Motion
Motion, in physics, is a change in position of an object with respect to time. Motion is observed by attaching a frame of reference to a body and measuring its change in position relative to another reference frame.
In Theosophical literature, besides the motion know by science there is another kind which is absolute:
Intra-Cosmic motion is eternal and ceaseless; cosmic motion (the visible, or that which is subject to perception) is finite and periodical. As an eternal abstraction it is the EVER-PRESENT; as a manifestation, it is finite both in the coming direction and the opposite, the two being the alpha and omega of successive reconstructions.[1]
The materialistic notion that because, in physics real or sensible motion is impossible in pure space or vacuum, therefore, the eternal MOTION of and in cosmos (regarded as infinite Space) is a fiction—only shows once more that such words as “pure space,” “pure Being,” “the Absolute,” etc., of Eastern metaphysics have never been understood in the West.[2]
When seen as an aspect of the Absolute this principle is called "absolute abstract motion" or "the Great Breath."
Absolute abstract motion
In the First Fundamental Proposition of the The Secret Doctrine, Mme. Blavatsky stated that the Absolute abstract motion is one of the aspects of the Absolute or Be-ness:
This “Be-ness” is symbolised in the Secret Doctrine under two aspects. On the one hand, absolute abstract Space, representing bare subjectivity, the one thing which no human mind can either exclude from any conception, or conceive of by itself. On the other, absolute Abstract Motion representing Unconditioned Consciousness.[3]
The Absolute abstract motion is also known as the Great Breath. At the beginning of the process of manifestation "the great Breath assumes the character of precosmic Ideation." The latter--
. . . is the fons et origo of force and of all individual consciousness, and supplies the guiding intelligence in the vast scheme of cosmic Evolution.[4]
According to Mme. Blavatsky, conditioned motion is a fundamental attribute of consciousness, while the absolute abstract motion represents "Unconditioned Consciousness"[5].
Notes
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 3.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 496.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 14.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 15.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 14.