• From: Megalex
  • Registered: 2005-04-12

Topic: Dr. Franklin Merrell-Wolff

Biographical Sketch of Franklin Merrell-Wolff
Franklin F. Wolff was an American Mystic, Philosopher, and Mathematician who combined an extraordinary intellect with profound mystical insight and authenticity. Born in 1887 in Pasadena, California, he was raised in San Fernando as the son of a Methodist minister. Wolff graduated from Stanford University in 1911 with a major in mathematics and minors in philosophy and psychology. He then went on to Harvard graduate school to study philosophy, where he was particularly influenced by the study of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. As a result of his philosophical studies, Wolff "became convinced of the probable existence of a transcendent mode of consciousness that could not be comprehended within the limits of our ordinary forms of knowledge." Prior to completing his degree at Harvard, he returned to Stanford to teach mathematics. When it became clear to him that he must "reach beyond anything contained within the academic circles of the West" to Realize Transcendental Consciousness, he left his promising career in academia to engage in a spiritual quest. When he married Sarah Merrell, they joined their surnames to symbolize their partnership in a shared spiritual work.

Wolff's twenty years of seeking included deep engagements within the theosophical, Sufi, and Hindu traditions. In the later part of his quest, Wolff was drawn to the philosophical works of the Indian sage Shankara, who founded the Advaita Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy. It was while in deep contemplation of the teachings of Shankara that, in 1936, Wolff's efforts culminated in two Transcendental Realizations which provided the foundation for his philosophy. While the first Realization confirmed the perspective of Shankara's philosophy, the second Realization was unexpected and opened Wolff's philosophical view beyond his understanding of Advaita Vedanta. His books Pathways Through To Space and The Philosophy of Consciousness Without An Object provide a detailed record of Wolff's realizations and a lucid philosophical description of Transcendental Consciousness. Wolff's long life was spent writing, lecturing, teaching, and working the land. He spent his retirement years at the foothills of the eastern Sierra Nevada near Lone Pine, California and died there in 1985 at the age of 98.
from:
http://www.integralscience.org/gsc/

It is of prime importance to recognize that just about everything we've been taught to expect as "normal" in our lives is the stuff of fairy tales and unrealistic dreams.
Theodore Isaac Rubin M.D.
  • From: Megalex
  • Registered: 2005-04-12

Re: Dr. Franklin Merrell-Wolff

Compassion
O Compassion! More than the other loves of men, less than the High Indifference;
Calmly standing by and waiting; years, centuries, millennia;
Taking to Thyself the suffering of all; transforming toward Joy;
With Light restraining Darkness; with good, evil;
Refusing release while others are bound; melting differences;
Accepting impurity, giving purity;
Bound by no law, yet acquiescing in bondage;
Available for all as the light of the sun, yet forced on no man against his will;
Needing nought for Thyself, though giving to all in need;
The Base of all hope for this humanity so low;
Pure Radiance Divine.
Sweet art Thou, unutterably sweet; melting within me all hardness;
Stirring inclusion of the low as the high; the evil as the good; the weak as the strong;
the unclean as the pure; the violent as the considerate; none left out;
Awaking new understanding and patience beyond Time;
Arousing forgetfulness of the petty in the grand sweep of the noble;
Equalizing regard, yet exalting true worth;
Reaching beyond all contradiction.
To Thee I sing, glorious Spirit; grandest God mankind can know.

The Nameless
Above, below, to right, to left, all-encompassing,
Before and after and all between,
Within and without, at once everywhere,
Transforming and stable, ceaselessly;
Uncaused, while fathering all causes,
The Reason behind all reasoning,
Needing nought, yet ever supplying,
The One and Only, sustaining all variety,
The Source of all qualities, possessing no attributes,
Ever continuous, appearing discrete,
Inexpressible, the base of all expression,
Without number, making possible all number,
Containing the lover and the beloved as one,
Doing nought, remaining the Field of all action–
The actor and the action not different–
Indifferent in utter completion;
Diffused through all space, yet in the Point concentrated,
Beyond time, containing all time,
Without bounds, making bounds possible,
Knowing no change;
Inconceivable, yet through It all conceiving becoming;
Nameless ever and unmastered;
THAT am I, and so art Thou.

