Levels as various mixtures of the gunas

Hi, Annie.  Like the name.  It was my mother's name.  Anna Mae actually but Dad used to call her Annie all the time.

I know when I post things like this I open up a lot of inquiry.  That's fine with me but I must warn you that I am still a novice on many levels.  I'll tell you what I know if I can.  Knowledge being such a metaphysical affair to begin with.

According to Vedic literature the gunas comprise all of the manifest world as we know it.  It could be said the embedding of the Supreme Ultimate Oneness is done so within this sub-strate.  The Wilber-Combs lattice structure is a graphic representation of it.  Where it is It is.  There are three gunas.  In Vedic lore they called science Vidya and that science took these three divisions very seriously.  So much so that they referred to it as Tri-Vidya.  When this science came to be known it was known as the Trika.  Better yet the Matrika since it came down to us from the Great Mother.  I am partial to the word Jnana which was the Sanskrit word for Knowledge.  I sincerely believe that it is the root source of the Greek word Gnosis.  This would make since because Sophia was the source of wisdom.

There is a story given in the upanishads about a contest between the deities Agri, Vayus, and Indra.  Agri represents fire, Vayus wind.  Indra more or less represented atmosphere.  He was a storm god.  The contest was to find out which of them could come closest to Brahman.  To make a long story short Indra won and for that was appointed Lord or King of the gods.  The reason he won is due to his coming upon a beautiful Goddess named Uma.  Later known as Shiva's consort.  He asks her who she is and she replies "I am the knowledge of Brahman". 

This is one of my favorite stories.  Indian lore is full of them.  I honestly believe that the myths were in some ways equivalent to the structures that Wilber and associates have devised to put forth the Integral approach.  In Patanjali's Yoga Sutras it is said that Uma can only be inferred, not directly taken in.  In other places it is said that She is so beautiful that the other gods grew extra heads just to get a better look at Her.  Since Indra apparently was able to look upon Her directly he was appointed King of the gods as I have said.  This would imply that he had outgrown the others in heads.  

Now let us return to the gunas.  Also known as strands in the Upanishads and elsewhere.  I like to think of them as the strands of Her hair.  Undoubtedly I think a lot of Her.  She has also been called the Goddess of ignorance and Self-centeredness.  Self centeredness refering to the True Self.  The highest Asmita.  The highest Asmita operates within the realm of Satva.  Bodhisatva.  The lowest realm is understood to be the realm of inertia (Tamas).  You could think of it as the status quo if you like.  In the middle is the realm of action or activity (Rajas).  It can actually move toward the satvic.  Else it can refuse to make a choice ala James; hence it has made a choice.  In such case it can become lethargic and stultzified; which are traits better known to belong to Tamas.  The morass of non-action.  Sargasso sea as far as I am concerned.  The place of Mares.  

I hope this helped.