Echo of Thought

"As speech is the echo of the thought in the Soul, so thought in the Soul is an echo from elsewhere: that is to say, as the uttered thought is an image of the soul-thought, so the soul-thought images a thought above itself and is the interpreter of the higher sphere"

- Plotinus (Ennead II, 2) (emphasis mine)

All mental thought is derivative, having not its source within itself but from above (or from deeper within).

The Act of speaking is a bringing forth of thought from an individual's soul. When a soul speaks, it instantaneously creates an imperfect image of its thought. Once the image is created, whether temporally in verbal discussion or in a more lasting state such as the written word, it can be viewed by other souls which then may find attraction or repulsion to it, just as one would with a putative piece of art. In a manner of speaking, all spoken words are art - they are images of the soul's internal state for "out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks."

However, the thought of the soul from whence comes speech is itself an Act of interpretation of thought from beyond itself. Thus, the individual mind that thought it was being clever and original was actually nothing but a receptor of an echo from beyond and its very thinking processes were an Act of interpreting the thoughts from beyond.

Our minds are receptors - receptors in the same way that a radio is a receptor to transmitters. There are many channels, and these channels are on different wavelengths and of different mindsets. We choose the channels, we do not choose the thoughts. We find affinity with a station, but we do not determine what is playing on the radio.

The further removed we are from the Source of the echo, the more attentuation and the more the static, thus we may err greviously in our interpretation. Thought from the higher sphere cannot be understand well by soul in the lower sphere (if understood at all), for "my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways ... For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8)

Yet we are responsible for creating proper images of the echoes from beyond, not graven images of cold stone but images of beauty, love, grace, and truth.

The Zero Principle

All numbers are relative to the number zero.

Zero is the Absolute Truth and its absolute value is itself.

Zero cannot be added to, divided by, multiplied, nor subtracted from. To add to or subtract from zero is to remain other. To add zero to other is to remain other still. Zero alone remains untainted and pure. Zero alone is alone yet whole. Yet Zero is Zero.

Zero is representative of no number and yet from it all numbers irradiate or emanate. Although Zero may be considered a number, in reality it stands by itself and has no complement. It alone is non-dual.

Zero is at the center and yet it is unattainable in itself since to strain at grasping Zero is to grasp no-thing. The closer one moves toward Zero, the more diminutive one becomes and yet the closer one becomes One.

The boolean value of false is always represented by Zero but true is simply non-zero. Everything is true but Zero.

Turn 6 upside down and you get 9. Turn Zero upside down and you get Zero.

Zero is the starting point, the origin, the source, the anchor: all turn out from Zero and to Zero all return.

It Is We That Become Present

"Thus the Supreme as containing no otherness is ever present with us; we with it when we put otherness away. It is not that the Supreme reaches out to us seeking our communion; we reach towards the Supreme; it is we that become present"

- Plotinus (emphasis mine)

Typically, we think of a spiritual experience as apprehending the presence of God, and this is true. However, it is equally true to think of it as WE becoming present since out true Self is identical with God's spirit and when we are "dead" to our true Self, it is not because God is absent, but that we are not present.

Waiting for God to pick us up and throw us up against the wall to wake us up, or visiting us in an apparition or knocking us down from our horse on the road to Damascus is foolish and belies an ignorance on the presence of God. For God is never more present now than He has ever been and ever will be; God is perfect Being and thus is at rest and immanent in the present moment.

So if we are not present it is because we are not Being but Becoming, straddling the sands of time between the past and the future, and navigating the narrow strait of movement between Scylla and Charybdis. There is only the Eternal Now - all else is shifting sand and full of terror.

But what is meant by not being present? Where are we then? We are in shadows; immersed in form and flux. You could no more say "here I am" then step in the same river twice. Each passing moment you are different.

When there is not Presence, there is Change: constant, merciless, irrevocable change. When we are absent, we deceive ourselves that we are, that we think, that we love, and that we are good. When we are absent, we are nothing: a Will O' The Wisp, a mayfly, a character actor in a brief skit. Either God is Present through you or you are absent and your life is but a fitful dream. In the end, as in the beginning, there is only The One.