation is that as I sit and concentrate on my breath, I become more in the moment. Extraneous, random and distracting thoughts disappear. I become aware of the Universe as it really is. Sometimes inspirational thoughts emerge.

From Wikipedia:

Vipassanā (Pāli) or vipaśyanā (विपश्यना, Sanskrit) in the Buddhist tradition means insight into the nature of reality. A regular practitioner of Vipassana is known as a Vipassi (vipaśyin). Vipassana is one of the world's most ancient techniques of sitting meditation, the inception of which is attributed to Gautama Buddha. It is a practice of self-transformation through self-observation and introspection to the extent that sitting with a steadfast mind becomes an active experience of change and impermanence. In English, vipassanā meditation is often referred to simply as "insight meditation".

This point is very important to me regarding insight meditation, awareness "becomes an active experience of change and impermanence." This is the awareness of the ultimate nature of reality; the union of Emptiness and Clear Light.

As is in keeping with the realization of the union of Emptiness and Clear Light, the experience of insight meditation is itself a creative act. The mind is not "turned off," it is simply in touch with the essence of reality.

Therefore, this is a prime opportunity to practice creative multidimensional thinking and to open myself to visualizations of geometric symbols representative of higher states of consciousness. The nature of how the Universe works is revealed during meditation, why not participate actively in the dance at that very moment? The better question is, "How can you sit still and not participate?"

Wish-Fulfilling Karmic Tetrahedron Jewel

According to Wikipedia:

Cintamani is a wish-fulfilling jewel within both Hindu and Buddhist traditions, equivalent to the philosopher's stone in Western alchemy. In Buddhism it is held by the bodhisattvas, Avalokiteshvara and Ksitigarbha. It is also seen carried upon the back of the Lung ta (wind horse) which is depicted on Tibetan prayer flags. By reciting the Dharani of Cintamani, Buddhist tradition maintains that one attains the Wisdom of Buddha, able to understand the truth of the Buddha, and turn afflictions into Bodhi.

I have personally experienced the miracle of the wish-fulfilling gem on several occasions. I attribute these miracles as a result of my devotion to Avalokitesvara and many hours of meditation and the recitation of the mani.

This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons ManiStone.jpg

The curious thing is that this wish fulfillment is never premeditated. These are spontaneous wishes that emerge from a source that is not from my linear and reasoned thinking mind. It is the junction of premonition and desire. It feels like a desire that arises spontaneously and in the same moment, the premonition that it will soon be fulfilled also occurs. The results come very soon after this desire/premonition. Sometimes within minutes, never more than a day later. 

QUESTION: If you KNOW that some result will occur before it physically manifests, and at the same time that you KNOW this, you experience a desirous thought for this manifestation - did the desire cause the result, or did the knowledge (precognition) of the result cause the desire? 

A close Buddhist friend of mine used to say that I "manifested" stuff. This is not a good description because it says that this is something that I cause. It doesn't feel like I cause it. Again, from Wikipedia the definition of causality:

Causality is the relationship between an event (the cause) and a second event (the effect), where the second event is understood as a consequence of the first.

However, if the cause and the effect happen simultaneously, then causality is in some way negated. In my personal experience, the effect does not happen simultaneously, but the realization that the effect WILL happen occurs simultaneously. This then is a matter of precognition and precognition is of course counter to the existing laws of science ...

Perhaps precognition is explained by R. Buckminster Fuller's concept of the Action-Reaction-Resultant Tetrahedron. From Bucky Fuller's Synergetics:

511.10   The open-ended tripartite spiral can be considered as one energy event consisting of an action, reaction, and resultant.Two such tripartite-vectored "spirals," one negative and one positive, combine to form the tetrahedron. See the diagram.

Using the concept of the Action-Reaction-Resultant Tetrahedron, then the positive spiral is the NORMAL time-space desire-driven KARMIC linear event. The negative spiral is the ANTI-NORMAL time-space precognitive INSTANT-KARMIC receptive event. 

Diagram 511.10
Copyright © 1997 Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller

This wish-fulfilling karmic tetrahedron jewel manifests across time-space. It is self-fulfilling because it is comprised of the perfect union of male and female energies. The positive male open-ended tripartite spiral perfectly mates with the negative female open-ended tripartite spiral. Desire and creation manifest as a single closed system.

This model of the It defies causality and the linear model of time. It is a real life demonstration that time does NOT exist in the linear manner that we experience in mundane reality.

The Anti-Nutrients: Grains and Legumes

Just finished reading Dr. Komadina's book Born To Be Healthy and Thin and thought it to be quirky but enlightening in several areas regarding diet and nutrition. His approach to hormones, vitamins and diet are unique and refreshing. His health philosophy is straightforward and bold. His diet recommendations are in many ways similar to the Paleolithic Diet. 

