A New Integral Paradigm...From Kheper, the Classic Esoteric Site.

Updates - most recent additions at the top of the page

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Update 20 Sept 06 - Last week I finished the first draft of my essay "An Intregral/Holistic Metaparadigm", sent it off to a couple of guys to get their feedback before submitting it to Frank Visser's Integral World website. The process of writing it helped me develop my ideas some more (as writing generally does). So I now have some new ideas for my universal explanation of everything, which i want to add on my site. For a while I had let this go because i was feeling a bit disillusioned with over-intellectualism, but now I feel I can return to this subject with a better perspective.

Update 10 July 06 - The tentative title for my book is now Evolution, Metamorphosis, and Divinisation. I scrapped the old title because "Metaphysic" implies a mental conception, which in turn implies being limited to one's Mental Bubble or trapped in one's Mental Fortress.

Updates - old Index page, since rewritten

Update 10 July 06 (updated 20 Sept 06) The following pages were written some time back, and represent some tentative first steps at formulating a universal and unified esoteric science; one which works alongside and with scientific method. It is suggested that such a universal, or "integral", paradigm could constitute a wider framework into which human knowledge, in all its facets, can be placed.Currently this section is not being revised as my ideas have evolved further and some of these conceptual maps no longer reflect my current understanding. I am however busy on other projects, so have left these pages up for now, but will hopefully get around to revising them at some later point. My current projects include two essays - "Towards a Larger Definition of the Integral" (first essay in three parts -  part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, Integral World websiteand "Towards a Larger Definition of the Integral (II)", and a book, Evolution, Metamorphosis, and Divinisation. See also  my zaadz blog and  blogspot blog for occaisonal announcements of where my thinking is going at the moment, or reports of work in progress.

Contents:
(more to be added...)

(note: although the table of contents is arranged as if in a linear fashion (including chapter numbering), it is not necessary to follow any specific sequence. In keeping with the spirit of the Web, the pages represent a "democratic" network in which none is necessarily prior to or more important than another. The arrangement given here is purely provisional and simply for convenience. In addition, almost all these pages have links to elsewhere in the kheper website)

Update 23 Mar 06 - Work on this website is proceeding slowly, becaus eof priority being given to work on my book Towards an Integral Metaphysic. The book includes and revises the material on this site.

Update 26 Apr 06 - Once the manuscript of Towards an Integral Metaphysic is finished I will be radically revising some of thes epages, in keeping with my new insights. See also my blog for where my thinking is going at the moment..

Update 31 August 07 - Some of this material is being transferred to a new directory

Shorter Contents 

In a nutshell

• Related Essays
  • The Grand Synthesis - A brief historical overview (incomplete)
  • Esoteric Science (prequal to the present work)
  • Comment on "Theory of Everything"
  - comment by Steven Guth on my work and theory
• A New Integral Paradigm
  • Introduction
  • Basic Principles, Epistemology, and Methodology
  • Metaphysics - the nature of Consciousness/Reality
  • Basic Diagrams of Reality
  • The Absolute Reality - Philosophical Thesis
  • Cosmology, Involution, and Evolution
  • Individual, Social, and Spiritual Development
  • Spiritual Evolution and Transformation
• Appendixes:
  • Glossary
  • Links to Other (different) Attempts at Metaphysical Grand Unification

Unmanifest Absolute / Unmanifest Sachchidananda
Unmanifest and Manifest Absolute / Manifest Sachchidananda  Unmanifest <---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------> Manifest includes the following realities: Sat, Chit-Tapas, Ananda, SupraMind
Sat / Shunya / Paramatman / Absolute Truth	Chit-Tapas/Shakti/ Transcendent	Ananda / Delight	Supra-Mind/ Truth-Idea-Will		Kalyptos / Hidden Depths
					Life / Love / Pathotism
	Cosmic Shakti				Mind / Essence / Archetype
		Divine Soul/Love	Divine Mind / Overmind / Atzilut / Relative Absolute
Levels of insight / self realisation	Intermediate Zone / Levels of siddhi / Between Cosmic and Individual		Universe of Spiritual Mind (Illumination / Revelation)
		Inner Being	Universe of Thought / Ideational Reality (Spectrum of Consciousness)
Avidya Samsara / Kleshas Relative Truth			Universe of Desire / Will (Higher and Lower Planes)
			Universe of Form / Structure - includes the following:
			Inner Physical Divine Being . . . .	Yang/Celestial Archetypal	Transpersonal	SupraCausal Physical
	Individual being Finite / Limited Self			Archetypal	Spiritual	Causal Physical
					Astral Etheric	Subtle Physical
		Outer Being / Desire Soul / Lower Self			Physical Etheric	Gross Physical (sphere of evolution)
				Yin / Chthonic Archetypal	Undersoul
					Negation / Inconscience

