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Reference: Postulate Mechanics (PM)

Substantiality means something exists and it can be sensed. The knowable universe exists and it can be sensed.

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Substance

If SUBSTANCE is anything that is substantial enough to be sensed, then he knowable universe is made of substance.

Substance would then refer not only to matter, but also to thought. A perception of rose is substantial; but a mental image of rose created by imagination is substantial too, because both exist and can be sensed. Postulate Mechanics recognizes both matter and thought as substance.

Substance has two fundamental characteristic: (1) Thickness, (2) Motion (energy).

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Thickness

Thickness is a degree of substantiality. It is visible as density, firmness, viscosity, etc. It is an inherent characteristic of substance. 

Matter has extremely high thickness called mass. The thickness of radiation is so small that it cannot be measured as mass. So, it is measured in terms of “frequency.” The thickness decreases from matter to radiation on a gradient.

Thought has a very different kind of thickness that is sensed mentally. It is measured as “fixity.” The fixity (thickness) of thought decreases on a gradient from extremely high fixity of belief in God to free-flowing visualizations of poets. Thought is considered to be a spiritual substance that adds to the physical substance of matter to radiation.

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Motion (Energy)

Motion, or energy, is the cyclic movement of substance within its spherical extents. It is also an inherent characteristic of substance. 

Motion is a characteristic opposite to thickness. For example, in an atom, as thickness decreases from the central nucleus to distant periphery, the motion of substance increases. Similarly, in a galaxy, the central black hole is highly dense. As thickness decreases away from the black hole, the motion of the galactic bodies increases around the black hole. In short, As thickness decreases, motion increases. 

In case of thought, a postulate seems to have the least motion. More flexible considerations seem to revolve around the postulate. The range of motion is very small for matter, compared to the range of motion for thought.

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Considerations

The major concepts introduced in Chapter 3 are SUBSTANCE, MATTER, THOUGHT, THICKNESS and MOTION. These concepts are defined in Glossary: Postulate Mechanics.

1. Substantiality manifests as the substance of Universe.
2. The substance ranges from matter to thought.
3. Matter has the most thickness and thought has the least.
4. Matter has the least motion and thought has the most.
5. Matter is physical; thought is spiritual (mental).

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Reference: Postulate Mechanics (PM)

When the subject is the whole universe, what is the starting point from which to begin clearing any misconceptions? There are all kinds of theories available in religion, philosophy and science about the universe. The sciences study matter and try to describe a physical universe. The religions study life and try to describe a spiritual universe. Philosophy speculates on things that are yet to be fully known.

I decided that the first concept to clear would be the meaning of the word UNIVERSE. 

It is always helps if you start with the etymology or origin of a word to get some idea of its derivation and history. For the UNIVERSE, this provided me a sense of “all things combined into one.” 

What combines all things into one? 

The characteristic common to all things in the universe is that they are knowable. Whether they are physical or spiritual, they are knowable. There cannot be any other characteristic more basic than this. This characteristic definitely combines all things into one.

What is that beyond knowable, which would not be a part of this universe?

This question cannot be answered, because THAT would be unknowable.

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Unknowable – Knowable

Here the penny dropped. We cannot even consider the unknowable because it is unknowable. The moment we consider “unknowable,” we only know our consideration. The unknowable remains unknowable.

Even God is knowable only as a consideration. We may assign God all those wonderful attributes. But these attributes are our considerations only. The unknowable lies beyond these considerations.

My first realization was that the fundamental dichotomy is KNOWABLE-UNKNOWABLE and not PHYSICAL-SPIRITUAL. Whether something is physical of spiritual it is knowable simply because we have considered it. It is a part of the knowable universe.

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The Unknowable

The highest echelon concept was UNKNOWABLE. This was supported by The Creation Hymn of Rig Veda.

Whence this creation has arisen
– perhaps it formed itself, or perhaps it did not –
the One who looks down on it,
in the highest heaven, only He knows
or perhaps He does not know.

So, how do we come to know anything?

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The Knowable

We come to know because we have considered something. That consideration must have started as a postulate. A postulate is something taken for granted. It is a creative thought that is claimed to be true. A postulate then forms the basis of all reasoning that follows. Considerations are formed out of reasoning. They are basically a continuation of the original postulate.

We mostly know our considerations. The underlying postulates likely remain hidden.

The postulates give rise to sensations. The sensation is true to us because we feel it even before it forms into a well-defined thought and acquires a meaning. This clarity of perception comes from the assimilation of this new sensation with other sensations that are already there. The assimilation brings about a harmony, consistency and continuity among all the sensations, such that they start to make more sense. This assimilation leads to increasing clarity of perception of what is there. Thus comes about the conception and consciousness of the knowable universe.

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Postulate Mechanics

This was excellent sleuthing. These ideas did not appear overnight. A lot of study preceded them. But everything I studied pointed to the above theory. Furthermore, these postulates were not quite visible. But they were there, and they were knowable as sensations, perceptions and conceptions.

But there were also a lot of misconceptions too hiding the actual postulates. And so, a hunt for those hidden postulates began by recognizing and sorting out the misconceptions. 

This endeavor give this book its title: POSTULATE MECHANICS (abbreviated as PM).

For the “matter” we have Classical Mechanics. For the “radiation” we have Quantum Mechanics. For the “postulates” we now propose Postulate Mechanics.

The purpose of Postulate Mechanics is to investigate, in a scientific manner, the postulates underlying this universe by sorting out the misconceptions.

Postulate mechanics uses the technique of Subject Clearing. The concepts, as found during this search, are being compiled at Glossary: Postulate Mechanics.

This is a live search, and the definitions of the various concepts are continually being refined and updated.

This search makes up the rest of this book.

