Toward a Unified Metaphysical Understanding: Mystic Perspective: Comments and Quotes

Mystic Perspective: Comments and Quotes

2010-11-08, by John Ringland

I empathise with the difficulty that people have in grasping the mystic perspective. For those with an empiricist perspective these issues are usually perplexing and seemingly inside-out and back-to-front. I will briefly describe an approach to the mystic perspective that some have found useful.

Consider an AI mind within a VR simulation. If this mind had an empirical perspective it would seem to it that it had inner cognitive phenomena and that it lived within an external physical universe. However in a deeper sense these are just perceptual illusions and the actual reality is a single unified information process that is imperceptible, universal, non-local, timeless, all-pervading, etc. Realising this fact leads to a mystic perspective.

That mind cannot realistically comprehend its situation if it assumes that the inner and outer spaces are fundamentally real, or that the objects that it perceives are material or that it's sense of being an individual self is fundamentally real. If it clings to these empiricist ideas then an understanding of reality will always be remote and every glimpse will seem paradoxical.

If it realises that these things are all sunyata (empty of self-nature), i.e. they are all virtual, then it can comprehend the whole situation. Furthermore, there is much that can be said about the situation, although not using a naïve realist language that speaks about objects, events, places, times and people as if these were all literal facts. There are many metaphors and analogies that express the actual situation well, and mathematics is the best language to explore reality because the underlying process is ultimately a mathematical process (i.e. the unified quantum field).

The empiricist perspective can only comprehend the virtual world and only in a shallow and distorted manner because it confounds the objects of perception for being real objects, whilst it remains oblivious to the imperceptible processes that give rise to these perceptual objects.

The mystic perspective can comprehend the whole situation, both the imperceptible information processes (consciousness, spirit) and the virtual appearances (person, matter), as well as how these relate to each other.

Some examples of empirical perspectives are common sense, empirical science, religion, exoteric spirituality, AQAL. Some examples of mystic perspectives are quantum mechanics, mysticism, esoteric spirituality, SMN-IST.

Below is a small sample of quotes from different mystic traditions (Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta, Mystic Christianity, Sufism, Quantum Mechanics, Daoism and Kabbalah). In each case they use various metaphors, analogies and narrative devices to explain the computational / virtual nature of reality and how to realise this.

Buddhism

"So long as people do not understand the true nature of the objective world, they fall into the dualistic view of things. They imagine the multiplicity of external objects to be real and become attached to them and are nourished by their habit energy. Because of this system of mentation, mind and what belongs to it is discriminated and is thought of as real; this leads to the assertion of an ego-soul and its belongings, and thus the mind-system goes on functioning. Depending upon and attaching itself to the dualistic habit of mind, they accept the views of the philosophers founded upon these erroneous distinctions, of being and non-being, existence and non-existence, and there evolves what we call false-imaginations (naïve realism)...

False-imaginations rise from the consideration of appearances; things are discriminated as to form, signs and shape; as to having colour, warmth, humidity, mobility or rigidity. False-imagination consists of becoming attached to these appearances and their names...

The five sense functions and their discriminating and thinking function have their risings and complete ending from moment to moment... By setting up names and forms greed is multiplied and thus the mind goes on mutually conditioning and being conditioned. By becoming attached to names and forms, not realising that they have no more basis than the activities of the mind itself, error arises, false-imagination as to pleasure and pain arises, and the way to emancipation is blocked...

By the cessation of the mind-system as a whole is meant, the cessation of discrimination, the clearing away of the various attachments, and, therefore, the clearing away of the defilements of habit-energy in the face of Universal Mind which have been accumulating since beginningless time by reason of these discriminations, attachments, erroneous reasonings, and following acts. Getting rid of the discriminating mortal-mind is Nirvana.

But the cessation of the discriminating-mind cannot take place until there has been a "turning about"' in the deepest seat of consciousness. The mental habit of looking outward by the discriminating-mind upon an external objective world must be given up, and a new habit of realising Truth within the intuitive-mind by becoming one with the Truth itself must be established... With the ending of pleasure and pain, of conflicting ideas, of the disturbing interests of egoism, a state of tranquillisation will be attained in which the truths of emancipation will be fully understood..." (Lankavatara Sutra http://bit.ly/azCaUY)

"Cut the root of a tree and the leaves will wither; cut the root of your mind [naïve realist, habitual interpretation and comprehension] and samsara [world illusion] falls. The light of any lamp dispels in a moment the darkness of long kalpas [aeons]; the strong light of the [higher] Mind in but a flash will burn the veil of ignorance.

