Karma, Metapsychological
Art & Raja
Yoga
Yoga
by
William W. Higgins
ABSTRACT
The
forthcoming concepts were originally presented at the XIII International
Congress of Vedanta, SS Rama Rao Pappu, Founder and Director, as a thirteen
page paper, at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, Friday, September 13,2002.
Certain ideas, arising from the first presentation, needed to be addressed and
further clarified, namely, the establishment of a genuine new school of art,
entitled, Metapsychological Art along with its interdisciplinary relations to
philosophy of mind, theology, art and psychoanalysis, both East and West.
Additionally, in terms of the history of ideas, this school of art legitimately
transcends Abstract Expressionism and Analytical Cubism, and further differentiates
itself from its predecessors through the unique fact that it is equally valid
East and West. Traditionally, the conceptual disciplines of philosophy and
theology, and their symbolic practices and products, namely, art and religion,
have provided civilizations with more or less applicable and adequate windows
into the realm of Spirit as it has d/evolved over the past few thousand years.
By Spirit we mean the fundamental principal of motion in
existence, that which constitutes the basis of our reality of space, time, and
the world as we live it. It is we, as philosophers, theologians,
psychoanalysts, scientists, and those of the tribe who possess some knowledge
of the ultimate principals, who are the one's vested with the
responsibility to provide applicable and adequate principles regarding
these ultimate facts of the reality of our existence, its reason and order.
It is in the sense of anticipating
the next logical steps the direction of these disciplines are now moving,
rather than simply a scholarly comparison and contrast of the past, leading to
the present that determine the content of its subject matter and the style of
Meatapsychological Art's presentation. A new school of art requires both
empirically verifiable concrete methods complimented by conceptual systems.
This next step anticipated and taken by Metapsychological Art concretely
involves methodology applied through the medium of oils and canvas inwardly
clarifying the jiva of Raja Yoga and/or empirical ego of western psychoanalytic
theory (Freud and Jung). The clarification of this persona, equally
acknowledged by philosophy of mind both East and West is a direct derivation
from what Patanjali (renowned author of Yoga Sutras) speaks of as subjective
impressions, what Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko (founders of Abstract
Expressionism) calls the 'massa confusia', or what Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology would have
regarded as making the invisible visible. The identification of this normally
invisible and unconscious persona in the
colors of a mosaic of subjective impressions functions as a symbolic montage, a
personalized Mandala, relating directly to deciphering ones karmic destiny and
spiritual purpose pragmatically; this inner mosaic is either in direct relation
to one's outer mosaic of existence composed of the raga (attraction) and dvesha
(repulsion) of samsara (phenomena in one's life world consisting of space,time
and the world as we live it. Taken directly from Patanjali and Raja Yoga
itself, Asamprajanatah and Samprajanatah Samadhi are methods of concentration
using one's self, symbols and mediums, through oils and canvas to arrive at the
basics of Metapsychological Art. to aid
in reaching the goals of transcendence and 'freedom from'.
In this age of tremendous spiritual
metamorphosis, it is my sincerest wish this new
pragmatically focused conceptual step forward regarding the redefinition
and restatement of the purposes and goals of art, specifically oils and canvas,
and its relation to Mind, made possible by defining some common denominators
and understanding their origins and relations, both East and West, will be
welcomed by intellectual and artistic communities, both East and West.
Best Wishes In All Your Endeavors,
Most Sincerely,
William Woods Higgins,
USA , 2010.
INTRODUCTION
The etymology of the word metapsychological
from its Classical Greek origins spells its meaning in the direction towards
the center of the sphere and relies on ends within the possibilities of human
experience. Anybody can do it. Please note:
meta means that which is
beyond and with simultaneously.
psyche' means the soul,
the essence of being human, the self-ego , the citta-jiva complex.
logos means the
principal/principle of intelligence within the system.
All real art symbolically
expresses Spirit.[1],
the normally unconscious principal of motion in the human
psyche', holding not only the purpose of one's spiritual existence, but also the jiva/empirical ego
which is the normally unconscious persona accounting for the reason and
order in consciousness' relation to nature, at the pre-reflective level.
