Aphorism #1: A prerequisite to full mystical realization is a clear understanding of the distinction between conventional knowledge and Ultimate Knowledge.

Commentary: Conventional knowledge is empirical knowledge gained through the five senses and based in the duality of what appears to be a separate subject and object. In fact, all the traditional issues within western philosophy involve the triad of knower, known and process of knowing and their interrelationships. Those who realize Ultimate Knowledge transcend this triad while acknowledging the existence of these categories as appearances in Consciousness necessary for functioning in the apparent world of duality. See Adi Shankara and representatives of the Buddhist Madhyamika School for further clarifications about these two forms of knowledge.

Aphorism #2: Ultimate Knowledge is called Para Vidya in Sanskrit; conventional knowledge is Apara Vidya. This does not mean that Apara Vidya or conventional knowledge, being merely an appearance, is useless or worthless; on the contrary, it is important for sustaining life. Without life and a healthy mind and body, it is not possble to realize Ultimate Knowledge.

Commentary: One can be a scholar in the various sciences, arts and traditional religions and still only know the names and forms which constitute conventional knowledge. Para Vidya is beyond words, concepts and sensory perception. At the same time, we must be careful to honor Apara Vidya. As stated in Isavasyopanishad: He who knows both Vidya and Avidya conquers death by Avidya and attains Immortality by Vidya.

When the ancient sages suggest that conventional knowledge is only an appearance, they mean that it is ever changing, coming and going, appearing and disappearing; it is a derivative or dependent knowledge. The Ultimate Knowledge does not come and go; It always Is and is Self-Evident.

Aphorism #3: Recognizing the Ultimate Knowledge (Am-ness) is Knowledge through Identity. It is not the same as an experiencer experiencing or understanding some object, since dual experience and understanding are in the realm of conventional knowledge.

Commentary: As long as there is the experience of, and only the experience of, a separate knower knowing a known, or a subject experiencing an object, then Am-ness is not a living reality for that particular psychosomatic organism. The Recognition of Ultimate Knowledge does not mean the loss of perception or ability to function effectively in relative fields of existence.

Aphorism #4: Any attempt to describe the nature of Ultimate Reality requires the use of language which is conventional knowledge and simply serves as a pointer in the direction of the indescribable. Thus, we see the intimate relationship between Ultimate and conventional knowledge.

Commentary: The Absolute is beyond any description, but pointers can be extremely useful in helping an individual strip away his false understanding of the nature of the self. Once all superimpositions are gone, only the Self, the Ultimate Knowledge, remains as an enduring Reality.

Aphorism #5: Different descriptions of, and approaches to, Ultimate Reality exist because there are eight archetypal temperaments, each led by a particular aspect of personality : the physical, the senses, the mind, the intellect, the will, the heart, the ego and the iconoclastic factor.

Commentary: Different spiritual paths and different descriptions of the spiritual goal suit different people. Someone can be enlightened and still not know how to tailor a spiritual approach to the unique needs and inclinations of each seeker. He may also not know how to maximize the functioning of each seeker's psychosomatic organism so that more time and energy are available for Mystical Realization . Only a Master is able to perform both these functions and live up to my definition of a genuine Occult Master. NOTE: Occultism is the subtler part of conventional knowledge which does not depend on input from the gross senses.

Aphorism #6: The Art of Multi-Dimensional Living® is spiritual science for the new millennium. It gives one the keys to self-mastery without the burdensome, invasive trappings which so often accompany the traditional guru-disciple relationship.

Commentary: In the past, access to a true Master was a precious gift and was hard earned. Today, as Christ promised, this gift is available to anyone who seeks it with a pure heart. Christ's promise is found fulfilled through The Art of Multi-Dimensional Living®.

Aphorism #7: There are stages in achieving Mystical Realization, at least from the perspective of those who experience only the dual awareness of a subject perceiving an object. With the Realization of Ultimate Knowledge, it is understood that there are no paths or stages to enlightenment, nor any person who becomes enlightened. Ignorance and enlightenment are both mental constructs by a "knower" who imagines he is bound and therefore needs to be liberated.

