7 Valleys: Contentment, Wonderment

Month, Day: Speech, Grandeur (Justice)

Continuing with the series on the 7 Valleys that has these four entries.

• Search, Love
• Knowledge, Unity
• Contentment, Wonderment
• True Poverty and Absolute Nothingness

The original is a meditation from about 12 years ago. Comments are found in italics.

---

Contentment --Contentment says "only heart to heart."

• What does this say about the markings that we use to converse about our findings?

What a short Valley. But, following the theme of ENT, words are handled physically on this side. Yet, we see too that they fall "short."

• Hence, do we have to let the message be between the lines?

The E part of ENT is related to the power of music and words. The Writings mention both of these. Too much misuse of music has wrecked havoc in certain areas. But, that experience can be used as an example of how science and experiment go hand in hand. One way that some one can serve is to be a guinea pig.

• Too many "inner significances" there for any elucidation, even though some views adamantly deny these.

Ah, and the N(ose) knows.
Wonderment --
This is another BIG Valley. Dreams! Along with the model alluded to in these posts is a new way to look at these experiences that can make sense in daily life. We can, many of us, cite interpretation and experience mappings to our own dreams that can occur just on waking, or a few minutes later, or even a few hours to days, all the way to a few years.

• Audacity says to be so bold as to propose the model due to reinforcement via this sign (one of the "signs in men, to the end that philosophers may not deny the mysteries of the life beyond nor belittle that which hath been promised them.")

But, there is always the chance of being the "spider" who cannot snare. How much like water flowing through the fingers are these waves on the ether. However, "reckon thyself only a puny form when within thee the universe is folded?"

• Yes. we must, and can, believe.

Do not the Eyes have it? As a reminder, we cannot propound; how can we when we get "flung into confusion" and "lost in awe at the works" and ...?

• What is there, in terms of attitude, that could be called more scientific?

Remarks:

01/25/2012 -- Yes, still at it. Ready to be more audacious. What we're looking for has to do with mind; at some point, it will be allowed by science that we can observe effects (actually, predict, to boot - one step forward will be a more insightful mathematics).

06/05/2009 -- Light very much is something to study in this context.

Modified: 01/25/2012

Belief and delusion

Month, Day: Speech, Beauty (Grace)

Aqdas #183: Say: This is the infallible Balance which the Hand of God is holding, in which all who are in the heavens and all who are on the earth are weighed, and their fate determined, if ye be of them that believe and recognize this truth. Say: This is the Most Great Testimony, by which the validity of every proof throughout the ages hath been established, would that ye might be assured thereof. Say: Through it the poor have been enriched, the learned enlightened, and the seekers enabled to ascend unto the presence of God.

So, if we choose to believe, then the Pascal challenge is fulfilled (that is, for us, there is the other side). We can take this a step further such that there can be knowledge and certainty despite the misgivings of the Brights, et al.

Audacity, then, becomes the mode, as, there are operational effects that we'll be able to demonstrate.

Some modern views (such as those represented by Dawkins, see The God Delusion) ought to be seen as very instructive to us in this regard. All arguments ought to be read and understood within their own framework.

There is much to consider, and the SAQ is a good place to start.

Too, it may be that what may appear as delusional may very well have substance behind it. That is something that cannot be addressed by science without a little paradigmatic shift. Of course, one question would be whether such a shift would have value.

Depends upon to whom you talk, in part.

Remarks:

01/25/2012 -- Yes, still at it. Ready to be more audacious. What we're looking for has to do with mind; at some point, it will be allowed by science that we can observe effects (actually, predict, to boot - one step forward will be a more insightful mathematics).

05/17/2011 -- Stephen gets press.

05/09/2011 -- We need a constructive re-look.

12/05/2010 -- Is it not true that extreme positions on the axis of the mindful can lead to a god-like state-fulness?

11/16/2010 -- What can science know?

09/06/2009 -- Essentially, more is undecidable than we like to admit, basically due to our talent for success (ergodicity, essentially) keeps the hubris refreshed (generation by generation).

05/29/2009 -- The Transcendent baffles.

05/06/2009 --We need to consider the contributions of the autodidact who has escaped abandonment.

Modified: 01/25/2011

7 Valleys: Knowledge, Unity

Month, Day: Speech, Glory (Perfection)

Continuing with the series on the 7 Valleys that has these four entries.

• Search, Love
• Knowledge, Unity
• Contentment, Wonderment
• True Poverty and Absolute Nothingness
  

The original is a meditation from about 12 years ago. Comments are found in italics.