Whoever clings to mind sees not the truth of what's beyond the mind. Whoever strives to practice dharma [spiritual path] finds not the truth beyond-practice.

To know what is beyond both mind and practice one should cut cleanly through the root of mind [overcome naïve realism] and stare naked. One should thus break away from all distinctions and remain at ease...

In Mahamudra (Supreme gesture) all one's sins [delusion, agitation] are burned; in Mahamudra one is released from the prison of this world [entrapment in illusion]. This is the dharma's supreme torch. Those who disbelieve it are fools, who ever wallow in misery and sorrow...

To transcend duality is the kingly view. To conquer distractions is the royal practice. The path of no-practice is the way of all buddhas. He who treads that path reaches buddhahood...

If without effort you remain loosely in the natural state, soon Mahamudra you will win and attain the nonattainment.

The supreme understanding transcends all this and that. The supreme action embraces great resourcefulness without attachment. The supreme accomplishment is to realize immanence without hope. At first a yogi feels his mind is tumbling like a waterfall; in mid-course like the Ganges , it flows on slow and gentle; in the end it is a great vast ocean where the lights of son and mother merge in one." (Tilopa's Song of Mahamudra)

Advaita Vedanta

"Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, reason and sense of self: these are the eight divisions of My nature... This nature is of a lower order... know that there exists besides, My other superior nature, which is the essence by which the world is maintained... Realise that all created beings take birth in both these. I am the origin of this cosmos and also its end... there is nothing else higher than Me. Like a row of beads strung together, so is all which is here strung on Me...

I am the life in all living beings... know Me as the eternal seed in all created things, I am the intelligence of the intelligent, and the magnificence of the magnificent... I am the strength of all the strong...

Those without wisdom regard Me, who am imperceptible, as being perceptible, failing to realise my superior, supreme, immutable form... Being enveloped in My mysterious power (Yoga-Maya, simulation), I am not manifest to all. The ignorant do not realise that I am unborn and immutable... I know all created beings in the past and present... and those that will be, but no one knows Me... All creatures in the world are immersed in ignorance... the result of the delusion caused by the dualities arising from desire and hate [attachment leading to immersion in the world illusion] ... But the virtuous, whose sin [confusion, agitation] has ended, escape from the ignorance caused by the dualities... those who realise me as existing in the physical plane [empirical], the divine planes [transcendent], and also in what concerns sacrifices [not being the 'doer', the universal essence is the only doer], have a mind which is focussed and know Me even at the time of death [in one's deepest subconscious]." (Bhagavad Gita, chpt 7)

"Is there a world outside your knowledge? Can you go beyond what you know? You may postulate a world beyond the mind, but it will remain a concept, unproven and unprovable. Your experience is your proof, and it is valid for you only. Who else can have your experience, when the other person is only as real as he appears in your experience?...

The person is merely the result of a misunderstanding. In reality, there is no such thing. Feelings, thoughts and actions race before the watcher in endless succession, leaving traces in the brain and creating an illusion of continuity. A reflection of the watcher in the mind creates the sense of 'I' and the person acquires an apparently independent existence...

In reality there is no person, only the watcher identifying himself with the 'I' and the 'mine'... you are not this, there is nothing of yours in this, except the little point of "I am", which is the bridge between the watcher and his dream. "I am this, I am that" is dream, while pure "I am" has the stamp of reality on it...

Go within, go beyond. Cease being fascinated with the content of your consciousness. When you reach the deep layers of your true being, you will find that the mind's surface-play affects you very little... A ray of awareness illumines a part of our mind and that part becomes our dream or waking consciousness, while awareness appears as the witness. The witness usually knows only consciousness. Sadhana (path leading to realization) consists in the witness turning back, first on his conscious, then upon himself in his own awareness. Self awareness is Yoga (union with existence)...

The real does not die, the unreal never lived. Once you know that death happens to the body and not to you, you just watch your body falling off like a discarded garment. The real you is timeless and beyond birth and death." (Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, I am That, http://bit.ly/bvBQYR)

"What is it that had birth? Whom do you call a human being? If, instead of seeking explanations for birth, death and after-death, the question is raised as to who and how you are now, these questions will not arise... The body is born again and again. We wrongly identify ourselves with the body, and hence imagine we are reincarnated constantly. No. We must identify ourselves with the true Self. The realised one enjoys unbroken consciousness, never broken by birth or death - how can he die? Only those who think 'I am the body' talk of reincarnation. To those who know 'I am the Self' there is no rebirth. Reincarnations only exist so long as there is ignorance. There is no incarnation, either now, before or hereafter. This is the truth." (Sri Ramana Maharshi http://bit.ly/bVY6Ee)