This thesis proposes that the nature, dynamics, and evolution of Consciousness and Reality can be mapped according to a number of specific parameters. Upon this grand canvas, all the more specific details about the nature of the individual and the cosmos, and the various fields of human knowledge, can be painted.

Update 26 Apr 06 - Once the manuscript of Towards an Integral Metaphysic is finished I will be radically revising some of thes epages, in keeping with my new insights. See also my blog for where my thinking is going at the moment.

Update 23 Mar 06 The following represents a provisional tabulation of my current position. Only some links have been added, and not all of these are consistent, because these pages need to be reorganised according to my new understanding. A complete revised version will appear on this site and in my book in progress - Towards an Integral Metaphysic - as time permits.

Note (10 Dec 05) - some of the metaphysical hypotheses currently presented in this section of the Kheper site will be comprehensively revised. Currently I am writing a book on my Integral Paradigm; and will also be revising some of the pages here. For one thing, I no longer accept the "Quadontological" Mandala diagram as an overall metaphysical diagram.

update 24 September 05: This project has undergone a number of dramatic changes in the process of writing it, regarding the metaphysics section and my attempt to formulate a "map of reality". As a result, my initial "Quadontology" has been relplaced

Longer Contents

1. Introduction
   • The need for a Universal Paradigm
   • What does "Integral" mean in this context?
   • The Changing Zeitgeist
   • A note about these tables
2. Basic Principles, Epistemology, and Methodology
   • What needs to be included
   • A Collaborative Approach
   • Basic Premises
   • A Definition of States of Consciousness
   • Phenomenology
   • Participative Epistemology
   • Means of Reliable Knowledge
   • Epistemology - what do we know about knowing
   • The Absolute and the Relative Reality
3. Metaphysics - the nature of Consciousness/Reality
   • The role of Metaphysics
   • Subdivisions of Metaphysics
   • The Metaphysical Alternative
   • An Individual undertaking
   • Paramology - The Nature of the Absolute Reality (parame - which means the the Supreme reality in Sanskrit).
     • The levels of Understanding
     • Paramology glossary
     • God is a Verb
   • Ontodynamics - the Dynamics of Being / Metaphysics of Process
     • Monadology
     • Emanation - the Emergance of the Many from the One
     • The Coaction Compass
   • Quadontology - understanding the "map" of reality and consciousness (here defined as fourfold)
     • The Hierarchical Ontology
     • "Epistemic" - Levels of Insight of Consciousness
     • "Emanational" - Levels of Consciousness as Emanation
     • Psychology and Mysticism - The "Concentric" Axis
     • Occultism - The "Vertical" Physical-Spiritual Axis
     • Holarchy - The Universal-Atomistic Axis
     • Noetics - Levels of Selfhood
     • The problem of Cartesian dualism
     • The Absolute Reality as the Center
       • The numerology of the Godhead
       • The Nature of The Absolute and the Nature of Reality
         1. Metaphysics and Theology - The Nature of "God" and the Nature of Reality
         2. The Absolute Reality
            • The Absolute Reality - Philosophical Thesis
         3. The Divine Hypostases:
            1. The Unmanifest Absolute
            2. The Manifest Absolute
            3. The Infinite-Eternal
            4. The Noetic Absolute
            5. The Original Archetypes
            6. The Noetic Worlds or Cosmos
4. Cosmology, Involution, and Evolution
   • The Prakritic Planes - the Spirit-Matter Gradation
   • Involution
   • Evolution - the whole picture
     • Evolution and Physical Reality
     • Evolutionary Stages - Six Singularities
     • Occult factors in Evolution
     • Individual and Collective evolution
   • Glossary of Evolutionary and Ontodynamic terms
5. Individual, Social, and Spiritual Development
   • An Interpretation of Human Knowledge
   • The basic "horizontal" (psychological) polarity
   • State-Specific Sciences
   • A "quadontological" map of knowledge and experience
   • Social/Collective Evolution and Praxis
   • Tikkunics - Soteriology and Divinization
     • Paths of Transcendence
     • Individual Spiritual Stages
   • Spiritual Evolution and Transformation

 An Earlier Version of this thesis, posted on Integral Visioning

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Involution

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This article is about involution in esoterism. For other uses, see Involution (disambiguation).