Commentary: All seeking, striving and becoming requires the concepts of a knower, process of knowing and known. Realization is a freedom from this duality. To quote Shankara: "As duality does not exist, all the sentences of the Upanishads concerning non-duality of Atman should be contemplated." Does this mean the loss of all ability to function in the world? No, it requires the acceptance of a dual standpoint. Quoting Paul Brunton: "The world exists in precisely the same way for both the simpleton and the sage, but whereas it exists only as is appears in the first case it exists both as it appears and as it really is in the other."

Aphorism #8: In the ancient Veda the Ultimate Knowledge is called Atman (the Self). Atman, in turn, is the same as Brahman (The Origin of all that exists, the Infinite). In the Christian tradition, this same truth is expressed in Christ's statement "I and my Father are One."

Commentary: The teaching of non-duality exists in all the ancient Mystery traditions as well as modern esoteric Christianity. One of the best interpreters of Christian scripture, capable of bringing out fully its theme of Oneness, or, to be more exact, the theme of "not-one, not not-one and there is no second" was Joel Goldsmith, an authentic American mystic and religious teacher (1892-1964) who wrote extensively about God Realization and the means to attain it.

Why give two different names for the same Ultimate Reality? Why call it Atman or Brahman? The Buddhists believe that the use of the name Atman is a misguided attempt to preserve some sense of the individual in relation to Ultimate Reality, and yet, it is quite apparent that the Vedic use of the term in no sense implies an individual self; on the contrary, the term is used in contradistinction to individual selves.

Franklin Merrell-Wolff, in his "Experience and Philosophy", seeks to shed light on this difficult question in the following way:

While both the subjective and objective factors are blended in Absolute Consciousness, yet the unitary quality is carried in the subjective moment. There is but one "I" or subject. Again, this is the most immediate and intimate of all facts. Hence, only through the "I" is Identity realized. Approached in any other way, God (or Brahman) is ever something other than the seeker and, therefore, is at a distance. To come to the Father is to be one with the Father, and this can be achieved only through the pure Subject or the SELF.

My own sense of the matter is that since subjectivity and objectivity are two of the most basic concepts of conventional knowledge, the ancient sages attempted to state Ultimate Truth in reference to both, so that no subtle sense of duality could mistakenly be maintained.

The terms Atman and Brahman are also useful in distinguishing developmental stages of Ultimate Realization with Atman representing the concurrent reality of Self and other (Cosmic Consciousness) while Brahman is the Unity of all subjective and objective factors.

Aphorism #9: The Mystical Realization of Atman or Brahman can be induced through the process of negation (not this, not this) or by focusing on Its positive attributes like Existence (Sat), Consciousness (Chit) and Bliss (Ananda).

Commentary: Negation is used to strip away any sense of the Real being anything which can be conceived in relative terms. It is, thus, a negation of all sense of duality or subject-object distinction. It is also a negation of all the other pairs of opposites like good and evil, manifest and unmanifest, lightness and darkness, etc. Negation provides no positive definition; it even negates the negation. This approach is more suitable for the intellectually inclined, for those who follow the path of Chit.

Those who follow more the path of Bliss or Love (Ananda) like to wax in the more positive attributes attributed to the Divine.

Some move through both paths, either simultaneously or in sequence, and they tend to have a greater appreciation of all three of the aspects of God Realization. All approaches eventually lead to Sat, or the non-dual Identity.

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh liked to emphasize that the original Vedic conception of life was more positive than negative, and that different temperaments require different methods. Krishna's approach was more life affirming and Buddha's, more life-denying.

It must be understood that conceptions like Existence, Consciousness and Bliss are not definitions of Ultimate Knowledge, but merely pointers which can connect Ultimate Realization to the basic personality constructs of heart, mind and will.

Aphorism #10: When the process of negation is not understood as applying only to the dualities of the relative mind, it leads to nihilism. When the assertion is made that Ultimate Reality consists of positive attributes, it leads to the doctrine of eternalism.

Commentary: Nihilism denies the reality, value and knowability of a very specified or general class of anything in existence including Ultimate Knowledge. Eternalism seeks to find some ultimate substance which can be identified as the basis of all existence. Both doctrines fail to capture the essence of non-duality. Nihilism and eternalism should be seen as opposite conceptions existing within the relative mind.

