Lecture (1) - "The Elements of Living Nature"

Transcription of Lecture Notes follow:

Please ask any questions as I go,
however we must cover alot of ground before
he inter-connectivity of things starts to
take shape .....

Interconnectivity is important here
for I do not intend to speak of separate elements ...
For nature is ONE

yet is has different windows,
and folks see different things when contemplating

In many ways our cultural history has stemmed and is drawn from
the culture of the ancient mediterranean lands - the western world,
however there are two hemispheres on this planet of ours, just as
there are two hemispheres of the living brain.

Therefore, in order that a more global perspective may be afforded
it is intended to cover the "Elements of Living Nature" from both
the ancients western traditions and the ancient eastern traditions.

Perhaps the best way to begin is with a quotation from each:

Although I start here with the west, because of our convention and comfort,
I would make the piont that it is more than likely that the eastern traditions
which extend back much further in time than western history, are foundational.

"Thus he then classified living creatures into genera and species,
and divided them in every way until he came to their elements,
which he called the five shapes and bodies -
aether, fire, water, earth and air."

Xenocrates, On the life of Plato
Refer to ancients.html

And now a quote from the Land of the Indian Sun ....
"They sat down together as they would want to do,
and they [the Indian Sages of 3AD] allowed Apollonius to ask questions;
and he asked them of what they thought the cosmos was composed;
but they answered: 'Of elements'.

'Are there then four?' Apollonius asked.

'Not four,' said Iarchus, 'but five'.

'How can there be fifth', said Apollonius,
'alongside of water and air and earth and fire'?

'There is the ether', replied the other,
'which we must regard as the stuff of which the gods are made;
for just as all mortal creatures inhale the air,
so do immortal and divine creatures inhale the ether.'

Apollonius again asked which was the first of the elements, and Iarchus answered:

'All are simultaneous, for a living creature is not born bit by bit.'

'Am I', said Apollonius, 'to regard the universe as a living creature?'

'Yes', said the other, 'if you have sound knowledge of it,
for it engenders all living things'."

Refer to - "The Life of Apollonius of Tyana" (Philostratus, about 220 AD)
a_tyana0.html






hobbit opens Lecture Session (1) of (5):
"The Elements of Living Nature"

In the beginning of all cultural tradition there were the elements of nature.
Even today, the global indigenous peoples regard these elements as sacred.
Moreover, these same elements were invariably spoken of by the saints and sages
of all cultural civilisations and tribal peoples of the planet.

This lecture series does not intend to present astrological interpretation of the elements.
Neither does it intend to present a history of the conception and emergence.
It intends to seek the relativity between these "elements of living nature".
It intends not to analyse and sub-divide, but to demonstrate a living holistic picture.
For the ancient elements of nature are the elements of life - the elements of survival.
There exists no living being which can do without EARTH (food), WATER or AIR,
nor independent from the maintenance of some form of environmental heat and light.

To commence then, let us look briefly at the world around us ....
Each of the peoples in this room have a father and a mother.
And each of our fathers and mothers also had a father and mother.
And - if we were capable of tracing this great lineage back further and further ...
We would find that this must represent an unbroken chain extending back billions of years.

The environment within which the ancients of pre-History and history prevailed,
consisted of many aspects of conditional change, and was known simply as nature.
Survival in the midst of nature was by no means guaranteed ... life was tough.
Gradually - out of this "dreamtime" of the prehistory - man became CONTEMPLATIVE.
And in this manner, he tried, out of the chaos, to set in order the nature of his environment.

We will firstly here examine the four elements of nature - earth, water, air and fire.
Discussion of any other elements must await clarification of these primal four ...

The Terrestrial Elements ... EARTH and WATER and AIR

The living element of nature called EARTH is often difficult to contemplate.
Firstly, it is also the name given to our entire global planet.
Secondly, it would seem to be so diverse in its qualities as to be many things and not one.
Thirdly, the discoveries of the western scientific program have been very successful
in their prediction of the chemical, molecular, atomic and quantum behaviour of "EARTH".

The scientific program has effectively replaced the concept of the elements of nature.
In their place the following concepts have been introduced, and are used ...
Solid (earth) ..... liquid (water) ..... gas (air) ..... plasma (fire).
These are known by the scientific program as "the states of matter".
As you can see, it is the nature of living matter which is not addressed here.

