study guides
study guide for superdomain05a ["universe"]
Material from: Gidley, J. (2006). Spiritual epistemologies and integral cosmologies: Transforming thinking and culture. In: S. Awbrey, D. Dana, V. Miller, P. Robinson, M. Ryan and D. Scott (Eds.) Integral Learning and Action: A Call to Wholeness. Peter Lang Publishing, NY, pp. 29-55. [Exam will be on pages 48-55 only]
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1. Know whether or not it is true that, while pre-rational, pictorial thinking was largely by unconscious revelation, transrational, integral thinking includes all the earlier stages and transcends them in full consciousness. Know whether or not It is entirely possible, using a spiritual epistemology, to reverse the process of threefold alienation described by Tarnas. Know whether or not it is entirely possible, in the same way that we cannot regress to prerational thinking, we cannot revert to pre-Copernican cosmological models.
2. Know whether or not it is often said that “the Spiritual beings clothe themselves in different images depending on who is looking at them.” Know whether or not it is true that perhaps we could move beyond Descartes, “I think, therefore I create” to a new dictum, “I am, therefore I am.” Know whether or not, in searching for new images for a “post Post-Copernican” cosmology, we must not go back to the old circle, and we cannot ignore the developments of science.
3. Know whether or not we need not deny our Cartesian rational thinking, nor revert to old, absolutist, and pre-Kantian “truths.” Know whether or not the author suggests a conscious approach to the “bounce” model. Know whether or not, by using our own individual interpretive framework, we may endeavor to create new cosmological models for the future. Know whether or not the author’s proposed model has four elements/directions.
4. Know whether or not the author chooses to present two models developed by the Rosicrucians, both because of their universality of symbols and their artistic beauty. Know whether or not, similar to the mathematical formulae of physics, the symbols in these images are intensely charged with meaning for those who are initiated into their secrets. Know whether or not one of the most limiting features of rational, intellectual thinking is its categorical nature that leads to fragmentation and a narrowing of options.
5. Know whether or not, according to Tarnas, it is only when the human mind brings forth from within itself the full powers of a disciplined imagination and saturates its empirical observation with archetypal insight that the deeper reality of the world emerges. Know whether or not modes of speech are used by Eastern mystics as devices to point beyond those pairs of opposites by which all logical thought is limited (e.g., “gateless gate,” “full void”). Know whether or not the idea of the Koan gives us a clue to a reintegrated view using two apparently conflicting cosmological models.
6. Know whether or not the two cosmologies are in juxtaposition, with neither being wrong but just incomplete. Know whether or not the Ptolemaic model is more applicable when we take into account the evolution of culture and consciousness incorporating the spiritual hierarchies as viewed by the Perennial Philosophies. Know whether or not it is true that, although Western science began to come to terms with complementarity in the twentieth century in the area of quantum physics, it still feels most comfortable when this paradoxical behavior of reality is restricted to minute particles (microcosm).
7. Know whether or not, when binary logic dominates, we have tremendous difficulty dealing with paradox. Know whether or not “oxymoron” derives from the Greek [meaning] “pointedly foolish.” Know whether or not there is still great controversy over whether the paradoxes found in quantum mechanics can be applied to the universe as a whole (macrocosm). Know whether or not, according to Heisenberg, in the astronomical universe, the earth is only a minute grain of dust in one of countless galactic systems, but for us it is the center of the universe.
8. Know whether or not, while the Ptolemaic system is undoubtedly true for the physical universe, the Copernican system has more meaning from the perspective of the evolution of culture and consciousness. Know whether or not each of us as human beings is at the center of our own interpretive, creative cosmology. Know whether or not some of the latest developments in astronomy are beginning to have some resonance with seemingly heretical ideas. Know whether or not the basic thesis [of the Anthropic Principle] is an attempt to explain the observed fact that the fundamental constants of physics and chemistry are just right or fine-tuned to allow the universe and life as we know it to exist.
9. Know whether or not, if as a species we are to survive the materialistic age, we are obliged to lift our thinking beyond matter-bound intellect via one of the spiritual epistemologies. Know whether or not the networking of change through a critical mass of innovative individuals and organizations can act as a human trampoline to facilitate the civilizational bounce that will be needed as materialistic culture collapses. Know whether or not, notwithstanding the tremendous structural obstacles many people around the planet are faced with today, we each have the choice and responsibility to begin our conscious evolution. Know whether or not the author’s proposed approach may evoke the fears and risks of megalomania and terrorism, these being with us already and not to be overcome by the simplistic dualisms of “us and them.”
"As Below, So Above"