Aphorism #11: It is possible, even quite common, to misrepresent principles of conventional knowledge as being useful pointers towards Ultimate Reality.

Commentary: An example of this mistake comes from the history of science. For many centuries it was thought that space, time and causality were ultimate realities of sorts, independent from one another and the basis of all creation. We now know them to be relative, interdependent, mental constructions required to form any conception of objects in the world. They are, part and parcel, conventional knowledge.

Even those who talk about their personal relationship with God fail to recognize the extent to which this concept and experience is structured in duality and is, therefore, in the realm of conventional knowledge.

Aphorism #12: Attempts to distinguish Ultimate knowledge from conventional knowledge require the rigorous exploration of conventional knowledge, including the principles of logic and word usage. This exploration must then be combined with periods of introspective meditation where the mind falls silent at its depths.

Commentary: Those who are intellectually lazy will never find enlightenment. They will mistake something relative for the Absolute; they will fail to properly discriminate between the Real and the not so real. This failing is particularly rampant in the new-age movement where people consider any rigorous approach to knowledge to be anti-spiritual and a matter of being "stuck in the head." They are particularly fuzzy in regards to the issue of what it means to judge another. Intellectual laziness is also prevalent among Christians who have been taught to never question their faith.

The last phrase in this aphorism is intentional; I do not want people to assume that success in meditation necessarily requires a total and complete stilling of thought. For more on this subject, read Experience and Philosophy by Franklin Merrell-Wolff.

Aphorism #13: One of the twelve ways of organizing conventional knowledge is numerology.

Commentary: Arthur M. Young, in his "Geometry of Meaning", was able to highlight the relationship of number to the fundamental ways in which we think about, feel and perceive reality.

Rudolph Steiner, in his lecture series entitled "Human and Cosmic Thought," set forth the twelve systems of philosophic thinking and their relationship to the signs of the zodiac. "Mathematism," as he called it, corresponds to the sign of Gemini. My nature resonates with this approach as the most suitable method to discuss the subtle issues within conventional knowledge. I equate mathematism with numerology.

The question remains, however, as to why I focus on conventional knowledge as a means of clarifying Ultimate Knowledge? Clarity is needed in the field of conventional knowledge before one can transcend it and reside in Ultimate Truth. I trust that this numerological approach will help provide this clarity.

One example of the need for greater clarity is the concept of duality in the ancient Vedic scriptures. Arthur M. Young suggests that this concept is representative of a fourfold level of number rather than a twofold one. I will speak more about this in the next few aphorisms.

Aphorism #14: The numbers two through four represent respectively: willing, feeling and thinking. These processes are all within the scope of conventional knowledge. Zero represents Ultimate Knowledge or the Absolute. The number one can refer to either Ultimate or conventional knowledge depending on context or point of view.

Commentary: Arthur M. Young in his Geometry of Meaning gives a scientific and metaphysical basis for why the numbers two through four represent respectively willing, feeling and thinking. I will not try to reiterate the basis of his thesis, since it is long and complicated, but I do recommend this book for those who are interested in understanding the relationship of the principles of physical science to those of human psychology, astrology and spiritual science.

Zero is the basis of all numbers; it symbolizes the impersonal nature of the Divine. The number one symbolizes the bindu point, out of which arises all relative, conventional existence. Since the number one is related to the many, is the first in the series of numbers and the cause of all other numbers, it is also part of conventional knowledge. Only a one without a second, which means It is not the beginning of a series of numbers processes or events, can represent Ultimate Knowledge. However, such a number is the equivalent of zero.

Aphorism #15: Only beginning with the fourfold model does objective rational analysis come into play. The prior numbers are in the realm of subjectivity.

Commentary: Young, in his Geometry of Meaning is able to show us that all duality is actually the interplay of two separate dichotomies, one mediating the other. In other words, two pairs of opposites are needed for rational scrutiny. Thus, when a lawyer wants to impeach a witness (true-not-true dichotomy), he must show that his or her statements are inconsistent (consistent-inconsistent dichotomy).

