THE SCIENTIFIC WISDOMS
In many ancient traditions, the gods were viewed as organized into sets or groups that serve collectively to uphold various levels and forms of creation. In the Vedic tradition, the doctrines pertaining to the groups of gods were called vidyas, a Sanskrit term that means both “science” and “wisdom.”
The ancient wisdoms are not easy to understand.
At first glance, they appear extremely confusing and even contradictory. The problem is that each wisdom purports to present a picture of the whole—yet the number of gods, categories, layers, and so forth involved in the various wisdoms differ widely. From the perspective of the modern mind, which seeks a conclusive, well-defined model of reality, it would seem natural to presume that the ancients were in disagreement—but this would be a mistake. The ancients possessed an enlightened vision of the universe, which was highly subjective, allowing for complementary perspectives on the same idea. This notion is reflected by the Vedic aphorism, “The truth is only One, though the wise may speak about it differently.”Enlightened vision, however, is also holographic. A hologram is a record of coherent light, which can be used to project a three-dimensional image. Unique to a hologram is that the same image can be projected from every part of the record. The larger the part, the higher the resolution of the projected image; the smaller the part, the lower the resolution—yet in every case, the same three-dimensional image can be projected. The spectrum of layers may be compared to a cosmic hologram on the basis of which a three-dimensional image of the universe is projected in consciousness. In this case, the layers correspond to the parts of the hologram. As the enlightened soul ascends through the layers, it grasps larger parts of the cosmic hologram, corresponding to larger sets of layers. As a result, the projected image of the universe increases in resolution, but the same universal image is seen no matter how large a part of the cosmic hologram is grasped.
When the soul begins its journey, it tends to cognize a low-resolution picture of the whole, and at the end of its journey, it cognizes a very high-resolution picture. Yet the same universal image—the same whole—is cognized at every stage. The ancient wisdoms relate to these different holistic pictures of the universe obtained on the basis of different sets of layers. They were formulated in terms of different numbers of gods, categories, worlds, and so forth. As such, they are confusing to us and were also confusing to the ancient students of those wisdoms. For example, in one Vedic text, a discourse is presented between an inquiring student and his teacher. Bewildered by the various opinions of the sages regarding the number of worlds, gods, and categories, the student asks: “With what intention do the sages severally declare such a large variety of numbers?” The teacher replies:
The categories being comprised in one another, O jewel among men, are enumerated as more or less according to the subjective viewpoint of the speaker. In a single category, whether it is viewed as a cause or an effect, are found all the other categories. Therefore, we accept as conclusive whatever is stated by those sages, according to their own subjective viewpoint, who are seeking to establish a cause-effect relation, or a definite number of categories, there being a cogent reason behind every such assertion.5
The fact is that the ancient science was subjective; it was rooted in various subjective viewpoints on the reality of the universe, and each of those viewpoints was tied to a particular scale, or set of scales, of space and time. The wisdom pertaining to one set of scales may be different from that pertaining to another set, but in every case the wisdom was holistic.
In the remainder of this book, we will examine a number of the most fundamental wisdoms outlined in the Vedic, Egyptian, and Hebrew traditions—each of which utilized its own symbols, metaphors, models, and allegories. In the process, we will discover that when understood, the ancient wisdoms are very scientific. They accurately predict a hidden vertical symmetry in the overall organization of the universe, which is currently unknown in modern theory, but is nevertheless consistent with the empirical evidence. To begin, we shall start with the first wisdom, which has to do with the origin of the universe at the very beginning.