“To Sankara the world is only relatively real (Vyavaharika Satta, virtual). He advocated Vivarta-Vada or the theory of appearance or superimposition (Adhyasa). Just as snake is superimposed on the rope in twilight [when one mistakes a rope for a snake], this world and body are superimposed on Brahman or the Supreme Self . If you get knowledge of the rope, the illusion of snake in the rope will vanish. Even so, if you get knowledge of Brahman or the Imperishable, the illusion of body and world will disappear. In Vivarta-Vada, the cause produces the effect without undergoing any change in itself. Snake is only an appearance on the rope. The rope has not transformed itself into a snake, like milk into curd. Brahman is immutable and eternal. Therefore, It cannot change Itself into the world. Brahman becomes the cause of the world through Maya (simulation), which is Its inscrutable mysterious power or Sakti.” (http://www.shankaracharya.org/advaita_philosophy.php)

"This very body (universe)... is called the ksetra [field], and he who knows it is called the ksetrajna [the knower of the field]... Know that I am the ksetrajna in all ksetras... I hold that, knowledge of the field and of its knower is true knowledge... who its knower is and what his powers, I shall explain briefly.

I will tell you what is to be known... [the ultimate goal of knowledge] It is the Supreme Brahman [the transcendent virtual-reality generative process], without beginning, said to be neither imperishable nor perishable... He pervades everything, abiding in it...He gives the impression of having the qualities of the senses, yet is without the senses. Though unattached [not believing in the world illusion], He still supports everything. Void of qualities, He enjoys them nevertheless. He is outside and within all things. He is immoveable and yet moveable. Subtle, He is incapable of being known. Far away, He is still near. Undivided, he is still broken up among all things [the transcendent is One at its source but distributed throughout the empirical world]. He must be realised as one who, supporting all things, destroys them and refashions them again. He is said to be the Radiance among radiances, beyond darkness, Knowledge, the object of knowledge, and that which can be known only through knowledge [cannot be perceived by the senses but only inferred, intuited and experienced as one's inner-most awareness]. He is seated in the hearts of everyone [the inner essence of all things].

Know that prakriti [nature, mechanical existence, causality] and purusha [soul, consciousness, will] are both without beginning. Know also that all forms and constituents arise from prakriti. Prakriti (nature) is said to be the cause behind the act, its instrument and its doer, while purusha (soul) is said to be the cause behind the experience of pleasure and pain. When purusha is positioned in prakriti, it enjoys the constituents born of prakriti [immersion in and identification with the perceptual stream]. This marriage with the constituents is instrumental in its taking birth in good and bad wombs [empirical manifestation or samsara].

This Being [the virtual-reality generative process that operates within the transcendent context] who, close to prakriti, witnesses its constituents, consents to them, adds to them, and experiences them, is termed the Great Lord, the Supreme Soul, the Supreme Purusha which dwells in the body [transcendent space].

Whatever is born, moveable [empirical forms] or immoveable [transcendent processes], comes into being through the union of the ksetra and the ksetrajna [field and the knower of the field].

He who sees the Supreme Lord [transcendent process], who is present equally in all creatures, who is not destroyed even when they are, he may be said to have truly perceived. Perceiving the Lord as equally pervading everywhere, he does not let his self-sense [egoic delusion] destroy his true Self [awareness of ones transcendent nature] and, in that way, he attains a state of excellence [true understanding and alignment with reality]. He who perceives that all aspects of actions are performed only through prakriti and also that the self is a non-doer [universal consciousness is the only doer], he may be said to have truly perceived. On perceiving that the multifarious aspect of things is located in one point [the transcendent process], from where it extends severally, he attains the Brahman [union with reality].

Without beginning, devoid of qualities, the Supreme Self, imperishable, though stationed in the body, neither acts nor is touched in any way... Just as ether, pervading everything, is unsmeared on account of its rarefied nature, in the same way the Self, present in everybody, is not besmirched.