More focally, Metapsychological Art is
making the normally unconscious and invisible(that which is beyond and with
simultaneously) principal of intelligence (logos) defined as the citta-jiva/self-empirical
ego complex of the human psyche' visible and a potential object for
consciousness. In the perspective of the History of Ideas in the West, with
particular emphasis on metaphysics and epistemology, Metapsychological Art even
provides the applicable phenomenological tool needed by Merleau-Ponty to
adequately finish the unfinished masterpiece, The Visible and The
Invisible .[2] In terms of the medium of oil painting it is
what Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock needed to extend Abstract Expressionism
beyond the tabula resa or massa
confusia, respectively. In this way, Metapsychological Art, lays claim to
its legitimacy as the first genuine new school of art beyond Abstract
Expressionism. In terms of Raja Yoga, especially Asamprajanatah and
Samprajanatah Samadhi as defined by Patanjali, it provides not only a
pragmatic tool, but a school of art equally valid both East and West.
MAIN BODY
The object of this discourse on Karma,
Metapsychological Art, and Raja Yoga, is, in actuality, a theme
intrinsic to philosophy, art, psychoanalysis,and religion, both East and West; this
object is Kaivalya Moksha and/or Self-knowledge. More focally, this essay
is concerned with combining some comparisons to western philosophy of mind,
including psychoanalytic theory, with the pragmatic processes and conceptual
theories of Raja Yoga for acquiring
further degrees of and/or Self-Knowledge.
The particular goal of this essay
is to forward a legitimate new school of art equally valid both East and
West, namely, Metapsychological Art, that supersedes a form of western painting known as Abstract
Expressionism.[3] The new
school of art is a product based on formally applying established methods of
concentration, known in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
as Asamprajanatah and
Samprajanatah Samadhi, to the medium of oils and canvas.
Samprajanatah Samadhi-Sutra 17
17. The consciousness of an object is attained by concentration upon
its fourfold nature: the form, through examination; the quality (or guna),
through discriminative participation; the purpose, through inspiration (or
bliss); and the soul, through identification.
Asamprajanatah Samadhi-Sutras
18&19
18. A further stage of samadhi is achieved when, through one pointed
thought, the outer activity is quieted. In this stage, the chitta is responsive
only to subjective impressions.
19. The samadhi just
described passes not beyond the bound of the phenomenal world; it passes not
beyond the Gods, and those concerned with the concrete world.[4]
In terms of philosophy and art, both East
and West, this tested method concretely clarifies the tabula
resa and massa confusia, of Mark Rothko and Jackson
Pollock respectively, left to the art world these types of works that became
mistaken for the culmination of their works. This misconceptions about the
medium and direction of oils and canvas, effectively threw the art world, in
general, into relativistic disarray. Of course, both these primary representatives and founders of the
school of art known as Abstract Expressionism left us in this shape of disarray
because of their premature exits from human existence;they both died at
relatively an early age for an artist making a substantive advance in a master
class medium. Thus, what we are concerned with in the formulation of
Metapsychological Art is the next dictate of reason and/or step in the progression
of this medium in its redefinition congruent with an essential movement of
Spirit. This direction of the medium from the subject-matter of the
visible to the more invisible, in this era, from theoretical physics or oil
painting requires identifying the dictates made visible and significant through
clarifying the montage derived from the projection of the subjective
impressions onto the instrumentality, the tools of the medium of oils and
canvas. In a psychoanalytic or phenomenological perspective, or the perspective
of Raja Yoga, the terminology would be making the phenomena and the persona
connected with it, within the unconscious spectrum of the citta/self, a
visible mask in the mosaic; it tells a story. This mask reveals the
identity of the jiva, in terms of Patanjali, and/or the empirical ego in terms of
19th and 20th Century Philosophy of Mind
and psychoanalytic theory, Freud and Jung. The perspective reveals the reason
and order in our existence, guiding us to our destiny, making visible who or
what lies at the basis of the intentions behind our every action.
The jiva accounts for the raga
(attraction) and dvesha (repulsion) in samsara (space,
time,and the world as we live it); it is likewise identical to
the empirical ego which is the unconscious persona accounting for
the spontaneous encoding and decoding of phenomena in the spatiality and
motility of the body, within space, time,and the world as we live
it. The jiva is the fundamental persona
in the citta, the empirical ego is the fundamental persona
within the self, they are both
beyond and with us simultaneously. In our normal consciousness we remain in a
state of avidya (ignorance) concerning them, given our normal means of
knowing ourselves through reflection on our self. Projecting these subjective
impressions onto oils and canvas, as pieces of a puzzle let us say, they can be
made visible in increasing degrees, if it is to become a viable object for
conscious study in the pragmatic furtherance of one's self-knowledge.
