NordaVinci

Can anybody translate the Chinese on this diagram for me? Thanks in advance. Peter Nordquist

Greetings to All, Some years ago just before I woke up in the morning, I had a dream, or rather a vision in my dream, of a large Tai Chi symbol with a number underneath it, 07070909. As I opened my eyes, the after-vision of the symbol and the number remained for a couple minutes. This was a vision given to me to make sure that I remembered it. Of course Something was up. Then I opened my email and read the question from a woman asking whether Taoism dealt with the older brother / younger brother dynamic that would correspond to the Cain / Abel dynamic of Judeo-Christianity. I myself of course not knowing except for the dream was able to answer that indeed it does. Of course it took me a minute to realize that the dream was an answer to the question in my email. How so? Since 7 represents Young Yang and 9 represents Old Yang, they correspond to Abel and Cain, the younger and older brothers. Good brothers of course are happy for each other and love each other and would never be jealous of one another or kill one another, but Cain killed Abel out of jealousy, and perhaps Abel had been arrogant enough to trigger Cain to strike out in anger. The proper heart of Cain toward Abel and also of Abel toward Cain would have prevailed if they both had been more mature - Abel would not have been arrogant, and Cain would not have killed him - his brother. How would the parents and siblings feel about this? Bad of course - heart broken. How then to fix the broken hearts caused by immaturity and return the Cosmic Family of the 8 Trigrams to its original state of harmony and beauty? What is the proper order of relationships between the Parents and Children, the Parents as also Husband and Wife, and the Siblings as Younger and Older Brothers and Sisters? The Parents also represent Heaven and Earth and the Children are in between. Each has Mind and Body, which when harmonized perfectly after a period of growing to maturity, form a Divine Personality or Original Mind, which is able to give life to the individual's unique potential and become a Tree of Life. Why were there two 7's and two 9's and 0's in between them? My interpretation is that one 7 represents the mind and the other represents the body, for example. The 0's would be place holders for the 6's and the 8's, which represent Old Yin and Young Yin, each also having a mind and a body. I'll leave it at that, other than to also say that a certain Do-Wan, a tall Mandarin Chinese man, introduced himself to me in another dream in which I was thanking my ancestors in a formal fashion, having prayed the night before to be able to have greater appreciation for my ancestors hard work. Not being Chinese, I wondered how it was that Do-Wan came in my ancestor dream. Someone else I told that dream to pointed out that of course he is one of my guides. (Thanks Do-Wan!)