At the very heart of the scientific program is the discipline of physics.
Now the discipline of physics is derived from the greek word "physis" = "nature"
Yet the statement of the scientific program can be given in the following quote:

From "Matter and Motion" - Clerk Maxwell (1882)
Chapter ONE - Article 1 - Nature of Physical Science

"Physical Science is that department of knowledge which relates to the order of nature,
or in other words, to the regular succession of events.

"The name of physical science, however, is often applied in a more or less restricted manner
to those branches of science in which the phenomena considered
are of the simplest and most abstract kind,
excluding the consideration of the more complex phenomena,
such as those observed in living beings."

Refer further to .... maxwell1.html

In contrast to the scientific tradition, there is the mystic tradition.
The mystic tradition is not bound by any specific culture or civilisation.
In relation to matter, and the appearance of the phenomena of life it has been said:
"Life evolves out of Matter, Mind out of Life,
because they are already involved there:
Matter is a form of veiled Life,
Life a form of veiled Mind."

Sri Arobindo - The Future Evolution of Man
Refer further to .... auro.html

EARTH is more than the "dust to dust" ... for it is a living element of nature.
Perhaps the most popular image of the element EARTH is a clod of soil or a rock.
Perhaps folk see it as the mountains, or the crust of the planet, or yet its core.
Perhaps it just depends through which window one views the kingdoms of Nature ...

There exists, since the late 60's, a scientific conception of the living planet of EARTH.
This is the Gaia Hypothesis which was put forward by Dr Jim Lovelock and Dr Lynn Margulis.
The hypothesis asserts that the planet can be considered to be consistent of a complex
inter-connectivity and arrangement of ecological systems - a being in its own right.

For further information on this refer ..... gaia.html

When looking at the whole, patterns emerge .....

The Kingdoms of Living Nature

The kingdoms of nature were traditionally classified as follows:

The Mineral Kingdom - being this "supposed non-living material realm"
The Kingdom of Plants - being the living beings known as plants and trees.
The Animal Kingdom - being consistent of all living creatures great and small,
and finally ....
The Kingdom of Man.

These bear an evolution to the elements of nature .... living (being:) nature ......

The ancients did not perceive the microbiological kingdoms (EARTH) yet they were there ...
Yet it is said that some of the ancients of the east *did* - but we will not digress ...
The kingdom of Plants is based on water -
it is there the (WATER) circulatory systems were perfected.
And further - then life evolved upwards and laterally to the kingdom of animals
The Animal Kingdom is of the aerobic creatures ....

The element of AIR has been harnessed now,
and the circulatory systems made internal and independent of the FIXITY to EARTH:
animals are mobile - the dreams of plants

But the kingdom of man emerged into the other of the elements ....
For it was first the terrestrial FIRE which he domesticated ....
and then the internal FIRE of consciousness in which his contemplations progressed ...

When one is first introduced to the elements of nature, it usually within the Mineral Kingdom.
Certainly - it is within the mountains and valleys, the deserts and plains of EARTH,
and far back within the ancient oceans, rivers and streams, rains and snow of WATER,
within the enveloping cloak of planetary AIR - the winds and breezes of the atmosphere,
that the elements of nature were first experienced, contemplated and reverred.

Rama - the internal fire of consciousness is called agni in yoga.
The realization consciously of this is the recognition that energy too is conscious.

The elements of nature EARTH, WATER and AIR are all of course part of the planetary systems.
We describe our habitat down here on the planetary surface as the TERRESTRIAL ENVIRONMENT.
The terrestrial environment is a huge ecosystem, in which the ecologies of living things co-evolve.
It represents the modern term for what the ancients considered as the Mineral Kingdom.

Now that we have journeyed this far you might ask "What of the element FIRE"?
So at this point we will turn our visions to address this element of nature ....

The Cosmic Element .... FIRE

Possibly you may be wondering why FIRE is being separately treated?
Well the answer is rather simple, but it was not fully understood by the ancients.
In fact it was only in recent human history that man understood the earth's true environment.
Until a few hundred years ago, the earth was believed to be central to the cosmos.
This notion of "geocentricity" entailed the sun and the moon, all the planets and stars,
all things of the sky ..... all things to revolve about the fixed earth in the cosmos.