The term involution refers to different things depending on the writer. In some instances it refers to a process that occurs prior to evolution and gives rise to the cosmos, in others an aspect of evolution, and still others a process that follows the completion of evolution in the human form.

Contents  [hide]  1 Involution according to Esoteric cosmology 2 Involution according to Sri Aurobindo 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Sat 2.3 Chit-tapas 2.4 Delight 3 Meher Baba 4 Other Indian interpretations 5 Integral thought 6 See also 7 References

[edit] Involution according to Esoteric cosmology

In Theosophy, Anthroposophy and Rosicrucianism, involution and evolution are part of a complex sequence of cosmic cycles, called Round. When the universe attains a stage of sufficient density, the individual spirit is able to descend and participate in the evolution. Involution thus refers to the incarnation of spirit in an already established matter, the necessary prerequiste of evolution:

As an example, the so-called descent of the Monad into matter means an involution or involving or infolding of spiritual potencies into material vehicles which coincidentally and contemporaneously, through the compelling urge of the infolding energies, unfold their own latent capacities, unwrap them, roll them forth; and this is the evolution of matter. – Gottfried de Purucker ^[1]

That period of time devoted to the attainment of self-consciousness and the building of the vehicles through which the spirit in man manifests, is called involution. Its purpose is to slowly carry life lower and deeper into denser and denser matter for the building of forms, till the nadir of materiality is reached. From that point, life begins to ascend into higher Worlds. This succeeding period of existence, during which the individual human being develops self-consciousness into divine omniscience, is called "spiritual evolution."
In the cosmology of Surat Shabda Yoga, involution and evolution apply to both the macrocosm, the whole of creation, and the microcosm, the constitution of an individual soul.
The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, a Rosicrucian text written by Max Heindel, advances the concept of epigenesis as the key related to the evolution (after an involutionary period) of human beings.

[edit] Involution according to Sri Aurobindo

[edit] Introduction

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For Sri Aurobindo, involution is the process by which the Omnipresent Reality, i.e. the Absolute, Brahman extends Itself to create a universe of separate forms from out of Its own Force/Energy.
Sat, Chit-Tapas, and Delight/Ananda are the three aspects of Satchitananda, and are mentioned in terms of Involution . Spirit or consciousness manifests as these three, and then as the intermediate link of Supermind, which is transitional between the higher and lower (matter, life, and mind) nature.^[2]
The reason for involution is Delight - the Delight of Being (the Spirit or Absolute) moving to Delight of Becoming (temporal existence, the cosmos). Being throws itself forward into a multiplicity of forms, becoming lost in the inconscience of matter,^[3] and then through evolution it partakes in the Delight of rediscovering the Spirit which had been hidden in the interim.
Evolution is thus the movement forward by which the created universe evolves from its initial state of inconscience (i.e. as matter), evolves animated life forms and mental beings (i.e. humans), and continues to evolve spiritual properties, and in that process rediscovers its Source. Such an Evolution of animated forms is only possible because at each stage of development, the developing entity contains within itself the conception of what it may become. Thus, the evolution of animated life out of matter supposes a previous involution of that animated capacity. This is akin to a seed that already has the essence of the tree that will emerge from it.
Each plane emerges from an earlier plane through the evolutionary process, which takes place in chronological time. But in a parallel construction, each of these new planes can be understood as being a descendent of its corresponding higher order plane from the Infinite. Thus, when mentality emerged in the universe, the universal plane of Mind was implanted to a degree in those beings harboring that mentality.
The evolution is the development of all entities in the cosmos, including humans, in order to attain their fulfillment, including the discovery of spiritual Delight, which was, and always is, the experience of the Source Creator. The evolution is the progressive development from the original inconscience of matter into life (movement, sensation, desire, etc. and living physical beings), and from thence to mind (in conscious animals and most especially humans - the self-conscious thinking animal), and from thence to spiritualized mind, culminating in the The Supermind or Truth Consciousness (as supramental individuals, and finally the supramental, i.e. a divine life on earth.) ^[4]