---

Knowledge --

• “And thus did we show Abraham the Kingdom of the Heavens and of the Earth, that He might be established in knowledge.”

Unity --

Unity is where the heart, lungs, and the solar plexus have established themselves. Also as we get to the 7th and talk of camphor, consider how spiritually unified must be the infant/mother link (Hidden Words #29, Persian).

• Both of the genders have the opportunity to partake of such a sacramental union.

What else does Unity give us? Well, intellectually, it is full of ideas for the modern mind. We see some inklings about topology, for instance; and there is an emphasis on 4.

• First/last is just ripe with significances related to the arguments of "intuitionism" in the philosophy of mathematics.
  
• Seen/hidden has much to do with views that can come out of category theory. This is further seen as an important issue in computer science.

Yet, such associations being mentioned by no means should be taken as leave to put trivial bounds on these 4. Putting words to concepts, and linking them to known phenomenon, somehow begins to put bounds on usage and makes us begin to filter out what could be very important aspects. Soon, these filtered out things are denied.

• Is this not what happens with any socialization, e.g. the attainment of scientific knowledge?
• Look at the message on how our perceptions can differ (paragraphs 2-7).

Valley accounts for a whole lot of Words from the Bahá’u’lláh. We see '' [], (], [), and () ", for instance. We see the 4 Loves, as another example. And, finally, "build thou a fire and burn all thoughts and words entire." As you ponder this, think about how the quantitative (to date, that is, as this is going to change) basis of mathematics pulls one down to fewer, more dense words.

• What we need is to get back up to those more ethereal regions, with audacity.
• How can this be done without the Writings?

---

Modified: 12/03/2008

7 Valleys: Search, Love

Month, Day: Speech, Splendour (Glory)

This evening starts Speech, without which we could not communicate.

Yesterday, closed out Power by starting to look at the 7 Valleys.

Through time, these Seven will be visited again: Search, Love, Knowledge, Unity, Contentment, Wonderment, True Poverty and Absolute Nothingness

We'll start with Search and Love. The original is a meditation from about 12 years ago. Comments are found in italics.

----------------

Search --

Start with your little toe, consider your glorious self as you have never before and see how your "feet" help you in your Search. It's interesting that we ended up out of the water. Many things would be something entirely different if we were still aquatic. Such as, if that was where we had stopped, we would not have known the opportunity to ponder the mysteries of air (or the qualities of the refinement).

• Our love of abstraction comes from the refinement
  

Love --

Now, Love is obviously associated (in parts) with our reproductive apparati. However, a look to within a living human body, opened to support an exploratory (pre a few technological advances) view is interesting. Yes, hands-on experience of such an intrusive search can be enlightening.

The female organs reach upward toward the heart, in a manner that I find hard to not equate with Knowledge. Whereas, the male is more dust oriented, dragging.

Now, some bio-wags might argue about temperature issues for the particular gamete on that side. Sure. But, looking from Love, one can go up or down. And any observer of the human condition can see the difference.

Let's try to put a spiritual face to it (sorry, gents, you have further to go in order to just break even).

• Love covers a lot of ground, would we not expect this from Search? Issues related to Anima/Animus.
  

---

Modified: 12/03/2008

Seven Valleys

Month, Day: Power, Loftiness (Beauty)

Tomorrow starts Speech, without which we could not communicate.

As Power winds down, we may want to look at a peaceful Power, such as we see with Sufi. The Seven Valleys is a good place to start.

Here is something resurrected from about 12 years ago.
---------------------------------------------
Respectful look at the 7 Valleys from a Sci/Rel view.
---------------------------------------------

Sublime ---
    Search -  ( ... long time coming ... ) 
    Love -  ( ... and how ... ) 
    Knowledge -  (Abraham - established in Knowledge) 
    Unity -  (Moses ... ) 
    Contentment -  (Jesus ... ) 
    Wonderment -  (Muhammad ...) 
    True Poverty and
             Absolute Nothingness -  (Bab ...)

---------------------------------------

Search -  ( ... long time coming ... ) 

feet, do your walking!; we intimately know how to move
bipedally in the material; "patience" and nor "should he ever
be downhearted" even if  "he strive for a hundred thousand years"
and "yet fail ... he should not falter"; "realm of being";
... much more, groundings, folks

Love -  ( ... and how ... ) 

gonads for the gents, elimination; what?, remember the
Woody Allen movie with "Sex" in the title, the sperm's viewpoint,
hilarious; even birth is an elimination of a matured (relative)
genetically-based system; of course, there is the waste
aspect we're all familiar with; ...