Giving figure to these mirrors of our self
is analogous to learning how to read the Braille our spiritual purpose is
written in. Thus piecing and reading these fragments within not only provides a
key to our self-knowledge, but our spiritual destiny and evolution as well.
Metapsychological Art is, therefore, a specialized formulation the meditative
technique of Asamprajanatah and Samprajanatah Samadhi in Raja
Yoga, a reading lesson concerning the Braille of Spirit known as either
ignorance and/or avidya, the unconscious in the psychoanalytic theories
of Freud and Jung,, or the invisible in the metaphysical and epistemological
spectrum of philosophy.
Regarding the process of acquiring
self-knowledge, we are essentially speaking of combining Asamprajanatah
and Samprajanatah Samadhi with the medium of oils and canvas,
effectively producing (1) not only a genuine new school of art beyond Abstract
Expressionism known as Metapsychological Art, but also (2) a new school
of art equally valid both East and West, aligning this medium once again, with
an essential motion of Spirit in this epoch.
The identification and
development of these self-portraits, as such, is derived from the subjective
impressions immanent within a montage of colors and shapes derived from canvas,
which functions as a Personal Mandala, which are the results
of Asamprajanatah and Samprajanatah
Samadhi projected onto the canvas, and in turn becoming an object for
consciousness when slowed to this extent that anybody can practice and utilize,
empirically verifying it through first-hand experience. In other words, this is
not an axiom that must be believed on the word of the author. Too many words of
“enlightened ones” have been the downfall of many movements in transcendental
meditation. Buddhism, alchemy, the process of individuation, or
self-actualization, to name only a few have become all talk with no
experiential correlate.
Strictly in terms of oils
painting, in western civilization, this presents the world with a step beyond Abstract Expressionism, which
progressed only as far as the montage (massa confusia), as described by
Pollock, or what can be labeled the tabula resa, left to the art world
in the final progressions, reflected in the works of Rothko.
The transcendence and formal
conceptualization of this new school of art, Metapsychological Art, as art, is primarily concerned with
clarifying the massa confusia of Jackson Pollock or going beyond
and through the tabula resa of Mark Rothko, for the
purpose of transforming these into a self-portrait of the jiva/empirical
ego. Its formulation and pragmatic extension into the medium of oils and
canvas is the next logical step within the mediums of oils and canvas, having
interdisciplinary relations to philosophy of mind, theology, yoga, Buddhism,
and psychoanalysis, and many more such disciplines of mind and Spirit.
This concrete process presents one with an
instrument through which one can figure and give figure to the aspect of the
self carrying an individual's past life.
In addition to this, upon learning to read this Braille of the mind's
eye, it symbolically communicates one's spiritual purpose, one's karmic
inheritance, as well as a destiny into a journey portraying and explaining the
reason and order in one's being. In terms of western
psychoanalytic theory, this turn inward, this same process of perceptual
consciousness (the for-itself) is an aspect of the self known as the empirical
ego, and its archaic aspect is attributed to biological inheritance of
the id.[5]
Couched in the psychoanalytic vocabulary
of Freud the ego, id, and the residues of these egos, which we
wish to identify in the phenomenological self-portraits we call
metapsychological art, are described as follows:
Whereas
the ego is essentially representative of the external world, of reality, the
super-ego stands in contrast to it as the representative of the internal world,
of the id…in the id, which is capable of being inherited, are harboured
residues of the existence of countless egos; and when the ego forms its
superego out of the id, it may only be reviving shapes of former egos and
bringing them to resurrection. [6]
To provide further common ground,
East and West, upon which we can base our discussion, Carl Jung begins his
essay, entitled, Aion: Phenomenology of Self, with the following
definitions of the self (citta) and the ego (jiva):
Investigation
of the psychology of the unconscious confronted me with facts which required
the formulation new concepts. One of these concepts is the self.
The entity so denoted is not meant to take the place of the one that has always
been known as the ego, but includes it in a supraordinate way. We
understand the ego as the complex factor to which all conscious contents are
related. It forms, as it were, the centre of the field of consciousness; and,
in so far as this comprises the empirical personality, the ego is the subject
of all personal acts of consciousness. The relation of the psychic content of
the ego forms the criterion of its consciousness, for no content can be
conscious unless it is represented to a subject.
