Part 1
We now understand how The Four Pathways as ranges of values apply to energy. To apply them practically to our everyday lives, recall that matter and energy can be thought of in the context of each other. Each element within matter is actually a form of energy vibrating at a particular rate. In terms of our definition for The Four Pathways, the various elements of matter aggregate into the courses of action or ways of living that become life and its experiences or difficulties.
With matter and energy corresponding as they do, the four fundamental ranges of energy become ranges of matter, and the Process of Further Levels allows them to be translated into a level where the complete range of life experiences exists. And the fact that such a complete range had at its fundamental level four subdivisions has been evident to humanity’s great teachers since the dawn of our consciousness.
For instance, essential to the Buddha’s teachings 2500 years ago were the Four Noble Truths. They are, briefly: the essence of life is suffering, suffering is caused by our inordinate desires, the way to relieve suffering is to let go of those desires, and the process whereby we can do so is the Eightfold Path, which entails leading a rightful life (7a). Once arranged in descending energetic order (7b), four key words to represent these truths as Pathways (7a) could be:
Selfishness / Suffering // Clarity / Release
500 years later, Jesus similarly taught an understanding of The Four Pathways in the Gospel of Luke: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.” Likewise arranged in descending energetic order, the four ways to love God become:
Soul / Heart // Mind / Strength
Such understandings were not limited to the founders of great religious movements. At around the time that the Buddha’s followers began to disseminate his teachings, the leading scientists and philosophers of ancient Greece were beginning to explore the alchemical nature of existence, ideas that would become foundational in many modern occult traditions.
Next: IN RELIGION, Part 2
(7a) All eight paths begin with the word "samma," which John Allan notes on BuddhaNet as meaning proper, thorough, integral, complete, and perfect. It is often translated as right, from which followed my reference to leading a "rightful" life. Using it makes for a neat, consistent list. But right should be taken not so much in the sense of right versus wrong; rather, in the context of the other translations. My feeling is they are meant as the ideals one should strive for to achieve Nirvana, or awakening. They fall into three larger groups: Wisdom, Ethical Conduct, and Mental Discipline.
Hence, the Eightfold Path can be seen to align with the North in The Four Pathways. (Refer to p. 17 of 23 in "The Four Pathways and their Symbolic Attributes.") However, you may question Clarity as its key word. The choice of key words for the 2nd and 1st Noble Truths should be self-evident with Selfishness and Suffering, which are listed as the Physical Issues for the East and West in The Four Pathways. Release appears as the Spiritual Virtue balancing the Spiritual Block of Attachment in the South. Its relationship to the 3rd Noble Truth should also make sense. When the 4th Noble Truth is grasped as the process whereby the mind can be cleared of all blocks to leading a rightful life, the truth of Clarity as its key word is revealed. In The Four Pathways, Clarity is the Spiritual Virtue balancing the Spiritual Block of Denial in the North, and Denial would prevent anyone from pursuing the Eightfold Path.
(7b) The electromagnetic spectrum implies a range of frequencies in a scientific sense from high to low. However, many of the world’s esoteric or mystic traditions also teach this from the philosophic perspective, particularly as it applies to the ancient elements. One in particular, the Cabala (or Kabbala), based on the hidden meaning within the Torah, acknowledges both a feminine and a masculine energetic order, in keeping with the gender energy associated with each element. The order being followed here is the feminine order, since it places the feminine Heart before the masculine Mind. It is considered the spiritual alignment in the System of Quadrality. In the masculine order, the second and third elements are reversed, with Mind preceding Heart. The System of Quadrality considers that the physical alignment. Whenever paths are reversed for behavioral reasons, it occurs through the Principle of Behavioral Reversal. (The subject is extensively detailed in the essay, “On Behavioral Reversal and the Rules of Quadrality,” included in the ENCORE section of the Fourth Digital Edition. A powerful application of it is covered in the article, “Behavioral Reversal in the Evolution of Time and Space.”) So, the rearranging of both pairs of terms in the Buddha’s Noble Truths, as well as in Jesus’ ways to love God, indicates the original alignments were behaviorally reversed. Alignments such as these, as well as their reordering, are allowable, with each expressing a particular energetic condition. (The rationale for the alignment of the Buddha’s and Jesus’ teachings is explored on p. 177 of “The Totality Of God” and its accompanying Footnote 57.)
In the System of Quadrality, groupings of energetically related words are referred to as quadralitic equations. They are formed from dualistic balances of word-energies that themselves express a range of values. In quadralitic equations, dualistic balances are created between words within a particular plane (either side of the equation) or between planes. All such dualities balance to the Universe’s creating dualities, Spiritual/Physical and Positive/Negative. In Jesus’ four ways to love God, all dualities within and between planes balance Spiritual/Physical. In the Four Noble Truths, dualities within planes balance Spiritual/Physical, while dualities between planes balance Negative/Positive, with behavioral reversal in effect. Hence, in this quadralitic equation, Clarity is the positive energy to the negative energy of Selfishness, and Release is the positive energy to the negative energy of Suffering. Applying a positive energy to heal a negative issue is essential to the process of personal therapy detailed in “How To Be Your Own Spiritual Detective.” The practice of counteracting a negative trait with its positive was also at the core of the Buddha's teachings.