Ken Wilber's paradigm of subjective-objective and individual-collective is another demonstration of the need for a fourfold analysis in dealing with concepts.

Aphorism #16: The threefold operator is beyond rational analysis. It applies to the realm of feeling, i.e. when we subjectively feel past, present and future time. We can experience the threefold, but it escapes full rational explanation.

Commentary: All experience is an ongoing movement from one state to another, and always contains, according to Young's analysis: situations, actions and results. These relationships are experienced and felt even though they are beyond rational scrutiny. This is the part of life that provides substance, motion and value.

Aphorism #17: The twofold nature of life represents, in turn, the principle of causality. Cause and effect can be reversed through the exercise of choice and will.

Commentary: Young points out how a barn can burn down and kill the pigs inside. This would be a tragedy for the owner. However, the owner might learn from this experience that roasted pigs taste good and he might then burn wood for that purpose. What was before an effect (roasted pigs) has now become a cause or motive for burning wood.

Life is filled with such examples. We can either be a victim of natural processes or we can learn from them and achieve new creative powers. In this sense all life experience is a form of schooling and an exercise in choice.

The two basic movements of life are towards manifestation or greater diversity (effects), or towards the unmanifest and unity (goals and causes). In the spiritual literature, the first movement leads to Ignorance, the second, Enlightenment. However, as we will see later, there is neither bondage nor liberation; they concepts within conventional knowledge.

Although I have chosen to highlight Young's analysis of number and its relationship to thinking, feeling and willing, The Art of Multi-Dimensional Living® would suggest that these three processes relate to number in three different ways:

1. In the process of involution, will precedes feeling and feeling, thinking (Young's analysis).

2. In the process of evolution, feeling is predominant on the first step of the spiritual ladder (religion), willing on the second step (yoga) and thinking on the third (wisdom) even though "thinking" is now replaced by insight.

3. In personality development, thinking, ruled by Mercury, is grosser than the will, ruled by Mars, and Mars is grosser than feeling ruled by the Moon. Thus, we see the physical body followed by the senses, then mind, then intellect, then will, then the fine level of feeling and finally the integrating factor, which is the equivalent of insight at the level of spiritual evolution.

Everything has a threefold nature in relative existence and one can become quite confused if this principle is not kept in mind.

Aphorism #18: The number one represents the experience of presence or I am-ness. This principle leads, in turn, to the experience of the other, the world, the non-self.

Commentary: The sense of individuality or identity is what is first experienced upon awakening, but concurrently with it arises the other. This is why the great sage Nisargadatta Maharaj recommended, as a primary meditative technique, a constant focus on the sense of I am. It is equivalent to the one, which is closest to the zero. The I am is closest to The Self. It will lead you to your own immortal unbounded nature, to ground zero!

Of course, this is only true to the extent that you explore what the sense of I am is not, rather than identifying it with some aspect of personality such as the body, senses or mind. In other words, the process is one of neti-neti, not-this, not-this.

Every thought, if examined carefully, slowly shrinks back to a singular point, and then, into pure, silent awareness. This point of singularity is the bridge between the Absolute and the relative; it is both the points of creation and destruction.

The term one is also useful for describing the experience of an unbounded Self totally separate and uninvolved with all that is the non-Self. This stage of enlightenment is sometimes referred to as Cosmic Consciousness. Even the next stage, often called God or Celestial Consciousness, has a sense of a separate Self merging or becoming one with the non-Self. Only in the highest state of consciousness, called Unity or Brahman Consciousness, does any sense of individuality or singularity disappear. Now the experience is the equivalent to that of being a zero.

Aphorism #19: The number zero is the basis for all prime numbers even though it is not, itself, involved with them. This is symbolic of the Absolute as the basis of all creation, and yet, transcending it.

Commentary: The notion of zero stands for nothing, literally, and yet it is most primal, unifying conception of mathematics. Likewise, consciousness without an object is the fulcrum for the elaboration of all names and forms.

Aphorism #20: Contemplation and meditation on the numbers four, three, two, one and zero can help a person understand the difference between Ultimate Knowledge and conventional knowledge.

Commentary: Ultimate Knowledge is the point wherein intellection is reduced to zero.

