The Presumption of Matter
Physicists say that matter is a perturbation of the field. It is not that things vibrate; it is more accurate to say that vibrations condense into the appearance of things.
So if matter is a derivative form, why do we act as though we presume matter to be a primary reality? If this presumption is untrue, why does it linger in the age of science? There must be an evolutionary advantage to adopting the concept of substantial matter. Maybe two.
For starters, the reason that we make models, the reason that we think at all, is so that we can understand and predict reality. In order to improve our models, we have to come up with new thoughts, which by definition are different than known truth. Therefore most of these new thoughts will be wrong, because we are exploring unknown territory.
The advantage of thinking, is that we can hold our thought-models up to the light of reality instead of throwing our bodies at it. Thereby, we allow our insufficient models to die, instead of our selves. In this fashion we constantly re-iterate our understanding.
OK, so model-making is good. Why the model of substantial matter? Our model of the world is like a sustained afterimage, against which we can compare new inputs. This saves buckets of processing power because we only need pay attention to the new. Much like frog vision, we really only see movement or change, clearly and in real-time.
So our sense of material substantiality arises directly from our use of the afterimage as a placeholder for that which we have previously viewed.
In general, this tactic is a good adaptation for operating within the bounds of space-time, but sometimes we need a finer filter, a more subtle model, to deal with more subtle questions. So let's look at how our mind constructs the valuable illusion of physicality, and then we can see how to step outside of it.
The Chi Pump: Geometry as Living Principle
From the Cosmological Foundation
The organizing image at the heart of all energy work is the oscillation between contraction and expansion. The Star of David, the Seal of Solomon, the Merkaba — these are not abstract symbols. They are the blueprints of how chi moves through a body.
Contraction into noun-ness: full localization of self, the downward-pointing triangle, the descent into matter, into form, into the particular. This is the principle of manifestation, of bringing the infinite into finite expression.
Expansion into verb-ness: dissolution into wholeness, the upward-pointing triangle, the ascent into spirit, into movement, into the universal. This is the principle of transcendence, of carrying the particular back into the infinite.
The oscillation between these two is not a problem to be solved. It is not a mistake. It is the fundamental motion of life itself. The chi pump. The heart beating. The in-breath and out-breath. The contraction and expansion that keeps us alive.
Where we go wrong is in believing that one is superior to the other. We are taught to escape the particular, to transcend the body, to leave behind the noun and become only the verb. But this is a false dichotomy. The verb needs the noun to move through. The light needs matter to shine upon. The sacred needs a body to inhabit.
Embodying Li Through Qi Into Xiang
The goal is not to return to Tao. If Tao is the origin, the primal be-ing, all forms must be embedded within its wholeness. Where else could there be, for forms to arise, other than within being?
The goal should be to clearly embody Li through Qi, into Xiang.
Li is principle, the primal pattern, the organizing geometry. Qi is the life force, the animating energy, the movement through the pattern. Xiang is the manifestation, the visible form, the local expression of the infinite principle.
Not by doing, and not by detachment; but by non-attachment while acting. Let that which is still, be still; let that which acts, act. Un-doing attachment is not something that we do. The nature of Li is not void, but fullness. When we cease acting with attachment, we cease resisting the natural current from Li to Xiang. Now we allow it to clarify our cup by its eternal overabundant flow.
This is the practice: to become a clear vessel through which the sacred geometry can move into the world without obstruction, without the distortion that comes from ego's need to control the flow.