It is of prime importance to recognize that just about everything we've been taught to expect as "normal" in our lives is the stuff of fairy tales and unrealistic dreams.
Theodore Isaac Rubin M.D.
  • From: Megalex
  • Registered: 2005-04-12

Re: Dr. Franklin Merrell-Wolff

APHORISMS ON CONSCIOUSNESS-WITHOUT-AN-OBJECT

      “¢

   1. Consciousness-without-an-object is.

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   2. Before objects were, Consciousness-without-an-object is.

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   3. Though objects seem to exist, Consciousness-without-an-object is.

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   4. When objects vanish, yet remaining through all unaffected, Consciousness-without-an-object is.

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   5. Outside of Consciousness-without-an-object nothing is.

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   6. Within the bosom of Consciousness-without-an-object lies the power of awareness that projects objects.

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   7. When objects are projected, the power of awareness as subject is presupposed, yet Consciousness-without-an-object remains unchanged.

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   8. When consciousness of objects is born, then, likewise, consciousness of absence of objects arises.

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   9. Consciousness of objects is the Universe.

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  10. Consciousness of absence of objects is Nirvana.

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  11. Within Consciousness-without-an-object lie both the Universe and Nirvana, yet to Consciousness-without-an-object these two are the same.

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  12. Within Consciousness-without-an-object lies the seed of Time.

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  13. When awareness cognizes Time then knowledge of Timelessness is born.

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  14. To be aware of Time is to be aware of the Universe, and to be aware of the Universe is to be aware of Time.

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  15. To realize Timelessness is to attain Nirvana.

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  16. But for Consciousness-without-an-object there is no difference between Time and Timelessness.

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  17. Within Consciousness-without-an-object lies the seed of the world-containing Space.

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  18. When awareness cognizes the world-containing Space then knowledge of the Spatial Void is born.

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  19. To be aware of the world-containing Space is to be aware of the Universe of Objects.

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  20. To realize the Spatial Void is to awaken to Nirvanic Consciousness.

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  21. But for Consciousness-without-an-object there is no difference between the world-containing Space and the Spatial Void.

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  22. Within Consciousness-without-an-object lies the Seed of Law.

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  23. When consciousness of objects is born the Law is invoked as a Force tending ever toward Equilibrium.

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  24. All objects exist as tensions within Consciousness-without-an-object that tend ever to flow into their own complements or others.

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  25. The ultimate effect of the flow of all objects into their complements is mutual cancellation in complete Equilibrium.

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  26. Consciousness of the field of tensions is the Universe.

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  27. Consciousness of Equilibrium is Nirvana.

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  28. But for Consciousness-without-an-object there is neither tension nor Equilibrium.

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  29. The state of tensions is the state of ever-becoming.

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  30. Ever-becoming is endless-dying.

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  31. So the state of consciousness of objects is a state of ever-renewing promises that pass into death at the moment of fulfillment.

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  32. Thus when consciousness is attached to objects the agony of birth and death never ceases.

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  33. In the state of Equilibrium where birth cancels death the deathless Bliss of Nirvana is realized.

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  34. But Consciousness-without-an-object is neither agony nor bliss.

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  35. Out of the Great Void, which is Consciousness-without-an-object, the Universe is creatively projected.

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  36. The Universe as experienced is the created negation that ever resists.

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  37. The creative act is bliss, the resistance, unending pain.

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  38. Endless resistance is the Universe of experience, the agony of crucifixion.

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  39. Ceaseless creativeness is Nirvana, the Bliss beyond human conceiving.

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  40. But for Consciousness-without-an-object there is neither creativeness nor resistance.