…Theoretically,
no limits can be set to the field of consciousness, since it is capable of
indefinite extension. Empirically, however, it always finds its limit when it
comes up against the unknown. This consists of everything we do not
know, which, therefore, is not related to the ego as the centre of the field of
consciousness. The unknown falls into two groups those which are outside and
can be experienced by the senses, and those which are inside and are
experienced immediately. The first group comprises the unknown in the outer
world; the second the unknown in the inner world. We call this latter territory
the unconscious.[7]
Regardless of spiritual or biological
origins and orientation, the self-portrait of this jiva and/or empirical
ego many times, when clarified, will display a figure from the past with
archaic ornamentation of a particular historical period and tribe. For
instance, in headdresses and robes that have tribal or historical relevance,
the realization of whom can be associated with genuine royalties (Raja
Sanskrit=royal,regal), and a genuine past life in relation to these
royalties, resides within the simple question one must answer as to why this is
psychologically significant at all? On the level of a descriptive statement,
when presented with a defined historical period, one is presented with a
defined historical period and individuals within this matrix forming a mosaic
relating to the mosaic in one's present montages in the milieu on has
inherited in this incarnation. Regardless of spiritual or biological claims as
to their origin, the universality, which makes this both applicable and
adequate, comes with the fact that everybody has within him or her self,
empirical egos or jivas; the subjectivity comes into play to
the extent that each individual is possessed by a particular jiva/empirical
ego, revealing a particular character or mask attributable to a particular
tribe or historical period.[8] Knowing that one's reason and order in
consciousness' relation to nature is explainable in terms of a jiva/empirical
ego is on a much different order than what this or that particular jiva/empirical
ego means in terms of the subjectivity or particular spiritual orientation of
this or that person's perspective. This allows for the understanding others can
provide, in the presence of one's life world, if they are within the same hologram[9]/montage
synchronized with both time dimensions.
The proverbial problem in the West, which
Metapsychological Art transcends is:
But this
creatively active aspect of the psychic nucleus can come into play only when
the ego gets rid of all purposive and wishful aims and tries to get to a
deeper,more basic form of existence. The ego must be able to listen attentively
and to give itself, without any further design or purpose, to that inner urge
towards growth. Many existentialist philosophers try to describe this state,
but they only go as far as stripping off the illusions of consciousness. They go
right to the door of the unconscious and then fail to open it.[10]
Metapsychological Art opens the door and
allows one so determined entrance into the unconscious as well as the
possibilities of deciphering past lives and their meanings regarding one's spiritual
or karmic destiny and purpose. It allows one to find reason and order in one's
present incarnation.
If one is new at this, which we all are to
some extent, just consider this method of using oils and canvas, as well as
references to the Mandala and the exact identities of past lives the
self-portraits-in-time as an introduction to the greatest video game ever
played as the resurrection of archaic vestiges bringing to life a new age
of spiritual transformation redefining the self, and concepts and practices of
evolution towards the sacred centered within the consciousness of us all.
In these Magic Theaters there are
players symbolically expressed and recognized in this and that role of both
spatio-temporal continuums, internal and external, past and present or future.
This synchronization of inner and outer, the present and historical mosaics
within one's self/chitta, is what one is essentially attempting to
understand in providing insight into and guidance about one's karmic destiny
and spiritual purpose.[11]
The master class medium of oils and
canvas, be it Abstract Expressionism or Analytical Cubism, had not progressed
to the interdisciplinary level needed, in the West, to forward philosophy,
psychoanalytic theory, beyond the tabula resa of reflective conscious
and clarify the massa confusia within the unconscious. Metapsychological
Art presents itself as an interdisciplinary tool needed for the supersession of
Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology, and Pollock, and Rothko's Abstract
Expressionism, that is applicable, adequate, internally consistent and
empirically verifiable. This interdisciplinary problem is generated by the
previously unspecified relation the medium of oils and canvas finds itself in
relation to Asamprajanatah and Samprajanatah Samadhi, the concept of the
Mandala, and Eastern methods of concentration, in general.
The importance of these interdisciplinary
windows and/or facets of Spirit are exactly what we as philosophers,
psychoanalysts, theologians and artists are polishing creating greater light
gathering approaches to the same subject, the object of our respective
disciplines, Spirit ItSelf. For instance, Merleau-Ponty's internally consistent
ontology, supplies psychoanalysis with its much needed primitive ontological
facts of the for-itself to be based in the pre-reflective orders of
consciousness relation to nature. The previous twenty-five hundred years of
philosophy of mind reduced the primitive facts of the for-itself on the
reflectively posited agents and objects, known as Materialism and Idealism.
