Interpreting the Chain of Being From Esoteric Great…

Interpreting the Chain of Being
From Esoteric Great Chain of Being to Postmodern Great Nest of Being
One of the central elements in Ken Wilber’s teaching is the concept of the Great Chain of Being, an unbroken continuum or spectrum of levels of being – or as I would term it an ontological gradation – from God or the Absolute down to matter. Although the Great Chain of Being represents a central element of what Aldous Huxley (following Leibnitz) called the Perennial Philosophy and Huston Smith the Primordial Tradition, it is probably not as universal as is sometimes claimed. This concept is found in sophisticated form in Middle and Neoplatonism and Gnosticism in the late Classical World. From Neoplatonism it spread to Christianity and the Islamic world, and it was also assimilated into Kabbalah. In India it plays a big part in Kashmir Shaivism and other traditions, although it is never as widespread as it is in the West, due to a preponderance of Monism. In Taoism it appears in only undeveloped form. In the philosophical and naturalistic West it reaches a culmination in the 18th through to early 19th century continental philosophers (especially evolutionary schools of German Idealism and Nature Philosophy), and was never as strongly developed in the East. In the late 19th and 20th century it was revived by Theosophy and Hermeticism (Theon, Golden Dawn, etc), and in India in the teachings of Sri Aurobindo. Theosophical versions are influential in aspects of the New Age movement……………………..

Before you speak Let your words pass through…

Before you speak,
Let your words pass through three gates.
At the first gate ask yourself is it true?
At the second ask is it necessary?
At the third ask is it kind?

-Sufi saying – See more at: http://www.dailyevolver.com/#sthash.jUY3EBW6.dpuf