Aphorism #21: The number five represents the mind and the five organs of cognition (the senses related to perception). Six represents the five organs of action (the senses related to movement) plus the mind. Seven represents each of the five elements (5), and the totality of the five organs of cognition (+1) and the five organs of action (+1). Both types of organs are needed to experience the fullness of physical reality. Eight represents the process of evolution and nine represents the process of conscious evolution or spiritual enlightenment. Ten represents the process of conscious evolution fully integrated with external life.

Commentary: Throughout the remaining aphorisms, I will have occasion to refer to this numerical blueprint of the numbers zero through ten, as a means of highlighting and clarifying various points of knowledge and showing the differences between conventional and Ultimate knowledge.

Aphorism #22: Conventional truth leads to Ultimate truth, which, in turn, leads to liberation.

Commentary: The direct experience of Ultimate truth is liberation, but Ultimate truth can also refer to the sage expressions of ultimate knowledge called the Dharma in Buddhism and ParaVidya in Hinduism. Listening to, thinking about and meditating on these expressions of pure knowledge lead directly to liberation, whereas the focus on conventional knowledge leads first to ultimate knowledge and then liberation.

This is why the venerable Yin-Shin in his The Way to Buddhahood states that:

Aphorism #23: All conventional knowledge sits on the bedrock of three primal concepts: space, time and causality.

Commentary: These concepts are naturally learned in infancy, but once learned, they must be instinctively thought at all times in order to experience the various objects which make up our world. They are not open to choice or rejection.

I have already stated earlier how space exists within the realm of the fourfold, time, within the realm of the threefold and causality within the realm of the twofold.

An anecdote regarding this aphorism: Some people having been born blind regain their vision later in life. Apparently some when they see the moon in the sky reach out to touch it.

As infants they missed a developmental stage where spatial orientation relating to vision is learned. Distance in space for them is not understood: everything seen appears to be in a flat 2 dimensional world with no distance. RIsaacs

Aphorism #24: Contemplation of how intimate the concepts of space, time and causality are to our daily experience of the world adumbrates first glimmerings of the doctrine of mentalism. Mentalism suggests so intimate a relationship between the so-called outside world and our mental representation of it, that any dual standpoint dissolves and one is left with Mind or Consciousness as the sole Reality.

Commentary: There are a number of stages in the doctrine of mentalism and no one has done better in describing them than Paul Brunton. Mentalism is not the classic subjective idealism of western philosophy that suggests that each individual "thinks" the world, nor is it a philosophy based in abstract speculation. Quoting Brunton: "The falsity of the view that the real world is outside consciousness and that the mental copy of it alone is inside consciousness, becomes known only after thoroughly deep penetrative thought. There is no world apart and separate to be copied, for the idea IS the world."

This doctrine requires a great deal of study and, for those interested, I recommend the later work of Paul Brunton. Although this teaching can also be found in most of the ancient mystery traditions, it is found there only in a paltry, disorganized and scattered form.

Astrology is based on the premise that the world is mental, but with the loss of the true science of the stars, the concrete evidence of, and support for, mentalism was lost. With the advent of The Art of Multi-Dimensional Living® this evidence is reasserting itself.

The doctrine of mentalism breaks down the bicameral world and leaves us with just Mind. Now the teachings of Vedanta that the world is one -- begin to make sense. Materialism no longer holds its tight grip over our psyche.

We also begin to understand why exploring knowledge from the perspective of numerology makes sense. Our total focus now becomes Mind and its various expressions.

Aphorism #25: Mentalism suggests that there is a Universal Mind as well as individual minds. Each individual mind partakes of the Universal Mind. The thoughts or effects of the Universal Mind can be called the World Idea. The creator or cause of these universal thoughts or effects can be called the World Mind. Behind both concepts lies Mind Alone or Ultimate Reality.

Commentary: Creativity and intelligence interact throughout all of creation. Seen as cause and effect, this dynamic can be called World Mind and World Idea (the terminology of Paul Brunton). Its source is Pure Mind, which is non-dual in essence.

Our own minds function in a fashion similar to the Universal Mind: thoughts arise out of and fall back into a mind that, at its core, is neither silent nor active, but beyond both phases; it is Pure Consciousness.