Just as the Sun, alone, lights up this entire world, so also does the Keeper of the field light up this entire field... those who in this way, through the eye of wisdom, perceive the difference between the field and the one who knows it, and the manner of release of all beings from prakriti [overcoming the world illusion through detachment, transcendent knowledge and unconditioned awareness], they obtain the Supreme." (Bhagavad Gita, chpt 13)

Mystic Christianity

“I have often said God is creating this entire world full and entire in this present now... There where time never penetrates, where no image shines in, in the innermost and highest aspect of the soul God creates the entire cosmos.” (Meister Eckhart)

“The whole world... [is] a certain representation of the divine wisdom conceived within the mind of the Father.” (Thomas Aquinas)

“The absolute, Divine Mind, is all that is in everything that is... 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... There is only one mirror without flaw: the Divine, in whom what is revealed is received as it is. For this mirror is not essentially different from any existing thing. Rather in every existing thing it is that which is: it is the universal form of being.” (Nicholas of Cusa)

“God loves all creatures as God... God enjoys all creatures, not as creatures, but enjoys the creatures as God. In the same enjoyment in which God enjoys the Godself, God enjoys all things.” (Meister Eckhart)

“Wisdom is eternal, for it precedes every beginning and all created reality... [It is] everywhere... in every tastable thing... burning in all things... the animating power of things... [Wisdom] tastes us. And there is nothing more delicious to comprehend.” (Nicholas of Cusa)

“[Wisdom] pervades and permeates all things...
[She is] a breath of the power of God [and] a reflection of the eternal light,
untarnished mirror of God's active power, image of his goodness...
Although alone, she can do all;
herself unchanging, she makes all things new.” (Bible, Wisdom 7:24-26)

“The being of things is itself their light and the measure of the being of a thing is the measure of its light.” (Thomas Aquinas)

“Everything is full and pure at its source and precisely there, not outside.” (Meister Eckhart)

“In Christ were created all things in heaven and earth: everything visible and invisible... Before anything was created, Christ existed, and Christ holds all things in unity.” (Bible, Colossians 1:15-17)

“In the beginning was the Word:
the Word was with God
and the Word was God.
This Word was with God in the beginning.
Through it all things came to be,
not one thing had its being but through it.
All that came to be had life in it
and that life was the light of the people,
a light that shines in the dark
a light that darkness could not overpower.
..................
But to all who did accept this Word
it gave the power to become children of God” (Bible, John. 1:1-5,12)

“Without the Word of God no creature has meaning.
God's Word is in all creation, visible and invisible.
The Word is living, being, spirit, all verdant greening, all creativity.
This Word manifests in every creature.
Now this is how the spirit is in the flesh - the Word is indivisible from God.” (Hildegard of Bingen)

“God is constantly speaking only one thing. God's speaking is one thing. In this one utterance God speaks the Son and at the same time the Holy Spirit and all creatures.” (Meister Eckhart)

“Creatures can be called God's Words... [they] manifest God's mind just like effects manifest their causes.” (Thomas Aquinas)

“In this Word the Creator speaks my spirit, your spirit, and the spirit of every person who resembles the Word. And in this utterance you and I are true sons and daughters of God, as the Word itself is child of the Creator.” (Meister Eckhart)

“Your human nature and that of the divine Word are no different.” (Meister Eckhart)

“The spirit of the Lord, indeed, fills the whole world, and that which holds all things together knows every word that is said.” (Bible, Wisdom, 1:7)

“The Logos of creation in whom all things were created can be nothing other than divine wisdom.” (Nicholas of Cusa)

“Every creature is a word of God and a book about God... Divinity shines forth in creatures as the truth of a reflected image.” (Nicholas of Cusa)

“In my understanding I saw God in a point. In seeing this I saw that God is in all things. God works in creatures because God is in the mid-point of everything.” (Julian of Norwich)

“[Disciples ask] Tell us when the kingdom of God is to come? [Jesus replies] Do not look here or there. For the kingdom of God is among you.” (Bible, Luke 17:20-21)

“All creatures are gladly doing the best they can to express God... They are crying out to come back there where they have flowed out.” (Meister Eckhart)

Sufism

"Every second he's bowing into a mirror. If he could see for just a second one molecule of what's there without fantasizing about it, he'd explode.
His imagination and he himself, would vanish, with all his knowledge, obliterated into a new birth, a perfectly clear view, a voice that says, I am God.
That same voice told the angels to bow to Adam, because they were identical with Adam.
It's the voice that first said, There is no reality but God. There is only God." (Jelaluddin Balkhi aka Rumi)

"We have fallen into a place were everything is music... The singing art is sea foam.
The graceful movements come from a pearl somewhere on the ocean floor...
They derive from a slow and powerful root that we can't see.
Stop the words now.
Open the window in the center of your chest, and let the spirits fly in and out." (Rumi)

“Don't run around this world looking for a hole to hide in.
There are wild beast in every cave!...
The only real rest comes when you're alone with God.
Live in the nowhere that you came from, even though you have an address here.
That's why you see things in two ways...
You have eyes that see from that nowhere, and eyes that judge distances, how high and how low.
You own two shops, and you run back and forth.
Try to close the one that's a fearful trap, getting always smaller...
Keep open the shop where you're not selling fishhooks any more.
You are the free-swimming fish.” (Rumi)

“I belong to the beloved, have seen the two worlds as one...” (Rumi)

"I saw you and became empty.
This emptiness, more beautiful than existence,
it obliterates existence, and yet when it comes,
existence thrives and creates more existence!