This new ontology of the for-itself, in western philosophy of mind, relates
Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, and Abstract Expressionism, in general, with
the methods of the East, in general, Patanjali, in particular, and in doing so
Metapsychological Art not only opens the door to the unconscious, but also
providing a common denominator East and West, the jiva and empirical
ego, with a defined interdisciplinary paradigm that has the capacity to
redefine the essence of being human and the spiritual purpose and goals in the
future (d)evolution of human culture.
Regarding the ontological status of the
order and reason in the unconscious and pre-conscious region of the self, both
East and West, now bestow the philosophical status of being ontologically
primitive on these regions of consciousness and its relation to nature. The
phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty making this the new fundamental reality of the
for-itself validated Freud and Jung's psychoanalytic theories of the self and
psychical apparatus, thus also placing metaphysics and epistemology, East and
West, on an equal playing field, with another common denominator..
Thus, concrete methodology conjoined with
the conceptual framework of a new school of art, equally valid East and West,
has been pragmatically developed so that the goal of Raja Yoga, freedom from
the web of samsara and samskara, can be realized, identified,
understood, and transcended. As such the process of individuation and
Raja Yoga take identical paths, and have many of the same goals. In the normal
course of human existence, samsara and samskara are processes we
remain in a state of avidya about. A primary reason
for this is they are unconsciously intertwined, invisible and at the
pre-reflective level of perceptual consciousness. The weave of this web
therefore is composed with an unrealized and invisible fabric harnessing one's
being in a tapestry of bondage composed of an external mosaic(samsara)
attached in some synchronized fashion to an internal (samskara) phenomena
centered upon and maintaining a logic of relations due to persona whose mask is
that of a jiva, an empirical ego. Thus, the method and product of
Metapsychological Art conjoined through Asamprajanatah and Samprajanatah
Samadhi to make visible a normally internal and invisible mosaic within a
montage of subjective and karmic impressions evolving into a self-portrait
synchronizing the internal with the external mosaics of one's life. The
meditative method is used to derive shapes that evolve into a composition with
oils and canvas of this type of self-portraiture. To the extent that the
relation of these internal and external mosaics remain unconscious or in a
state of avidya, or progress in their visibility to a Rorshachian massa
confusia, we are further in our concrete acquisition of a degree of
self-knowledge, we have taken a further step on the road to freedom from
the interlocking web of samsara and samskara.
Our major goal as artists,
philosophers and theologians is understanding and expressing either
symbolically, in an artistic medium, or conceptually in the language of
literature, the shapes dominating the intersection of human beings intersection
with Spirit. In other words, these two circles represent the individual self
and its intersection with the collective Self, Plato's Realm of Forms,
Aristotle's Mind of God (Nous Theos), and/or the Atman with the Brahman.
The region of intersection, however transparent or opaque at the level of lived
through experience is where the resurrection of personae from
transmigrations (past lives) bonds the individual self through samskara with
the mosaic of its inherited samsara. The square is the symbolic medium,
oils and canvas, in this case, upon
which oils are applied, symbols are drawn and/or meditative techniques as those
of Raja Yoga engage the symbols and plane of the canvas and derive shapes from
the canvas and montages of color that develop from the projected subjective
impressions.
When the phrase “derived from the
canvas” is used it refers to where and how shapes and colors come from. It as
if they arise in an ether coming from behind the canvas. The method of
left-handed drawing or automatic writing is eventually commenced when the hand
seems magnetically held on the canvas as it creates definitions in the montage
of colors. This eventually develops a montage of shapes that becomes a
holographic Magic Theater of sorts, a window to the individual soul and
World-Soul alike, and the artist can actually enter the space-time dimension
and develop an entire series of siddhis. Siddhis are what we, in
the West, would classify as alchemical, magical or psychic powers, very similar
to those in the Carlos Castaneda series. The creation of these holographic
montages and Self-Portraits-In-Time is the very object of
Metapsychological Art. The medium of oils and canvas, traditionally a Master
Class Medium, has always had the potential to define and identify the shape of
Spirit to the cultural community. All Master Class Mediums share this potential
to make the dominant shape of spirit actual. Given the medium and methods of
Metapsychological Art it likewise becomes a basis for ceremonial magic in the
future, but this topic must be realized pragmatically in actions rather than
merely conjectured about in words.