[edit] Sat

This section requires expansion. (June 2008)

We cannot speak of Sat without Chit Ananda or Being, Consciousness and Bliss. They represent a totality. Sat is the vital state of that which is was and always will be. In a sense it is a beginnining but because it is pregnant with possibility it is inexorably tied to Ananda or the recognition of Being and then the subsequent realization of bliss which is divine inner knowing. Each flows out of the other and then back again. It could be said that Sat only exists through Ananda or Consciousness however, these levels of differentiation cannot grasp the true nature of either of these three qualities since they are interdependent.

[edit] Chit-tapas

Chit-Tapas or Consciousness-Force, in Sri Aurobindo's philosophy refers to the pure energy of Consciousness by which creation ultimately comes about; the infinite divine self-awareness which is also the infinite all-effective Will. It is also one of the seven planes of existence, according to the Vedic cosmology and the seven lokas of Hindu thought.
In chapter 10 of The Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo writes at length on the nature of Consciousness-Force as a principle of the Divine. As he understands it (following the Tantric dichotomy of Shiva and Shakti), Chit or Consciousness is not an inert and passive principle; but contains the potential spiritual Energy, Tapas, which in Creation becomes the dynamic and creative principle or Force, called Shakti. Chit-Tapas or Chit-Shakti is therefore the universal Consciousness-Force, the divine Energy; the Mother.

[edit] Delight

Delight is Sri Aurobindo's term for ananda, and plays a large part in his cosmology and spiritual teaching. Delight is the reason for creation, by which The Absolute extends its Delight of Being into multiplicity, losing itself in the inconscience and then through Delight rediscovering Itself through individuals realising their Divine nature and proceeding to spiritual realisation.
In other words, the universe was created so that the Delight of the Infinite Spirit can manifest in all the forms of creation. When we discover our higher nature, the soul and spirit, we experience the delight for which we were came into being and of which we are a part.
In chapters 11 and 12 of The Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo writes at length on the nature of Delight as a principle of the Divine, and its role in creation.

[edit] Meher Baba

Main article: Involution (Meher Baba)

Meher Baba uses "involution" in the opposite meaning; rather than the descent of Spirit into matter, he refers to it as meaning the inner path of the human soul to the transcendent Self.

[edit] Other Indian interpretations

For Baba Hari Dass, Evolution is the Cause of Involution, and vice versa. (Baba Hari Dass is a Maunisadhu monk who practices continual silence.)

[edit] Integral thought

In integral thought, involution is the process by which the Divine manifests the cosmos. The process by which the creation rises to higher states and states of consciousness is the evolution. Involution prepares the universe for the Big Bang; evolution continues from that point forward. The term involution comes from the idea that the divine involves itself in creation. After the creation, the Divine (i.e. the Absolute, Brahman, God) is both the One (the Creator) and the Many (that which was created).
The integral philosopher Ken Wilber refers to involution in his online chapter of Kosmic Karma, employing concepts from Plotinus, Advaita Vedanta, Tibetan Buddhism, and Sri Aurobindo. According to Wilber, the cosmic evolution described in his previous works is preceded by an involution of Spirit into Matter. This involution follows the reverse stages to the sequence of evolution - e.g. Spirit to soul to mind to life to matter. Once the stage of insentient, lifeless matter is attained, then "something like the Big Bang occurs", whereupon matter and manifest world come into concrete existence, from which stage evolution follows.^[5]

[edit] See also

• Involution (Meher Baba)
• Law of Complexity/Consciousness
• Round (Theosophy)

[edit] References

1. ^ Gottfried de Purucker, Occult Glossary, TUP, 2nd ed., 1996 [1]
2. ^ Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, 10th ed. 1977.
3. ^ The Life Divine Bk I, Ch.11-12
4. ^ The Life Divine bk II, ch.27-28.
5. ^ Wilber, Ken, Introduction: From the Great Chain of Being to Postmodernism in Three Easy Steps, Shambhala Publications, 2005.