AUDIO EXCERPT FROM ANTHONY DAMIANI COMMENTS click here
Our way is to teach the soul how the Nous has self-vision… Plotinus Enneads 5.3.4
Philosophy will show a man how to find his better self, will lead him to cultivate intuition, will guide him to acquire sounder values and stronger will, will train him in right thinking and wise reflection, and, lastly, will give him correct standards of ethical rightness or wrongness. If its theoretical pursuit is so satisfying that it can be an end and a reward in itself, its practical application to current living is immeasurably useful, valuable, and helpful. (The Notebooks of Paul Brunton v13, 20:1.337)
AD: [You can think of it this way: ] think of wisdom in the sense that the mind is destined to become the universe…in the process of mind becoming the world, it assimilates a certain wisdom that is inherent in the world…. Wisdom is the recognition and application of that: your mind becoming the universe. And as it’s doing so, it’s beginning to understand the various laws that govern manifestation. When it begins to understand this, and it applies this to itself, then this is wisdom. If you think of wisdom as the recognition of that, and the application of that.
HS: Is that how someone understands, by becoming the World Idea? When someone has become more of the World Idea, would we say he understands there's a World Idea?
AD: yes.
HS: Is it a process always from the personal outward? …The faculties develop and become larger and wider and more universal?
AD: Universalization of your mind is taking place.
You are that which is getting metamorphosized into the world that you experience. And in that process you imbibe the wisdom that's inherent in the World Idea. There's no ``me'', no ``I'', nothing. YOU. The only you that's there. The only you that I'm speaking to. If there is another, let me know, by letter.
But it's not a concept that's available yet, to say that the individual mind is universalizing itself. Potentially it's becoming universalized, because it's the very World Idea, is becoming the very World Idea, and through that process becoming universalized, is assimilating wisdom. This is not something to talk about, it's something you got to go home and think for a long, long time. 24c
"you are becoming the World-Idea means that the infinite Consciousness that the unit soul is, is getting specified." (1/6/84) …
… in the same way a man's body may die and disintegrate, but the creative idea of him will still remain in the World-Mind as his Soul. It will not die. It's his real Self, his perfect Self. It is the true Idea of him which is forever calling to be realized. It is the unmanifest image of God in which man is made and which he has yet to bring into manifestation in his everyday consciousness. (26:4.63)
Anthony: We say that the mind becomes the world that you experience. And in the process of the mind becoming the world, it assimilates a certain wisdom which is inherent in the world that it is going to manifest. The mind, in becoming the world, is also unconsciously incarnating that wisdom.
If we say that the World-Idea is an ordered, intelligent whole which is manifesting according to wisdom principles, and we say that the individual mind makes or transforms or metamorphoses itself into the world image, then in that very process, it is assimilating these reason principles. Now this assimilation will leave traces in the mind. They are inherent as traces in the mind’s functioning. They are deposited in the mind as an inherent wisdom within it. To apply wisdom means to draw on that reserve, which we just said is inherent in or deposited in the mind. [1-4-84 p. 4, 14]
In that process of assimilating the World Idea and consequently assimilating the wisdom which is inherent in that, you can see that the mind, in becoming the world, is also, unconsciously, let's say, incarnating that wisdom.
Now this will leave in the mind traces of that assimilation. The mind assimilates traces of the World-Idea.
Now “theoretical” and “practical” are only words. It’s going on all the time. The mind is actually metamorphosing itself into this idea of the world, which is ordered by intelligence, and at the same time learning from that what the meaning of it is all about, even though it may take a long time to come to that recognition. 16
When we say that you are becoming the World-Idea we mean that the Infinite Consciousness that the Unit Soul is, is getting specified in a very specific way. [1-6-84]
as soon as you start speaking about life in the sense that it's in manifestation, then you're speaking about either the soul of the cosmos or the soul of this plant, this animal, whatever. You're speaking about a unit soul. And if you have a unit soul, the World Idea is inevitably associated with it; 132:
It’s going on all the time. The mind is actually metamorphosing itself into this idea of the world, which is ordered by intelligence, and at the same time learning from that what the meaning of it is all about, even though it may take a long time to come to that recognition. 16
ah: Is that transition from personal to impersonal a gradual one?
Anthony: Yes. It may take a long time to come to that recognition.
So if the world is the product of wisdom, and your mind is constantly manifesting the world, then your mind is going to get acquainted with wisdom, and become wisdom, whether it likes it or not.
Similarly, for instance, at night you have a dream: Let’s say in the dream a boa constrictor is wrapped around you, and you’re brought into realization of what fear is. So the mind not only has actually metamorphosed itself into this dream and produced the fear, but it also experiences the fear; and the fear is left behind as a trace in the mind of its act, of its metamorphosis into that.
Wisdom is the recognition and application of that: your mind becoming the universe. And as it’s doing so, it’s beginning to understand the various laws that govern manifestation. When it begins to understand this, and it applies this to itself, then this is wisdom.
At birth the individual chart already indicates the whole sequence of experiences, events, which will occur to the individual. But it is up to the soul how it will respond to these experiences, and it is in this response that we will see the growth of the soul's power. (49)
kd: Are you saying that the point of identity between the individual mind and the cosmos is what will leave you with this wisdom?
Anthony: Yes, we can say that the individual mind receives the World-Idea, portrays that World-Idea, then inhabits part of the World-Idea and experiences it in a sensible way. It’s like when we say your mind is where the cloud is, because the whiteness of the cloud belongs to the mind and is a manifestation of a sensation that belongs to the mind. And obviously your mind is learning how clouds are being formed. That’s why they keep telling you: All wisdom is within you. It’s within your mind. [NOTE: and add that you are creating the universe and giving out to it in the process as well.]
Looking into Mind Copyright 2019