With the advent of modern art,
psychoanalysis, phenomenology, modern physics and mathematics and their
supersession to the previous Euclidean shape of space and time previously
guiding the concept of the dominant shape of Spirit in western civilization, we
are living in a period of a metamorphosis in the shape of Spirituality. This
fundamental change, if it is to have any meaning at all, involves a change from
one dominant shape of Spirit to a new shape of Spirit evolving in the midst of
the previous one devolving. The fundamental referents of this change involve
the fact that the dominant shape of Spirit in western civilization is based on
the persona generic to the Arcanum (Latin: Arcanum=Mystery) related to
the 2000 to 2200 year cycle we are in. This persona is based on those
indicated in Egyptian Mystery Religions and the Kabalah;[12]
this cycle is based on the constellation the sun rise through at the Vernal
Equinox,which changes due to a phenomenon known as the precession of the
equinoxes. In other words, to make a long story short, every 2000 to 2200 years
this constellation changes because of the wobble of magnetic North. We are at
the year 2000 and this is not insignificant. Ca. 0AD to 2100 AD has the Martyr
figure, Arcanum XII, as the dominant shape of Spirit. We see this in the
Abrahamic Tradition as symbolically expressed in the Drama of Jesus
Christ; in the Greco-Roman Religion, the other primary offspring of
Egyptian Mystery Religions, the Martyr is symbolically expressed in the Prometheus
Trilogy, through the second play, Prometheus Bound,
we know through works of the playwright Aeschylus.
The new archetype coming into dominance
in the West is Arcanum IX, whose persona is that of the Wiseman/Sage,
which has always been the goal of spirituality if the East. As such the spatio-temporal continuum of
looking for the essence of being at the end of reflective line segments past,
present and future, is now becoming directed towards the center of the the
sphere of consciousness in the ever present unconscious and pre-reflective
reason and order embodied in the center of a living being. This new shape of
Spirit in the West is a fundamental aspect of the shifts taking place in the
onset of this New Notion of Spirit, the Wiseman/Sage replacing the Martyr, and
wedding of Eastern and Western philosophy through this notable common
denominator evolving with the expression of this New Notion of Spirit. The
new shape of Spirit in the West makes the Wiseman/Sage the common denominator
being sought for by the Ecumenical Movement.
What is considered order through the
perspective of the previous dominant shape of Spirituality might be considered
chaos, when in reality it is a new order evolving in tandem with a new shape of
Spirituality, as that coming into being with the Wiseman/Sage. The direction of
Spirituality changes with this changing shape of existence itself. It is in this sense Metapsychological Art
realigns itself with Spirit and an essential movement of Spirit in this age. The
East and its inner sciences of Adhyatma-Vidya are all-important in this respect
and it explains some of the magnetism of the West towards the East. The method
and medium of Metapsychological Art enhance the mrditative techniques of Raja
Yoga that is compatible with Eastern and now Western disciplines of Spirituality. It is a
process of maintaining the fleeting images within the pre-reflective perceptual
consciousness order and reason in relation to the unconscious facets of the
self to the extent that they clarify their inner relationships with those of
the outer samsara of the individual. In so many words this is the
clarification of a mosaic with the
self-portrait of the jiva derived from subjective impressions analogous to a Rorschach Inkblot within unconscious, with
a medium which has the real potential to actualize certain dimensions of the
spirit//Spirit, can reveal the synchronization of both inner and outer mosaics
or their lack thereof, in terms of one's spiritual destiny attempting to
balance one's inherited karmic debt.
One's karma is immanent within the
reason and order of the pre-reflective attraction (raga) and repulsion (dvesha)
of everyday life. The intentions of the jiva can be viewed in various
degrees in conjunction with the contents of mosaics of samskara made
visible through the self-portraiture of transmigration by the methods, the
meditative techniques of Raja Yoga alone. The addition Metapsychological Art
makes is a further attempt to define these normally invisible realities which
remain with us, yet beyond our normal
methods of statement making that is both applicable and adequate to explain the
reason and order in existence, in terms of space, time, and the world as we live
it.
The conceptual relation of Karma,
Metapsychological Art and Raja Yoga is clear. The pragmatic
clarification of this subject matter, the patterns and images of samskara
and their relation to the worldly existence of each requires the efforts of the
individual.
Any individual, so inclined and
motivated, can practice this form of painting as anyone so inclined can
practice Yoga. One needs only a square or round canvas (the
primitive symbol of the self/citta), yellow, red, blue, black and white,
which are normally applied full strength, as images and shapes are
derived, not contrived, from a symbol or set of symbols, and the meditative
techniques of Raja Yoga, Asamprajanatah and Samprajanatah Samadhi.
