Biblioteca Esoterica Esonet.ORG http://www.esonet.ORG 1

Biblioteca Esoterica Esonet.ORG
http://www.esonet.ORG
consciousness of a whole. The whole may be a concrete, physical organism, a musical
sonata composed of many notes arranged in a specific order according to a system of
organization (tonality in Western culture), a mathematical theorem, the constitution and
legal system of a nation, or any other organization of multiple elements, entities, or
concepts. The terms form and shape often are used carelessly and interchangeably, but the
word shape should be used only with reference to an entity's external appearance. The
shape of an object or a body can be described objectively and in terms pf physical
sensations; it can also, at least in principle, be measured. But one cannot measure the form
of a concept or a metaphysical system. One can claim that form exists in space; but if one
means only the space of the physical, material world, one ignores the fact that a system of
closely interrelated ideas has form (but one might also say "structure") yet exists only in a
mental kind of space. It is "mental" because the system is a complex organization of
relations which are not necessarily embodied in material entities, though the creator of the
system may use concrete images or physical experiences as symbols to evoke his or her
meaning.
Today we are well aware of the principle of inertia, which states that any object at rest
or in uniform motion in a particular direction will remain at rest or continue in motion
unless acted upon by some external force. Inertia, in the broadest sense of the term, is
resistance to change. The speed and direction of a moving object resist change; similarly
the basic character of any form is to resist change, that is, to perpetuate the particular set of
relationships which made it what it is. All religious, social, and cultural institutions have
intense inertia. Once formed and set into operation, usually they can be transformed only
with great difficulty. A culture as a whole slowly — or in some instances rapidly —
changes; it "evolves" generation after generation insofar as its outer modes of operations,
fashions, and even some of its ideals are concerned. Yet its basic assumptions, religious
beliefs, and fundamental symbols and characteristics of living are extremely tenacious;
violent crises or disasters may be needed before a really new beginning can occur. The
same can be said of a person's ego which, in a sense, operates as a private institution with
its own routine, long held beliefs, and resistance to transformation.
If mind (at whatever level it operates) is the formative agent that produces form out of
sets of relationships, what then transforms mental organizations or physical organisms?
What is it that overcomes the inertia inherent in formations once they are stabilized? It is
the momentum of the Movement of Wholeness manifesting as the continuum of change —
the foundation of what we call time. Again we encounter a dualism: continuous change
and the tendency in forms (complexes of relations) to persist and perpetuate themselves.
Such a dualism is not essentially different from that of Multiplicity and Unity; for just as
human beings have sought and still seek inner psychological security in imagining and
deifying a Supreme One, beyond and impervious to multiplicity, they have conceived of
Him (or It) as changeless — often as the Perfect Form of being.
The acceptance of both constant change and permanent forms of being gives rise to the
concept of a divine (or quasi-divine) realm of persistent archetypal forms and the world of
ever-changing earthly existence in physical substance. Mind operates at both levels, the
archetypal and the existential, but it operates differently at each because the types of forms
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