The sky is blue. The world is a blind man
squatting on the road.
But whoever sees your emptiness
sees beyond blue and beyond the blind man.

A great soul hides like Muhammad, or Jesus,
moving through a crowd in a city
where no one knows him...

Why should we grieve that we've been sleeping?
It doesn't matter how long we've been unconscious.
We're groggy, but let the guilt go.
Feel the motions of tenderness around you, the buoyancy. " (Rumi)

Quantum Mechanics

"nature seems to 'make the calculation' and then present us with an observed event" (J. Gribbin, In Search of Schrodinger's Cat, 111.)

"Quantum theory is a method of representing quantumstuff mathematically: a model of the world executed in symbols." (N. Herbert, Quantum Reality, 41)

“We have no satisfactory reason for ascribing objective existence to physical quantities as distinguished from the numbers obtained when we make the measurements which we correlate with them. There is no real reason for supposing that a particle has at every moment a definite, but unknown, position which may be revealed by a measurement of the right kind... On the contrary, we get into a maze of contradiction as soon as we inject into quantum mechanics such concepts as carried over from the language and philosophy of our ancestors. . . It would be more exact if we spoke of ‘making measurements’ of this, that, or the other type instead of saying that we measure this, that, or the other ‘physical quantity’.” (E. C. Kemble http://bit.ly/9FSNJN)

“ “[W]e have to give up the idea of realism to a far greater extent than most physicists believe today.” (Anton Zeilinger http://bit.ly/dhwPE4). . . By realism, he means the idea that objects have specific features and properties - that a ball is red, that a book contains the works of Shakespeare, or that an electron has a particular spin. . . it may make no sense to think of them as having well defined characteristics.” (P. Ball http://bit.ly/dgeHYd)

“Quantum mechanics is increasingly applied to larger and larger objects. Even a one-ton bar proposed to detect gravity waves must be analysed quantum mechanically. In cosmology, a wavefunction for the whole universe is written to study the Big Bang. It gets harder today to nonchalantly accept the realm in which the quantum rules apply as somehow not being physically real. . . Quantum mechanics forces us to abandon naïve realism.” (B. Rosenblum and F. Kuttner http://bit.ly/d8MMot)

“Quantum theory essentially erased the difference between matter and fields, making reality a unit that exhibits the properties of both. This single, unitary stuff gave rise to the fantastically successful algorithm now used by physicists in all calculations involving quantum theory. But nobody knows what this unitary stuff really is. Most quantum physicists, of course, stop short of calling this unitary substance consciousness.” (Norman Friedman)

“The more one examines the waves of quantum mechanics, the less they resemble waves in a medium. In the 1920s, Ernst (sic) Schrodinger set out a formula which could "describe" the wave-like behavior of all quantum units, be they light or objects... For a brief time, physicists sought to visualize these quantum waves as ordinary waves traveling through some kind of a medium (nobody knew what kind) which somehow carried the quantum properties of an object. Then Max Born pointed out something quite astonishing: the simple interference of these quantum waves did not describe the observed behaviors; instead, the waves had to be interfered and the mathematical results of the interference had to be further manipulated (by "squaring" them, i.e., by multiplying the results by themselves) in order to achieve the final probability characteristic of all quantum events. It is a two-step process, the end result of which requires mathematical manipulation. The process can not be duplicated by waves alone, but only by calculations based on numbers which cycled in the manner of waves...

Richard Feynman developed an elegant model for describing the amplitude of the many waves involved in a quantum event, calculating the interference of all of these amplitudes, and using the final result to calculate a probability. However, Feynman disclaimed any insight into whatever physical process his system might be describing. Although his system achieved a result that was exactly and perfectly in accord with observed natural processes, to him it was nothing more than calculation. The reason was that, as far as Feynman or anybody else could tell, the underlying process itself was nothing more than calculation... A process that produces a result based on nothing more than calculation is an excellent way to describe the operations of a computer program. The two-step procedure of the Schrodinger equation and the Feynman system may be impossible to duplicate with physical systems, but for the computer it is trivial.

