"There is a Sufi tradition that the entire wisdom of the Holy Quran can be condensed into its celebrated opening sentence Bismilláhi ar-rahmán ar-rahím. More than this, into the single dot which underlies the initial B. This finds a striking parallel in the theory of the Big Bang, where a singularity even smaller than the Bismillah dot gives rise to the whole universe."

Peter Harper, A Microcosm of Life, Resurgence, No. 164.

BINDU/  LAPIS  / THE STONE will deal with the most interior of the alchemical and tantric symbols  - as a fuitition, or rather, seeding of the process.

The Seed comes after the Fruit. Or the Fruit, contains the Seed.

    What the Alchemists describe is actually an inner yogic sadhana - as described in 'The Secret of the Golden Flower', and as captured in all sadhanas in Tibetan Buddhism. So this paradigm can be followed from the Representational Outer to the Coded Inner.

Ciphers and Codes are necessary because they are the most condensed forms of inner experience and the stored documentation of all perceptual experience.

To consider that a seed, small and seemingly devoid of movement or life as we know it, can explode into a plant when given the right conditions of warmth, moisture, darkness and the time to germinate. The mystery of growth is further embroidered with glory when we look at the rich variety of seeds, the infinite variations of Form, with each seed carrying the total programme for reproducing its kind.

In the Sacred Tarot, Arcanum 20 is called 'The SARCOPHAGUS', and the Keynote of this ideograph is RESURRECTION or AWAKENING. Astrologically, this corresponds to the MOON, the colour GREEN, with the symbol of the crescent Moon. The moon rules all processes of GROWTH, tidal movements, reflection, rhythms, elevation, ascension and resurrection and awakening. The Moon is eternally waxing and waning. According to the Sephiric system of the Kabala, the Tree of Lights, the Moon is YESOD, meaning FORMATION or FOUNDATION, and herein lies the Key to Her essence, in that She, the Divine Mother/Lunar energy is in constant motion. Thus the great feminine energy or 'shakti' is GROWTH, whether prenatal in the womb, or in the germinating seed, or in the egg, the growth of coral, children, trees or insects. The Crescent Moon is a graphically suitable symbol for describing this cosmic Waxing and Waning between complete Externalization of the Full Moon form and complete internalization of the NEW MOON form.

But to return to the initial thought of the SEED, one realizes that each seed embodies the Full Moon and the New Moon of the entire cycle, in that the lunar process of growth and formation is completed with the production of the seed, containing as it does, the total replica of the parent plant, albeit in embryo. Once the seed has been produced, the mother plant dies, having taken out its insurance policy by manufacturing the seed.

That little seed knows a great deal in its dark little silent body. It contains both negative and positive energy forces, it remains negative until place in the environment which initiates the positive unfolding of its latent potential.

Astrologically this seed is termed The SUN, and is represented as a seed in the glyph of a circle with a dot within the Centre. (Symbol of SUN.)

On the Tree of Lights, this is MALKUTH, meaning VITALITY, and is termed: 'The active principle that vivifies all being'. The Sun is the centre of the Solar System. The system of formation or growth is the Lunar System, the seed is the centre from which the future plant will radiate. Esoterically the Sun is the highest possible attainment, or Adeptship, and in the Sacred Tarot, Arcana 21 is The Adept. Both YESOD - The Moon, and MALKUTH - The Sun, share the Foot of the Tree of Life, indicating that in these two Sephira, or Cosmic Intelligences, we have the Roots of All Life. The Sun sets up a Master Vortex for the nine astrological planets within its energy field, each planet setting up a subsidary energy vortex within the frequency or vibration of its Sun, Solar, or Seed Centre. This is how a See, humble though the little sphere of matter may be, has within it, the infinity of creative possibilities.

To vary the theme of the seed, the Sun is the master which transmits a frequency that the planets cannot tear themselves away from. Note the appearance of the concept of a planetary 'Self', for we must consider the seeed as a conscious entity, even though dormant until radiation commences. The planets obey the Cosmic Law of gravitating to their master, the Sun,, and utilize the relationship for creative activity. The unfolding of the plant obeys the master frequency built into the seed, which as a minor vortex, obeys the vortex vibration of this earth, or planet, and the solar force of light and energy that it feeds from in the form of sunlight, through the process of photosynthesis, manufacturing carbohydrates.Obeying the blueprint of the solar energy leads the plant through the prismatic layers of energy fields to the consumation of its design, in the glorious completed statement of the plant.

In man, who is the seed, it is only through co-operation with these Cosmic forces that the potential can become the fruit of a self-conscious immortal being, in fact a sun.