One thing that really caught my attention because of I have Celiac disease is that he says eating grains and legumes is the cause of many of our diseases. This is because our DNA is not designed to process grains, and today's genetically engineered grains are even less edible. Eating grains and legumes damage our gut and allow toxins to enter our blood also triggering autoimmune responses. 

According to Wikipedia:

Compared to Paleolithic food groups, cereal grains and legumes contain high amounts of antinutrients, including alkylresorcinols, alpha-amylase inhibitors, protease inhibitors, lectins and phytates, substances known to interfere with the body's absorption of many key nutrients. Molecular-mimicking proteins, which are basically made up of strings of amino acids that closely resemble those of another totally different protein, are also found in grains and legumes, as well as milk and dairy products. Advocates of the Paleolithic diet have argued that these components of agrarian diets promote vitamin and mineral deficiencies and may explain the development of the "diseases of civilization" as well as a number of autoimmune-related diseases.

Never heard about lectins before now. I am just now starting my research but from what I have read so far, this issue is of grave concern to all of us. There is a great web page THE LECTIN STORY that explains in detail how lectins cause damage and disease. I encourage the reader of this blog to do their own research.


My focus now is on getting healthy and healing my body after discovering I have Celiac disease. Gluten is poison to me and I am beginning to think that other grains are not good for me either. So how do we eliminate lectins from our diet?


There is a very good article on the web Soaking Grains Exploration: Lectins Present Yet Another Problem which talks about sprouting grains a way to destroy toxic lectins. The article says:

Cooking doesn't really affect most lectins, but two traditional food preparation methods destroy or nearly completely diminish lectin content:

1. Sprouting not only increases the overall nutrition of seeds, but it completely destroys the lectin. You can sprout both grains and legumes.
2. Soaking beans in water and tossing the soak water also dramatically reduces lectin content.

On the Creation of Art

In 1979 while going to the University of Florida I decided to switch my major from Physics to Architecture. The reason for this switch was to better align my studies with my creative and artistic nature. The study of Physics did not present the opportunities that I desired to express myself fully. However, the study of Architecture held the promise of one day enabling me to apply concepts of structure and design to the creation of beautiful, functional artifacts that would benefit others.

While studying Architecture I also became very interested in meditation. My favorite author of books on meditation was Lama Anagarika Govinda. His writings opened to me a new way to contemplate symbolic and creative thinking. He became for me a great Mentor alongside my other great Mentor, R. Buckminster Fuller.

During the development of an Architecture project for school I decided to apply the wisdom of both of my great Mentors to solve the design problem given to me by my Architectural Design Professor. The design problem was to create a band shell for musical performances in an outdoor park setting. My inspiration was based on a natural shell geometry that "grew" from a progression of overlapping tetrahedrons of increasing size.

I wish that I still had the model that I built. However, I do still have a small plaque that I created that speaks of my design intent. On the left side of the plaque is my obviously Bucky Fuller inspired design intent.

"Superimposure of the 8 unfolded Tetrahedron pairs which combine in lefthand - righthand - reflected, macro-expanded, micro-contracted, equiangular - spiraling - layers, to form the ever-growing shell integrity."

On the right side of the plaque is a quote by Lama Govinda that still inspires me to this day. I have it displayed on my bookcase so that I may refer to it often.

"ART … while using the forms of the external world does not try to imitate nature, but to reveal a higher reality by omitting all accidentals, thus raising the visible form to the value of a symbol, expressing a direct experience of life."

This is my life's goal to create ART in the manner described by Lama Govinda while applying the Synergetic Geometric forms of Bucky Fuller.

Inspirational plaque by Thomas J. Greenbaum

After graduating from Architecture school in 1981 I came across a wonderful book Creative Meditation and Multi-Dimensional Consciousness by Lama Anagarika Govinda. This book became my "Bible" for some time as I immersed myself into a new metaphor of meditation and creative thought. I have the well-worn book still on my shelf.

Creative Meditation and Multi-Dimensional Consciousness by Lama Anagarika Govinda

The following quote from this book (page 134) describes the relationship between meditation, visualization and multi-dimensional symbols. It is the realm where all three intersect that for me becomes the space of creativity and artistic expression.

"The Buddha himself said that his teaching is deep, profound (gambhira), beyond the realm of speculation and world-thinking (avitarka, avicara), comprehensible only to the wise. The only way , however, to free ourselves from the tyranny of words and concepts is the imaginative method of visualization, or the replacement of our one-track logic by the multidimensional symbol. Even a strict science such as mathematics has developed a language of multidimensional symbols and visual formulations in which the position of each sign or symbol in the general context of a formula determines the meaning and value of each particular sign. The meditative experience of Buddhism developed a similarly intricate system of visual symbols based on archetypal forms or images which evolved from the depth of human consciousness and proved their efficacy through millenia of meditative practice."

