Meditation, phenomenology and obfuscation

There is an important missing link in the history of philosophy which has significant consequences for the history of phenomenology. This is the work of the young Rudolf Steiner. It is not fair to judge this work by his later abhorrent and manifestly false views as an occultist and cult leader any more than it would be fair to judge Heidegger's Sein und Zeit by his later similar political and cultural-anthropological views. The most important work of the young Steiner (who attended lectures by Brentano) is a work which usually goes under the title of Philosophy of Freedom (1894) but was published and revised numerous times under different titles.  Along with this work there is also much value in Steiner's earlier work on Goethe's scientific method and worldview. 

There can be no doubt that The Philosophy of Freedom, like Sein und Zeit, is a very important work and one of the masterpieces of phenomenological philosophy. In this work (and in portions of his later books such as the one on "Initiation") we find something similar to an exposition of the approach and methodology involving the transcendent self-transparency and self-illumination of thought and consciousness which we have repeatedly attempted to expound, the correct combination of "epokhê" and "satipatthâna".  

Equally important is Steiner's Goethean method of variation and "imagination". This seems to us to be the original and correct form of what later was called the method of "eidetic variation" (and the affinity for Ruskin's approach in Modern Painters seems to have gone unnoticed).  But the consequences are enormous. The combination between the philosophical-spiritual insight offered by Steiner's exposition of the Goethean method on one hand and on the other the development of modern geometric and topological theory of differential equations and dynamical systems would have been a "marriage made in heaven", two complementary aspects of the same essence,  whose union would have furnished the key to a powerful new science.

But the harmful influence of 20th-century materialist cults and their pseudoscientific dogmas (Freudian psychoanalysis, evolutionary psychology) hindered the emergence of such a science. This is the tragedy of René Thom whose work flawed by Freudian and materialist-evolutionary dogma did indeed point to such a qualitative topological science with a method based on developing higher dimensional dynamic and geometric intuition. The fact that Thom never mentioned Theodor Schwenk's Sensitive Chaos: The creation of flowing forms in water and air (preface by Jacques Cousteau) which predates Structural Stability and Morphogenesis can only be seen as an example of intellectual dishonesty. As far as I know, Thom never referred to the wonderful book by A.T. Winfree, The Geometry of Biological Time (1980) which shows how advanced topological concepts in applied science can be presented in an accessible, rigorous and clear way (cf. the explanation of phase singularities on p.26).

A major fault of René Thom was also ironically to be found on the mathematical plane. Thom, like V.I. Arnold, engaged in obfuscation and sloppy presentation of mathematical ideas.

An expert in a field has all the right to develop a conceptual shorthand for their own use or that of fellow experts. In particular, a shorthand for writing down ideas to be developed and unfolded in lectures. Such texts can also employ beautiful drawings and diagrams which may impress even the non-expert. However all this has nothing to do with writing a book whose aims is to open the gates of a knowledge to those who, while not having such a knowledge, seek earnestly for it. A book that is a genuine introduction (i.e. initiation) in the full sense of the word, and which does not only "bring in" the neophyte but presents the beauty, clarity and order of the temple in all its details and adornments.  This is the kind of book, the kind of spirit, style and approach, which every student deserves, and certainly the kind of spirit. style and approach which should be employed when presenting important philosophical, scientific and mathematical ideas to the world. To present the young student with any other kind of book can only be considered a pernicious and immoral act of deliberate obfuscation and perversion. On another occasion we hope to develop the topic of cryptography, deliberate obfuscation and "secrets of the trade". Let it just be said that this has traditionally been a not infrequent vice of academia, the deliberately ponderous, opaque, pedantic jargon which not only hinders understanding of comparatively simple concepts and arguments but also masks the author's debt (or even plagiarism) to their contemporaries or predecessors. The aim is also to appear outwardly as outstandingly intelligent, original and sophisticated and to close the doors of science to anyone outside a select few.

Besides in phenomenological philosophy and Goethean science, a tragedy occurred regarding "meditation".  There is no such thing as "meditation" in the popular sense, there is no secret powerful technique of self-help where one sits down, closes their eyes, breathes in and out, focuses their mind or attempts to detach themselves from troubling thoughts, and thus finds a cure for mental anguish or a way to gain paranormal faculties or blissful states. This goes in particular for everything connected to the term "mindfulness".  And there is evidently no easy quick philosophical-phenomenological method for the self-observation and self-transparency of consciousness.