Christ, like the see, entered the tomb, or womb of matter, or again, the LUNAR SYSTEM and emerged triumphant in his SOLAR SYSTEM aspect, both radiating cosmic energy in the manifestation of the miracles and reflecting cosmic energy in saying that he was about His Fathers' business, the power to radiate and reflect are indivisible.

The ambition to manipulate in absent in the seed which is BEING MANIPULATED BY A PERFECT POWER AND AN ABSOLUTE DESIGN.

Astrology is rather like baking a cake. One has to study the proportion of ingedients before producing a delicious cake. The various planetary vibrations have to be brought into balance to help achieve the nicest cake for this incarnation. Or the seed will not germinate and radiate its total design until the right conditions prevail. Man, as the seed, does not reach fruition until through the wheels of karma, the same ingredients are present to stimulate complete unfolding of his Divine Nature. The seed contains the plant within it, rather like "Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and all else shall be added unto ye."

In Vajrayana, the fully awakened state of being in the world is termed NIRMANAKAYA, and to conclude, the same school of Tibetan Buddhism has a symbol for Mind - the seed - like form, bija in Sanscrit, which often is the mysterious centre of the mandala of existence.

"It impacts from the centre out. To purify yourself - you do this from the outside In, you work your way IN and having come into the centre, having elbowed your way in and defined your territory then you can start relating to the universe. One of the most interesting things that Trungpa Rinpoche said about the Mandala, is that the Mandala is not a 'theory' - the Mandala stands for you and every single 'Thing' that happens to you in your life, every single bummer, every hang-up, every irritation, every love, every place that you as a human being, with flesh and eyes and sound - taking in matter and eating it and pushing it out in the form of vomit and excrement. All of these activities integrate integrate us into a biological mandala, a bio-cycle. There is no way in which you are separate from a mandala, we must break away from the idea that we are dealing with the mandala as a sort of intellectual abstraction that we are going to talk about. The coursest things in our lives, up to the finest things and the pattern that they unfold in our lives and how the mandala can be seen in that way. Negative - positive.

So Kriya Tantra meditations are purification meditations so that we are actually revivifying, by getting to the centre where the seed is, we also come to the centre which is The Well, the Fountain. If you think of those circular fountains of bowls one above the other and the water pouring from the highest to the lowest. The pipe which runs down the centre is the Shushuma in the human body. The fountain at the top is the Thousand Petaled Lotus, the Sarashara Chakra. It represents a stream coming down in layers."

Transcribed from a talk given about 20 years ago, Cape Town.

This "flowing point" is suggested in the two opening Theorems of the `MONAS HIEROGLYPHICA' of Dr John Dee. (Antwerp, 1564.):

"Theorem 1. The first and most simple manifestation and representation of things, non-existent as well as latent in the folds of nature, happened by means of straight line and circle.

Theorem 2. Yet the circle cannot be artificially produced without the straight line, or the straight line without the point. Hence, things first began to be by way of a point, and a monad. And things related to the periphery (however big they may be) can in no way exist without the aid of a central point."

"This degree is the sum total of all subsequent mirrors, that is, of all external aspects related to this one degree. They proceed therefrom because of the mystery of the point, which is in itself, an occult degree emanating from the mystery of the pure and awe-inspiring ether. The first degree of all is absolutely occult, that is, not manifest, and cannot be attained."

Mose de Leon.

SEED - see A.David-Neel, p. 58 onwards.And: BINDU-TIGLE, p. 73 Dawn of Tantra; p. 40 `Life of Naropa, H.V.Guenther.

On the Tree of Lights, this is MALKUTH, meaning VITALITY, and it is "...the avtive principle which vivifies all being."

The Sun is at the Centre of our Solar System. What is the relationship of the Seed to the Lunar process of Gestation and Growth, and the Solar radiation of energy.

Esoterically, the Sun is the highest possible Attainment, or Adeptship/Angelhood. The Sun is naturally the Heat and Warmth necessary for the germination of the seed. The Moon supplies the Moisture - the Water. Water and Fire are present in germination.

Both YESOD - the MOON, and MALKUTH - the SUN, are on the Central Column of the Tree of Life, indicating that in these two Sephira, or Cosmic Intelligences, we have the Root and Gestation of all life. The Sun sets up the Master Vortex for the nine astrological planets within its energy field, each planet setting up up subsidary energy vortex within the frequency or vibration of its Sun, or Seed Centre.

The Seed, a humble little sphere of matter, has within it the infinity of creative possibilities of the Solar Energy.

"The Dot (Bindu) symbolizes the ONE invisible point of origin."

"Much as it may look like the original scene, it is only a reconstruction of the scene in terms of dots, somewhat as our conventional words and thoughts are reconstructions of experience in terms of abstract signs. Even more like the thought process, the television camera transmits a natural scene in terms of a linear series of impulses which may be passed along a wire."

