Re: [BardonPraxis] Re: Peter;s Introduction

["Rawn Clark" <rawnclark@...>]

Dear Peter and Jeni,

As your ruthless moderator, I would appreciate it if you would help me
bring this thread back to its relevance to the Bardon work. :) I think
this thread has the potential at least, to stray into a discussion of
just Yang and Yin and the Chinese cosmology, and while that IS a
worthwhile discussion, it can *also* be directly related to Hermetic
philosophy via the Electric and Magnetic Fluids, and via Kabbalah.

To that end:

>> The Dao, is something that is incomprehensible. If it is named, then
that is not it. It is sometimes considered within Daoist cosmology to be
the "creative spark" that came before the state of wuji, chaos, the
undiferentiated ultimate, and continues to help sustain existence as a
web of interconnectivity between all things.
In this respect, the Dao, if represented upon the tree of life, would be
that which came before kether in one form, and the whole of the tree,
the paths and gates in particulate, in another form. Though, in trying
to pin something down in this manner one excludes numerous other
interpritations at the very same time. <<

The danger in basing comparisons upon symbolic representations is that
you're dealing with two-dimensional, distilled representations of
multi-dimensional philosophical constructs. The symbols invariably,
lead to misconceptions since they do not encompass all the dimensions
they seek to represent. With the Tree of Life image in particular, it
is easy to think of it as representing just one dimension, Kether at the
top and Malkuth at the bottom, all in one plane of existence. This is
the major failing of the so called "Composite Tree" in which all four
Worlds are represented upon a single Tree.

Based upon the diagram you suggested and taking into consideration your
description above, I'd like to offer a different way of looking at the
relationship between this and Kabbalah.

The Dao is not the Ayin (that which "precedes" Kether). Instead, it IS
Kether. Kether encompasses ALL that has being (i.e., existence). It
"cannot be named" for the simple reason that it is non-sequential,
infinite and eternal and any "name" is a finite thing that can encompass
only a finite part of the Infinite. It is "incomprehensible" in that
the finite human mind cannot encompass the whole of it -- this requires
an infinite, non-sequential level of awareness that has been raised to
be *more than human*.

Kether/Dao presents two non-sequential faces to the sequential realm:
Chokmah and Binah. This is the realm of Wujii (Chaos = the way
non-sequential potentia appears from the perspective of a sequentialized
consciousness). Within Chokmah the non-sequential potentia of Yang and
Yin come into existence. Within Binah, these two-as-one propagate the
infinite, non-sequential potentia. All of this exists within the
eternal (Supernal) realm of Atzilut and Briah. Briah gives birth to
sequential existence (Yetzirah) and this is Taiji Du *AND* Qi. On the
"Composite Tree", Yetzirah is represented by the Sephirot Gedulah
through Yesod. The Qi is a product of the lower Yetziratic trinity of
Netzach-Hod-Yesod, resulting in the Wuxing, the basis of Assiah/Malkuth.

The Electric and Magnetic Fluids exist in a unified state within the
non-sequential eternal realm, *as potential*. It's not until the
descent into Yetziratic sequence that these potentials manifest *as
polarized forces*.

My best to you,
:) Rawn Clark
03 Jan 2003
rawnclark@...
rawn@...
http://www.ABardonCompanion.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BardonPraxis