Meru Foundation eTORUS(tm) Newsletter
Number 12 – 21 July 2002
Copyright 2002 Meru Foundation
Written by Cynthia Tenen
NEWS
First I want to thank everyone on this list for your continued interest in
Meru Foundation's work, and for your patience. This is our first eTORUS since November 2001. Like many other people and projects, our lives
and work have been affected both by the events of September 11 and the resulting
economic downturn here in the United States, and the continuing violence in
the Middle East, which is wearing both emotionally and spiritually for a
great many people.
One of the impulses which led Stan to begin this work was a desire to
respond to violence by posing new ideas, which offer more fruitful ways of
viewing the situations in which violence arises. Last November, we
posted a very early version of our vision for a World Peace Plaza, incorporating
a "gesture-garden" with the Hebrew alphabet-gestures included among other
traditional, sacred gestures and dance. While the Peace Plaza was originally
inspired by the "ground zero" site in New York, it is appropriate for
any world city.
We now have a slightly more polished version of this piece in PDF format,
posted at www.meru.org/ArchProp/ArchProp.html.
We have added a new poster, titled The Light in the Meeting Tent -- Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam in Jerusalem. (This poster is also online
at www.meru.org/Posters/JCI.html.
It presents a visual model for viewing the main cultural "players" in the
Middle East -- the three Abrahamic faiths -- as dynamic, individual, interrelating
elements of a single unified system. An earlier essay, The Three
Pillars of Love at www.meru.org/Newsletter/3pillarsoflove.html describes some aspects of this three-part unity. The new poster illustrates
the dynamics visually, and is a "companion piece" both for the Three Pillars
of Love, and for the Architectural Proposal.
Please take another look at the Architectural Proposal, the Three
Pillars of Love, and the new Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in Jerusalem poster. Let us know what you think.
NEW EASY LINKS TO CODY'S BOOKS from MERU'S READING
LIST
In December 2001, Meru Foundation announced that we had formed an associates
relationship with Cody's Books, one of the West Coast's largest independent
booksellers. Cody's is a Berkeley, California "institution," with a
long history of community involvement in this unique and colorful city.
They are also independently owned (unlike the mega-retailers), and responsive
to their customers' needs.
As an associate of Cody's, Meru Foundation receives a percentage of every
sale resulting from our referral. Now, we have keyed the Meru Foundation
Reading list directly to the Order pages at Cody's Books. Clicking
on the link below each book will take you directly to that book's description
at Cody's, and automatically notes that you arrived through one of Meru Foundation's
websites. You can order your book -- and then, if you like, shop the
rest of the Cody's Books online website. Meru Foundation
will receive a percentage of each book you order on that visit to Cody's
(whether it's on our reading list or not).
This is an easy way to find and order books that will help you understand
the Meru material -- nearly every book on our reading list is available through
Cody's, either in stock or by special order (except, of course, for those
which are out of print). And if you have questions regarding a particular
book, Cody's also offers individualized customer service. Ira Steingroot,
manager of Cody's Educational Sales and expert on Judaica, and a member of
Meru's Advisory Board, will answer questions and make book recommendations
in Judaica (and other subjects) for Meru Foundation customers. To contact
Ira Steingroot, send email to ira@codysbooks.com.
We will be adding new books to our online reading list, now that the "direct-link"
ordering mechanism from Cody's is in place.
You can reach the Meru Foundation reading list in two locations:
www.meru.org/readlist.html and
www.meetingtent.com/merureadinglist.html
POSTER and POEM: The 22-Letter Alphabet
Continuing the theme from the last issue of eTORUS, we have another
example of "accidental poetry" that results from examining aspects of this
work. We've recently added a new poster to the Meru website: Twenty-Two Turns - From the Absolute to Adam Kadmon. This poster
"decants" the alphabet, letter by letter, in an attempt to sensibly express
the process of moving from one letter-meaning (one feeling) to the
next. This poster can be found at www.meru.org/Posters/AdamKadmon.html.
NEW ARTICLE PUBLISHED
I am pleased to announce that Stan Tenen's article, The Shape of Information:
How to Talk to an Extra-Terrestrial, has now been published in Volume
3, Number 2 of the Noetic Journal. Readers may remember an early
version of the abstract for this piece, published in eTORUS Number 7.
The complete article is now available on the Meru website at www.meru.org/Noetic/ShapeofInfo2002.html.
A Journal-reprint version of this article is available in PDF format at www.meru.org/Noetic/ShapeofInfo.html.
You may purchase the complete issue of the Noetic Journal directly
from Meru Foundation's secure-server website, www.meetingtent.com, in both print
and CD-ROM format. (The Noetic Press compendium book, Science
and the Primacy of Consciousness, is also available through www.meetingtent.com. Below is
the Abstract.