Alan Watts, The Way of Zen

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p. 91 in Original File:

The Hermetic Law of "As Above, So Below' - applies to the Bindu as well. The outer seed as a condensed transmitter appears in the deepest recesses of "spiritual experience" as seen in this experience of the Blue Pearl of Swami Muktananda.

"As the Kundalini rises to the sahasrara, you begin to see a divine effulgence. There are one thousand knots in the sahasrara, which shine with the brilliance of a thousand suns, but instead of being scorching like the sun, their light is cooling. This light is so powerful that when it reveals itself to you, you don't have the strength to stand it. When I saw that brilliance within myself, I fell down, because I could not bear its intensity.In the centre of that effulgence lies a tiny and fascinatingly beautiful light; the Blue Pearl, and when your meditation depens and you begin to see it, sparkling and scintillating. Sometimes it comes out of the eyes and stands in front of you. It moves with the speed of lightning, and it is so subtle that when it passes through the eye, the eye doesn't feel its movement.

"One day, as my meditation was appraoching its culmination, the Blue Pearl began to expand, until it was the size of a human being.The form of this being was not made of flesh, but of shimmering blue light, the blue light of consciousness. He was exquisitely beautiful. He stood before me, a shimmering mass of Consciousness, and as I watched Him, I was wonderstruck. He made a sign to me with His eyes and then began to speak. .

"I see everything from everywhere," he said. "I see with my eyes, I see with my nose, I have eyes everywhere." He lifted his foot and said "I see with this foot. I have tongues everywhere. I can speak not just with my tongue, but with every part of my body. I can move wherever I like. I can go everywhere in an instant. I walk without feet and catch without hands.I can speak without a tongue, and I see without eyes. While I am far, far away, I am very near. I become the body in all bodies, and yet I am different from the body."

Swami Muktananda then continues:

"The Blue person gave me some advice, and He gave me His blessing. Then, he reduced His form again to the Blue Pearl and entered within me."

"I realized that this was the supreme unmanifest Being.It is this Being who grants the realization of God with form. This same Blue Being gives one the command to become a Guru. Only one who has been commanded by his own Guru and by this Being can become a Guru."

Baba Muktananda Paramahamsa, Kundalini, The Secret of Life.

* * * * * * *

BINDU here illustrated by Lama Govinda and

We then continue to look at other Innermost Beings, in concentrated forms, such as the Pearl Being in the Sadhana and the Tigle as well.

"And if we speak of the space experience in meditation, we are dealing with an entirely different dimension (in connection with which our familiar 'thrid dimension' only serves as a simile or a starting point). In this space experience - the temporal sequence is converted into a simultaneous co-existence, the side by side existence of things into a state of mutual interpenetration, and this again does not remain static but becomes a living continuum, in which time and space are integrated into that ultimate incommensurable 'point-like' unity, which in Tibetan is called 'thig.le' (Skt: bindu). This word, which has many meanings, like 'point, dot, zero,drop,germ, seed, semen', etc., occupies an important place in the terminology and practice of meditation. It signifies the concentrative starting point in the unfoldment of 'inner space' in meditation, as also the last point of its ultimate integration.It is the point from which inner and outer space have their origin and in which they become one again."

Lama Anagarika Govinda,Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism, p.116.

Kandinsky:

"Natural forms are in reality small bodies in space and their relation with the geometrical abstract point is the same as with the pictorial point. However the whole world may on the other hand considered as a cosmic composition contained in itself which in its own turn consists of an infinite number of independent compositions always contained in themselves and becoming smaller and smaller. In the last analysis all have originated as points, and it is to the point in its geometrical essence that everything returns.These compositions are complexes of geometrical points suspended in geometrical infinity in various regular features. The smallest self-enclosed forms are completely centrifugal figures and appear to the naked eye as points that have an apparent inter0relation. Many seeds appear to us like this. When we open the beautiful, highly polished ivory-white capsule containing the seeds of the poppy (it fact it resembles a large spherical point) we discover masses of cold blue-grey points, regulated by the laws of physics to form an orderly composition, containing a latent silent generating power just like a pictorial point. Often in nature these forms take life by separating and making an advance on the primordial form of geometric space. If the desert is a sea of sand consisting entirely of points, the capacity from one palne to another is terrifying. Thus in nature too the point is well-contained and full of possibilities."

Point and Line to Plane, Kandinsky, pp. 36-37.

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p.39 original (or 85)

YOGA ART, Plate 1:

"The expanding universe. The central point (bindu) representing ZERO dimension is the fundamental point of repose from which emerges transformation and evolution. It signifies the starting point in the unfolding of inner space, as well as the furthest point of ultimate integration. It is the point-limit from which inner and outer space take their origin, and in which they become one again."

