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ARE WE THREE-DIMENSIONAL BEINGS? by Franz Hartmann




We know by experience that all visible and tangible bodies belong to the third dimension of space, nor is it possible to imagine any other. A mathematical point is an abstract idea, intellectually incomprehensible; because as soon as it becomes comprehensible it ceases to be a merely mathematical point and assumes three dimensions, length, breadth and thickness. A mathematical point has no dimension at all.

The first dimension is that represented by a line extending from a centre in two opposite directions, and which may be conceived as motion or as the comprehensible manifestation of a power originating in an incomprehensible point.

We can imagine, for instance, a magnet, sending its powers in two opposite directions, toward the positive and negative poles; but the magnet we see is already a sum of an incalculable number of magnets; for it is an aggregate of atoms, each of which has the magnetic qualities represented by the whole.

The single atom itself with its magnetic power in a latent state is inconceivable; we can only regard it in the abstract as a centre of unmanifested force and a force which is inactive or unmanifest has no existence for us. A power becomes conceivable only when it begins to act or become manifest and it then acts in two directions, the centripetal and centrifugal, or action and reaction.

The next dimension is represented by a plane, which may be regarded as a combination of lines of motion radiating horizontally from a common centre, but extending neither upwards nor downwards. To the inhabitants of such a plane nothing could be comprehensible except the beings existing in that plane, unless they could rise above or below that level; but in that case they would step out of the two-dimensional plane and become themselves three-dimensional beings.

It is hardly necessary to say that such a two-dimensional world if regarded from the three-dimensional point of view is also unimaginable and cannot be correctly represented by figures; for even the thinnest sheet of paper which we may choose to represent such a plane, still has a certain thickness, and all corporeal forms which we can possibly imagine, belong to the third dimension of space.

No sane person will therefore have any doubt that physically and corporeally considered we are three dimensional forms, belonging to the third dimension of space, having length, breadth and thickness. But every occultist also knows that our physical bodies are not our real selves.

The real self of a person rests in his or her own real self-consciousness, and this may be either an unmanifested “mathematical point,” identical with spiritual unconsciousness, or it may be a line, represented by vague aspirations and longings for the unknown, or a plane on which its inhabitants are unconscious of everything that exists beyond or below the level of everyday life, while in others their inner consciousness may have assumed the three dimensional aspects, so that they may look down, as it were, from the apex of a pyramid upon their own “selves” and the world of lives and forms below.

Thus we may physically and corporeally appear as three dimensional beings inhabiting a three dimensional world and still in reality and spiritually be only two dimensional, and consequently undeveloped and imperfect beings; because perfection in the spiritual as well as in the physical realm requires the completion of the mystic triangle, in which the knower, the thing known and the It knowledge are one.

To a superficial thinker all this may appear as a useless metaphysical speculation; but to an earnest seeker for truth the importance of its practical application will at once be plain. So long as we live and move and have our being only at the base of the great pyramid of knowledge, we only see the relations between the things existing there and know nothing about the great cause that moves them all: for the whole world may be compared to a great pyramid, from whose apex shines the light that gives life to everything below, and the forms which wriggle at the bottom are only the shadows produced by the reflection of that eternal light within the transient forms of matter.

Wisdom, the recognition of eternal truth is the apex of the great triangle (Sattwa Guna), the basis is ignorance (Tamas Guna), and the sides are desire (Rajas Guna). Without the light of the true understanding from above, everything below remains in darkness or appears in the false light created by the illusions themselves and their desires. Where the true light is absent, nothing but confusion abounds.

Why is there so much confusion and misconception in regard to religious and theosophical doctrines, except for the reason that they are not read in the light of the true understanding which cannot be learned from books, but which comes from above?

Of the thousands of examples which present themselves for illustration, we will only choose one.

The Bible teaches that for the sake of finding our own salvation we must leave father and mother, wife, son and daughter, and everything and follow the Christ. Now those living in darkness within the base of the pyramid, being, for want of power to recognize the truth, incapable of realizing the true nature of Christ, see in Christ only one of the many objects existing on their own level; the higher realm having no existence for them.