Sorry. Now let's get more sublime.

"the steed ... is pain"; "forsake thine outward eyes" for
"the eye of thine inward being"; "set thy foot into the
land of the lovers"; (notice the connection to the former Valley)
... much more, toward the inner

Knowledge -  (Abraham - established in Knowledge) 

gonads for the ladies; digestives; ...

More sublimely: "inner eyes will open"; "witnesseth the
mysteries of resurrection"; ah, the story of the lover;
"for these have passed over the world of names, and fled
beyond the world of attributes as swift as lightning";
"... the last plane of limitation";
... much more, notice the prediction of the nuclear age

Unity -  (Moses ... ) 

thoracic, heart, mammary (these migrated up in evolution);
"drinketh from the cup of the Absolute"; "heaven of
singleness"; "It is clear ... variations ... proceed
from his vision"; various remarks about being "veiled"
in your sight;
... and much more, not only the mams, think of how we
"unify" via the actions of our hands, ...

Contentment -  (Jesus ... ) 

ENT; ... "songs and secrets" ... *** but
"pen steppeth not", "only heart to heart can speak ... knowers"

Wonderment -  (Muhammad ...) 

vision; "the dream" ... "signs ... of the life beyond",
"bind not thy heart to the earth"

True Poverty and
 Absolute Nothingness -  (Bab ...)

cortex; ... "alas, He hath come to the town of the blind"

-----------------------------------------------------
Now, let's be teleological and look at these Valleys, starting with Search/Love, then Knowledge, Unity, Contentment, Wonderment, True Poverty and Absolute Nothingness.
-----------------------------------------------------

Remarks: Modified: 04/09/2016

04/09/2016 -- We had a triple day, earlier, due to the new definitions.

Dominion of Power

Month, Day: Power, Dominion (Independence)

One thing that an audacious approach will have to do is look at juxtapositions and to make these as acceptable as superpositions (et al).

We can start by listing, and starting some description of, categories and properties. In other words, an explanatory (mind you, not interpretative) effort will be required.

But, one fun way to start might be just to list areas that are apropos, and perhaps speculate (let's say, it's science fiction in the beginning). In the meantime, a couple of references are in order.

So, for number one, we'll use the dominion of power. As we see in SAQ #66: Some think that the body is the substance and exists by itself, and that the spirit is accidental and depends upon the substance of the body, although, on the contrary, the rational soul is the substance, and the body depends upon it.

And, again, from SAQ #66: The rational soul—that is to say, the human spirit—has neither entered this body nor existed through it; so 240 after the disintegration of the composition of the body, how should it be in need of a substance through which it may exist? On the contrary, the rational soul is the substance through which the body exists.

So much to say on this, Speech starts on 11/23.

Now, Power to one type of mind means guns and battleships, or the proverbial kick-em hard mindset. If we look around, we'll see that all cultures have their hawks and doves, to use a common metaphor.

The December Smithsonian Magazine has an article on the Sufi. It even juxtaposes them to the Taliban. Well, we know that the latter are hard-nosed authoritarians.

What are the former? Well, we would need to look at the 7 Valleys (actually, start at Unity and go upward) to get an idea.

Sufi is the antithesis of the hard-nosed.

Modified: 11/22/2008

Real Light

Month, Day: Power, Speech (Perfection)
For awhile, we'll let the Brights topics unfold as they may but with sufficient side-trips to be interesting and audacious. That is, there are many things that a Baha'i can ponder without any need for apologetics.

Each month has a day related to the Attribute of Light. So, we can expect to have periodic reflection on the topic so as to consider the myriad of possible aspects that are involved.

One audacious act is to know that the Light is a central theme in so many ways. Let's just name a couple. For one, the web/computer framework that is behind this blog's presentation is very much evidence of the operational effectiveness of our understanding of the physical phenomena of Light. Could we know more? Or, ought we know more? Certainly. We are exploiting, in the case of the WWW, electro-magnetics in both the large and in the small. But, potential deleterious properties may very well require some spiritual insight.

Which brings up the second subject, namely the dream as characterized in the Valley of Wonderment of the Seven Valleys. Consider that science actually extends beyond the grave. That is, the quest to know God and Creation has no limit. Since time and space are limits, then from whence would come any restrictions on scope. So, that would mean that tools would be common, too boot, say, like the computer.

