Number 28 – 4 August 2005
Copyright 2005 Meru Foundation
Edited by Levanah Tenen
NEWS
Meru
Foundation's Book
Many readers have written to ask about the book-in-progress on Meru
Foundation's work. We have, after much thought, decided to pull back
and re-frame this book -- because we now have a much better idea as to
what it ought to be about.
Originally, we intended to write a popular presentation of the basic
ideas underlying our research, and how it developed. Instead, we have
decided to present our work "in action" -- by examining some of the
most basic texts of Kabbalah in the light of the geometric metaphor,
and producing a new translations and commentaries on these works.
We changed our focus because we examined the market, and found
ourselves asking, "Who really benefits from our research?" Bookstores,
and the Internet, are glutted with popular works that are promoted as
teaching about our inner and outer world. The ideas in these books
range from legitimate through fanciful to downright absurd (and
sometimes actively damaging)*. Often, the focus of these popular books
is on the people who originate these ideas, and how they arrived at
their theories. While this approach makes for an easy read, and may
even be inspiring (assuming of course that the subjects are people of
worth), sadly, the ideas these people wanted to teach often get buried
by their story.
Another example: On quick examination, the only way a reader looking
for legitimate but readable information on physics can tell the
difference between two books -- for instance, one by Columbia
University physicist Brian Greene, and another which, bluntly put, is
only new-age noise -- is by examining the author's credentials. Now,
not everyone with credentials can write a readable book; and not
everyone lacking academic credentials is writing nonsense. But in the
current pseudo-information glut, for any popular work to rise above the
noise, it must come with a pedigree -- some way the naive reader can
trust that s/he is getting information that is reasonable and reliable.
As those of you following our work are aware, Meru research falls
outside of most academic disciplines. In fact, part of our strength is
our use of "outside the box" thinking, followed by a disciplined
examination of our ideas to see which of them actually makes sense.
While this trans-disciplinary approach is a strength for Meru's work,
it is a handicap in finding scholars to evaluate it. Some specialists,
seeing our cross-disciplinary approach, are prudent, and legitimately
feel they do not have an appropriate background to contribute to our
research or comment on it.
So, we have re-focused our efforts. Some of the oldest and most obscure
Kabbalistic works are lucid, elegant, and make sense, when examined in
the light of Meru's findings on geometric metaphor and the meaning of
the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Though it appears this approach may
have been known as recently as 200 years ago, it has been lost today.
In our new translations and commentaries, we will demonstrate our
findings in the most compelling way -- by using them. This new focus
will reach an audience whose primary interest is in understanding these
important and puzzling Kabbalistic texts, and how we explain them.
This approach allows us, in a legitimate scholarly context, to
demonstrate one of our basic theses (rather than just "talking about
it"): There is a functional science of consciousness preserved in the
Western sacred texts; this science was known, in some form, until
relatively recently; and once we learn to recognize it in traditional
texts, these texts become clear and sensible (rather than opaque and
obscure).
All of us working on this project -- Stan, I, and several local
scholars familiar with the works we are studying -- are excited by what
we are uncovering, and gratified that this approach allows us to write
a book presenting Meru Foundation's research to a serious and
discriminating audience.
*For more on our "take" on the general new-age
market, it might be appropriate to revisit Stan's essay "Damning by
Faint Praise," first presented in the Meru eTORUS in November 2003, and
on our website now at
http://www.meru.org/DamnbyFaintPraise.html .
Meru Foundation Videos and DVD's.
As I mentioned in the last note to eTORUS subscribers, Stan Tenen's
three half-hour interviews for Dr. Jeffrey Mishlove's acclaimed
television series, "Thinking Allowed", are now available on DVD
exclusively from Meru Foundation on www.meetingtent.com. (See
http://www.meetingtent.com/DVD-ThinkAllowed.html for details.)
Meru Foundation also offers a live-lecture videotape series, covering
ten critical years of Meru Foundation research. (DVD versions should be
available by the end of this year.) This is a deliberately "warts and
all", "open kitchen" record that presents our basic ideas as they
matured over time. They fill the same niche as a popular book, with the
added benefit of being able to view the physical models that
demonstrate our basic concepts. Those who haven't yet seen our video
presentations, but who would like to understand how this work has
developed, should consider them a working complement to our printed and
Internet-posted work. For more information on our video presentations,
go to
http://www.meetingtent.com/videotape.html .
TWO ESSAYS BY
STAN TENEN
In this issue, we offer two different "takes" on the issue of the
relationship between our internal will, the part of us that chooses,
and the physical world we find ourselves living in. These pieces were
written a bit over ten years apart -- the first in 1992, and the
second, in 2003. Just as our video series shows how our work developed
and grew over time, these two essays offer an opportunity to see a
deepening philosophical understanding.
In the early 1980's, and again from 1992 through 1995, Meru Foundation
published a hardcopy-only journal which we called TORUS. "One Will --
Two Hands" is an essay from 1992, published as TORUS Vol. 2 #1. At that
time, we had just discovered that the specially shaped vortex model we
were researching was actually a model human hand -- and we had yet to
understand many of the implications of that finding. In "updating" this
essay for the eTORUS, I have substituted color versions for some of the
graphics. However, I have changed very little of its wording. It is an
authentic picture of our thinking at the time.
From "One Will -- Two Hands", (c)1992 Stan Tenen
(see
http://www.meru.org/Archives/OneWill-TwoHands.Updated.pdf for complete essay)
"Although we have but one will, we have two hands.
How and why is this so?
"Our consciousness resides in our minds, in a space
where we can think about not only their position but their motion. . .
. When a 3-dimensional form is moving, it can be said to be in
hyperdimensional (usually 3-dimensional) state, because it keeps track
of 3-D forms moving in time. Evolution, or movement in time, is one way
to understand the 4th dimension.
"So our conscious wills exist in a 4-dimensional
world. When we project our INNER 4-dimensional conscious wills OUTSIDE
onto the 3-dimensional physical world we have a problem: Four
dimensions don't fit into three dimensions. . ."
****************
The piece from 2003 is a short discussion of the classic problem of
free will vs. determinism: "If God knows everything that is, was, and
will be, including all our choices, then how are we to be held
responsible for our decisions?"
From "Determinism vs. Free Will", (c)2003 Stan Tenen:
(see
http://www.meru.org/Determinism-FreeWill.html for complete essay)
"With regard to the classic question of determinism
vs. free will, there are two basic problems.
"1) The paradox -- how can we have real free will,
while Hashem obviously knows "in advance" (being out of time) all of
the choices of all of the beings who have lived over all history? And
"2) How can a loving and fair God hold us
responsible for making mistakes that God knows "in advance" are
pre-determined?
"The nature of "infinity", as in "the Infinity of
God," and quantum mechanics, offer some clues . . ."
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FEEDBACK
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opportunity to speak with you personally.
If you have comments or questions, please send an email to Levanah
Tenen at <
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******************************************************************
The Meru Foundation eTORUS(tm) Newsletter is copyright 2004 Meru
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Past issues of eTORUS(tm) are archived online on the Meru Foundation
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You may duplicate and pass along this newsletter in its entirety, as
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Tenen
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Voice: 781-784-8902 eFax: 253-663-9273
Email: <
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