The hand will eventually move like a magnet drawn to the canvas, and the images
will evolve as such. Gaining an identity of the jiva/empirical ego in
the unconscious spectrum of the self/citta is foremost in development of
these holographic montages. These are inner phenomenal images and patterns of samskara.
All else will follow accordingly,but it can require patience as well as one's
entire life giving figure to this spectrum of consciousness. Any claims to
adeptness and stages of development regarding one's progress in these spiritual
matters are the province of the subject and practitioner. The author lays claim
to providing an applicable and adequate means of taking a pragmatic step in the
development of one's self-knowledge through the practice of these techniques
combined with the conceptual systems identified in this essay, and nothing
more. Enlightenment is a judgment of the individual regarding the individual's
progress in these dimensions of existence.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Aeschylus. Prometheus
Bound. Translated with an Introduction by Philip Vellacott. London:
Penguin Books, 1961.
Aristotle. Metaphysics.
Translated by Philip Wheelwright. New York, Odyssey Press, 1935.
_______, Poetics, Translated by
S. H. Butcher, with introductory essay by Francis Fergusson. New York: Hill and
Wang, 1989.
Benjamine, Elbert [Zain, C. C., pseud.]. The
Sacred Tarot: The Doctrine of Kabalism Los Angeles:The Church of
Light, 1969.
Freud, Sigmund, The Ego and The
Id, Revised and Edited by James Strachey, Translated by Joan
Riviere, Norton Library, W. W. Norton and Company, New York, 1960.
Hegel, G. F. W., Phenomenology of
Spirit , Analysis of Text and Foreword by J. N. Findlay, Translated
by A. V. Miller, Oxford University Press, 1977.
Hesse, Hermann, The Glass Bead
Game, Foreword by Theodore Ziolkowski, Henry Holt and Company,
Inc., New York, 1990.
Jung, Carl Gustav, The Portable
Jung, Edited with Introduction by Joseph Campbell, Translated by R.
F. C. Hull, Penguin Books,New York, Copyright Viking Press, Inc., 1971.
The
Archetypes and The Collective Unconscious, Volume 9, I,of the
Collected Works, Bollingen Series XX, Translated by R.F.C. Hull, Princeton
University Press, 1968.
Man
And His Symbols, Edited with Introduction by Carl Gustav Jung, Dell
publishing, Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1964, New York.
Merleau-Ponty,Maurice, Phenomenology
of Perception, Translated by Colin Smith, London:Rutledge &
Kegan Paul, New York: Humanities Press, 1962.
___________, The Visible and The Invisible. Trans.
Lingis, Evanston, Northwestern University Press, 1968.
Patanjali, The Yoga Sutra of
Patanjali, Translation and Commentary by Georg Feuerstein, Inner
Traditions International, Rochester, Vermont, 1989.
Plato, Republic,
Translated with Introduction and Notes by Francis MacDonald Cornford, Oxford
University Press,1967.
Puligandla, Ramakrishna. That
Thou Art: The Wisdom of the Upanishads. Fremont, CA: Asian Humanities
Press, 2002.
__________________ Fundamentals
of Indian Philosophy. Revised Edition. New Delhi: D. K. Printworld,
1997.
Radharkrishnan, S., The Philosophy of the Upanishads. London:
George,
Allen & Unwin, 1935.
Redfield,
James,
The Celestine Prophecy: An Adventure. Hoover, AL: Satori
Publishing, 1993.
_____________
The Tenth Insight: Holding the Vision. New York: Warner
Books, 1996.
[1]
Fergusson, Francis Ford, Introduction to Aristotle's Poetics.
Taken from the following quote: Poets,
like painters, musicians, and dancers, Aristotle says, all 'imitate action'
in their various ways. By 'action' he means not physical activity, but a movement of spirit, and
by 'imitation' he means not superficial copying, but the representation of the
countless human forms which
the life of the human spirit may take in the media of arts: musical sound,
paint, word, or gesture. Aristotle does not discuss the idea here, for it was
commonplace, in his time, that the arts all (in some sense) imitate action…
arts may be distinguished in three ways, according to: 1.) the object imitated, 2.) the
medium employed, 3.) the manner,
method. Pp. 4-5. Unfortunately, it is not by any means commonplace in
our times, but it should be, for it could serve as the basis for a judgment
about the specific artistic statement. This
type of criteria is generally lacking in the present day discussions of Master
Class Mediums, Master Class Art, and Masterpieces, in general.