This quality of something having the appearance and effect of a wave, but not the nature of a wave, is pervasive in quantum mechanics, and so is fundamental to all things in our universe. It is also an example of how things which are inexplicable in physical terms turn out to be necessary or convenient qualities of computer operations.” (Ross Rhodes, A Cybernetic Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, http://bit.ly/blrP5C)

“If you were to study an individual quantum unit from a collection, you would find nothing to distinguish it from any other quantum unit of the same type. Nothing whatsoever. Upon regrouping the quantum units, you could not, even in principle, distinguish which was the unit you had been studying and which was another.

Roger Penrose has likened this sameness to the images produced by a computer. Imagine the letter "t." On the page you are viewing, the letter "t" appears many times. Every letter t is exactly like every other letter t. That is because on a computer, the letter t is produced by displaying a particular set of pixels on the screen. You could not, even in principle, tell one from the other because each is the identical image of a letter t. The formula for this image is buried in many layers of subroutines for displaying pixels, and the image does not change regardless of whether it is called upon to form part of the word "mathematical" or "marital".” (Ross Rhodes, A Cybernetic Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, http://bit.ly/blrP5C)

Daoism

"There is a thing confusedly formed, born before heaven and earth.
Silent and void It stands alone and does not change, goes round and does not weary.
It is capable of being the mother of the world.
I know not its name so I style it 'the way'.

The way is empty, yet use will not drain it.
Deep, it is like the ancestor of the myriad creatures.

Darkly visible, it only seems as if it were there.
I know not who's son it is.
It images the forefather of God.

Heaven and earth are ruthless, and treat the myriad creatures as straw dogs; ... [honoured as an offering then discarded and trampled on]

Is not the space between heaven and earth like a bellows?
It is empty without being exhausted: the more it works the more comes out.

The spirit of the valley never dies. [flow, the ability to 'channel']
This is called the mysterious female. [the primal existential potential that nourishes all things]
The gateway of the mysterious female is called the root of heaven and earth.

Dimly visible, it seems as if it were there, [only its effects can be perceived because it is the inner most essence of perception and awareness]
Yet use will never drain it.

It gives them life and rears them.
It gives them life yet claims no possession;
It benefits them yet exacts no gratitude;
It is the steward yet exercise no authority.
Such is called the mysterious virtue. [it manifests the entire cosmos but it doesn't act as an entity 'within' the world, it is the inner essence 'of' the world]

Its upper part is not dazzling;
Its lower part is not obscure.
Dimly visible, it cannot be named and returns to that which is without substance.
This is called the shape that has no shape, the image that is without substance.
This is called indistinct and shadowy. [information system theoretic]

The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects. [the Way is the most shadowy ruler, it is intangible but it causally manifest everything that is and happens]

When his task is accomplished and his work done the people all say, 'It happened to us naturally.'

As a thing the way is shadowy, indistinct.
Indistinct and shadowy,
Yet within it is an image;
Shadowy and indistinct,
Yet within it is a substance.
Dim and dark,
Yet within it is an essence.
This essence is quite genuine [ontologically exists unlike empirical forms, i.e. consciousness exists and all observed forms and ideas are modifications of consciousness]
And within it is something that can be tested. [i.e. amenable to direct experience, it is our innermost Self]

The way in its passage through the mouth is without flavour.
It cannot be seen, [it is the 'seeing' within sight]
It cannot be heard,
Yet it cannot be exhausted by use." (Tao te Ching by Lao Tzu)

“The Valley Spirit never dies.
It is named Dark Animal Goddess. [the primal existential potential that nourishes all things]
The door of the Dark Animal Goddess
Is called the root of heaven and earth.

Like an endless thread she endures.
You can call upon her easily. [it is our inner most essence, the substrate of pure awareness]
He who has found this mother understands he is a child. [the egoic isolated illusion disappears and we see that we are totally dependent on ‘her’]
When he understands he is her child and clings to her. [drops the false identification with the body and re-identifies with pure awareness]
He will be without danger when the body dies.” [the body is a transitory pattern of light but awareness is the light] (Total I Ching: Myths for Change, trans Stephen Karcher, pg87)

"the seeds, [are] the spirit and the symbol, shen and xiang, that unfold into events." (Total I Ching: Myths for Change, trans Stephen Karcher)

“Block the openings, shut the doors, and all your life will not run dry.
Unblock the openings, add to your troubles, and to the end of your days you will be beyond salvation” (Tao te Ching)

“The five colours make man's eyes blind; the five notes make his ears deaf; the five tastes injure his palate; riding and hunting make his mind go wild with excitement; goods hard to come by serve to hinder his progress.” (Tao te Ching)

