Meru Foundation eTORUS(tm) Newsletter Number 36 - 30 November 2006
Copyright 2006 Meru Foundation
Edited by Levanah Tenen ANNOUNCING: THE ALPHABET IN GENESIS: Meru
Broadside Editions
Now available on http://www.meetingtent.com
Our multi-part book of collected essays, graphics, and commentary on
Meru research, THE ALPHABET IN GENESIS, is an expansion and
update of material formerly included in the hand-assembled Meru
Research Sampler. We have added long-unavailable material from the
early 1990's, and recent essays and discussions that have not
previously been released.
Rather than a single volume, we are offering THE ALPHABET IN GENESIS in seven 8.5" x 11" bound softcover "broadsides", each between 60-100
pages. Unlike the Research Sampler, most volumes are printed in
greyscale -- which makes the entire set much more affordable than our
previous work. However, we have printed Volume I -- Graphic Essays,
the 60-page volume of Meru posters, completely in color. I am surprised
to say that even though all these posters are very familiar to me, I
find their color presentation in this printed volume both arresting and
beautiful.
Volume I -- Graphic Essays includes two versions of what we call The Genesis Gate -- a "visual meditation" Stan created in 1978
to help him learn to draw the Hebrew letters. The Genesis Gate provides an opening to the "space of no-thing" which is the space of
Creation. (More on this in the next eTORUS.)
Purchased individually, each greyscale volume has an introductory price
of $20.95 (list $29.95), and the full-color Graphic Essays is
$29.95 (list $39.95). However (of course <smile>), we also offer
"specials" on multi-volume sets. The entire set of seven volumes,
including the color volume, can be purchased for $99.95 (plus shipping)
-- which is less than the cost of five greyscale books. (We also have
discounts on 2- and 4-book sets.)
(This book is also available internationally; drop-shipping by the
printer varies depending on your location. Outside of the US, I'll
email you to determine the best way to get your order to you.)
I have put much of my effort for several months into these volumes --
Meru's first professionally produced books -- and I can honestly say
I'm glad I did, and I'm very pleased to be able to offer them to you.
They're a convenient and visually attractive compendium of Meru
information, easy to have and to give.
To that end, Stan and I want to ask for help from all of you who read
Meru's eTORUS Newsletter: please spread the word about The Alphabet
in Genesis. I believe that people will value these books -- but we
do need people to know about them.
If you have your own mailing list or public blog, or belong to
e-groups, or if you are a professional with connections in the media --
we want your help. Please feel free to re-post this eTORUS
announcement, or any portion of it; you may also use the small images
of our books at the top of the meetingtent home page. (Make sure to
include our copyright notices, and please send us a copy of your
posting.)
Stan is also available for radio and print interviews. If you want to
set up an interview or can help with publicity in any other way, please
email us, or call us at +781-784-3462, and we'll work with you.
Thank you all for your interest and support of Meru's work. We wish you
all the best for the upcoming holiday season.
--Levanah Tenen
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AUTHOR'S PREFACE to The
Alphabet in Genesis
(c)2006 Stan Tenen / Meru Foundation (rv. 1.01)
The Alphabet in Genesis is more an extended journal of essays,
graphics, references, and insights than an organized book. There is no
story, yet the story of this research is written between the lines on
every page. You will get a sense of the development of these ideas by
noting the first publication date on each essay. This is the first
bound edition of Meru essays that we have made available.
Please note:
-- References are indicated either within the text, as
footnotes, or as endnotes to each essay.
-- We will be working on an index to be included in future
editions of the research sampler. It will be made available to those
with earlier editions.
-- The history of the Meru project is related in: The Secrets of the
Hebrew Letters by Cynthia Gage (Volume VI) Where the Torah
Meets the Torus by Rick Harrison (Volume VI)
My Personal
Statement, following this preface.
-- The tables of contents of all volumes of the Broadside
edition of the Meru Research Sampler are at the end of this volume.
-- It is much easier to understand these ideas in 3-D, and by
handling the models for ones' self. Next best is to watch some of the
video presentations, where I introduce the models and demonstrate the
ideas. Information on ordering DVD's, models, and other materials is
available at www.meetingtent.com on the Internet.
In the old Newtonian mechanical paradigm, good scholarship and good
science absolutely and positively demand objectivity and emotional
neutrality and independence on the part of the experimenter.
The majority of scholars and scientists alive today, including those
who are aware of the implications of the reality of quantum mechanics,
still tend to shy away from -- or completely object to -- any
experiment where the experimenter is in any way involved in, or has a
stake in, the outcome.
In particular, academic scholars excuse themselves from the need to
take rabbinic scholarship or Talmudic scholarship as seriously as their
own scholarship, explicitly because the rabbis are deeply involved in,
and care deeply about, the subject.
In the new paradigm, the situation is reversed. In the quantum
mechanical universe that we actually live in, the choices we make
entangle us with the experiences that we have. If we don't become
involved -- entangled -- at a deep personal and emotional level in what
we're doing, then the results of what we're doing will be completely
different than if we are deeply personally and emotionally involved.
After ten years of work with no results (from 1968 to 1978), and almost
twenty years of work breaking new ground while looking for past
precedent to confirm my findings, finally, in 2006 Jewish scholars that
I've been working with have found discussions in traditional literature
that match, confirm, and extend my findings. We now know that people in
the 12th century knew that the letters came from hand-gestures, based
on the same model that it took me thirty years to recover from first
principles and only the letter-text of the Hebrew Bible.
