RE: [BardonPraxis] Re: Another question...

["William Behun" <adsinistram@...>]

Dear antiloop:

I made the comparison between the principle of beauty and the elemental
forces only to illustrate that both are quantitative (i.e. spiritual) and
not quantitative (i.e. material) principles.

I would disagree in the strongest possible terms that elemental force is
quantitative as you claim: you wrote, "so if you accumulate one of them
from "somewhere", you'd think that "somewhere" would experience a depleation
of that single element." Clearly I wouldn't think that, as these elemental
forces are not material things, but prior to manifestation. To quantify
these forces is to reduce them to a result of manifestation, which is an
inverse of the actual relationship. Matter depends on the elemental force,
not the other way around. Quantity applies only to manifestation (things
like matter and energy) and elemental force is clearly prior to
manifestation, as is an metaphysical principle: as such it is not
quantitative, and cannot be depleted.

There is no finite quantity of elemental force, just as there is no finite
quantity of anything that precedes or transcends the world of manifestation.
There is a strong tendency among modern esotericists to try to apply
scientific principles to esoterism. It should be understood that this goes
only so far: while scientific rigour and discipline are certainly an
advantage in esoteric work, one should remember that while science is our
tool for understanding the manifested universe, we are often dealing with
forces that form the *basis* of manifestation, and as such are not
susceptible to scientific understanding in the same way.

Regards:

William