Paul Brunton Philosophic Foundation homepage > Notebooks of Paul Brunton > Category 19: The Reign of Relativity



The Reign of Relativity

There are three stages on the path of world enquiry. The first yields as its fruit that the world is but an idea, and this stage has been reached from the metaphysical end by thinkers such as Bishop Berkeley, and nearly reached from the scientific end by such a man as Eddington. The second stage involves the study of the three states, waking, dreaming, and deep sleep, and yields as its fruit the truth that ideas are transitory emanations out of their permanent cause, consciousness. The third stage is the most difficult, for it requires analysis of the nature of time, space, and causation, plus successful practice of yoga. It yields as its fruit the sense of Reality as something eternally abiding with one.
§
The ordinary mentalness of the world and the superior reality of Mind illustrate the reign of relativity. This does not mean that the world is so utterly illusory that it is non-existent. It has a relative existence for everyone. But the enlightened ones are aware of the truth that Mind-in-Itself is there. They know it also by the wonderful experience of cosmic consciousness when everything falls away--including their own personal ego--and only THAT remains. This is not merely their point of view but something far and away beyond it that can only happen in the state of contemplation; hence it is a temporary one but--as Plotinus mentioned--a recurrent or accessible one.
  1. The Cosmos of Change
  2. The Double Standpoint
  3. The States of Consciousness
  4. Time, Space, Causality
  5. The Void As Metaphysical Fact