Abstract
Whether or not there actually are extra-terrestrials, it is worth considering
what it would take to communicate with self-aware beings from thousands of
light-years away in space, because this may shed light on how we can understand
formal records (sometimes called "sacred") left for us by human civilizations
thousands of (earth) years away in our own past. For this reason we
ask: What if ancient, traditional, "sacred" numbers, letters, and symbols
were, somehow, exactly what they meant? This claim of intrinsic natural
universal meaning is, after all, one of the claims generally made.
Usually these claims are easily dismissed, or they are reduced to the trivial
by interpretations that explain them away as vestiges of numerology, gematria,
and mythological meaning. This essay attempts to outline an alternative
view. We find that the natural geometry of the cosmological, quantum-mechanical,
and personal information gradients of all information systems follows the
same topology, and can take the same geometric form. At the quantum-mechanical
level, we find the twice-around orbit of the Dirac String Trick gives us
a pair of spiral vortices, and Arthur M. Young's 3-turn torus-hypersphere
model of the photon-which he relates to the quantum of personal choice-gives
us a similar set of spiral vortices. At the cosmological level, the
negentropic star-plant-planet information-gradient described by Roger Penrose
takes the same form. And at the personal level, our human hands, which
are the form(s) we use to project our choices into the world, can also be
idealized by the same spiral vortex form(s). In all three cases, cosmologically
"as above," quantum-mechanically "so below," and in the middle on the "earth
plane" where we live, we find the negentropic information gradient takes
the same form-and this form shows up throughout ancient symbolism and at
the root of the three great "sacred alphabets" in the Western traditions.
BOOK REVIEW: Constantine's Sword
I recently finished a book that I highly recommend: Constantine's Sword, by James Carroll. A former priest, Carroll
wrote this in-depth history of Catholicism's relationship with Judaism and
the Jewish people because he wanted to uncover the origins of European anti-Semitism
in church doctrine and practice. And also, Carroll wants to present
his readers with turning-points in history where, if Catholicism had chosen
the "road not taken," a different history -- with far less human suffering
-- might have occurred.
In this well-researched book, Carroll walks us from 30 CE Jerusalem through
medieval Europe to the present day, alternating with the growth, over twenty
years, of his own personal awareness of anti-Semitism buried in the Catholicism
he grew up with and loved. Carroll consistently reminds his readers
that independent Jewish life and thought has existed alongside mainstream
Christian civilization in Europe for two thousand years, owing nothing to
the Church's explanations (different, in different ages) as to why, despite
the triumph of Christianity in Europe, Jews simply refused to disappear.
This book is an education for both Christian and Jewish readers, and by presenting
some basic truths of history, takes a concrete first step towards the self-awareness
required for any meaningful dialogue. Also, Carroll is an excellent
a writer. Even at 600+ pages (plus scholarly notes), I found this book
to be a real page-turner. It's been a long time since I've read a work of
history that I could hardly put down -- or stop thinking about once I was
done. "Constantine's Sword" is a must-read for anyone wanting
new background for understanding some of today's worst world conflicts.
I can't recommend it highly enough.
I hope you enjoy this Meru Foundation eTORUS(tm) Newsletter.
We welcome your feedback; if you have questions, or suggestions, please don't
hesitate to write me at:
Cynthia Tenen <meru@meru.org>
Thank you for your interest in the work of the Meru Foundation.
The Meru Foundation eTORUS(tm) Newsletter is copyright 2002
Meru Foundation.
Past issues of eTORUS(tm) are archived online on the Meru Foundation website
at
<http://www.meru.org/Newsletter/journalindex.html>.
You may duplicate and pass along this newsletter, in its entirety, as long
as you include this copyright notice and the contact information below. Please
send comments and questions to <meru@meru.org>.
Meru Foundation research offices:
Research Director: Stan Tenen Secretary-Treasurer:
Cynthia Tenen
PO Box 503
Sharon, MA 02067 USA
781-784-8902 Voice 253-663-9273 Fax
Email: <meru@meru.org>
Website: <http://www.meru.org>
How to order Meru Foundation Videos and Products:
Visit our secure-server website at <http://www.meetingtent.com>
OR
Fax your order to 1-253-663-9273 OR
Email: <service@meru.org>
To order by phone:
In the U.S., call toll-free: 1-888-422-MERU (Cynthia Tenen, Meru Order
Desk in Massachusetts)
Outside the U.S., call 1-781-784-3462
EUROPEAN AND PAL VIDEO ORDERS:
To order PAL versions of Meru Videotapes:
Email: Ron Engert in Germany at <info@syntropia.de>
German readers may now also visit Ron Engert's Meru website:
<www.meru-info.de>
|