Aphorism #26: Even the World Idea and the World Mind, which we can equate with the metaphysical concepts of phenomena and noumenon, are subtle objects of thought and part of conventional knowledge.

Commentary: A mind can be active or at rest, but both aspects are still Mind. If we equate World Mind with a personal God, then that God only exists in relation to some "other". Dissolution of the sense of separateness as a personal self means loss of I and Another (the personal God). A personal God means a God in relationship! This point must be contemplated deeply.

The Vedic way of saying this is: "There is neither bondage or liberation." The esoteric Christian expression is: "I and the Father are one."

Aphorism #27: The nine substances: earth, water, light, air, space, time, direction, soul and mind, are all part of conventional knowledge. You are not these substances.

Aphorism #28: Each of the eight personalities that interact with the eight fields of living: spiritual life, dharma, physical health, mental health, wealth, interpersonal relationships, career and creative play, are part of conventional knowledge. You are not these personalities or their related fields of living.

Aphorism #29: Nor are you the seven sheaths: body, senses, mind, intellect, will, feeling, ego and iconoclastic factor.

Aphorism #30: Nor are you what the Buddhists call the six sense organs: eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind, or the six elements: earth, water, fire, wind, space and consciousness.

Aphorism #31: Nor are you what the Buddhists call the five aggregates: forms, sensations, perceptions, mental formations and consciousness.

Aphorism #32: Nor are you the perceiver, the perceived, or the twofold process of perception.

Commentary: A perceiver or knower both receives an object (perception) and projects towards an object (cognition and reactive emotion). These four categories are all part of conventional knowledge. Expressed in ancient Vedic terminology, you are neither the doer or agent (projective function in the process of knowing), nor the enjoyer (the receptive function in the process of knowing.

Note that in an earlier aphorism we discussed why intellectual analysis requires a fourfold perspective or model.

Aphorism #33: Nor are you the threefold categories of knower, process of knowing and known.

Aphorism #34: Nor are you in duality an entity choosing, in the name of free will, between two or more options. Who or what is the "I" that thinks it is free to choose?

Commentary: Free will implies choice. Choice exists at the level of conventional knowledge. At the level of Ultimate knowledge there is only choiceless awareness. There is no cause and effect or relationship between a chooser and a choice.

Aphorism #35: Nor are you a one that brings about a two (a cause of an effect).

Aphorism #36: You are not any object of perception or thought whatsoever. If you were, how could you know or be aware of it?

Aphorism #37: Is there nothing positive one can say about Ultimate knowledge? In attempting to relate Ultimate knowledge to our daily experience of thinking, willing and feeling, the ancient sages spoke of Ultimate knowledge as Sat (Pure Existence), Chit (Pure Consciousness) and Ananda (Pure Bliss). These expressions are obviously adumbrations, but extremely valuable ones nevertheless.

Commentary: There is some disagreement as to how thinking, willing and feeling correspond to Sat, Chit and Ananda. Some relate willing to Sat and others, to Chit. According to Swami Sivananda (and myself) willing properly corresponds to Chit.

Aphorism #38: In the Christian tradition the corresponding pointers are Father, Son and Holy Spirit or Holy Mother.

Commentary: For Joel Goldsmith also, the Father (Sat) is related to the Law (omniscience), the Son (Chit) to Power (omnipotence) and the Holy Spirit (Ananda) to Presence (omnipresence).

Aphorism #39: The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are the same as Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, the creative, preservative and destructive forces within the universe. All such designations are part of conventional knowledge. They are useful pointers to Ultimate Reality.

Aphorism #40: The Father, Son and Holy Spirit can also be seen as Brahman, Purusha and Atman.

Commentary: Father Bede Griffiths, a Christian monk in India, has made this useful correlation in his book entitled "The Marriage of East and West." However, I disagree with his interpretation that Brahman, Purusha and Atman correspond with body, spirit and mind respectively. Properly speaking, they correspond with body, mind and spirit.