[Comments on Meditation] "Refuge from thought" is a little misleading I think. Thoughts are not a problem if you don't pay attention to them. Thoughts arise many times due to the evil vibrations of the street you might be walking on due to the bad things that happened there, for example. Also nature has a cleaning process by which thoughts arise in order to be cleaned out, like the dust that gets in the air when you sweep the floor. Heart has to be cleaned too, otherwise the same issue comes around again and again like the scratch on a record on the record player. The Buddhist version of enlightenment in my opinion is having an experience of the Central Region, which can be described the way Father describes it in Unification Thought as the Inner Identity Maintaining Four Position Foundation Centering on Heart, which never changes or develops because it is the already the highest. This is the root of God, from which God developed and grew up and then created. Buddha, in other words, skipped the God of Personality and had an experience of the Root of God. Here's Rev. Sun Myung Moon (Matreya Buddha) describing something similar from the 1950's: Have you ever asked your minds where their original homeland is? Try and see. History has progressed and cultures have advanced. External environments have evolved and advanced to a certain degree according to culture or human intelligence. However, the world of the heart has remained unchanged. This world of the heart does not experience revolutions or progress; it is inherently eternal and unchanging. When you have a certain sense of purpose and set a clear goal, you will run limitlessly. When the needle of a compass is lined up to the north and south poles, there is no way to turn it unless you apply a force stronger than the force pulling the needle to the poles. Likewise, the world of the conscience cannot be moved. The function of the mind which cannot be moved lies in the realm of ideology. When a clear sense of purpose is set for the mind, you can certainly cause an action that can pull every cell and every emotion. Then the problem is simple. No matter how great the function of the mind may be, it cannot be more effective than the level the person has reached. Do you understand? It cannot make a greater impact than the state the person has attained. Even though it stands in the position of a subject partner, it cannot be much more effective. Because the mind stands in the reciprocal position to control the body, it cannot function outside of the reciprocal relationship. For this reason there are gaps among consciences. Although they have many kinds of differences, each conscience is somehow oriented towards the original nature. A system of thought and beliefs emerges to secure the direction of the conscience. A view of life or the universe, some doctrine, assertion or truth appears. It is a perfected entity which has a reciprocal nature. When there is a perfect minus, we can have some understanding of a perfect plus. When there is a perfect plus, we can establish a perfect minus. This is a natural phenomenon. Since there is an eternal, unchanging and perfect subject partner in Heaven, we must strive through our hearts to resemble Him and establish a common base with Him. God cannot shift the standard of the heart at whim. It can be moved only in harmony with the body. We have to control our body, put it in a certain situation, and align the orientation of the heart with the laws of the universe. God wants such laws of truth to be established. If a truth appears which can link the world together and join it with the principles of Heaven, the conscience can expand outward without limits and be active. This is the reason human beings have sought truth. However, in the civilized world, which prides itself on twentieth-century culture, we have not seen the emergence of a truth which encourages us to establish a natural common base with the infinite absolute being whom we want to seek from the depth of our hearts. For this reason human beings have not been able to transcend the grief of the Fall. Thus, you have to understand that God has suffered many sorrows which He encountered in His work as He tried to instruct human beings in various ways and to connect them to the one purpose. How laborious must God's path have been as He was walking our path of escape through which we can find the direction of the truth in our lives? When we discuss all the sad hearts and miserable situations in human history, you many think that human history has been a fearsome experience. However, you have to understand that for the guide of that history, a more fearsome battle is taking place even at this moment. Without such struggles, incredibly miserable events will unfold which will prevent you from sleeping peacefully at night. Since the mind is the beginning and end and can connect to the spirit and the original self, until the moment all sorrows are erased and we are liberated from them eternally, the mind will stimulate the same feeling of sadness. This is what you have to feel. Since human beings caused this sorrow, human beings connected us to that sorrow and prolonged it, it is only natural that judgment is given to human beings. https://tparents.org/Moon-Talks/SunMyungMoon59/SunMyungMoon-590906.htm

Clip of Rev. Moon's Lecture from May 1, 1998 Notice the common concern of Kabbalah and Taoism about how the spiritual qualities from a 4th dimensional reality manifest in 3 dimensions and compare with Rev. Moon's Cube that he draws on the blackboard. TaoKabbalahCube

