[CamLy]

A Synthesis of the World's
Spiritual Teachings

Universal Structure

Existence, what we call life or the universe, is multi-dimensional. It is enormous in scope and is perceived in many different ways. Two chief dimensions, or levels, are relevant to human experience. First, the surface level, what we know as the day-to-day world, has a basically fixed logical structure. That is, there are rules or laws that govern or guide the flow of experience. The scientific endeavour strives to model such laws with logic and thereby utilise these forces. Second, at a very deep level, the universe is open-ended and has very little structure that can be understood in terms of logic. It is full of possibility and can be considered as infinite. The deep level does have structure though. The best model for it, at present, is associative rather than logical. Human experience navigates the whole range of levels from surface to very deep. The dimension that threads these varying levels together is measured in terms of coherence.

Several examples may help to illumine what coherence means. First as a metaphor, consider all of reality as a television set. Now sometimes the picture is good and sometimes not so good. Most of us pass our days on earth watching a picture that has a lot of snow, or noise, on it. That is, the picture is not clear, there may be wavy sections or lots of unwanted dots flickering on the screen along with the desired program. Such noise corresponds to the pain, grief, and unfulfilled needs that we all must contend with throughout our lives. As the level of reality deepens so that coherence improves, the picture on the tube gets better and better. There is less and less distortion and confusion. Eventually, the picture becomes ok and is as it should be. This corresponds to the conventional religious notion of a heaven. A second example is a car. A car that is badly in need of a tune-up, one that sputters and smokes and makes a racket and stalls now and then, would be like existence as we know it here on earth. A smooth sailing noise-free, pollution-free car would correspond to a much deeper level of existence.

How does this apply to humans? Fixing the television or the car, corresponds to fine-tuning the mind. That is, as consciousness becomes more refined, it has access to these other levels of being. The most important way presently known to do this is through meditation.
This multi-dimensional characteristic of nature does not contradict the physical laws as expressed through science. Instead, it extends them in a manner very similar to the way the notion of relativity extended scientific models to account for effects as motion approaches the speed of light. In this case, the laws of science will be extended to account of increasing levels of coherence. At the surface levels, the laws will follow logical principles, and at deeper levels, the laws will follow associative principles.
The ages-old concept of correspondence can help to clarify these ideas somewhat more. A fundamental expression from the mystery school traditions states that, "As above, so below." This means that circumstances are not that much different at the various levels of experience. According to this ancient understanding, life in the heavenly realms follows rules and principles that are much the same as those we meet with in daily life. To comprehend the interworkings of life here on earth is comparable to a good, basic understanding of the laws at other levels of being. Nowadays, science has developed chaos theory which includes this idea as part of its model. However, the model's present scope is restricted to phenomena that are easily accessible, so that the spiritual dimension of life has not yet been fully considered.

Correspondence of Brain Structure to Universal Structure

Parallels between the Personal Brain and the Universal Brain

Brain	Universe
Little "self" Personal ego, mind-body, soul ( the personal soul is part of the "Self" )	Big "Self" A highly integrated level of consciousness that underpins the universe; It supports both individual and group consciousness
Ego Growth Needs fulfilment, self-actualisation and eventually, self-transcendence	Self-Organization Life forms developing to higher levels of coherence and harmony; The contents of reality individually develop towards coherence
Community Growth Growth of society, ecological awareness	Interconnectedness The deeper levels of being are essentially coherent and connected; They provide the context for the play of life at more chaotic surface levels; Interconnectedness is the tendency for self-organising life forms at surface levels to surrender identity and integrate back into more harmonious levels of being
Left Brain Logic, ego, decision making, temporal processing	Physics Scientific model for reality
Right Brain Association, emotion, soul, intuition, holistic processing	Metaphysics Spiritual model for reality
Improved Meditational Ability More alert and calm mental states	Deepening Levels of Reality Access to other dimensions via increasing coherence
Bliss Concentration Meditations Achieved by tuning the left-brain's temporal processing; identification of awareness with the ego continues until very advanced stages Awareness grounded in left-brain	Personal Awareness at any Realm of Existence Spiritual experiences of joy, fulfilment, and compassion
Emptiness Mindfulness Meditations Achieved by differentiating ( refining ) awareness from the perception of sensory input and left-brain thought Awareness grounded in right-brain	Holistic Awareness at any Realm of Existence Spiritual experiences of devotion, surrender, and oneness with a larger totality

Individual Structure

First of all, what is the self? Human beings have three basic parts: a body, a mind, and a soul. According to most spiritual traditions, the soul is basically dormant in the average person. However, it can be enlivened through various means. The traditional notion of self encompasses the body and the mind. It does not include the soul. When the word "Self" is used, it indicates people who have fully contacted their soul and managed to integrate it with their mind and body. They experience life somewhat differently than most of us. It is as if they are wearing the mind and body. No longer do they feel that they are only the little self of mind and body. They are more. They are grounded in the soul and know that it is their real home. Yet they still also experience the little self in much the same way as we do. It is just that they have added another dimension to their experience of living.

Second, what is this life all about? The two main life forces that we as humans experience, are, a need for self-actualisation and a need to belong to something greater than ourselves. These are forces that are transpersonal. They go beyond our individual desires for fulfilment. We as humans feel them, but so too do these forces drive the whole of universal experience. The universe started as a Big Bang into a multitude of celestial bits and pieces. Ever since, a self-organising principle has seen creation begin to build itself back up into higher and more complex life-forms. For, example, on earth, we have evolved from a simple chemical soup through to dinosaurs and onwards to our modern day form and pace of life.

We express this desire to grow along many levels. For instance, safety, food, companionship, community, meaning, actualisation and fulfilment. The culmination of these levels is the need to transcend the self. That is, the highest motivation we can have is to become more than we are. There are two very distinct ways that we can achieve this. Both of them are very appropriate. Both are in harmony with the flow of nature. They derive from the universal impulses of differentiation and integration.