Aphorism #41: When the threefold (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) is seen from the perspective of the "twofold and the One," then the Father becomes the Godhead or Nirguna Brahman (impersonal God without attributes), the Son becomes the Saguna Brahman (personal God with attributes) and the Holy Spirit becomes the "Word made flesh (the capacity of Pure Spirit to enter matter)."

Commentary: Put differently, the Son and Holy Spirit become male and female, purusha and prakriti, wisdom and love, intelligence and creativity, yang and yin. From where do these dualities arise? They arise from the Godhead -- the primordial darkness or Silence of the Father.

Aphorism #42: In terms of conventional knowledge, a twofold description of reality is valuable because it highlights the difference between body and mind or outer objective existence and inner subjective existence and the CAUSAL relationship, or the sense of duality, that exists between the seemingly opposing qualities. A threefold description of reality is equally useful because it incorporates the principles of thinking, feeling and willing as the fundamental components of subjective experience in TIME. A fourfold description of reality is valuable because it allows for intellectual analysis through two sets of dichotomous concepts existing in SPACE.

Commentary: We have covered this ground once before in a previous aphorism.

Aphorism #43: Using a fourfold analysis, we can learn that ignorance is the result of a perceiver reacting to a perceived object (projection) before he has fully perceived and cognized that object. Consequently he never sees objective reality in its totality, but only a mix of objective and subjective impressions.

Commentary: This was one of J.R. Krishnamurti's important teachings. We never let go of the past completely; we allow it to prejudice the present perception. Rohit Mehta in his excellent book entitled "J.R. Krishnamurti and the Nameless Experience" devotes a whole chapter to what he calls the interrupted perception: the ability to observe something without denial or indulgence. However, this is not possible as long as there is the mistaken experience of a limited body-mind entity observing and interacting with some thing. Why? Because that so-called entity is nothing but a mass of memory and habitual tendencies that is bound to interrupt any perception. And thereby fail to experience truth. It is the tendency of the egoistic mind to either be anxious about the future or regretful about the past that creates an obstacle to experiencing the Now.

Aphorism #44: Using a threefold analysis, we can discover the distinction between the conventional triad of seemingly separate drives known as knowing, doing and desiring and the unified Ultimate triad of Sat (Pure Existence), Chit (Pure Consciousness) and Ananda (Pure Bliss).

Aphorism #45: Using a twofold analysis, we can discover that polar opposites are not separate but complimentary. Thus, those who seek a life of nothing but pleasure and no pain are self-deluded.

Aphorism #46: Even the experience of Cosmic Consciousness, where the unbounded Self is a Witness of all creation totally separate and divorced from anything relative and finite -- is, itself, an experience of Oneness that must be transcended with yet a higher realization: the realization of the unity of Self, creation and the apparent relationship between the two. Expressed slightly differently, the unity of knower, known and process of knowing is the highest Realization. This Unity is actually the equivalent of the number zero.

Aphorism #47: Conventional knowledge begins with a knower (The Father) who begets a known (The Son) and proceeds as a process of knowing as a continuum from knower to known (The Holy Spirit).

The knower relates to thinking, the known to willing and the process of knowing to feeling. Thus, on the road back to God, we begin with religion, which is based in devotional feeling; then we move to meditation, which involves concentration through the will; and finally, we move into contemplating pure wisdom, which is based in a type of thinking which transcends the small mind.

Commentary: Spiritual integration requires a simultaneous development of mind, will and heart, even if this development is, according to the principles of The Art of Multi-Dimensional Living®, necessarily organized and led by a predominant strength of personality and its corresponding spiritual approach.

This development may also be seen as sequential when viewed from the perspective of evolution based in conventional time frames. Individuals first become enamoured with religious pursuits, then with inner contemplative meditation and finally with pure non-dual wisdom. All the great spiritual teachings recognize and give honor to all three of these steps on the spiritual ladder. Deficient teachings emphasize one or two steps at the expense of the remaining one(s).

Aphorism #48: The eight applied disciplines relate to feeling, the eight spiritual paths relate to willing and the eight intellectual disciplines relate to thinking. Climbing the three steps of the spiritual ladder include the treading of these 24 disciplines.

