Vinaire's Blog

Please see Ground State of the Universe.

The following is quoted from the book The Tao of Physics.

“The term ‘physics’ is derived from this Greek word [physis] and meant…, originally, the endeavour of seeing the essential nature of all things… The Milesians… saw no distinction between animate and inanimate, spirit and matter. In fact, they did not even have a word for matter, since they saw all forms of existence as manifestations of the ‘physis’, endowed with life and spirituality…

“Heraclitus [c. 535 – c. 475] believed in a world of perpetual change, of eternal ‘Becoming’. For him, all static Being was based on deception and his universal principle was fire, a symbol for the continuous flow and change of all things. Heraclitus taught that all changes in the world arise from the dynamic and cyclic interplay of opposites and he saw any pair of opposites as a unity. This unity, which contains and transcends all opposing forces, he called the Logos.

“The split of this unity began with the Eleatic school, which assumed a Divine Principle standing above all gods and men. This principle was first identified with the unity of the universe, but was later seen as an intelligent and personal God who stands above the world and directs it. Thus began a trend of thought which led, ultimately, to the separation of spirit and matter and to a dualism which became characteristic of Western philosophy.

“A drastic step in this direction was taken by Parmenides of Elea [c. 515/540 -c. 450] who was in strong opposition to Heraclitus. He called his basic principle the Being and held that it was unique and invariable. He considered change to be impossible and regarded the changes we seem to perceive in the world as mere illusions of the senses. The concept of an indestructible substance as the subject of varying properties grew out of this philosophy and became one of the fundamental concepts of Western thought.

“In the fifth century B.C., the Greek philosophers tried to overcome the sharp contrast between the views of Parmenides and Heraclitus. In order to reconcile the idea of unchangeable Being (of Parmenides) with that of eternal Becoming (of Heraclitus), they assumed that the Being is manifest in certain invariable substances, the mixture and separation of which gives rise to the changes in the world.”

.

The unity of the universe is defined by awareness. AWARENESS may be identified as the Divine Principle. Identifying this principle further with a personal God seems to be the result of human bias. Spirit and matter are not really separate. They both are aspects of existence.

Parmenides was looking for a reference point for all change. He simply assumed it to be a Being. But, logically, if the unity of this universe is defined by awareness, then the reference point shall be “absence of awareness.” This is similar to the mathematical view that the reference point for all numbers is zero.

The red herring here is the assumption of a Being, or Cause, as the reference point. This assumption seems to satisfy a human-centric viewpoint. But it does not take into account the consideration that the Being, or Cause, itself requires a reference point.

This problem does not arise when we accept the “absence of awareness” as the reference point.

.

Reference: Unmoved mover

The unmoved mover is a philosophical concept described by Aristotle as a primary cause or “mover” of all the motion in the universe. As is implicit in the name, the “unmoved mover” moves other things, but is not itself moved by any prior action.

Scientifically, the unmoved mover is equivalent to an absolute static. However, an absolute static is not possible in this universe because static-dynamic exists only in pair. This pair may be represented by a scale of infinite gradients where one end approaches increasing static value and the other end approaches increasing dynamic value in an asymptotic manner.

Thus, static and dynamic do not exist independent of each other. There is no static that exists in isolation. There is no “unmoved mover.” Static is always relative to dynamic. There is always relative motion.

One may presume no relative motion, but that would also mean no awareness because awareness arises only with relative motion. This would be the Ground State of “absence of awareness.”

Aristotle argues that “there must be an immortal, unchanging being, ultimately responsible for all wholeness and orderliness in the sensible world”; and to prove this he invents an impressive array of new concepts that includes  potentiality and actuality, the four causes, hylomorphism, the theory of categories, and, of course, the “first cause” or unmoved mover.

But one may ask, “How does that immortal, unchanging being of Aristotle come about?” Or, “How does such an argument come about?” Or, “How does anything come about?”

The Ground State of “absence of awareness” provides a basis from which it becomes possible to start answering such questions. We don’t really need Aristotle’s complex explanations that use a wide variety of new concepts. All this complexity only seems to generate more mystery and confusion.

The concept of Static in Scientology is simply the concept of Aristotle’s “Unmoved mover” wrapped up in a new garb. Since the Scientology static has the ability to postulate and to perceive, there is awareness associated with this Static. Thus, such a Static is not something inherently permanent; and, like Aristotle’s unchanging being, it also arises somehow.

All we are asking is, “How does anything come about?” This boils down to the question, “How does awareness come about?”

So the basic question that needs to be answered is, “What is awareness? How does it arise?”

Whatever is beyond awareness is unknowable. The idea of primary cause may simply be dropped. It is not required.

.

Reference: The Nature of Forms

Beingness is “existing-ness.” A phenomenon exists as a spiritual essence and a physical form. The spiritual and physical aspects go together. They cannot be separated as some absolutes. A spiritual state will have physical form, no matter how subtle. And a physical state will have some spiritual characteristics, no matter how subdued.

Thus, an atom has a configuration and certain properties that express its essence. Both of these physical and spiritual aspects go together to make up the beingness of an atom.

Beingness is inclusive of both form and essence.

.

Awareness arises because there is desire to know. Awareness is manifested as a light with barely a frequency and period. Its characteristics are limited to a very basic form requiring space-time and simple awareness. This is the totality of initial beingness. The appearance of beingness reinforces the desire to know, and this pushes the development of beingness.

At the basic level there are no developed characteristics, such as, perception of other forms, visualization of other forms, or thinking by association of forms, because there are no other forms. The initial beingness is very raw and in no way does it resemble the God of Abrahamic religions or the thetan of Scientology. Those things come much later after the beingness has developed.

The initial beingness is basic light and raw awareness.

.

We look at self in human perspective only; but self could be regarded as the consciousness of any beingness. Some beingness is more developed than others. Therefore, some self is more developed than others.

The initial beingness is basic light and awareness. Its self would only be the limited consciousness of light. This self would be very primitive. It would then develop as self of minerals, plants, animals, and finally that of the humans.

The self is the consciousness of beingness.

.

The self or “I” forms the basic viewpoint from which awareness expands. It consists of all of space-time in the beginning. It is not just a “point” in space.

The “I” of a mineral consists of the space-time its physical form occupies, and the awareness it extends through its chemical properties.

The “I” of an animal consists of its physical form, and its interactions with its environment. It will include all its instincts and the functionality of its body.

The “I” of a human being consists of the human form and its vast capacity for interactions. It will include his intelligence and skills.

The basic viewpoint of beingness is the self or “I”.

.

The desire to know is not satisfied with just having a beingness of light and awareness and with nothing else to be aware of. Thus come about harmonics of disturbance of the ground state, which gives rise to different beingnesses with their viewpoints.

Thus, there is differentiation. There is separation of forms. There are boundaries. There is perception of other forms. There is knowledge of basic forms.

There are interactions of different awareness, and with such interactions there come about complex forms, beingnesses, viewpoints and knowledge.

The desire to know produces harmonics of disturbance, giving rise to different beingnesses.

.

Thus there is reality gained from perception through the viewpoints. Then there is reality of the viewpoint of “I”, which comes from the consciousness of beingness. There is also the reality of other beingnesses and their viewpoints.

The “I” is very basic in the beginning. It has awareness of its own space-time and characteristics as light. This awareness is then extended to other beingnesses or existence in general. That constitutes its reality. “I” acts as the basic filter of the awareness of all existence.

Beyond that reality is the reality of “I” itself.

Reality is what is perceived through viewpoints, and the fact of viewpoints.

.