This is a thought experiment to help understand the principles of manifestation as described in Man and his Becoming by Rene Guenon.

Let’s use the song Over the Rainbow from the movie Wizard of Oz and follow how it is manifested as a song. If you are unfamiliar with it, please listen to it first. Keep in mind that the song is a creation of human mind, but it still serves to illustrate the point.

Divine intellect or Buddhi

As an idea in the Divine Intellect, our song remains a possibility of manifestation. How that possibility becomes an actuality is outlined below.

Formless Manifestation

As part of the Buddhi, the song belongs to the realm of formless manifestation. We can talk about the song and there is mutual understanding. However, it is formless. Specifically, we don’t visualize it at this level; there is only intellectual knowledge.

As formless, it is not individuated. There are not multiple copies of the song in the Intellect. There is just the one, otherwise there is no intelligibility.

Spaceless

You cannot specify where the song is. There is no geography, no GPS coordinates, not even a “heaven” of ideas.

Timeless

Our song is timeless. We can mention the song today and it will be the same song as it was in 1939. It does not deteriorate over time. The notes don’t start fading away. The words are not jumbled.

Summary

Our song is One and beyond space and time. It has Being but no Existence. Nevertheless, we can “know” it, provided we have been initiated into recognizing the song.

Divine Soul or Manas

This is the realm of the inward senses. These senses are “incorporeal and outwardly imperceptible”. They  “receive their finite expression in the particular conditions of individual existence prevailing at the level of the human state.”

The senses have their origin not in the corporeal realm but in the incorporeal. This is easily demonstrated by dreams and the imagination. In those conditions, you can experience sensual qualities without any corresponding physical or corporeal objects associated with them.

Thus you can “listen” to the song in your imagination, hum it, or whatever. Most people will just pull it up from their memory. In my case, I will add some cool jazz riffs, knowing that I lack the talent to actually play them on the piano.

Obviously, I cannot “hear” the version of the song in your head, nor you in mine. So the Manas is the beginning of individuation, but not quite.

Excursus on Beethoven. Toward the end of his life, Beethoven went deaf yet he continued to compose. In his Intellect, he could create a symphony, for example, because he knew the structure of a symphony and the laws of harmony.

Moreover, in his Soul, he could “hear” how it would sound. Yet he was unable to experience the symphony as it would be manifested. That brings us to the next stage.

Manifestation

So what does it take to actually listen to our song? Manifestation is bringing something from Being into Existence. What is described below is the basic outline. It may leave out several subsidiary steps such as a descent through different states of being. But that does not change anything essential.

There are five conditions of manifestation:

• Form
• Matter
• Space
• Time
• Psyche

Form or Essence

The form or essence is the song as it is in the Divine Intellect.

Matter or Substance

Matter, in this case, includes the orchestra, the singer, the instruments, the musical score, etc. In short, everything required to make the song available to the senses.

Matter is the “principle of individuation”. Although there is but ONE song, it can be manifested multiple times and in multiple places.

Space

As manifested, the song is heard at a particular place.

Time

Although the idea of the song is beyond time, it must be manifested over time in order to be experienced. Even though the song takes about two minutes, we recognize it as the same, one song over that entire period. Tone deaf people experience disconnected notes and do not recognize the song as a whole.

Psyche

Psyche, or life, means that manifestation has both an inside and an outside. The material aspect is the “outside” bur our conscious, sensuous experience of the song is the “inside”. They are not two different things, nor does the material aspect “create” the experience. Rather, the experience is that of the song itself as it is in the Intellect.

Summary

This descent does not itself take place in time. Time is an aspect of corporeal manifestation in the human state. In a sense, the manifestation and the idea are “simultaneous” so it is a mistake try to understand their relationship sequentially or causally.

For nondual awareness, there is no difference. If you experience the song, you know the idea. That is the idea. However, for divine ideas attaining that level of gnosis is not always as easy as this thought experiment. Nevertheless, whatever happens in the world is the manifestation of some idea in the Divine Intellect.

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Notes:

Picture Credits: Copyright: © Bonnie Taylor Barry

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