Commentary: The eight applied disciplines are the arts and sciences of: Independent Living, Health, Geomancy, Ritual, Astrology, Music, Myth and Archetype and Community. The eight spiritual disciplines are described in detail in The Spiritual Labyrinth: Alternative Roadmaps to Reality, an on-line book at this web-site. In brief, they are transcendence through the body, senses, mind, intellect, will, heart, integration or iconoclasm. The intellectual disciplines are also eightfold and rely on these same eight aspects of personality.

The path of religion includes the eight applied disciplines. The path of meditative concentration includes the eight spiritual disciplines. The path of wisdom includes the eight intellectual disciplines, especially the highest "darshana", the non-dual Insight into the nature of life and existence.

Aphorism #49: There are three major obstacles in fully Realizing Ultimate knowledge: 1) somnambulistic consciousness; 2) sensual desire; and 3) false predication. They are the equivalent to tamasic, rajasic and sattwic obstacles to Self-Realization.

Commentary: First, we must wake up and see how we are among the walking dead as Gurdjieff used to say. Then we must learn to see how attachment to desire brings suffering. Finally, we must stop associating the Self with objects of perception, or giving them the status of the Self. For a more complete discussion of this subject see Franklin Merrell Wolff's "Experience and Philosophy", section 49 and 79. Wolff includes a fourth obstacle, egoism, but I feel that the ego consists of nothing but the other three faults, particularly false predication. I do not include it as a separate category, although one can certainly do so by viewing egoism (the sense of separation into self and other) as the root of the other three faults.

Aphorism #50: Conventional knowledge requires doership or agency (a sense of free will) between a subject and its objects. The Ultimate teaching insists that free will is merely an illusion. There is no relationship of one with another when non-duality becomes one's most intimate experience.

Commentary: When it becomes our own direct experience that Atman is Brahman, or, put in Christian terms, that we are Son's of God and, also that we are not separate from Brahman or God in any significant way, then the idea of free will becomes a falsehood to us. We experience what Christ exclaimed: "Without the Father I can do nothing."

This realization does not mean we lose the ability to function in a conventional way, or fail to take care of our body, or that we can to longer think. However, these functions become more automatic the autonomic nervous system expands into areas never before thought possible.

Aphorism #51: A limited, bounded entity is never free; it is always grappling with issues of 1) security; 2) power; and 3) truth, in relation to issues of security and power. Using Vedic terminology, the first is a tamasic attachment, the second, a rajasic attachment and the third, a sattwic one.

Aphorism #52: Disputes regarding the question: "Do I have free will?" most often place emphasis on the wrong words, namely, "free will". The focus should be on the word "I". If there is no "I", then what does it mean to talk of free will.

Aphorism #53: If you are attached to, or dependent on, someone or something, how free are you?

Aphorism #54: For those who do not Know Oneness with the Father, the concept of free will is something that cannot and should not be denied.

Aphorism #55: True freedom is experienced in unity with the Father. All other types of freedom are paltry in comparison.

Aphorism #56: As long as unconscious drives and forces influence us, how free are we?

Aphorism #57: Even your so-called freedom to conduct the simplest actions, such as getting up to close the door, are tenuous at best. All the people who died in the Oklahoma terrorist bombing thought they were freely choosing their next action until the bomb exploded.

Aphorism #58: The concept of free will is a relative one. Why? Because it's a concept!

Commentary: The concept of free will requires an entity in space initiating causal events in time. It is an idea totally implanted in relative, conventional knowledge. There it is useful.

Aphorism #59: For many people a discussion regarding the issue of free will often result in emotionally volatile exchanges. The ego will never assist in its own self-destruction.

Aphorism #60: At some point in the life of every seeker of God, the distinction between predetermination and free will, and even between conventional and Ultimate knowledge is transcended. What is left is Brahman or God.

Aphorism #61: The Ultimate knowledge is often referred to by the metaphysical term, noumenon. The conventional knowledge is designated by the term, phenomena. In the experience of Ultimate Reality both terms, being concepts, are left behind.

Commentary: There is a danger in using terms that point to what is Ultimate in ourselves and in the universe: we begin substituting the name for the reality. We begin to conceptualize that which is beyond conceptualization. Then we are stuck in the small mind and not actually "experiencing" the large Buddha Mind.