{"id":1300,"date":"2010-04-26T12:24:02","date_gmt":"2010-04-26T16:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tm.org\/blog\/?p=1300"},"modified":"2010-06-22T08:02:57","modified_gmt":"2010-06-22T12:02:57","slug":"discovering-nature-order-human-consciousness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/meditation\/discovering-nature-order-human-consciousness\/","title":{"rendered":"Discovering nature\u2019s orderliness\u2014within human consciousness"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am sitting by the ocean here in South Carolina for a much-needed break in the action. I am re-discovering the order in nature. It is so restful, so regenerating. Watching the ebb and flow got me thinking about the poem, \u201cThe Idea of Order at Key West,\u201d by Wallace Stevens <\/a>where he mentions \u201cthe genius of the sea.\u201d\u00a0 Some people speak of genius or intelligence as if it were something only humans possess, its abode \u201cthe castle of intellect.\u201d Stevens\u2019 famous poem muses on imagination, reality and order: where does the appearance of order come from\u2014our imagination, or nature itself? And what\u2019s the relationship between the two?<\/p>\n

Here at the ocean, order is clearly manifest: the waves rolling in methodically as they\u2019ve done for who knows how long; the clockwork of sun, moon and stars; the tides\u2019 constancy; the pelican\u2019s dive. It\u2019s as if nature knows what it\u2019s doing. Buckminster Fuller<\/a> called it \u201cnature\u2019s know how.\u201d Perhaps this sense of underlying harmony is, at least in part, what attracts people to the ocean and why so much literature has dwelt on the experience of the sea.<\/p>\n

\"Nature-order\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Maharishi\u2019s view<\/a> is that life is structured like the ocean: waves of activity and change are visible on the surface, but most of existence is beneath the surface\u2014and all of it, from the changing waves to the silent depths, are one and the same substance. This also describes the structure of the physical universe as understood by modern science and sheds light on the source of order in nature. Quantum physics strives for a workable \u201cunified field theory\u201d or \u201cultimate theory of everything\u201d (T.O.E.) that identifies the underlying source of the diverse phenomenal world. Physicist John Hagelin<\/a> regards this most fundamental field as \u201ca single, unified field of intelligence at the basis of nature\u201d which can be \u201cdirectly experienced by the human mind.\u201d The unified field and all of life can thus be seen as an ocean of consciousness<\/a> or intelligence.<\/p>\n

For a wave on the ocean to enjoy its true status, all it has to do is settle down\u2014then it becomes the unbounded ocean. This is meditation. The mind settles inward to finer and finer levels until the faintest impulse of thought is transcended and one experiences the source of thought. It\u2019s not an intellectual or emotional contrivance but a natural, mechanical shift in one\u2019s state of consciousness, involving physiological changes<\/a> as much as a change of awareness. (It\u2019s so real that you don\u2019t have to understand or believe in the unified field or pure awareness to experience transcending and enjoy the benefits.)<\/p>\n

From this perspective, meditation is a means for experiencing the unified field of consciousness directly, drawing upon nature\u2019s unlimited reserves of energy and intelligence to benefit all aspects of life. The unified field and its perfect order\u00a0 is not just out there, underlying and upholding everything in nature, separate from human existence; it is also discovered within us\u2014residing, in Wallace Stevens words, beyond thinking and feeling, beyond the edge of space, \u201cat the end of the mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am sitting by the ocean here in South Carolina for a much-needed break in the action. I am re-discovering the order in nature. It is so restful, so regenerating. Watching the ebb and flow got me thinking about… Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[54],"class_list":["post-1300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-meditation","tag-consciousness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1300\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.tm.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}