"I do my utmost to attain emptiness; [detachment from ideas]
I hold firmly to stillness. [detachment from desires, aversions and compulsions]
The myriad creatures all rise together [the world of appearance arises each moment in people’s minds]
And I watch their return. [our nature is to seek reality in the end, perhaps after lifetimes of suffering]
The teaming creatures
All return to their separate roots. [turn within themselves]
Return to one's roots is known as stillness. [peace, bliss, liberation]
This is what is meant by returning to one's destiny. [the end of delusion and becoming a harmonious motion of God-in-action]
Returning to one's destiny is known as the constant. [all else ends in destruction, only harmonious being endures]
Knowledge of the constant is known as discernment. [true reliable timeless wisdom]
Woe to him who wilfully innovates while ignorant of the constant.
But should one act from knowledge of the constant
One's action will lead to impartiality, [the opposite of fanaticism, oppression and aggression]
Impartiality to kingliness, [harmonious effective custodianship, true leadership, integration rather than disintegration]
Kingliness to heaven, [dwelling in reality]
Heaven to the way, [flowing with reality]
The way to perpetuity, [enduring vitality and everlasting life]
And to the end of one's days one will meet with no danger." [no decay, no disease, no death] (Tao Te Ching)

Kabbalah

“"The Book of Concealed Mystery" is the book of the equilibrium of balance... For before there was equilibrium, countenance beheld not countenance. [no computation so no perception]...

This equilibrium hangeth in that region which is negatively existent in the Ancient One. [potentiality as opposed to actuality, quantum rather than classical]...

Thus were those powers equiponderated which were not yet in perceptible existence. [computation has not yet given rise to simulation so nothing is perceptible since there are no perceivers and no perceptual process]...

In His form ... existeth the equilibrium: it is incomprehensible, it is unseen...

... the kingdom of the restored world [this simulation run] was formed from the kingdom of the destroyed world... [unbalanced force, unstructured computation, chaos]...

It was fomless and void, and darkness upon the face of the deep, [prior to the simulation] and the Spirit of the Elohim vibrating upon the face of the waters [pure computational potential (spirit) combining with representational potential (the waters)]...

But there are excavations of excavations. (The excavation is the receptacle, like that which is hollowed out, or carved out, like a cave... [the excavations are dynamical information spaces or worlds within worlds]...

"And the Elohim said let there be light, and there was light [perception leading to empirical dynamics, or animation] ... since He Himself spake, and it was done...

Like as it is written: "And the Elohim saw the substance of the light, that it was good."...

Microprosopus [simulator] was at first alone ( ... separated from his bride [the simulation world]). But all things returned into the unity. (... Microprosopus returned to his bride [the simulator starts and the simulation begins]" (The Book of Concealed Mystery, "Kabbalah Unveiled", trans S.L. MacGreggor Mathers from the Latin)

“It is said that before the Ancient of the Ancient Ones, the Concealed One of the Concealed Ones, instituted the formation of the King (under certain members and paths of Micropsrosopus) [the simulator] and the diadems of the diadems (that is, the varied coverings whereby the superfluity of the Lights is circumscribed) [the data structures and functions that harness the representational and computational capacity of the computational space]; beginning and end existed not (that is there was neither communication nor reception) [prior to the operation of the computational space and the manifestation of the cosmos there is no computation so there can be no existence and no change]

Therefore He carved out (that is, hollowed out a space by which he might flow in) [the transcendent computational space through which transcendent information flows] and instituted proportions in Himself (in as many ways as the Lights of His Understanding could be received, whence arose the paths of the worlds), and spread out before Him a certain veil (that is, produced a certain nature, by which His infinite Light could be modified, which was the first Adam); [this is like the foundational 'program' in the computational space, its "opertaing system"] and therein carved out and distributed the kings and their forms by a certain proportion (that is all creatures under a condition of proper activity; by which He Himself might be known and loved); [the various data structures and functions that combine to manifest the simulator] but they did not subsist... [once the simulator begins functioning the data structures no longer reign, it is the simulator that is the new king]

That is the same thing which is said, Gen xxxvi. 29: "And these are the kings which reigned in the land of Edom, before that there reigned a king over the children of Israel." [the land of Israel is the virtual world, and the children are virtual systems]... The land of Edom “is the place where all judgements are found" [the computational space]

The Keeper of Israel [simulator] neither slumbereth nor sleepeth.

as it is written Exod. iv. 22 "Israel is my first-born son." " (Greater Holy Assembly, "Kabbalah Unveiled", trans S.L. MacGreggor Mathers from the Latin)

“God, the most Holy One ... is called the Living One.

