“Because Patañjali draws such a sharp distinction between the Self [i.e. Atman or Puruṣa] and the non-Self [i.e. Body, Mind, World], regarding the former as the ultimate value, he is forced to teach a form of emancipation which pre-supposes the total extinction of man as we know him. Even if we are convinced of the reality of Puruṣa, on what grounds need we accept the idea of self-realisation as taught by Patañjali; does the realisation of this value not coincide with our extinction as beings in time and space [i.e. the 3-dimensional world as we have come to experience it]? Patañjali's is not a way of living in the world free from fear of death or loss of any kind but acquiring an otherworldly dimension of existence. The transformation of human nature as envisaged in classical yoga is entirely a process of negation of everything that is ordinarily considered as typically human [Feuerstein, tbc].”
Overall, it feels that when Patañjali speaks about the drawing of attention inwards might as well be introducing an entire new era or dimension that would imply the cessation of humanity as we know it. The achievement of unlocking such dimensions should be constricted to the individual's subjective point of reference, which in a sense justifies the fact that reality as we have come to experience it i.e. Pṛkti has not yet seized to exist or collapsed into being a part of a broader dimensional spectrum[1] just like a painting is in our 3-dimensional world.
I quote the text from Cixin Liu's book Death's End ["the 3-body problem trilogy"] that vibrantly paints an interesting approach of the abnormalities and expansiveness of the 4th dimension. He is clearly building upon the great former example of Edwin Abbott Abbott's novel Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions that intriguely renders a similar paradox transiting from the 2nd to the 3rd dimension.
“a person looking back upon the three-dimensional world from four- dimensional space for the first time realised this right away: He had never seen the world while he was in it. If the three-dimensional world were likened to a picture, all he had seen before was just a narrow view from the side: a line. Only from four-dimensional space could he see the picture as a whole. He would describe it this way: Nothing blocked whatever was placed behind it. Even the interiors of sealed spaces were laid open. This seemed a simple change, but when the world was displayed this way, the visual effect was utterly stunning. When all barriers and concealments were stripped away, and everything was exposed, the amount of information entering the viewer’s eyes was hundreds of millions times greater than when he was in three-dimensional space. The brain could not even process so much information right away [p 229].”
“In the Yogasutrā-s there are clear references to siddhis [i.e. "power-s"] such as "knowledge of things obstructed from view or at a great distance" (11:25); "disappearance from view" (111:21)[2]”; among many others which bare resemblance to visual qualities that seem to be constricted from humans for physiological and physical responses to occur in the 3-dimensional world, but very much resemble the descriptions of what we can imagine as 4-dimensional space.
“In the Yogasutrā-s there are clear references to siddhis [i.e. "power-s"] such as "knowledge of things obstructed from view or at a great distance" (11:25); "disappearance from view" (111:21)[2]”; among many others which bare resemblance to visual qualities that seem to be constricted from humans for physiological and physical responses to occur in the 3-dimensional world, but very much resemble the descriptions of what we can imagine as 4-dimensional space.
“The difficulty of describing high-dimensional spatial sense lay in the fact that for observers situated in four-dimensional space, the space they could see was empty and uniform, but there was a depth to it that could not be captured by language”. Language is essentially semiotic, it carries meaning memory by itself and thus cannot stand against the challenge of expressing or pointing towards concepts that have not yet been assimilated, experienced, developed, found or discovered, thus making imagination and visualisation equally important. Where language fails to convey meaning, art can substitute, especially visual art due to its connection with space as such i.e. distance, perspective, depth and illusion-s of them. The characters in Liu's book go further on to say that “this depth was not a matter of distance: It was bound up in every point in space. Guan Yifan’s exclamation later became a classic quote:
“A bottomless abyss exists in every inch” [ibid].
“The experience of high-dimensional spatial sense was a spiritual baptism. In one moment, concepts like freedom, openness, profundity, and infinity all gained brand-new meanings” [ibid].
“A bottomless abyss exists in every inch” [ibid].
“The experience of high-dimensional spatial sense was a spiritual baptism. In one moment, concepts like freedom, openness, profundity, and infinity all gained brand-new meanings” [ibid].
[as the science fiction author points out] the danger of the 4th dimensional space is that simply, once you get to experience it for long you would never come back from it.
It is clear so far that the human mind cannot grasp the tremendous amount of detail and information that is built-up with the addition of an extra dimension, very similar to how the circle would never able to absolutely grasp the idea of a sphere. [Similar to what was described in Flatland] we should be able to get a glimpse of 4-dimensional projections to our 3-dimensional world. Naturally, a 4-dimensional object projected in our reality would be reduced into the 3-dimensional rules just like our own very shadows unfold on a piece of paper or any other surface. The current state of consciousness would not enable us to appreciate even a millionth of a fragment of the 4-dimensional object, however, even the possibility of stumbling across such an entity would be mind-blowing. Stillness of all bodily and physiological functions is proven to have been dissolving the mind and thus, enabling individuals to enter higher states of consciousness which are usually described by means of other dimensions[2]. "Upon realising samadhi we become free of perspective; thus, free to create new perspectives, because the self is not invested in it or attached to a particular view point[3]".
Meditation techniques as such might be critical to understand what is beyond our constricted senses allow us to perceive as real, but what's more, they might as well be the answer to the technological bottleneck of the contemporary science regime.
___
[1] I suggest you listening to Seth Powell and Chase Bossart's conversation on the multi-layered readings of the Yogasutrā-s here.
[2] Hawley, D. The Dimension Beyond Space and Time. online article accessed May 2020.
[3] transcript from Samadhi documentary-series in gaia.com accessed May 2020 [00.49.30].
It is clear so far that the human mind cannot grasp the tremendous amount of detail and information that is built-up with the addition of an extra dimension, very similar to how the circle would never able to absolutely grasp the idea of a sphere. [Similar to what was described in Flatland] we should be able to get a glimpse of 4-dimensional projections to our 3-dimensional world. Naturally, a 4-dimensional object projected in our reality would be reduced into the 3-dimensional rules just like our own very shadows unfold on a piece of paper or any other surface. The current state of consciousness would not enable us to appreciate even a millionth of a fragment of the 4-dimensional object, however, even the possibility of stumbling across such an entity would be mind-blowing. Stillness of all bodily and physiological functions is proven to have been dissolving the mind and thus, enabling individuals to enter higher states of consciousness which are usually described by means of other dimensions[2]. "Upon realising samadhi we become free of perspective; thus, free to create new perspectives, because the self is not invested in it or attached to a particular view point[3]".
Meditation techniques as such might be critical to understand what is beyond our constricted senses allow us to perceive as real, but what's more, they might as well be the answer to the technological bottleneck of the contemporary science regime.
___
[1] I suggest you listening to Seth Powell and Chase Bossart's conversation on the multi-layered readings of the Yogasutrā-s here.
[2] Hawley, D. The Dimension Beyond Space and Time. online article accessed May 2020.
[3] transcript from Samadhi documentary-series in gaia.com accessed May 2020 [00.49.30].
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