Therefore, the creation of ART which stems from deeply inspired forms can arise from within the practice of meditation. Meditation is not the opposite of creation. Meditation is the ground from which creation manifests. 

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

Transforming Economics with Positive Thinking

Malthus was wrong. The planet's economic systems based on Malthusian principles of scarcity are a lie and a deception. This is one of the root causes behind the world's woes. If humanity learned the power of positive thinking we can eliminate war, famine, disease, oppression and the disparity between the wealthy ruling class and the poor working class.

Thomas Robert Malthus thought that the dangers of population growth would preclude endless progress towards a utopian society: "The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man".

Current world leaders teach that the, "First rule of economics is that there are limited resources and there are never enough goods or money to satisfy everyone." This is what Malthus declared at a time when there was barely a billion people on the planet. Now there are over 6 billion people with a majority living with access to resources that Malthus could not have imagined.

How could Malthus be so wrong? The simple truth is that he did not understand the very basic principle of innovation and Human ingenuity. Human's ability to discover the generalized operating principles of Universe and apply them in the creation of artifacts that do ever MORE with ever LESS physical resources is what Malthus did not understand and what the world political, financial and oil-wealth based tyrannies continue to perpetuate as the greatest deception Humanity has had to overcome.

Utopia or Oblivion: the Prospects for Humanity
By R. Buckminster Fuller

Why is Humanity taught to believe in this lie? It is because Humans react with fear and aggression when they think that there is not enough resources for everyone. Humans driven by fear of scarcity are easily controlled and organized into competing camps.
Nations, banks and oil companies who control access to the world's "limited" physical resources need to perpetuate the lie in order to secure their power base.
However, the real resource is and has always been intellectual attainment. Sometimes referred to as "mind over matter" or BRAIN POWER it is humans' ability to ever more with ever less physical resources, that is the ultimate power base.

Students have come to America for two centuries in order to gain the best education in the world. In the past, 90 percent have stayed and added to the intellectual resources of America, founded great innovative companies, and added to the power and success of our nation.

For example, consider the following entrepenuers who helped to build Silicon Valley:

• Andrew Grove, former Chairman and CEO Intel Corporation, born in Budapest, Hungary, graduated University of California, Berkeley.
• Pierre Omidyar, founder and Chairman, eBay, born in Paris, France to Iranian immigrant parents, graduated from Tufts University, net worth $5.5 Billion.
• Salar Kamangar, CEO of YouTube, created the company's first business plan, born in Tehran, Iran, graduated from Stanford University.
• Sergey Mikhaylovich Brin, Google founder, born in Moscow, graduated from Stanford University, net worth $15 Billion.
• Jerry Yang, Yahoo co-founder, born in Taiwan, graduated from Stanford University, net worth $1.15 Billion.

The 1999 report Silicon Valley's New Immigrant Entrepreneurs "finds that immigrants account for one-third of the scientific and engineering workforce in Silicon Valley and that Indian or Chinese Chief Executive Officers are running one-fourth of all of the high-technology firms in the region."

These entrepeneurs created vast information enterprises from nothing. These companies now influence the entire world. This is the proof that BRAIN POWER is limitless and that the power of the earth to provide subsistence for humanity is boundless. 

Sacred Geometry, Metatron’s Cube and Merkabah Connections

Sometimes isolation and solitude catalyze the greatest feelings of connection. This is not a paradox. It is about simplicity, being able to listen through the static, filtering meaning from the noise. This is why a cave, a bowl or the center of a sphere is an excellent location for meditation and for accumulating jnana. These forms present a uniform interior to our minds allowing our body/mind to relax. These spaces provide a refuge that protects us from negative energies and shield us from distractions. We are open to the entire universe, yet we do not feel threatened. In fact, we feel at home and protected.

Triacon Plan View - An Alternate View of Metatron's Cube
Copyright © Thomas J. Greenbaum

This is also what sacred geometry provides. We can visualize ourselves in the center of the mandala (the Chariot, the Merkabah) and feel at home amongst the lines, arcs, triangles, circles, tetrahedrons and spheres. It may not take an overt mental act or visualization method to do this. If the geometry reflects truth, beauty and symmetry it is easily and naturally accomplished. Truth, of course, is the most difficult aspect to achieve.

"Know the self to be sitting in a Chariot, the body to be the Chariot, the intellect (buddhi) the charioteer, and the mind the reins." --The Upanishads

Having established a locus for our mind within the sacred space/geometry, connections occur without the interference of overt metaphors or symbols. We can listen/feel the most subtle vibrations, like a spider in the center of its web. Once centered in the grid/web looking inside and looking outside we become aware of a unity of form and function. Consciousness merges with the sacred geometry and the fractal nature of awareness arises. Micro/macro views are self-similar resulting in harmony, balance and equilibrium. Connections arise spontaneously between all nodes on the grid; no single node is dominant, all nodes vibrate together.

