Pesach — Last Day 5782 — 04/23/2022
Beginning with Bereishit 5781 (17 October 2020) we embarked on a new format. We will be considering Rambam’s (Maimonides’) great philosophical work Moreh Nevukim (Guide for the Perplexed) in the light of the knowledge of Vedic Science as expounded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The individual essays will therefore not necessarily have anything to do with the weekly Torah portion, although certainly there will be plenty of references to the Torah, the rest of the Bible, and to the Rabbinic literature. For Bereishit we described the project. The next four parshiyyot, Noach through Chayei Sarah, laid out a foundational understanding of Vedic Science, to the degree I am capable of doing so. Beginning with Toledot we started examining Moreh Nevukim.
He who in action sees inaction and in inaction sees action is wise among men. He is united, he has accomplished all action. Bhagavad-Gita 4:18
As I promised a few weeks ago when we talked about thrones, Rambam next discusses sitting [yeshivah]. The concept of sitting implies stability and rest, an unchanging state (this is the ideal anyway, most of us fidget all the time when we’re sitting!). Here is what Rambam says (this is Chapter 11 of Part I):
Sitting [yeshibah]. The first meaning given to this term in our language was that of being seated. Thus: Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat. But in view of the fact that a sitting individual is in a state of the most perfect stability and steadiness, this term is used figuratively to denote all steady, stable, and changeless states, Thus when promising Jerusalem permanence and stability while she is in possession of the highest of ranks, Scripture says: She will rise and sit in her place. And it also says: He maketh the barren woman to sit in her house; which means that He makes her firm and steady.
In the latter sense it is said of Gd, may He be exalted: Thou, O Lord, sittest for all eternity; O Thou who sittest in the heaven; He that sitteth in the heaven. That is, the stable One who undergoes no manner of change, neither a change in His essence – as He has no modes besides His essence with respect to which He might change – nor a change in His relation to what is other than Himself – since, as shall be explained later, there does not exist a relation with respect to which He could change. And herein His being wholly changeless in every respect achieves perfection, as He makes clear, saying: For I the Lord change not, meaning that He undergoes no change at all. In this sense, the term sitting is applied to Him, may He be exalted, in the verses I have cited. In most of these passages this term is used with reference to heaven, as the latter is changeless and without diversity, I mean to say that the individuals existing in it do not change, as do the individuals constituted by the terrestrial things, which are subject to generation and corruption. Similarly, when a relation is ascribed equivocally to Him, may He be exalted, with respect to the various species of beings subject to generation and corruption, He is also said to be sitting. For these species are permanent, well ordered, endowed with a stable existence, such as is the existence of the individuals of heaven. Thus, it says: He that sitteth above the circle of the earth, that is, the permanent and stable One over and above the circling of the earth – he means its rotation, the reference being to the things generated in it in rotation. It also says: The Lord sitteth at the flood. It means that when the state of the earth is changed and corrupted, there is no change in the relation of Gd, may He be exalted, to things; this relation remains the same – stable and permanent – whether the thing undergoes generation or corruption. For this relation subsists only with regard to the species of the various things subject to generation, not with regard to the individuals. Consider every mention of sitting applied to Gd, and you will discover that it is used in this sense.
We, and Rambam have run into a paradox in using the root to sit with respect to Gd. Gd, to Rambam, is perfectly unchanging, as the word sitting implies. Seated, steady, unchanging. This is, of course, the characteristics of the transcendent, and there is no problem describing Gd that way. The paradox comes in when we are talking about Gd’s interaction with the created universe. We see that everything in creation is changing, and Torah tells us that Gd interacts with the world. If that is the case, Gd must interact with the world in different ways, depending on where and when and with whom the interaction is taking place. Gd sent 10 plagues on the Egyptians and untold blessings on Israel. The two passages of rebuke in the Torah (in parshiyyot Bechukotai and Ki Tavo) condition Gd’s reactions to us on our reactions to Gd. And indeed, there are many verbs that are applied figuratively to Gd that indicate that Gd acts in the world – He rises, He has hands and feet, He gets angry, etc. Yet, Rambam maintains, …the stable One who undergoes no manner of change, neither a change in His essence – as He has no modes besides His essence with respect to which He might change – nor a change in His relation to what is other than Himself – since, as shall be explained later, there does not exist a relation with respect to which He could change.
Again, we can understand that Gd’s essence does not change, but what about His relationship with “…what is other than Himself”? What is other than Gd? If there is something other than Gd, which is always changing, how can Gd interact with it while Himself remaining unchanging?
We have discussed these questions from the point of view of physics and from the Vedic point of view, the point of view of consciousness. From the point of view of modern physics, we have seen that the reality underlying all the forms and phenomena in physical creation is the Unified Field. This is a field out of which time, space, matter and energy emerge – those manifest forms are nothing other than modes of vibration of the Unified Field – that is, all activity is the internal dynamics of the Unified Field. The Unified Field is like the transcendent, Pure Consciousness, and its manifestations are like the active levels of consciousness and matter.
When we practice the TM technique we experience thought at finer and finer levels, until we transcend thought altogether and are left in the state of Pure Consciousness, consciousness with no object of consciousness. As we have discussed, this state of consciousness is a state of pure silence, no activity. As this experience deepens to Cosmic Consciousness, we experience our Self as silent, transcendent, detached from the activity of creation, including the individual parts of our own personality. I believe this is the situation that Rambam is alluding to (on the cosmic level) in his discussion of the word sitting. Gd is the transcendent, eternally silent witness to the operation of the Creation He created “undergoing no manner of change” at all.
Further development is possible, however, according the Vedic understanding. As we become more and more familiar with Pure Consciousness, we find that the silence, which we had originally perceived as flat and unmoving, is actually quite lively and dynamic within itself. As a result of Pure Consciousness’s nature as consciousness, it is conscious of itself, and in assuming the roles both of observer and observed, a virtual polarity is set up within the nature of Pure Consciousness. Maharishi describes the relationship between these two virtual aspects of Consciousness as setting up an infinite frequency vibration, and this infinite frequency vibration is the first sprouting of creation. It can be experience aurally as a hum, just before transcending.
Maharishi continues: the infinite frequency vibration then “breaks down” into various patterns of vibration (of lower frequency) that appear to us as the manifold forms and phenomena of creation. In terms of perception, he likens hearing the basic hum as hearing the din of a marketplace from afar – we cannot make out any individual voice, just an undifferentiated din. As we approach closer, we begin to make out individual voices. Closer still and we can make out what they’re saying. Like that, as our familiarity with Pure Consciousness grows, we can perceive, both inside our own unbounded awareness, and also in the environment, all the levels of the internal dynamics of consciousness, from the subtlest to the most expressed. All of the activity of creation takes place within Pure Consciousness. The separation of Self from non-Self has been overcome. The non-Self is just the Self in its virtual active mode.
- He who in action sees inaction: Someone who transcends through all levels of action to find pure silence, complete inaction at the basis of all action.
- And in inaction sees action: Who perceives that all action is just silence displaying its virtual structure to itself.
- Is wise among men: He knows the reality on the level of mind, perception and intellect.
I think that in Rambam’s terms, the reason that Gd remains perfect and unchanging, yet can interact and be in relations with an ever-changing creation, is that all the change that goes on in creation is not, in fact, separate from Gd. Otherwise, Gd would be bounded. All the talk about Gd’s “contracting” (tzimtzum) Himself to make “space” for creation where He is not, has to be taken as a metaphor to give us a glimpse of understanding. Development of consciousness so that we no longer need to think in metaphors is a much better solution!