What would we know more of Light if we did not have the limitations imposed by our natural selves? Gleanings LXXXII "Such a soul provideth, at the bidding of the Ideal King and Divine Educator, the pure leaven that leaveneth the world of being, and furnisheth the power through which the arts and wonders of the world are made manifest."
Remarks:

01/25/2012 -- Yes, still at it. Ready to be more audacious. What we're looking for has to do with mind; at some point, it will be allowed by science that we can observe effects (actually, predict, to boot - one step forward will be a more insightful mathematics).

11/16/2010 -- What can science know?

07/26/2009 -- The Operational times will be fun.

06/05/2009 -- Light very much is something to study in this context.

05/29/2009 -- The Transcendent baffles.

Modified: 01/25/2012

Blinded by the Brights

Month, Day: Power, Might (Majesty)

The web allows a better means for coherent, and broad, presentation on a subject than we have seen before. And, Wikipedia is an example of techniques that are involved with this presentation, yet it is not, necessarily, coherent.

Generally, there is a lot of information which, with the open edit framework, needs scrutiny. That is, the user really needs to be aware of the 'history' of a page.

Nevertheless, there is now a very good collection of material related to the naturalist's views. For instance, we find a description of the Brights movement which lends brainpower to the arguments. In discussions about teleology, the concept of God of the Gaps shows up.

All of the material is full of interesting thoughts that can bear scrutiny from the viewpoint of this blog. Too, we find a link to the free thinkers encyclopedia at which site is a discussion of the top ten arguments for God with a look at the premise and critique, for each.

Now, yesterday, there was mention that cognitive science ought to get some insights from the Writings. We'll touch on that as we go along; at the same time, we'll use the arguments from the Brights as a means to juxtapose their basis against the Writings.

In many cases, there will be a catch-22 moment. Perhaps, a better phrasing is possible; if so, we'll use it. Here is an example: We can listen to arguments against God and His Manifestations and worry about the speaker (just be patient here, as we'll go through the 10-most first before branching off with audacity into the issues related to the philosophy of science), yet we are also told to not look down on the sinner (assuming, of course, some mis-deed could be defined - by various means - one source would be the Ten Commandments, but we would be accused of arguing from authority) as we do not even know our own end (that is, the Writings source says that at the deathbed, the believer could become the unbeliever, and vice versa).

So, what this example catch-22 will tell us is that any of this discussion is only to clarify (mind you, didn't say interpret, etc.) some of the points.

Remarks:

10/17/2012 -- There is a lot to reflect on, about the trip, especially the western loop.

03/30/2012 -- Interesting video on self-transcendence. Pay attention to the last three minutes.

05/17/2011 -- Stephen gets press.

05/09/2011 -- We need a constructive re-look.

11/16/2010 -- What can science know?

10/11/2009 -- Will, an operational imperative for science.

07/07/2009 -- Ought we be thankful for the Brights?

06/05/2009 -- Light very much is something to study in this context.

05/29/2009 -- The Transcendent baffles.

05/06/2009 -- We need to consider the contributions by the autodidact who has escaped abandonment.

11/22/2008 -- One could talk about being as blind as a Bright, but that would not be fair. Despite all the arguments, those who go over eventually find out the truth of the issues brought up by the Brights. Unfortunately, those who have gone over do not have a means, or ought we say no easy means, to tell us what they learned. Yet, that function is performed by the periodic appearance of the Manifestation.

Sufficiency here is provided by the Valley of Wonderment. 
Modified: 10/17/2012

Names and Power

Month, Day: Power, Names (Justice)

For the Twin Days, we have Light of Knowledge (10/20) and Names of Power (11/12).

In terms of how we know, etc., some effort ought to go into understanding cognitive processes using insight from the Writings (SAQ #56); the Science/Religion Principle implies that such studies would be testable to enough extent for utility to those seeking sufficiency through Names

Remarks:

11/23/2009 -- The Great Festivals.

Modified: 11/23/2009

Knowledge and Power

Month, Day: Knowledge, Loftiness (Perfection)

Several recent changes to the Wiki page exhibit audacity. The added topics were: Creation, Nuclear power, and Transmutation of elements. These three joined the former triad of Evolution, Existence of ether, and Life on other planets.

As we know, many things need review in a search for describing sufficiency sufficiently, a difficult, but not impossible, task.

SAQ #65: ... the foundation of success and salvation is the knowledge of God ...

Several potential aspects related to technological development need some attention: borgs (humans augmented with the artificial), clones (humans duplicated, and perhaps, augmented), ...