(I speak of the OUTER cosmos here - not the INNER - yet)

It was found that all things were in fact heliocentric - the sun was at the center.
The earth and the moon together revolved around the central fire
and that the source of this fire was NOT of the terrestrial environment
but that FIRE - in its essense and source - was of the COSMIC environment.

Thus of the 4 elements of nature around us ...
the three of earth, water and air are sourced in our terrestrial environment
............... but the fire is not ...
Yet the fire permeates the terrestrial environment
and brings light and heat and life to all living things
and to all the processes of nature
such as the great water cycle and the winds.

But it itself - the Essence of fire - is Cosmic.

When we light a match - this is a terrestrial fire
But the sun brings life and is the center of all the terrestrial ecosystems.

So then is the nature of consciousness
sourced from the Cosmic and not from the terrestrial,
For consciousness is truly a fire ....
The great saints and sages speak of this in all cultures.
WORD and ACTION

Rama :))) - a light is turned on ... the heat spreads the atoms
the fire behind matter is then visble as light

Indeed ....
In fact a very good point .....
Pandora - Apostle Paul wrote it in Hebrews
that the three main elements were fire, water, and blood.

For in reality the cosmos is an Ocean of Light (and Love)

The thread here flips back and forward between the OUTER and the INNER.
Sorry if this confuses the issues but the two worlds are inextricably linked.
I will show you ....

The Elements of Nature and the human senses ...

Of the "five senses", the sense of touch relates best to the element EARTH.
And when this is translated to an internal need, then the name of this need is HUNGER.
If one has dominion over hunger then one is either a well trained self, or fortunate.
Either way, the ancient element of earth is fundamental to the concept of life.

Rama - it is often said that eyes of consciousness are everywhere
fingers see by touch

Yes - the worlds are joined .....

Of the "five sense", the sense of taste relates best to the element WATER.
And when this is translated to an internal need, then the name of this need is THIRST.
If one has dominion over thirst then one is either a well trained self, or fortunate.
Either way, the ancient element of water is fundamental to the concept of life.

Rama - water is the transmitter of energy in matter :)
like the wire if you like :)

it is indeed :)

Air has natural properties which not now perceived by the intellect of man.
Of the "five senses", the sense of smell relates best to the element AIR.
And when this is translated to an internal need, then the name of this need is BREATHING.
If one has dominion over one's breathing then one is a well trained self.
Either way, the ancient element of air is fundamental to the concept of life.

Rama - the breath of the creation and disolution of things
is the breath of the cosmic atman :)
so we to breath ... the wind blows etc.

great cycles

yes - nature is within and without ....
and there is a vast interconnectivity in this nature.

Fire has natural properties which are not now or previously wholly perceived by the intellect of man.
Of the "five senses", the senses of hearing and sight best relate to the element FIRE.
And when this is translated to an internal need, then the name of this need is CONSCIOUSNESS.
If one has dominion over one's consciousness, then one is indeed a sage and holy man.
Either way, the ancient element of fire is fundamental to the concept of life.

Why is this? ...
Fire is like vibration ...
Light is an aetheric vibration
Sound is a more physical vibration
Sound is like heat.
And thus fire is like consciousness ...
For vision and hearing form the image and the word
of the consciousness of millions of our fellow man
and - of course - our selves :)

Rama - in a cosmic sense this is called spanda ... mantra etc

Of the "five senses", the hearing of sound is best related to the lower aspect of the element FIRE.
And when this is translated to an internal need, then the name of this need is SPEECH.
If one has command over one's speaking then one is indeed an organised man.
Either way, the ancient element of fire is fundamental to the concept of life.

Of the "five senses", the sight is best related to the higher aspect of the element FIRE.
And when this is translated to an internal need, then the name of this need is ENLIGHTENMENT.
If one has command over one's path of enlightenment then one is indeed a wise man.
Either way, the ancient element of fire is fundamental to the concept of life.

At this point I will cease this first talk .... :)
And take the matters up agin perhaps in the future ....