This is not what "bhavana" or "katharsis" as in neoplatonism and the ancient mysteries was about. Rather bhavana can be likened to the building of a beautiful high-towered palace or temple, including the preparation and purification of all the materials needed as well as the ground and foundations. The "mindfulness" at work here cannot be separated from action. The popular concept of "meditation" actually only corresponds to the final royal stage in which one enters the newly built palace and climbs up many flights of stairs to survey the beauty of all the sparkling rooms and luminous windows until reaching the most wonderful of all views at the top. Before that it is the long toil and active work of the artisan and soldier - which can be be interwoven with periods of peaceful surveillance and contemplation of yet unfinished work. We do not meditate as some kind of easy, all-sufficient, way to overcome our desires, rather we first diligently and actively uproot desire-images-complexes in order to attain the peace and illumination of "meditation".  Using a software engineering metaphor, we must start with cultivation at the abstract object-oriented level before proceeding to reverse engineering at the assembly level. Thus taught both the Pali suttas and Plotinus.

From phenomenology to a philosophy of consciousness to spiritual science

Alas there is no clear definition of what phenomenology is (which should not to be confused with the specific philosophical work of Edmund Husserl) or even what phenomenism, empiricism, positivism and the theory of knowledge exactly are.  There is no clear definition of what the philosophy of consciousness is or how it could differ from the philosophy of mind. And there is no clear idea of what a spiritual science could be or a science of consciousness. We are in possession however of the bodies of knowledge encompassed by the various branches of psychology and cognitive science - and there is surely much of value there.

In our writings we have emphasized a few important points relevant to the entire interwoven enterprise of all these subjects. The centrality of first-person experience, its descriptive insight and analysis and most importantly:  there can be no genuine progress without a radical and thorough form of personal transformation aimed at at self-transparency and self-transcendence of consciousness. We attach importance to the first-person experience of the body and the various feedback mechanisms involved, specially those related to sensory systems and the peripheral nervous system.

Is there any relevance or legitimacy in the idea of mathematical (or formal) models of consciousness? 

This question, which we will not attempt to give any definite answer for now, seems related to the circumstance of there being two distinct paths (but not necessarily non-complementary or non-convergent)  passing through all the subjects mentioned above, whose ultimate aim is not only spiritual science but the attaining of ultimate spiritual knowledge. We might characterize these two paths as pertaining to the Buddhist and the (neo)Platonic philosophical and spiritual sciences - it being understood that these terms should be read in a very universal sense encompassing in particular a huge range of philosophical literature from antiquity to the present, both from the east and the west. Both their differences and their common core (we have written on the connection between the Platonic-Socratic dialogues, Pyrrhonism, Damaskios and the Pseudo-Dionysian literature) are important.

The differences manifest in the kind of mathematical or formal model of consciousness we could associated with each one of them. The (neo)Platonic path would seem to point to geometric and topological models of consciousness (due to its synthetic, global, anagogic methods) while the Buddhist path (analytic and actively illuminating through insight) would prefer event and process-oriented computational models. Its western embodiment has great luminaries such as Sextus Empiricus, Hume, Kant and Brentano. Dialectics is found in both paths but with different modes of employment and emphasis. For both thorough psycho-somatic peace, calm and relaxation is a precondition for any progress.The dichotomy between the paths is not meant to be universal and disjoint as it is easy to find traditions that sit somewhere in the middle or incorporate core elements of both approaches (Yoga, Samkhya, various schools in the Upanishads and Bhagavad-Gita).

About the geometric-topological model of consciousness. This resolves around the ancient notion of topos (cf. Aristotle's Physics Book IV), the modern concepts of stratified space, and the granting legitimacy to traditional cartographical, architectural, horticultural and other metaphorical language regarding consciousness and the diverse faculties and regions of the soul (cf. the ars memoriae).  Its foundation is  the work of Plotinus (which integrates the best elements in the Platonic and Aristotelian texts). There are also interesting elements from neuroscience and psychology that can be integrated into such an account.

We can cautiously suggest that Plotinus' process of spiritual simplification, illumination and reversion (we would say rather 'involution' and 'inversion')  involves a radical shift in the self-perception of consciousness and at the same time a radical shift of perspective regarding what is perceived and conceived as spacetime and the laws of physics. We propose that this transformation, this shift of perspective, involves the Penrose transform of complexified (and compactified) Minkowski spacetime. The new reality is twistor space $\mathbb{P}^3$ and the previous Minkowski spacetime is something secondary and generated (its points correspond to lines in $\mathbb{P}^3$). As regard to the hyperboloid hypersurface which appears naturally in twistor theory (it corresponds to the image of real Minkowski space and stratifies twistor space), we can recall this verse by Alan Turing:

Hyperboloids of wondrous Light
Rolling for aye through Space and Time
Harbour those Waves which somehow might
Play out God's wondrous pantomime. 

