Sri Aurobindo’s “The Synthesis of Yoga”

November 11, 2014

The iconic Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950), the father of integral yoga and integral psychology, is doubtless one of the most profound and influential spiritual philosophers ever to walk the planet. And in the text “The Synthesis of Yoga,” his unique, complex, and intricate vision of Yoga, which explicates his integral philosophy – “All life is Yoga” – is on full display for 900 pages.

Before there was Adi Da Samraj (whose teachings partially derive from Aurobindo’s), there was Sri Aurobindo, and to venture into his elaborate expositions of yoga practice and philosophy is sure to deepen and expand one’s understanding of  spiritual life and Divine Truth.

“The Synthesis of Yoga,” along with Aurobindo’s magnum opus, the 1100-page “The Life Divine,” contain the bulk of his most important and illuminating essays on spiritual life and how it impacts, and can transform, earthly existence.… Read the full article

The Case Against Paul Case’s Tarot/Qabalah/Astrology

October 30, 2014

At my Facebook page (L Ron Gardner), on October 11, I posted an article entitled “Ken Wilber and the Enneagram.” In my article, I stated that despite my deep and wide reading, I hadn’t come across an impressive Kabbalah book – meaning one that explicates and elaborates the “two Kabbalahs (mystical-ecstatic and theurgical-theosophical) to my satisfaction.

In response to my lament,  poster Robert Wilkinson suggested that I read “The Tarot, the Key to the Wisdom of the Ages,” by Paul Case -- and so I did; and now I’m ready to review it.

The legendary, late Dr. Paul Case (1884- 1954) is considered an occult genius by many, but I’m not one of the many. In short, I simply do not agree with his exegesis of the Kabbalah and his correlations of it with the Tarot Major Arcana.

First off, Case does not account for Da’at, the “invisible” 11th sephirah; and without such an accounting, the Kabbalah does not make sense to me.… Read the full article

Pluto and the Kabbalah

October 10, 2014
A few years ago, when I began studying the Kabbalah, the correlations between the Sephirot (the ten archetypal cosmic emanations of the Infinite) and the planets quickly became clear to me. Even though Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto had yet to be discovered by astronomers, the ancients anticipated them, as made clear by the Kabbalah. When Daat (the “invisible eleventh” Sephirah) is understood to correlate with Neptune and form a mystical dyad with Keter, which correlates with Pluto, then the ten-Sephirah Kabbalah remains intact as an integral Tree of Life.

But when I learned that Pluto, in 2006, had been unceremoniously demoted from the pantheon of planets by professional astronomers, my faith in the Kabbalah as an integral Tree was shaken, for if Pluto was no longer a planet, then the Kabbalah no longer made sense to me.

Thankfully, I came across the article below on the Web, and in accordance with the East Kentucky Science Center and Planetarium, I am happy to still consider Pluto as the ninth planet in the solar system. The article follows:

“In August of 2006, the International Astronomical Union came up with a definition of the word “Planet”. … Read the full article

Spiritual Music

October 8, 2014
Gautama Buddha instructed his monks not to listen to music. But in Hinduism, devotional music has, across the Ages, served as an aid to spiritual practice. Although I’m a big fan of Gautama’s teachings, my sentiments are with the Hindus, because I know from personal experience that the“right” music can be spiritually helpful.

The question is, what is “right” music? The answer is, whatever music helps you connect to and stay connected to the Spirit. Music that opens the heart and/or stimulates vertical feeling-intensity (such as certain psychedelic and hard rock) can be classified as “potentially” spiritual - and I say “potentially spiritual,” because unless you are able transmute the musical vibration into spiritual energy, then it’s not spiritual for you.

It’s common to consider New Age music, such as Paul Horn’s Inside the Taj Mahal, Ray Lynch’s Deep Breakfast, and Merlin’s Magic-Chakra Meditation music, as “spiritual”; likewise, it’s not uncommon to also consider some classical music -- exemplified by Pachelbel’s Canon (which Adi Da classified as 7th-stage music) – as spiritual.… Read the full article

Aristotle’s Three Laws of Thought, Part 2

September 23, 2014
In this brief article, I will argue that Aristotle’s Three Laws of Thought also hold true for Spiritual, or Ultimate, Reality. Here are the three Laws again:

1) A thing is what it is (the law of identity).
2) A thing cannot at once be and not-be (the law of non-contradiction).
3) A thing cannot neither be nor not-be (the law of the excluded middle).

I say that God, or Ultimate Reality, is the Thing-Itself, the single Existent, or Being, from which all existents derive. This Being Is What It Is – Consciousness-Energy –and it can Be nothing other than Consciousness-Energy, because Consciousness-Energy is Being: the uncreated single, irreducible, timeless, spaceless Context or Source of all created content, or existents.

Being cannot Be and not Be. If Being could not Be, then it would no longer Be Being; it would be Non-Being. But Non-Being is a Non-Existent, a Zero.

There can be no middle ground between Being and Non-Being. Being either Is, or Is Not. And as I have made clear, Being Is (Consciouness-Energy).

Ayn Rand Objectivists would argue that an all-subsuming Divine Being (the two “Vines” being Consciousness and Energy) is a Floating Abstraction.… Read the full article

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