as Within so WIThout

[nine tailed fox]

explain this phrase guys

 

this is a very popular spiritual phrase , but i still havent understood it fully

 

this is a hermetic principle

 

 

As above so below;
as below so above;

as within so without;
as without so within

 

 

i have read that this is literally true, i mean what is literally within is without

 

i have read that you can understand your inner universe, like what is actually happening in your mind by observing the outer world

 

within is literally reflected outside

 

but no body gives the full explanation of it, may be they cant

 

how can it be literally true ?

 

explain this phrase from your wisdom

 

and i wanna know the subtle things, i know that your thoughts and beliefs are reflected outside

 

but for example i am having a issue with my girlfriend than this must also be a reflection of my inner universe

 

does it mean that i have some conflict in my mind which is just being reflected in this issue

 

i wanna know the subtle things of this phrase

[Marblehead]

Here's something to get you started:

 

http://radiantwoman.wordpress.com/2006/12/25/origin-of-as-above-so-below/

[doc benway]

A few thoughts about 'as within so without' and vice versa...

 

To truly 'understand' this, I would highly recommend a commitment to some form of meditative practice. There is a knowing that is not of words or thought that may happen naturally in a flash, but more often comes with a mature and stable meditative practice. And there is no substitute for this type of knowing.

 

To play around with some words briefly (need to leave for work soon), here are a few ideas.

 

1. Your constituent building blocks are identical, both within and without your bag of skin - carbon compounds, water, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorous, calcium, etc... If you break down the human body, it's components are identical to its surroundings.

 

2. The feeling that you are an isolated and separate thing from everything around you is utterly fallacious. Living organisms are not separate from their environment. From an ecological point of you, there is no separation. The organism does not, in any possible mode of existence, exist independent of it's environment. The fact that you have a sensory apparatus, a surrounding bag of skin, live in a transparent immediate environment (air), and are blessed by mobility and the illusion of autonomy, all contribute to this delusion. But the ancients knew the truth, it's nothing new. So inside and outside are one continuous organism-environment and the distinction is simply a convention that we all (mostly) agree on that is not real.

 

That's all the time I have now.

Have a nice day!

[Marblehead]

1. Your constituent building blocks are identical, both within and without your bag of skin - carbon compounds, water, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorous, calcium, etc... If you break down the human body, it's components are identical to its surroundings.

Just last night I watched a documentary on this.

[Protector]

oh yeah, sounds familiar

I've read too many Dan Brown novels

[Stosh]

My take on it is -

that there are many such analogies along those lines , the macrocosm vs microcosm , phylogeny recapitulates ontogeny , all of fractal mathematics. There truth in them if one bothers to see HOW there can be truth in them,, or one can walk away with nothing, if one wants remain aloof to the relationships.

 

Western argument , philosophical traditions put an emphasis on destructing another persons argument , if you can poke a hole in it , all the assertions are invalid or one should mistrust them. The result is very solid grounding on facts.

 

Eastern style discussions , can employ that too , but they tend to lean a bit more toward "giving the guy a benefit of a doubt" one investigates whether one CAN find evidence to support the claim or description, the result is a more spiritual personal understanding of truth.

 

The two systems make a great complement to one another,, if you can master it.

Edited July 19, 2013 by Stosh

[Apech]

'As above so below' means that there is a correspondence between the subtle realm of eternal forms and the gross world. So there are patterns which eternally repeat and which the physical world reflects ...although each reflection is in itself unique.

 

If you take reality to be like a hologramic field where everything that exists is a precipitate of this field in a particular place, stressed in certain way and so on, then the internal structure of each created thing reflects the potential structure of the whole field. Most importantly for us, a human being (including his/her body) is a microcosm reflecting the microcosm, so you can by looking at and understanding yourself come to understand the whole universe.