 

The initial process of complexification and compactification can be likened to unveiling a more fundamental ontological domain, the intentions, meanings or processes of the world-soul at work in physics - which corrresponds to a parallel process in consciousness. Fiber bundles are perhaps a natural mode for the human mind to grasp high-dimensional spaces. The isomorphism of the fibers at different points represent their ubiquity and unity in the Plotinean sense.

 

Spiritual science will involve a geometry and cartography of  consciousness employing a stratification into spaces with their own dynamics and deformative processes which become aligned within a global anagogic process.  However we must begin with the most humble processes related to the psychosomatic domain and their geometry and dynamics. The geometry of biophysics furnishes the clues and can be transposed - through a process of variation, complexification and compactification -  into the domain of a geometry of consciousness. The branches of mathematics which offer a unification, fusion, of logic and geometry, are surely of great relevance here. 

 

There are several interrelated geometries of the mind. The geometry of the architecture of our cognitive-semantic spaces. The geometry of our personal narrative (our biography) and of narratives in general, specially the initiatic journey. The geometric physiology of the soul's powers and functions. An important aspect of such geometries is not only their stratification, multidimensionality, dynamic nature, relation to projective space,  but also their foliated nature, all forms manifest as a simultaneous united continuum of many different levels. An opposing view would see all this as a cultural inheritance of forms of illusion (prolongations of a standard naive pre-biochemical understanding of biology), of aggregation and identification and put in its stead Hume's sublime concurrent process vision of consciousness. We distinguish between objects and beliefs constituted by function (mistaken for essence) and true essence revealed in the reality of the underlying concurrent processes which do not reveal themselves necessarily as they are when they construct belief-objects subordinate to function.

 

But perhaps indeed the vision between the two paths is not so significant in comparison to what they have in common - the science of the subtle and spiritual bodies. Also recall also how Hegel and Husserl would hold that, as strange as it may seem, Plato, Sextus Empiricus and Hume  present complementary aspects of the one truth and are capable of unification at a higher level. But also postulating unity can be harmful at the level of spiritual paths, contrary to a common trend. Rather one must be lucky to find a path that is 'beautiful in the beginning, beautiful in the middle and beautiful in the end'.

 

Before the question "how can we gain higher knowledge of consciousness itself?" we should ask "what is the best knowledge for consciousness?"  It is the knowledge that lets it see through itself and liberate itself from itself. A central object of the best knowledge is the difference and unity between perception, feeling, volition, thought and the sense of self and awareness. Also of temporality and temporal intentions and the construction of objects and concepts. And is not logic the science of consciousness par excellence? And even more importantly: the best knowledge is not just knowledge of the highest object but the best knowledge is the knowledge of the best knowledge itself in its illuminating and transcending function. Consciousness must be unbounded light and its knowledge be knowledge of its own knowledge and of its own knowledge's illumination. Recursion and reflection-into-self permeate the Pali Canon and its path of spiritual development. Consciousness lives usually passively immersed in and hypnotized by its own self, forgetting its own power not only of freeing insight but its ability to act directly upon itself, dissolving the mistaken belief in the necessity of certain mental content.

 

And we can give a symbolic-anagogic formalization of consciousness properly understood, or at least partially mirror its self-clarifying, self-transcending, self-subsuming process. We have sketched some of this in our "Hegel and Modern Topology".  We could add thereto some considerations on monoidal categories (which furnish a common ground for linear logic,  concurrent processes, algebraic geometry, PDEs and quantum theory). What is important here is the internalization of their own "boxes" into wires (input and output) allowing the modelling of dynamic rewiring (closed monoidal categories).

 

About the coherence conditions in monoidal categories. The coherence condition can be viewed as the necessary amnesia which forgets the history of a process to look only at the final state and  conditions the connection isomorphism only on the final result (cf. Kant's example of surveying a house in the CPR). This is what allows objectivity to emerge: objectivity is the postulated forgetfulness of the plurality of different presentations and the postulate of their essential equivalence. As Aristotle wrote: the road from Athens to Thebes is the same road as that from Thebes to Athens. Coherence expresses the emergence of objectivity (hence order) by a voluntary forgetfulness of a system's memory via focusing only on the final state. The condition of (shallow) objectivity is that something is what it is independently of its process of coming to be.  If you start with a certain composition of $\otimes$-products X and switch them around using tensorings of ids and associators to obtain a new composition of $\otimes$-products Y then the resulting composed isomorphism linking X and Y will always be the same, no matter the intermediate route. Without a partial repulsion of memory one will be constantly becoming something different - this act is also that of the Understanding in Hegel's Logic that forgets, attempts to cancel,  its own process of coming to be.