THE ANALYTIC AND SYNTHETIC POWERS

We can say that all forms of knowledge are cognized by a simultaneous process of analysis and synthesis: a whole may be analyzed into its parts, and the parts may be synthesized into a whole.

The word consciousness, like the word science, comes from the Latin scio, which means “to know.” Consciousness is characterized by the ability “to know”—and the powers of analysis and synthesis are innate in consciousness. The science that underlies the spectrum of consciousness involves the relation between these two powers, whose strengths vary as a function of scale: Although both are at work on every scale of consciousness, the strength of the analytic power grows as the scale of consciousness contracts toward the infinitesimal, while the strength of synthetic power grows as the scale of consciousness expands toward the infinite. This means that synthetic power dominates above and analytic power dominates below.

Speaking mathematically, we can say that the strengths of the two powers are related inversely as a function of scale. It follows that there can be only one scale in which the two powers are equal in strength and therefore balanced: the half measure, where the soul becomes balanced in preparation for enlightenment. The intuitive realization of that balance qualifies the soul for enlightenment and the resurrection of its ego as the universal ego, which serves to uphold the balance between heaven and earth over a vast spectrum of space-time scales.

The actual dawn of enlightenment occurs when the soul grasps simultaneously point and infinity as well as the half measure (that is, the midpoint between them), and takes its first step on the divine ladder. This first step involves both an ascent above the scale of the half measure and a descent below the scale of the half measure. By ascending as far as we descend, analytic and synthetic powers remain balanced in awareness.

In this way, the ascent toward the infinite is balanced by a corresponding descent toward the infinitesimal. In the Vedic literature, this process of simultaneous ascent and descent was compared to stringing two ends of a cosmic bow.