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  41. Ever-becoming and ever-ceasing-to-be are endless action.

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  42. When ever-becoming cancels the ever-ceasing-to-be then Rest is realized.

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  43. Ceaseless action is the Universe.

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  44. Unending Rest is Nirvana.

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  45. But Consciousness-without-an-object is neither Action nor Rest.

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  46. When consciousness is attached to objects it is restricted through the forms imposed by the world-containing Space, by Time, and by Law.

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  47. When consciousness is disengaged from objects, Liberation from the forms of the world-containing Space, of Time, and of Law is attained.

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  48. Attachment to objects is consciousness bound within the Universe.

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  49. Liberation from such attachment is the State of unlimited Nirvanic Freedom.

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  50. But Consciousness-without-an-object is neither bondage nor freedom.

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  51. Consciousness-without-an-object may be symbolized by a SPACE that is unaffected by the presence or absence of objects, for which there is neither Time nor Timelessness, neither a world-containing Space nor a Spatial Void, neither Tension nor Equilibrium, neither Resistance nor Creativeness, neither Agony nor Bliss, neither Action nor Rest, and neither Restriction nor Freedom.

      “¢

  52. As the GREAT SPACE is not to be identified with the Universe, so neither is It to be identified with any Self.

It is of prime importance to recognize that just about everything we've been taught to expect as "normal" in our lives is the stuff of fairy tales and unrealistic dreams.
Theodore Isaac Rubin M.D.

4 Reply by Sensei (edited by Sensei 2006-12-14 13:01:08)

  • Registered: 2005-11-09

Re: Dr. Franklin Merrell-Wolff

I knew Dr Merrell-Wolff.

I drove 2,000 miles to meet him in the late 70s.

During the conversation in his living room with his wife, on the table between us was a book.

The same one was on my desk at home.

This was the reason for my visit and why I was received.

The book was, Journeys out of Body, By Robert Monroe.

The ones., those kinds of experiences .. that I was having , were destroying  my reality
structure.

I was there to ask  him for information about this.

We had communicated previously concerning some violent out of body experiences.

I swear to you that back then, we actually had to do that sort of thing by US Mail.

He had no answers for me in our meeting , and indeed, as many questions as I.


He offered to allow me to stay on his beautiful property for the night, but I chose to stay in town.

He actually sent someone to check on my wellbeing that evening.

We communicated occasionally until his death.

His nature was sweet, and his compassion for me was sincere, as I was quite lost at the time.

Shamefully, I have not thought of him in many  years.

Thank you so for the reminder of a wonderful, enlightened man  who befriended me when I was

young, confused and full of questions. 

I am no longer young. I have seen 50 years pass.

I am no longer confused, I see quite clearly now.

..I have few questions these days , and find most workable answers in action, not from  words in a book  or ... on a monitor..

Sensei

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  • Synthesizing Analyst Proclaimed Barbarian
  • Offline
  • From: The Athanor
  • Registered: 2005-01-20

Re: Dr. Franklin Merrell-Wolff

that was BEAUTIFUL you two,  very touching, all above really quite struck me.  from X's gorgeous writings up there (and must comment on another wonderful "poem" he put on that other thread <48 hrs ago i think--really neat) and ur sincerity, Sensei, and the situation u must have been in.  and there was monroe's book on the table.  omg. and to have him understand.  thanks so much for the link and the exchange of u both.

GNOTHI SEAUTON "Know Thyself!"
  • From: Megalex
  • Registered: 2005-04-12

Re: Dr. Franklin Merrell-Wolff

Yes,
thank you both...
Sensei, how wonderful. I did not have a chance to know Dr. Wolff personally, but the feeling i always got from reading his writings is like meeting an old friend, a long lost old friend, it is always very uplifting to me.
X-zen

It is of prime importance to recognize that just about everything we've been taught to expect as "normal" in our lives is the stuff of fairy tales and unrealistic dreams.
Theodore Isaac Rubin M.D.