Rod's Monthly Summary

This month has been filled with contemplation of varieties of Completeness & Incompleteness, or why things seem Incomplete despite our attempts to make manifest the WH of Completeness. Each variety that I looked at arose as a dichotomy, and each moved toward resolution in a deeper understanding of Completeness.

Polymorphous Consciousness: While consciousness can never encompass every thing at once, at every moment consciousness encompasses everything it can. In each and every moment there is nothing left over, nothing missing, and yet every moment is but a passing incompleteness. Consciousness is ALWAYS complete, yet NEVER complete.

Universal Completeness: The Universe is complete in every respect... always has been... always will be... could not be otherwise. It reveals, to consciousness, its completeness in terms of space & time & X. But to Consciousness, on the other hand, the Universe is always arising as an event-horizon, a crystal Now that emerges from a fuzzy past and moves into a chaotic future. In the complete incompleteness of consciousness I get to see only the local unfolding of the universal completeness.

The Map is not the Territory: There is an "I" which is the Map of "me." This is the "I" who who tries to take things apart, and is so-doing separates me from the world. This "I" is only a virtual identity, an incomplete map that reduces the holistic "me" to convenient symbolic components. On the other hand, my being, my me-ness, is utterly, holistically, immersed in the here & now & this. It is complete unto itself. It is not separate from the world. It is the territory, not the map of the territory.

Equilibrium vs Disequilibrium: Local disequilibrium appears as the result of adjustments in a larger system (equilibration). Waves of equilibration ripple through the multi-layered, interconnected universe. All systems are constantly in the process of equilibration, of re-settling into harmonious balance that which has become disturbed. The Past has already become equilibrated (quiescent); the Future appears as impending disequilibrium (chaotic); and Now is the edge of equilibration in which chaos becomes quiescence.

No-self: Is No-self a radical shift into a state BEYOND consciousness, or merely an alternate state OF consciousness which reveals things not easily seen from the point of view of normal self-consciousness? [At present, I view No-self as a state OF consciousness, not a state BEYOND consciousness. But I am open to change on this question.]

Rational Meaning vs Felt Meaning: Rational Meaning asks the "why" question (e.g., "because god wants it that way"). But Felt Meaning is awareness of the world-as-it-is; immersion in the here & now & this and the immediacy of being. Felt Meaning is knowing THAT you know without knowing WHAT you know.

All of these issues have an "incomplete" version which is our normal way of knowing, and a "complete" version which results from a movement deeper into the here & now & this. Do I "get it" yet? Intellectually, yes... but viscerally, not completely.

... from Rod