The existence of these traditional references changes everything. While
what I was working on and proposing was not known to be connected to
any prior work, I was on my own. What I was proposing was just one of
many proposals by scholars and independent researchers. My opinion
wasn't worth more than anyone else's opinion.
What I'm proposing takes on real authority, because now we know that
the geometry in Genesis, the idea of geometric metaphor, and the
generation of the Hebrew (and likely Greek and Arabic) alphabet from
hand-gestures, is not my original idea (only my designs and words are
original). It is an essential part of the Western traditions that has
been lost over the centuries. It is now our responsibility to present
these findings for the benefit of as wide a range of scientists,
students, scholars, peoples, and traditions as possible.
I will be reporting on and writing about these references in future
essays.
Because we reached this new plateau, and because now we know that these
ideas are a recovery and rediscovery, I want people to know about it,
and I want to work with honest, caring people who want to help to
develop its potential. Thus, the volume you're holding.
I would like to set the record straight. Even though it's true that
people who steal and destroy ideas do real damage, the fact is that
they wouldn't steal and cause injury if they weren't themselves injured
and in need of our compassion. For the past twenty years, I refused to
publicly refute the angry charges and lunatic theories that have come
our way from a number of well-known but nevertheless ill-intended and
ill people. I've been accused of all sorts of things. Misleading, and
sometimes hateful papers have been written and distributed, and my name
has been put on them. None of this matters with regard to me
personally. But what does matter is that caring people may be viewing
deliberately distorted presentations of what would otherwise be useful,
helpful, and healing ideas. These ideas are being wasted, people who
could benefit are not benefiting, and scholars and scientists whose
interest and criticism are essential are put off by the nonsense, and
don't get to see the important ideas.
It is unfortunate that this needs to be said. But it is also an
opportunity to point out that whether of science or spirit, what counts
is our integrity and responsibility. It is simply not possible to
understand a body of work that stands on integrity, unless a person
acts with integrity and associates with people and ideas that also act
with integrity. The integrity of serious ideas can only be maintained
when they are kept at a safe distance from nonsense.
What's important is that people have the opportunity to see for
themselves that these ideas are real, they're simple, they're
understandable, they're not limited to one group or another, and they
are accessible by people of all talents who learn to act with
integrity, care for others, and humbly and patiently wait for the good
they've sown to bear fruit. (Integrity, caring, and humility/patience
are the three phases of the manifesting principle, which I write about
in The Three Abrahamic Covenants and the Car-Passing Trick,
available on Meru Foundation's website, at http://www.meru.org/carpass.html,
and in other volumes in this series.)
The ideas I've recovered in the Western traditions are beautiful. I can
take credit for sticking to the job, putting up with the abuse and
embarrassment, and seeing it through. But these ideas, to the extent
that I've uncovered them accurately, are not mine. They are to the
credit of all of the heroes and all of the leaders of all of our great
traditions over at least the past several thousand years.
And of course, it does not go without saying that this work could not
have happened without the active help and support of a very large
number of people, over the past thirty years. Some of their names will
appear here in future editions. In the meantime, you all know who you
are, and Levanah and I are very privileged and very grateful for your
help and friendship.
The good news is that what we've found tells us that life is not a
zero-sum game, and that in fact it is possible for you to win, for me
to win, and for everyone else to win -- all at the same time, without
compromise and without rivalry. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are
not rivals. They are separate essential organs in the Abrahamic body
politic, which is part of the planetary body politic. I identify
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam with conception, gestation, and birth.
I call these The Three Pillars of Love, because together they
form the manifesting principle. (See the Tree of Abraham poster
at http://www.meru.org/Posters/TreeofAbraham.html and my essay, The Three Pillars of Love at http://www.meru.org/Newsletter/3pillarsoflove.html and in other volumes of this series.)
The physics of quantum mechanics teaches us that the mechanistic view
that there is not enough to go around and that competition is best,
isn't the most realistic. In fact, our lives are entangled, and the
best choice for living our life is to live by the golden rule. I will
be writing about this increasingly in the future. The golden rule is
central to what our scholars call a "theory of mind", and in the
teachings of all of the great faiths.
If readers have questions or comments, please send email and I'd be
delighted to respond.
If there is one idea I'd like to end with, it's the point of all of
this. The difference between Pharaoh and Moses, between arrogance and
humility, is responsibility. Those who believe in idols, or who, like
Pharaoh, believe themselves to be a god, would have us beg them to
protect us from ourselves and the forces of nature, which only their
magic can appease. In a world of idols, we have to pay experts and
priests to intervene with wood and metal and stone effigies on our
behalf -- even though these effigies have no consciousness, no will,
and are utterly impotent. Pharaoh's way doesn't work.
By removing the images of the idols of Egypt that made up the Egyptian
hieroglyphic language, and replacing them with hand gestures, Moses
turned the empty arrogance of idolatry into the personal responsibility
of people who act and speak with their own hands -- and who learn about
themselves and the forces of nature, so they can be free and live by
their own choices.
This is the triumph of the gesture-alphabet of personal responsibility
over the impotent idols of ego. This is the idea that changed the
world: I speak for myself by what I do.
Stan Tenen, 26 October 2006
Sharon, Massachusetts
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newsletter.
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Meru Foundation
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Sharon, MA 02067 USA
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