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Meru Foundation eTORUS(tm) Newsletter: SPECIAL EDITION
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

I hope you enjoy this Meru Foundation eTORUS(tm) Newsletter.

We welcome your comments and suggestions, and would like the opportunity to speak with you personally.

If you have comments or questions, please send an email to Levanah Tenen at <meru@meru.org> with your phone number and a good time to call -- or, please call us at 781-784-8902 (Boston area).

If you no longer wish to receive Meru Foundation's newsletters, please send email to Levanah Tenen at <meru@meru.org>, and include "Unsubscribe" in the text of the message.

Thank you for your interest in the work of the Meru Foundation.

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The Meru Foundation eTORUS(tm) Newsletter is copyright 2004 Meru Foundation. All rights reserved.
Past issues of eTORUS(tm) are archived online on the Meru Foundation website at
<http://www.meru.org/Newsletter/journalindex.html>.

You may duplicate and pass along this newsletter in its entirety, as long as you include the above copyright notice and the contact information below. Please send comments and questions to <meru@meru.org>.

Meru Foundation research offices:
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Voice: 415-223-1174 eFax: 253-663-9273
Email: <meru@meru.org>
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Fax your order to 1-253-663-9273 OR
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To order by phone:
Call 1-415-223-1174

EUROPEAN AND PAL VIDEO ORDERS:
To order PAL versions of Meru Videotapes:
Email Ron Engert in Germany at <ron@tattva-viveka.de>
German readers may also visit Ron Engert's Meru website:
<http://www.meru-info.de>

Contents of this page are ©2005 Cynthia Tenen or ©2005 Stan Tenen, and licensed to Meru Foundation, 524 San Anselmo Ave Suite 214, San Anselmo, CA 94960 USA.
Email inquiries to the Research Staff at: meru@meru.org
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