Nungali, The three vertical columns (Fathers) consist of 7 vertical line segments, which of course are the Double Letters. These Double letters are therefore also Father letters. The descendants of the 7 Fathers and the Three Mothers are the children letters - the 12 diagonals. My reference is also Kaplan's Sefer Yetzirah. The Tav (7th Father Letter) crossing the Mem (3rd Mother Letter) for example directly represents sexual intercourse between the Tav, which is the channel of Living Water (semen) from the Yesod - the Masculine Sabbath (representing the male sexual organ) . . . and the Mem, producing the Nefesh, which is the level of soul that is in the blood. the Malkhut being the feminine Sabbath and representing the female sexual organ. And of course related also as explained in Kaplan's Sefer Yetzirah is that the Mem represents circumcision of the flesh, which allowed God's Blessing on the lineage of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Israel). But did you further know the controversial fact, as hinted at by Kaplan when he examines Abraham's offering, that if Abraham had cut the doves in two, as he did the other animals, that the offering would have been circumcised and the greater indemnity course of circumcision of the membrum of every male descendant, being asked to kill Isaac, his son of promise, and the the 400 years of slavery, would not have come about? Failure to cut the doves in two, was the failure to separate the animal offering from Satan, as the positions of the 3 Mother Letters, representing circumcision of the flesh, circumcision of the heart, and circumcision of the tongue, were not established. Kaplan's hint: The four halves of the birds, which were not divided, represented the four Sefirot which are normally in the center line. Kaplan, Aryeh. Sefer Yetzirah (p. 34). Red Wheel Weiser. Kindle Edition. Also related is the fact that the Tav as the 22nd letter has the value of 400 and is the 7th vertical line segment in the Tree of Life connecting the Masculine and Feminine Sabbaths. Also the value of 400 is mathematically related to 7. How so? 1111 base 7 = 400 base 10 = Tav (7th double letter, connecting Yesod and Malchut) Of further mathematical interest is the Mem as the 13th letter has the value of 40, and is connected to the number 3 in a similar way as the 7. How so? 1111 base 3 = 40 base 10 = Mem (3rd mother letter) And that these two letters cross each other in the 3rd level down the Gaon of Vilna's Natural Array Tree cannot be by accident. In a sense we have 400 + 40 = 440 plus 1 to unify them would equal 45 or the ADM, which interestingly again can be represented: The 1, 4, and 13 as being ADM in Hebrew, and that these three letters are actually 1, 11, and 111 in base 3 and that the Mem as the 13th letter in Hebrew is assigned the value of 40, which in base 3 is represented as 1111. Making ADM the master of the angels in heaven as represented by the number 3 being the spirit world, and 4 being the earth. What triggered this line of analysis was the question, "How is THougHT related to Lineage (Nefesh)." I have to say that Heavenly Mother directly responded to my question by moving my mind to connect facts from two different rooms in my mind, and I thought about the 12 edges of the cube as the arms of the universe or the limits of thought (Kaplan's Sefer Yetzirah) and the point in the center to unify them. 12 + 1 = 13 (Mem, as associated with the Nefesh and Water) Thought has 7 letters and begins and ends with the soft and hard sounds of the Hebrew Tav. Interesting then that Tav connects the Yesod and the Malkhut, which are the "sabbaths" referred to in the Bahir. Clearly Tav is connected to the number 7, and 7 is connected to the level of soul that is in the blood (nefesh). Also in spite of many Jewish men not liking to obey the 7th Commandment to not commit adultery, the Yesod is represented by Joseph as righteousness because he refused to commit adultery with Potiphar's wife and was thrown into prison. This Gershom Scholem remarked that the oldest and most natural number for the Yesod is 7, not 9, 6 or 8, as various other versions of the Tree of Life assign it. Obviously this is more than Kaplan was able to express in his short lifetime. His papers were collected by his wife and became his version of the Sefer Yetzirah with Commentary. Even Abraham didn't realize in his lifetime that his animal offering, which was attacked by birds of prey, after which dark clouds came, and a deep sleep, and he was informed that his descendants would suffer slavery for 400 years. That came about because he wasn't serious enough about his offering, and he left it top his servants, while he possibly took a nap. And his servants not being serious either, didn't cut the doves in two. This is what I have heard and read elsewhere. This point in particular is from Rev. Sun Myung Moon and then his son who spoke from the spirit world about Abraham. Dr. Lawrence Corey (Sabbatian Donmeh West) exclaimed that somehow Rev. Moon knows Kabballah, after reading one of Rev. Moon's speeches that he posted on his forum. He might deny it now, but that was in the late 1990's. Here's a link to my most recent summary of "Intro to Inter-Religious Trees of Life" : https://nordavinci.com/intro-to-inter-religious-trees-of-life/ which some people like and others don't. One more Kaplan quote: The Torah states, “On the eighth day, the flesh of his foreskin must be circumcised” (Leviticus 12:3).80 The covenant of circumcision was originally given to Abraham. The world was created in six days, representing the six primary directions that exist in a three-dimensional universe. The seventh day, the Sabbath, is the perfection of the physical world, and it represents the focal point of these six directions, as discussed below (4:4). The eighth day then represents a step above the physical, into the realm of the transcendental.81 Through the covenant of circumcision, God gave Abraham and his descendants power over the transcendental plane. The most obvious case in which this occurs is in conception, where a soul is brought down into the world. Since the mark of the covenant is on the sexual organ, it gives the individual access to the highest spiritual realms, from which he can draw down the most lofty souls. Kaplan, Aryeh. Sefer Yetzirah (p. 37). Red Wheel Weiser. Kindle Edition. Thank you for your attention.