Driven on by their own selfish desire of obtaining something better than they have, they may be credulous and greedy enough to begin to hate their friends and relatives and all mankind, give up unwillingly their external possessions and join some religious order in which they live a miserable and melancholy life in hopes of obtaining some great reward in the problematical hereafter.

They become ascetics and fools, dissatisfied with themselves and with everybody, shrunk within the hard shell of their narrow-mindedness and selfishness, bigots from whom the last spark of love has departed and only an affection for a chimera remains.

But those who are enabled by the light of the interior perception of truth to understand the meaning of this doctrine, which is a mystery to those who live in the dark, know that the Christ is not one man among many; but that he is himself the light, the life and the truth.

They know that to attain the Christ-state, which represents divine and therefore universal love, we must ourselves grow and unfold in that kind of love: that far from hating or treating with contempt or indifference any being whatsoever, we must learn to love all beings, so that our love may not only embrace father and mother, wife and child and all creatures, but grow beyond it into that “third dimension of eternal space,” where our self-consciousness is no longer bound to and limited by a corporeal form.

Then will the Christ no longer appear as an enemy of that which we love, but as including all that and still reaching far beyond, and then, instead of being imprisoned in this world as in a dungeon and regarding it as a place of misery from which there is no escape, we shall be able to participate in its joys and sorrows and still live above it in inexpressible happiness and harmony.

The above may seem to be an extreme case, and there may not be many nowadays inclined to bury themselves in a monastery or become intolerant ascetics, or commit similar eccentricities; but there is not a doctrine in the Bible nor in the teachings of Theosophy which may not be misinterpreted or misunderstood in a similar manner as illustrated above; for those possessed by Tamas will interpret everything according to their own ignorance, those filled with Rajas will see all things in the light of their own desire, and only to the wise will the light of truth itself reveal the truth.

(Revue Theosophy, September 1896, p.180-182)

 
 
 
 
 
In the magazine Word there is a similar little article from Franz Harmann with the same title:
 
There is no doubt that in our material aspect we are three-dimensional; because our physical body has height, breadth and thickness; but in our spiritual aspect the matter is open to questions. Two-dimensional beings are shadows, or like images in a looking-glass, which if they were conscious, could have no knowledge of any other plane than the level in which they exist; any other extension of space being imperceptible to them. Thus it seems that animal man, if seen from a spiritual point of view, is such a two-dimensional shadowy being; for he knows nothing but his own personal self and the things that are in relation to it on the same plane of egotism. He imagines himself to be the center around which everything as in a circle moves, and sees the things on his plane only as they are related to him and to each other. He identifies himself with his own personality and where that personality ends, there is the end of his space and of his existence. He lives so to say on the very base of the pyramid of being, knowing nothing higher than that base and perceiving nothing of the sides of the pyramid nor of its apex; for he knows nothing of himself higher than his personality, the shadow of his unknown Higher Self.
 
On the other hand, spiritually enlightened man, having outgrown to a certain extent the bonds of egotism, sees his own personality as his own shadow moving among the other shadows in this world. He has risen up within the pyramid and looks down from its apex upon the shadow play going on at the base, seeing his own shadow acting among the rest. He has not necessarily lost his interest in what is taking place below, neither has he become incapable of seeing what is going on in the world, nor does he think of treating it with contempt. He may be compared to a man standing before an ant hill and observing what the ants are doing. He sees them work, but he himself is not an ant. He is still connected with his own shadow or personality, but not identified with it. He uses his personality as an instrument to act upon the material plane, but does not become absorbed by it, and when his personality dies and returns to the elements out of which it has been formed, he still remains what he was before, an immortal, luminous, self-conscious being, no more bound to a material form, but a soul whose shadow has disappeared like a mist before the rising sun.
 
(Word, NY, December 1905, vol. 2, p.148)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


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