He hath been formed, and yet as it were He hath not been formed. He hath been conformed, so that He may sustain all things; yet is He not formed, seeing that He is not discovered. [no outer aspect so "He" is not an object in any world but is the origin of all worlds, and "He" has a definite form like a finite state automata that sustains or simulates all things. There are definite information theoretic constraints.]

He is that highest Light concealed with all concealments and He is not found ["He" is the hidden source of the simulation or projection, i.e. a computer game character cannot perceive the computer, hence it is concealed]

[In this text they develop a detailed analogy of the transcendent origin of reality as a head, implying a consciousness.]

... since this Head is the supreme of all the supernals, hence He is only symbolised as a head alone without body, for the purpose of establishing all things. [the transcendent process is an information process, it does not exist in an external world and has no need of a body or outer aspect. Everything exists 'within' it.]

The Supreme Head is that which is not known, nor comprehended, nor designated, and that (Head) comprehendeth all things.

The skull of the White Head hath not beginning, but its end is the convexity of its joining together, which is extended, and shineth.

... From this convexity of the joining together of this White Skull daily distileth a dew [computational potential] into Microprosopus [simulator], into that space which is called Heaven...[representation and iteration combine to produce the transcendent space]

And His head is filled with that dew... and in that Skull is the Supernal Wisdom concealed, who is found and who is not found. [transcendent information that defines all empirical existence]

... from Him are all the Lights illuminated...["He" animates all simulated forms and phenomena]

He the most Holy Ancient One is found to have three heads, which are contained in the one Head. [triune nature, computation, simulator & virtual world - i.e. Father, Son & holy ghost]

The conformation of Him, the Most Holy Ancient One, is instituted through one form, which is the ideal Syntagma of all forms. [the finite state automata process as modeled by SMN]

The same is the Concealed Supernal Wisdom...

And this is called ODN, Eden, or the supernal Paradise, concealed with all occultations.

And it is the Brain of the Most Holy Ancient one, and that Brain is expanded on every side.

Therefore is it extended into Eden, or another Paradise, [there is a superior and inferior Paradise, the transcendent and empirical existential contexts] and from this is Eden or Paradise formed forth. [the emprical world is thereby simulated and brought into being]

Unto the Ancient One pertain all the Superiors [transcendent aspects], and unto Microprosopus [the simulator within the computational space or the first Adam within the supernal Eden] the Inferiors. [empirical or virtual aspects]

... the Name of the Ancient One [the essence or synthesis of its power, i.e. computation] is concealed in all things, neither is it found. [it is the sight within seeing but cannot itself be seen]

But those letters which depend from the Ancient One, [empirical forms] so that they may be established, are all inferiors [virtual forms]...

And therefore is the Holy Name [computational essence] alike concealed and manifest.

For that which is concealed [the inner aspect of all things] pertaineth unto the Most Holy Ancient One, the Concealed in all things. [i.e the cosmic computational process IS the inner computational essence (consciousness) within all simulated forms]

But that, indeed, which is manifested, because it dependeth, belongeth to Microprosopus [simulated forms]...

And therefore do all the blessings [aspects of manifest existence] require both concealment and manifestation. [both inner and outer, inner essence and outer appearance, computation and virtual form]

The place of comencement is found from the Most Holy Ancient One, and it is illuminated by the Influence. That is the Light of Wisdom.

And it is extended in thirty-two directions, [the 10 numbers and 22 letters in Hebrew, this implies symbolic representation and also the Tree of Life] and departeth from that hidden brain, from that Light which existeth in Itself.

... this Wisdom instituteth a formation and produceth a certain river [computational stream] which floweth down and goeth forth to water the garden [animate programs].

And it entereth into the head of Microprosopus [simulator], and formeth a certain other brain [AI mind]

Thence it is extended and floweth forth into the whole body, [virtual existence] and watereth all those plants (of the garden of Eden) [virtual universe].

This is that which standeth written, Gen ii.9: "And a river went out of Eden to water the garden &c"

All things depend mutually from Himself, and mutually are bound together unto Himself ... all things are one ... the Ancient One, is all things, neither from Him can anything whatsoever be separated.

... that river that floweth on and goeth forth is called the World, [experiential stream producing an experiential existential context] which is ever to come and ceaseth never.

... all the lights [individual consciousness] which shine from the Supreme Light, the Most Concealed of All, are all paths (leading) toward that Light.

And all those lights adhere mutually together... [consciousness is a single unified process]

And they shine mutually into each other, neither are they divided separately from each other.” (Lesser Holy Assembly, "Kabbalah Unveiled", trans S.L. MacGreggor Mathers from the Latin)