August 2020, #78 The Reign of Relativity
(All quotes are from Perspectives by Paul Brunton)
“The relativity theory brings space and time together as having no existence independent of each other. Mentalism explains why this is so. They are both inherent in one and the same thing—imagination; they are two ways in which the creative aspect of mind functions simultaneously.” (p. 233)
“The most valuable metaphysical fruit of the quantum theory is its finding that the processes of the universe which occur in space and time, emanate from what is fundamentally not in space and time.” (p. 233)
“Mentalism declares that space is really the idea which we subconsciously impose on. ….Space is needed by the mind to contain its images, to measure its forms, and therefore mind accordingly makes it… the same considerations apply to time, for if we think away all the objects which have their life in the past, present, or future, there will be no time left to flow onwards. There will be no independent thing called time… The time-space-causality reference is an essential part of human nature, a governing law of human thinking. These three hold good solely within such thinking and can have no possible or proper application outside it. Man does not consciously or arbitrarily impose them upon his thought; it is beyond his individual power to reject them.” (Ibid.)
Sorrow
PB uses Sorrow to illustrate relativity:
“It is said that time heals all sorrows; if we seek the reason why, we shall find it is because it insensibly gives a more philosophic point of view to the sorrowful….By bringing the philosophic attitude to bear upon each event, as and when it occurs, he immediately reduces his suffering and fortifies his peace. Every calamity which is seen from this standpoint becomes a means whereby he may ascend, if he will, to a higher level of understanding, a purer form of being. What he thinks about it and what he learns from it will be its real legacy to him. In his first fresh anguish the unawakened man may deny this; in the mental captivity which gives reality to the Present and drops it from the Past, he may see no meaning and no use in the calamity; but either by time or by philosophy he will one day be placed at the point of view where the significance of suffering will be revealed to him and where the necessity of suffering will be understood by him. This, indeed, is one of the great paradoxes of the human development: that suffering leads him step by step from the false self to the acceptance of the true self, and that the true self leads him step by step back to the acceptance of suffering.“ (p.244)
“Living in time and space as we do, we perforce live always in the fragmentary and imperfect, never in the whole or perfect. Only if, at rare moments, we are granted a mystical experience and transcend the time-space world, do we know the beauty and sublimity of being liberated from a mere segment of experience into the wholeness of Life itself.” (p. 237)
“Philosophy would not be worthwhile if it did not take the view that for the practical purpose of life, it must turn around and adopt a non-metaphysical approach. Thus, a two-fold attitude is the only complete and therefore correct one which it may approve. We have the right and bear the duty to ask ourselves in what way is a teaching related to everyday living; in what way is it connected with the world we know. If both relation and connection are absent, it is fair to say that the teaching is inadequate and lacks the necessary balance of interests.” (p.245)
“Causality is a misapprehension from the philosophical standpoint, but quite correct from the physical and practical. (p.237)
“The immediate present is not the eternal NOW.” (p.243)