Young built a helicopter and in so doing came to
an understanding of process and evolution. Arthur M. Young. That’s the short story. Science and
the laws of nature become a longer one. Purpose: an even longer one. In the
end, we come to an understanding with the number seven in creation mythologies.
And then there was light. I find it to be a fine western-style visualization technique.
Evolution is a purposive process, with a reflexive shape.
The first half is a fall into material determinism. Then there is a turn. And
the second half is the return to freedom. Rather than laws, there is this
freedom. Rather than statistics, there is individuation. Rather than objects,
there is action! Subject becomes object to see ‘itself.’
The seven stages are: Light, Nuclear, Atomic, Molecular,
Vegetable, Animal, Dominion. Then Light again! That first stage, Light, is
completely free. Since light travels naturally at the speed of
light, it’s outside of space and time, and has no mass. Pure intent.
The second stage, Nuclear, loses one element of freedom, and
things are Binding. There is substance; there is force. But there is also the
fog of probability. Wave? Particle? Karma.
Next, Atomic, loses another element, and Identity is gained.
There is center, order, property. Chemicals have moved in. Hydrogen. Oxygen.
Iron. Justice.
Then, in the midpoint, the Molecular has zero degrees of
freedom; Combination has been attained. There appears to be determinism.
Classical physics lived here. Not to mention DNA: the holy book of life appears
in its final substage. So much for logic.
A lengthy Young interlude:
“The seventh substage, DNA…requires cells for the
completion of its function, and cells belong in the next higher kingdom. It
will be found that all seventh substages require the next higher kingdom to
function. For example, the flowering plants depend on insects for pollination.
…What would this mean to the dominion kingdom? Since
it is already the highest kingdom for the solar universe, we are led by this
and other evidence to expect yet higher stages - a super arc which deals in
galactic evolution. In other words, the dominion kingdom requires something
beyond itself, which may help to explain why all human cultures, with the possible
exception of modern man, depend on a belief in higher orders of beings, gods.
This dependence of seventh substages on the next
higher stage is one of the most difficult concepts to accept because it
suggests that process, at the seventh substage at least, anticipates its own
future.
And there’s a great turn in the molecular, in its fourth substage,
with functional compounds, the organic chemicals, important to life. And sex
hormones. Separation has occurred. Negation.
Then, in the Vegetable, there is Growth, Organization.
Reproduction. Negative entropy! Flowers. A rose is a rose is a rose. Affirmation.
Next, in the Animal, there’s Mobility, action, satisfaction,
seeming choice. The nervous system makes it appearance. Turn it up! Also, in
addition to DNA, now there is the animal soul. The birds in planetary flight
and the importance of the queen bees will attest to that. Magic.
And then appears the individual soul, Atman. On that stage
of the Monad, the actor we call Human Being, there’s Dominion. And irony,
absurdity, detachment: understanding.
And finally there is that Self-awareness which undoes all firsts
and finals within this unconditional love. I-I. Light-Light. Atman is Brahman...
is Parabrahman:
“In reality there is only the
source, dark in itself, making everything shine. Unperceived, it causes
perception. Unfelt, it causes feeling. Unthinkable, it causes thought.
Non-being, it gives birth to being. It is the immovable background of motion.
Once you are there you are at home everywhere.”
~Nisargadatta
Maharaj