Engraved illustration of the "chariot vision" of the Biblical book of Ezekiel, chapter 1, after an earlier illustration by Matthaeus (Matthäus) Merian (1593-1650)

In contrast, our mundane awareness is not easily balanced. Each connection we experience competes for our attention/energy. Each node fights for dominance over the others. Life is a discordant cacophony of overt signs, symbols, messages and mythologies with contradictory meanings. Consciousness cannot settle into any locus. Awareness does not feel centered and does not realize the self-similar fractal nature of phenomena. Looking inside yields one view, while looking outside we something totally different; alien and threatening. Although the view outside is disturbing we cannot take our attention from it. After a while we are afraid to look inside.

The opportunity/potential of the Lotus Bowl, Metatron's Cube, or any sacred geometry is that it can become the Chariot of God, the Merkabah. These forms may become vehicles for individual consciousness to connect with our Buddha nature. They transport our mundane consciousness to realms of enlightened awareness - the Pure Realms. During these states of expanded consciousness we open ourselves fully to being connected to all possibilities. We arrive to sit on our Lotus Throne, cup one hand to our ear and listen to the vibrations of the cosmos, the music of the spheres, to the songs of all beings - while in the other hand we gather precious Amrita, the elixir that will make us immortal.

Milarepa - Great Yogi and Kagyu Saint

The Power of Myth

The full meaning of the term "myth" is something you should learn. Understanding the role of myth in your life is perhaps the most powerful tool you can attain. It is a tool that you can pragmatically apply to help you live your life with joy.

I consider Joseph Campbell one of the wisest scholars of the 20th century. In some ways he is wiser than Bucky Fuller. Campbell's book The Power of Myth changed my life. The Power of Myth is a book and six part television documentary (available on DVD) originally broadcast on PBS in 1988. The documentary comprises six one-hour conversations between mythologist Joseph Campbell and journalist Bill Moyers and includes selections from Moyers' interview with Star Wars creator George Lucas. 

Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American mythologist, writer and lecturer, best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work is vast, covering many aspects of the human experience. His philosophy is often summarized by his phrase: "Follow your bliss."

George Lucas was the first Hollywood filmmaker to credit Campbell's influence. Lucas stated following the release of the first Star Wars film in 1977 that its story was shaped, in part, by ideas described in The Hero with a Thousand Faces and other works of Campbell's.

Check out the YouTube video: The Mythology Of Star Wars which is a Bill Moyers interview of George Lucas and his thoughts of God and "The Force."  Lucas says Mythology creates a context for the unknown. The video includes a great clip of when Luke Skywalker first meets Yoda and receives his first lesson about "The Force." Lucas says that when Star Wars first came out, almost every single religion took Star Wars and used it as an example of their religion and related the Star Wars mythology to the Bible, the Quaran and the Torah. He goes on to say if the Star Wars mythology is a tool to make old stories be new and relate to younger people - that's what the whole point was.

When Campbell published his book Historical Atlas of World Mythology,  a reporter interviewed Campbell and confronted him with some tough questions:

Reporter: "The word 'myth,' means 'a lie.' Myth is a lie." 

Campbell: "No, myth is not a lie. A whole mythology is an organization of symbolic images and narratives, metaphorical of the possibilities of human experience and the fulfillment of a given culture at a given time." 

Campbell: "That which human beings have in common is revealed in myths. Myths are the stories of our search through the ages for truth, for meaning, for significance. Myths are clues to the spiritual potentialities of the human life.

Joseph Campbell defined myths as having four basic functions: 

1. the Mystical Function--experiencing the awe of the universe
2. the Cosmological Function--explaining the shape of the universe
3. the Sociological Function--supporting and validating a certain social order
4. the Pedagogical Function--how to live a human lifetime under any circumstances

See more in an interview with Campbell regarding The Function of Myth In the Individual Life.

Some inspirational quotes by Joseph Campbell:

Follow your bliss.

If you do follow your bliss,

you put yourself on a kind of track

that has been there all the while waiting for you,

and the life you ought to be living

is the one you are living.

When you can see that,

you begin to meet people

who are in the field of your bliss,

and they open the doors to you.

I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid,

and doors will open

where you didn't know they were going to be.

If you follow your bliss,

doors will open for you that wouldn't have opened for anyone else.

☼

People say that what we're seeking is a meaning for life. 

I don't think that's what we're really seeking. 

I think that what we're seeking is an experience of being alive, 

so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.

☼

Find a place (inside) where there's joy,

and the joy will burn out the pain.

☼

The goal of life

is to make your heartbeat

match the beat of the universe,

to match your nature with Nature.