Nungali, That's interesting that you point out the 3 x 4, since of course that is also part of the meaning of the 3 and the 4. What immediately came to mind for me is the process of development of the 4 Position Foundation, where each of the 4 positions can be subject to the other 3 as object, making 12 types of subject and 12 types of subject. This relates of course to dividing also the day into 12 segments. In Kabbalah each of the 12 segments is governed by one of the elemental letters, similar to oriental astrology assigning the animals, such as "the watch of the tiger" from 3 to 5 AM. Kabballah then, as you might or might not know, assigns one of each of the three letter groups - 7 Father letters, 3 Mother letters and 12 elemental (children) letters - to cycle through the 7 day week, such that at any moment, a group of 3 letters governs.

This is a few years later, but maybe someone is interested still. I noticed somebody asked about the relationship between 3 and 4. Obviously 3 + 4 = 7. Three represents time and four represents space. Also GD in both Greek and Hebrew are the 3rd and 4th letters and thus God as a sound represents 3+4. Three represents the three stages of growth as in Origin/Division/Union. The growing period is governed by the Autonomy of the Principle, which is compared to Natural Law or the Train Track of the Principle of the Universe. The number 4 represents going past the stages of growth and representing maturity, becoming one body with God, returning to the Origin position as in the Turiya or 4th state of consciousness, which represents separation from Satan in the battle between Good and Evil, simply because Being One Body With God, then Satan cannot influence or invade there. The protection of the Universe is gained. Also 4 represents Mother Earth, as in the square and the 4 directions of N, E, S, and W. So there is both a vertical and a horizontal aspect of the number 4, or also of all numbers actually, like the Mind and Body aspects. And also here's a page at my blogsite that's certainly relevant: "Intro to Inter-Religious Trees of Life". It includes a short video of Rev. Sun Myung Moon discussing the Four Position Foundation, which in three dimensions has 7 points - 3 on the vertical axis and 4 on the horizontal plane, like a diamond shape. The couple quotes toward the end, Rev. Moon mentions "the highest point of the Tao." Also the Tao, 5 elements and the I Ching are mentioned in the Divine Principle, which is his main teaching. The blog post is the result of my own studies, including the art work and various interpretations. https://nordavinci.com/intro-to-inter-religious-trees-of-life/

PS, Here's a somewhat related post at my website, which after browsing the many interests and categories of spirituality addressed here, I think many people will appreciate. https://nordavinci.com/intro-to-inter-religious-trees-of-life/

Well, your topic caught my interest, and my reply here is probably not what you are looking for, but it might be related food for thought that might help: A few years ago I discovered, or re-discovered a possibly lost formula for the area of a Right Triangle. At the time I thought that it must be that somebody else knew this previously, because it is so simple. This lead me to search online, which to my dismay, I have not yet found evidence, testimony or online anything stating that even anyone in ancient history knew this formula, and I am not going to pay anybody to do a literature search. It probably exists as an exercise in an old math book somewhere, but so far, as I said, I haven't found it. This led me to investigate Euclid's Elements and the interesting history of the attempts to solve the Delian problem - doubling the volume of a cube using "pure" geometry. The problem was in fact solved more than 2000 years ago by Greek mathematicians, but Plato criticized those solutions as being the result of cheating - they were not found using "pure" geometric techniques because they didn't use only a compass and an unmarked straight edge. From what I read, the Delian problem is considered one of the three most important problems in math in the last 2000 years because attempts to solve it apparently led to other developments. Many major mathematicians of the last 2000 years apparently tried their hand at it, until somebody proved finally that the problem cannot be solved using only a compass and an unmarked straight edge. I arrived at "NordaVinci's Formula for the Area of a Right Triangle" originally using algebra. Then after researching how the ancient Greeks thought about geometry, I came up with the visual proof by re-arrangement, and still am of the opinion that at least the Greeks of 2400 years ago must have known this, but have not found any evidence of that. So until I find out who might have actually previously pointed this out, I am calling it "NordaVinci's Formula for the Area of a Right Triangle." Here are two brief blog posts I wrote about this with pictures: https://nordavinci.com/2020/02/25/proof-by-rearrangement/ https://nordavinci.com/2020/01/04/dumbfounding-amazing-and-flabbergasting/

Greetings Taoist Priest, I just joined the forum today, or maybe it was yesterday already. My question to you is, "What characterizes the Celestial Masters branch of Taoism, in particular, and what attracted you to that branch in particular?"