Rajasthan.18th Century.

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YOGA ART, Plate 7.

"Bindu, the ultimate point of power beyond which energy cannot be contracted or condensed. It is at the same time the nucleus of matter (JARA), and the nucelus of radiant consciousness (Chaitanya). Bindu contains within itself the negative and positive, zero and infinity. The bindu therefore signifies the equilibrium of all polarities, subject and object, beginning and end, within and without, male and female.:

Gujerat. 15th Century. Ink on paper.

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Unlike the visualization of the deity in representational form - Sri Yantra is a non-representational, geometric form. This is available through a visual literature, transmitted by initiates as a gateway to the levels of inner experience, which are 'milked' through contemplation of the Yantra. It must always be remembered that this operation is within the larger field of psycho-spiritual experiential operations known as 'sadhana'. As Ajit Mookerjee writes:

"The diagrams represent successive stages of visual realization. Read in the order shown they illustrate the process of expanding creation, from the centre dot and first downward pointing triangle at the centre to the outermost ring of lotus petals."

"Read in the reverse order they symbolize the yogic process of withdrawal and focus of the power expended in creation and return to the One. Each circuit of triangles is generated by interlocking male (upward pointing) and female (downward pointing triangles."

As in all organic processes, here we have to pay careful attention to the sequence. The dot in the centre of the yantra expands into ful geometrical form - like the bindu transforming into the Deity. The reverse process is also identical in visualization. The outer form of the deity is condensed into the inner, most nucelar form, which is the BINDU (Dot) in visual terms, and the Bija (seed-syllable) in audio, sound form.These are compact, condensed - nucelar storage centres.

"Every divine form possesses a bija mantra or nuclear syllable. Even in its form as the smallest sound unit, the bija remains a microcosm and thus may represent the essential form of the divinity."

Mookerjee.

"The most essential and the most emphasized of all kabbalistical doctrines is expressed in translations of the Jewish work (The Zohar) as:

"Quod Superius, Quod Inferius", which means, that which is above is as that which is below, the Macroposopus, the universal man, is to be understood by a study of the Microposopus, the finite man. God is related to the body of man. Consequently, we find Deity commonly refered to as The Ancient One, The Vast Countenance, Illimitable One, The Concealed of The Concelaed, Adam Kadmon, etc."

C.C. Zain.

The Cosmic Web: Interconnectness, holism. Perhaps the relationship of the 'ego' to the body/mind of man, may be the same as the Bindu.

See Capra, F. The Tao of Physics, p. 143

After the visualization is generated, firstly the Deity and then the seed syllable is telescoped into the nucelar dot, which then dissolves into space - this is an analogical process to the manner in which the brain codifies information into storgae systems - a software meta-process designed to take up minimum space. A programmatic similarity to the world of cybernetics. Micro-storgae etc.

There is in current literature no greater description that that which follows by Mookerjee:

Note: The expansion/contraction is not only linear, or horizontal-vertical, but more spiral, and I think, could also evolve and involve, steroscopically. See: Vajra symbol as thought out by Govinda, also the process-sequence of the Gyalwa Rig Ya.

SCINTILLA

From: - Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis, p. 56

"...is associated with the doctrine of the Anthropos: "The Son of the Great World... is filled, animated and impregnated...with a fiery spark of Ruach Elohim, the spirit, breath, wind or blowing of the triune God, from...the Body, Spirit, and Soul of the World, or ...Sulphur and Salt, Mercury and the universal fiery spark of the light of nature." The "fiery sparks of the World Soul" were already in the chaos, the prima materia, at the beginning of the world. Khunrath rises to Gnostic heights when he exclaims: "And our Catholick Mercury, by virtue of his fiery spark of the light of nature, is beyond doubt Proteus, the sea god of the ancient pagan sages, who hath the key to the sea and...power over all things: son of Oceanos and Tethys." Many centuries lie between Monoimos and Khunrath. The teachings of Monoimos were completely unknown in the Middle Ages, and yet Khunrath hit upon very similar thought which can hardly be ascribed to tradition."

In his Hieroglyphics, Horapollo writes:

"...the monad is the source of all number."

Boas comments on the Monad in his notes:

"That the monad is the source of all number is of course a commonplace of Greek thought, but there is a passage in the Hermetica which dwells upon it and which may be worth referring to here as a Greco-Egyptian source of the notion. See Stobaeus,I,10 (306), ed.Meineke,p.81, where the monad is described as the arche and root of all things, containing all numbers and contained by none, generating all other numbers and generated by itself alone."