a center for
personal and planetary
awakening

Mystic River Yoga
196 Boston Avenue
Suite 3900
Medford, MA 02155

781 396 0808
info@MysticRiverYoga.com

Introduction

12 Principles of Awakening

Spiritual Foundation

Scientific Foundation

Embodying the Practice

Collective Awakening

                  Collective Awakening

       The unfolding and enfolding of forms

             in the world of time and space

  As a cycle of creation begins, energy/matter emerges out of the formless and begins to complexify. Embedded in this unfolding are the fundamental forces and potential structures that will shape the emerging forms and help determine their evolutionary journey. From our 21st century perspective, we can examine this emergence in terms of energy, energetic systems and energy fields. Matter, as we will see is actually a gross (condensed) form of energy.

   The forms and structures of the universe can be seen as arising from a series of nested relationships (fields) involving the 4 fundamental interactions: gravity, electro-magnetism, weak nuclear and the strong nuclear. These interactions are defined in terms of the types of matter (particles) affected, the strength of the interaction, and the distances over which the interactions can be felt. For our studies and explorations, gravity and electro-magnetism are all we will need, but it is useful to at least have a glimpse of the big picture with all of the interactions

  Gravity involves all matter and energy, acts over the largest distances, and affects the macro-phase (large scale) structures of the universe including galaxies, stars, planetary orbits, as well as the resistance (weight) we all feel in our bodies while on the earth. Amazingly enough, it is by far the weakest of the interactions on a particle to particle basis, and noticable only when massive numbers of particles are involved.

   The electro-magnetic interactions involve electrically charged particles (mostly electrons and protons), are relatively long range and strong phenomena and and thus give shape to what we might call the middle layer of reality. Essentially all phenomena of our modern every day experience, including biology, chemistry, electricity and all other radio/computer/telecommunications events, rainbows and and all of our visual experiences can be explained using electromagnetism.  

   The strong and weak nuclear interactions opperate at infinitesimal distances, inside the nucleus of atoms. The strong nuclear tightly binds the nucleons (protons and neutrons) together inspite of the tremendous electromagnetic repulsion experienced by the positively charged protons relative to each other. It allows the gradual build up of the elements of the periodic table in the on-going complexification of the atomic forms. 

  The weak nuclear (weak only relative to the strong nuclear- it is still much stronger than gravity and e/m) affects some types of nuclear decay as unstable nuclei can change forms.

To furhter help our understanding of the unfolding of the universe in all of its forms and complexity, a brief primer on systems theory will be helpful. 

Systems theory emerges out of a multidisciplinary exploration of the dynamics of complex entities, seeking to find common denominators across a wide array of fields and disciplines. Evolutionary dynamics, state changes, information flows and envoronmental exchanges are among many of the areas of enquiry and in many ways can be considered the "study of the inter-relatedness of everything".

It has primarily been a reaction to or break from the classical reductionist world view that came to dominate science in the 19th and 20th centuries. It moves from examining parts to the relationships among parts, recognizing the dynamic, constantly changing processes of exchanging energy and information that underlie complex collections of forms, be they stars in a galaxie, weather systems on the planet Jupiter, or life forms in a tidal pool.

Our interests lie in how the human nervous self-organizes in relationship to its surroundings, both in its early developmental stages of infancy and childhood, and then in the adult years where the physical structures have "matured", but other dimensions of the nervous system are available for deeper developmental unfolding and increasing complexification. The implications that arise can greatly influence our understanding of spiritual awakening and maturing.

  All cultures have a 'Creation Story' that articulates this process and orients the members of that culture to their world. At the beginning of the 21st century, our creation story is the story of modern cosmology, beginning with "The Great Flaring Forth" (also known as the Big Bang", a very 20th century term!) some 14 billion years ago.