I hope you enjoy this search. 

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Considerations

The major concepts introduced in this introduction are UNIVERSE, DICHOTOMY, KNOWABLE, UNKNOWABLE, POSTULATE, CONSIDERATION, and POSTULATE MECHANICS. These concepts are defined in Glossary: Postulate Mechanics.

1. Unknowable is that which can never be fully sensed. 
2. Knowable is that which can be sensed.
3. Universe is the totality of what is knowable.
4. Postulates form the basis of the knowable universe. 
5. Considerations arise to make the universe known.

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The gradient of enlightnemnt appears to be as follows. As one progresses along this gradient the postulates become finer and finer and so does the ego formation. Ego represents the agency of assimilation. There are finer postulates and a finer ego mechanism at each stage of this sequence.

For various definitions, please see Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and PM: Glossary.

The Gradient

1. Unknowable
   1. The ultimate goal is to know
   2. Knowing is postulating
   3. Perfect knowledge is Oneness (CCH*)
2. Postulate
   1. There is substance with inherent motion
   2. All motions have a tendency towards Oneness (CCH*)
   3. The substance requires unpacking and assimilation
   4. Any lack of assimilation appears as force
3. Ego formation
   1. Basic ego is a point of coordination
   2. Its purpose is to unpack and assimilate
   3. It does that by resolving anomalies
   4. The anomalies are violations of Oneness (CCH*)
4. The elements
   1. Substance (inertia)
      1. Matter
      2. Radiation
      3. Thought
   2. Space (extent of substance)
   3. Time (duration of substance)
   4. Motion (opposite of inertia)
   5. Natural laws (patterns of solutions)
   6. The spectrum of substance provides the expansion of oneness in time and space.
5. Material forms and motion
   1. The Inconscient (Objects)
      1. Matter has inherent motion
      2. Motions interact to generate actions
      3. Such actions are unconscious and automatic
      4. These actions follow simply laws.
   2. The Subconscient (subconscious mind)
      1. DNA—molecular level computer
      2. The motions become increasingly complex
      3. The resulting actions become regulated patterns
      4. Subconscious is composed of programmed complex motion
   3. The Subliminal
      1. Physical (cell body)
         • The body anchors the life of the individual.
         • Individual life is perishable; but life continues through reproduction.
         • The ultimate desire of life is to know.
         • Knowledge appears as genetic programming of complex activity.
      2. Vital (cell being)
         • The awareness such as that expressed by plants and animals.
         • There are reactions but the being has no consciousness of them.
6. Mind (mental being with many dimensions of assimilation)
   1. Higher Mind
      • This is the state of awareness of oneness and anomalies accompanied by thinking.
   2. Illumined Mind
      • At this level a person is advancing into looking instead of thinking. The anomalies resolve with flashes of realizations.
   3. Intuitive Mind 
      • At this level a person is becoming aware of the postulates, principles and laws underlying reality.
   4. Overmind
      • At this level a person is becoming aware of oneness among the postulates in different areas of activity.
   5. Supermind
      • At this level all awareness is completely continuous, consistent and harmonious. There is total oneness of knowledge.
7. Sachchidananda (Spirit)
   1. Delight of existence comes from the resolving of anomalies.
   2. In the state of Satchidananda, one is always resolving anomalies.
   3. The ultimate delight is contained in Oneness (CCH*)
8. Maya
   1. Maya consists of postulates.
   2. When a postulate is unpacked it generates dimensions.
   3. The dimensions provide appearance to existence.
9. Oneness
   1. Force is present where oneness is missing.
   2. Liberation lies in the achievement of Oneness.
10. Unknowable
    1. The Ultimate Reality is Unknowable.

Notes

1. The universe started with the postulate of unknown sensations.
2. Unpacking this postulate led to the five major physical sensations and the sensation of mental thought.
3. Assimilation of these sensations led to perceptions. Further assimilations led to memories, experiences, knowledge and wisdom.
4. It is to be noted that this unpacking and assimilation required many secondary postulates.
5. The basic postulates have become so solid that they appear as the material body. This material body houses the mechanisms of sensing. These mechanisms are the sense organs and the brain. Together they form the mind.
6. The first function of the mind is to assimilate sensations into perceptions. This level of the mind may be described as genetic programming.
7. The self-aware mind starts with perceptions. It is much less solid than the material body.
8. The consciousness of individuality (ego) comes about when bodily senses start to get coordinated and assimilated from a point sensed as “I” or self.
9. Sensations get assimilated into perception, perceptions into memory, memories into experience, experiences into knowledge and knowledge into higher wisdom.
10. Such assimilation follows the natural principle of Continuity, Consistency and Harmony (CCH*). This principle gives rise to natural laws.
11. The individuality (ego) assimilates in the background with just a sense of self but without further attention on it. This a natural consequence of having a body that is sensing the environment.
12. A baby’s self is based on the ego that is coordinating and assimilating body sensations. But, as the baby grows, the sense of self becomes larger as ego also starts assimilating the growing experience and knowledge. Over time, this sense of self starts to include the family, the society, the mankind, the life, and the universe.
13. Maturity comes about with the assimilation of experience and knowledge through various levels of mind into the wisdom of Sachchidananda. Thus, as the mind is purified, it slowly turns into pure spirit.
14. When a grown up person is acting in an immature, egoistic manner, he has confusions due to unassimilated perceptions, memories, experiences and knowledge. He then lacks wisdom.
15. One cannot get rid of the ego because ego will always be there as long as there is a body assimilating sensations. The unwanted influence of the ego can be eliminated only through proper assimilation.
16. The assimilated wisdom of spirit is way beyond the primitive sensations of the body.

*CCH = Continuity, Consistency and Harmony

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