maandag 25 februari 2008

Comparing Bennett's ideas to Young's work

Comparing the ideas of Arthur Young with John Bennett can be fruitful. It made me realize that Bennett's hyparxis, a time-like power, actually has a lot to do with level two in the Young model. In modern parlance one could say that agency has to do with level two (and with level one). Will, related to the concept of hyparxis,  is active on level two. On a similar note, we can say that the Ancients related Kundalini, the Life-force or shakti, to adaptation of and to the environment. As I have written in an evaluative article about Young (see my ebook),  level two has to do with interaction with the environment taken in the widest sense.


The 'axis'  Level two-Level one seems to me correlated to the inner flow of consciousness. Also, decision making seems to involve level two (emotions, a.o. in the Young model, stage 6) and level one. Lots to research!


On a sidenote: Bennett associates the property of 'spin' with hyparxis (for photons/elementary particles). Something to keep in mind. Light is the connecting factor between the Macro, level 1, and level two ('soul' level in Young's model). Stage six is important in my own fourfold model as it is the intermediate regulating factor between level 1 and the lower levels.


Interaction and events seem primary to time to me. Time looks like an abstraction. Thinking about this, I realized that a proper designation for level two might be something like 'Duration', rather than time. It also is the level where all kinds of elements are unfolded from the bosom of level one. Stage two in Young's model could be correlated  with the Serpent force (Kundalini) about which Subba Rao had some interesting things to say. More about him in another posting.


One more thing: stage six is on the right side of the sevenfold arc as per Young. It seems to have to do with regulation (astrological symbol: planet Mars). Sometimes the ancient symbol of Scorpio (generation) is associated with stage 6 (which can also be taken as transformation in a spiritual sense - when appropriate. There is so much symbology applicable here. Think of the Eagle with the serpent in its claws - the symbol of regulated life-force, ideally spiritual Regeneration.). Stage two has also designated a symbol: Jupiter-Zeus-Chronos (Chronos as Duration rather than time!). How Sagittarius fits in is not entirely clear to me, but it seems to be correlated with the many classes of micro-elements that are generated at this level. In esoterism, the nine prajapatis (with Jupiter making the tenth) seem to be mightily involved with this - the Gnostics have their system of Aeons (Time-Duration again!) which has a whole lot of meanings attached (see Simon Magus in his Gnostic system).


What I am looking for in all this is formost generative force, regulation, interaction, adaptation, selection out of available options, choice, to name a few correlatives to this level. One can expect that biological systems will display some or all of these features. Recurrent life (force) is something that can be correlated with hyparxis too, and it makes sense when we think about autopoietic systems that rebuild themselves constantly.


It pays off to do some study of ancient symbols when researching the fundaments of a true holistic science!