Sunday, August 4th, 1974

WISDOM'S GOLDENROD, ALAN BERKOWITZ CLASS NOTES

(TYPED)

AUGUST 4, 1974

PB BOOKS; WISDOM OF THE OVERSELF; KARMIC IMPRESSIONS

TOPIC: PB Books

SUBJECT: Wisdom of the Overself

SUBSUBJECTS: Karmic Impressions, Sheaths, Karma, Vijnanamaya, World-Mind, Memory (cosmic and individual), Brain, Identity vs. Continuity, Metaphysics vs. Cosmology

BOOKS READ FROM OR REFERENCED:

• Paul Brunton, The Wisdom of the Overself

DIAGRAMS embedded in these notes:

• FIGURE 1974 0804-1-AB. Self and Sheaths.

• FIGURE 1974 0804-2-AB. Senses as Entrances.

• FIGURE 1974 0804-3-AB. Buddhist and Hindu Views of Memory.

TYPED AND REFORMATTED by IT 2023

NOTES:

• RETYPED HANDWRITTEN NOTES (V13). From Alan Notes 5 PB Platonism Astrology 1974 MARCH TO 1977 FEB.PDF.

• There is a dating discrepancy in AB notes. First page + is dated 8/4/74, the rest is dated 8/3/74, even though same class. Blue Book shows as 8/4/74. Using Blue Book date as the correct one until more information is available.

• All spelling, capitalization, and punctuation corrected, abbreviations spelled out.

1974 08/04 at Wisdom's Goldenrod

PB Books; Wisdom of the Overself; Karmic Impressions

[Alan Notes 1974 0804 Begin]

8/4/74 Chapter 3 Karmic Impressions

[Note: In the following, the numbers and letters refer to the "Karmic Impressions" section of The Wisdom of the Overself by Paul Brunton. The number indicates the paragraph number, and the letter following refers to the sentence number. So 1a refers to first paragraph, first sentence, 1b refers to first paragraph, second sentence, 2f refers to second paragraph, sixth sentence, etc.]

Paragraph 1 sentence a [first sentence] -- conditions of each center of being are the bodies or sheaths.

Ether body (Steiner) bearer of our inner dynamics -- influx of cosmic forces -- continuing organ -- records our actions -- interweaves cosmic and individual forces.

[FIGURE 1974 0804-1-AB. Self and Sheaths. WI = Witness-I. Facsimile scan from AB class notes.]

Self + upadhis = experience.

No upadhis, no experience (as we know it).

1a) Self acquires experience through the means of these instruments.

Through experience you become aware of your twofold ignorance. Through experience of ignorance the entity grows.

Karma molds the soul and physical, not the self.

Karma operates really in the vijnana kosha. From our point of view it manifests below it. Conditions of your being are determined in vijnana.

1b) Absolute wisdom permeates and guides the universe and our growth. No unitary ground, no relationships (karma) between things. Relationships imply a ground or means through which the parts mutually influence each other. Dream parts and figures depend on underlying idea. The relationships are real but not material.

1c) Dream analogy. World-Mind = idea behind dream.

Cosmologically karma precedes the relationships.

Experientially it is the reverse -- the relationships are a manifestation of the karma.

1d-e) Analogy of human memory. Memory cannot be solved mechanically. Memory is not the experience but the recollection. Even when you prick my brain cells I know I am remembering what happened. The fact of 'remembrance' cannot be solved.

How is racial memory transmitted?

Image is not equal to consciousness of the image.

We can't get to the modus operandi of how memory works? How? is not answerable.

How are DNA (biologist's explanation for memory transmittal) translated into images?

Even though the sheaths are altered, memory still occurs.

Paragraph 2 -- Karma and memory are not separate.

Does karma apply to the fixed idea of the universe? No. Karma is the working out of that image in temporality. Karma is the effect of the permanent image structuring the universe. Nature's memory is a moving. (Kinetic memory of Nature.)

The nature of memory is in time. Time, memory and karma are not separate -- they are all the same problem.

The cells are structured by the image -- the image is not derived from the cell -- the cell is the avenue to the subtle image.

The being goes up to the idea or image -- it 'hovers' above you.

The body itself (koshas) is an avenue to particular kinds of knowledge.

Brain physiology is also an image to us.

Memory points to something permanent which structures the temporal flow. Déjà vu -- points to the permanency of the image. Memory implies an ego. No memory, no ego.

2f - i)

[FIGURE 1974 0804-2-AB. Senses as Entrances. P Intellect = Potential Intellect. Facsimile scan from AB class notes.]

Image is first, we are in image of world. 1) Senses take in knowledge and 2) world is produced (over) from within

* What is it in me which points out the difference between the past and present? The sense of memory is the problem -- not the image. Memory distinguishes between past and present.

Our brain is the reservoir of all our past experience (like stalactites).

Brain = common sensorium.

Identity accounts for karma and memory. Karma reduces to the notion of individuality. But individuality seems to be reducible to karma and memory. Self cannot have karma as a property. The 'conditions' around it do.

Diagram: How to reconcile 1 and 2. What happens from percept to memory image. Decreasing materiality from outer to inner. We have to account for both continuity and identity.

Cosmos -- thought after thought -- provides continuity.

(Flow of water in discrete drops or in a stream are both continuous. Identity is in the water.)

Karma can operate over time -- continuity, or succession of thoughts. Memory is placed by the Buddhists within that continuity.

[FIGURE 1974 0804-3-AB. Buddhist and Hindu Views of Memory. S = Subject. Facsimile scan from AB class notes.]

Identity cannot be explained from the point of view of continuity.

Identity is not involved in continuity. Identity is unqualifiable -- qualification is in continuity. Both are simultaneous. Identity and continuity are simultaneously present to a consciousness which is neither.

2i and 10g must be considered together. Rising, abiding… kinetic memory… [Note: Pp. 39 and 42 in 2015 edition. "The rise, abiding, and dissolution of karma is indeed a twin function to that of its ideation." "…that karma, being the kinetic memory of Nature, is necessarily coupled with the imaginative power of Nature."]

We must always have in mind two points of view -- temporal, successive and metaphysical total accomplishment.

This chapter is from the point of view of cosmology -- World-Mind's memory. From point of view of metaphysics PB says World-Mind's memory is totally accomplished.

[Alan Notes 1974 0804 End]