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'''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.
'''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 [[Theosophy|Theosophical]] literature, besides the motion know by science there is another kind which is absolute:
In Theosophical literature "motion" is seen as one of the fundamental principles in the universe.
 
<blockquote>[I]t is motion that governs the laws of nature; and that it governs them as the mechanical impulse given to running water which will propel them either in a direct line or along hundreds of side furrows they may happen to meet on their way and whether those furrows are natural grooves or channels prepared artificially by the hand of man.<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 90 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 280-281.</ref></blockquote>
 
In [[Theosophy|Theosophical]] literature, the relative motion known by science is a manifestation of the "intracosmic" one:


<blockquote>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.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'' vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 3.</ref></blockquote>
<blockquote>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.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'' vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 3.</ref></blockquote>
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== Absolute abstract motion ==
== Absolute abstract motion ==
<blockquote>Its [the One Life's] one absolute attribute, which is ITSELF, eternal, ceaseless Motion, is called in esoteric parlance the “[[Great Breath]],” which is the perpetual motion of the universe, in the sense of limitless, ever-present SPACE. That which is motionless cannot be Divine.  But then there is nothing in fact and reality absolutely motionless within the universal soul.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'' vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 2.</ref></blockquote>


In the [[Three Fundamental Propositions#First Fundamental Proposition|First Fundamental Proposition]] of the [[The Secret Doctrine (book)|''The Secret Doctrine'']], [[Helena Petrovna Blavatsky|Mme. Blavatsky]] stated that the Absolute abstract motion is one of the aspects of the [[Absolute]] or [[Be-ness]]:
In the [[Three Fundamental Propositions#First Fundamental Proposition|First Fundamental Proposition]] of the [[The Secret Doctrine (book)|''The Secret Doctrine'']], [[Helena Petrovna Blavatsky|Mme. Blavatsky]] stated that the Absolute abstract motion is one of the aspects of the [[Absolute]] or [[Be-ness]]:

Revision as of 19:05, 22 April 2013

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 "motion" is seen as one of the fundamental principles in the universe.

[I]t is motion that governs the laws of nature; and that it governs them as the mechanical impulse given to running water which will propel them either in a direct line or along hundreds of side furrows they may happen to meet on their way and whether those furrows are natural grooves or channels prepared artificially by the hand of man.[1]

In Theosophical literature, the relative motion known by science is a manifestation of the "intracosmic" one:

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.[2]

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.[3]

When seen as an aspect of the Absolute this principle is called "absolute abstract motion" or "the Great Breath."

Absolute abstract motion

Its [the One Life's] one absolute attribute, which is ITSELF, eternal, ceaseless Motion, is called in esoteric parlance the “Great Breath,” which is the perpetual motion of the universe, in the sense of limitless, ever-present SPACE. That which is motionless cannot be Divine. But then there is nothing in fact and reality absolutely motionless within the universal soul.[4]

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.[5]

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.[6]

According to Mme. Blavatsky, conditioned motion is a fundamental attribute of consciousness, while the absolute abstract motion represents "Unconditioned Consciousness"[7]. However, the manifestation of conditioned motion does not affect its absolute aspect. As Mahatma K.H. wrote:

[T]he universal perpetual motion which never ceases never slackens nor increases its speed not even during the interludes between the pralayas, or "nights of Brahma" but goes on like a mill set in motion, whether it has anything to grind or not (for the pralaya means the temporary loss of every form, but by no means the destruction of cosmic matter which is eternal) — we say this perpetual motion is the only eternal and uncreated Deity we are able to recognise.[8]

Notes

  1. Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 90 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 280-281.
  2. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 3.
  3. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 496.
  4. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 2.
  5. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 14.
  6. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 15.
  7. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 14.
  8. Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 90 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 280.