[2] Merleau-Ponty, Maurice,The Visible and The Invisible.
Trans. Lingis, Evanston, Northwestern University Press, 1968.
[3] With all due respect to Abstract
Expressionists, they simply died to early to take their journey to the interior
self to the level of Metapsychological Art.
[4] Patanjali, Yoga Sutras.
[5] It should be noted here that Freud had to
account for this universal phenomenon of any individual's unconscious mind.
Because he was already in so much trouble with the Abrahamic clergy, it is
rather obvious, accounting for this aspect of existence in terms of a past
life,when the Abrahamic theology clearly defines the soul in terms of one life,
would have Inquisitionally banned his theory of the psychical apparatus from
any type of acceptance, because empirical egos are identical to the jiva which
is the basis of past lives in the Eastern Religions. It is also much easier to
understand why Jung, the co-founder of psychoanalysis eventually turned to the
East.
[6] Freud,
The Ego and The Id, pp.26-28. Freud was a medical doctor, and
based the redefinition of the essence of man on a Dualistic, body-soul separation. This
separation , allowed Freud, as it had worked for Descartes , to explain the reason and order
in existence outside the Abrahamic religious axiom of soul. More focally, this
psychical apparatus allowed him to dogmatically assert sexuality as a prime mover of human behavior, and
consistently explain the universal
phenomenon of an invisible and normally unconscious persona (jiva/empirical
ego) accounting for the reason and order
in the immediacy of the spatiality and motility of consciousness'
relation to nature (the for-itself)
without further steeping on the heads of rabbis and priests in Victorian Europe. Of course, we know Jung was not so cooperative, even when Freud offered him the lifetime Presidency
of the Psychoanalytic Society ,if Jung would just make a bulwark of his sexual
dogma and getaway from the black web of occultism and past lives which also
explain the reason and order in
consciousness' relation to nature as well as sexuality. Not being able to
turn to
western philosophy, he turned to the East, and the rest is history, a
history of affinity East and West that is becoming more and more
profound and relevant.
[7] Jung, Aion: The Phenomenology of
Self, pp. 139-141.Where we are going with this tool called
Metapsychological Art is better seen as a medium that relates one's self to
Spirit, and hopefully serves others in their evolutionary of spiritual
transformation processes. It is what is meant by living one's art, living one's
spirituality, rather than an elitist concept of art restricting this meaning of
using oils and canvas to simply a genuine new school of art beyond Abstract
Expressionism. To theologians and the religious communities of the onsetting
age, when showing one God,they will show one the God within rather than an idol
coming from an alien supersensible beyond. Metapsychological Art is an
art for everybody who wishes to define one's spiritual destiny to a greater
extent,and extent one can give figure to through one's own devices rather than
relying on the projections and suggestions of others' “authoritarian” or
“objective” meanings. This is not a library shelf philosophical, educational,
political,or psychoanalytical issue; it exists outside in the realities of
space, time, and the world as we live it. The results of these
resurrections from the unconscious mind of humanity can also be as
philosophically, educationally, politically, and psychoanalytically incorrect
as are the realities of space, time, and the world as we live it.
[8] Thus
when one asks another as to the meaning of this or that factor within the one's
self, and trusts the answer of another, it might be best figure it out for
one's self, through first-hand experience as opposed to trusting the commentary
of another.
[9] Robert Redfield uses this term in The
Celestine Prohecy and the Tenth Insight: Holding the
Vision. Holding the vision is exactly why the medium of oils and
canvas is being employed by the author. Hermann Hesse, a psychiatric outpatient
of Carl Gustav Jung, uses the term Magic Theaters in stead of holograms, in his
Nobel Prize winning work, The Glassbead Game.
[10] Jung, Carl Gustav, Man and His Symbols, p. 164.
[11]
What is meant essentially by the soul-mate system, or deja vu, both of which
are many times too loosely referred to in everyday life. They are all but
household terms in any male-female settings, etc.. Taking these coincidences
one step further into a symbolic medium one might be quite surprised as to
their spiritual meanings as to one's karmic destiny, which one will find is by
no means frivolous. It is the basis of Tantrism in contradistinction to
monastic and celibate approaches to
spirituality,mysticism, occultism and
alchemy.
[12] See Elbert Benjamine's, Doctrine of
Kabalism, Serial #48,The Church of Light. Read in its entirety,
paying special attention to Arcanum XII, The Martyr, and Arcanum IX, The
Wiseman/Sage.
No comments:
Post a Comment