 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
A Transcendental Vitruvian
Djibouti, April 12, 2012
Salaroche
While taking my nightly after-dinner walk last night, it occurred to me that there was something missing in Leonardo da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man”. As we all know, that drawing represents the alleged perfection of proportions existing in the human body.
According to architect Vitruvius (80-70 BC – 15 AD) such proportions were the essential source of proportions in the Classical order of Architecture and da Vinci honoured such proposition a few centuries later in his immortal drawing.
The Vitruvian Man refers specifically to human physical form. Last night, however, it seemed to me not entirely adroit to try to represent human perfection, whatever it may be, focusing purely on its physical aspects.
Under this writer’s eyes, the true perfection of which all of us should dare to feel proud about is our spiritual perfection. In my eyes, our spiritual essence is eternal and indestructible. Our spiritual essence doesn’t have any beginning just as it will never have an end. In a few words, our spiritual essence is perfect, since it doesn’t have any limits or characteristics. Our spiritual essence simply IS.
But in the Vitruvian Man drawing we don’t see any reference to the spiritual essence that we’re talking about, which is the reason that this morning I sat for a while before my computer, grabbed da Vinci’s drawing, added a Universe background to it, changed a few things here and there, added some others, and produced the montage included here-below.
As you may see, I overimposed the shape of the Ankh over the Vitruvian Man exactly on the area of the body where it corresponds. The Ankh of the Egyptians is the same Atman mentioned in Yoga literature and it has its equivalent in Christian lore in the idea of the “Soul”. The Ankh/Atman is also known as “The Breath of Life”, since it is the source of consciousness that animates all our organs and mental faculties.
The Atman is also the “entity” that migrates from one body to another according to the state of evolution of its external, thickest sheaths, which are the ones that keep us trapped within the cycle of reincarnation. That cycle, of course, can be broken from the moment that we Realize what our true identity is, in other words, from the moment we gain full consciousness that we’re not any of our Earthly attributes, but that we are now, as much as we have always been, the Atman itself, who in turn is nothing but Pure and Eternal Universal Consciousness.
Please note that, in this context, the term “Realize” doesn’t pertain to any imaginary or intellectual conception of the idea mentioned above, but to the act of actually BEING the Atman itself.
As you may see in the montage, the atman can be said to consist of three parts: 1) The oval-like superior part that covers the Vitruvian’s head, 2) Two extensions that go from the center of the thorax toward its extremes and, 3) A stem that goes all the way to the coccids.
The superior part corresponds to what has been erroneously conceived as “the aura” of people and the stem corresponds to what is partially misconceived as the “Kundalini”. The lateral extensions are the “two arms of consciousness” (to name them so) that 1) illumine the heart and, 2) denote the center whence springs the Universal Consciousness that illumines our individual existence.
All those theories pertaining to the Chakras have no doubt plenty of validity, but we would have to clarify that those alleged 7 centers of energy don’t affect the Atman in any way and that controlling them serves mostly to lead a more harmonious life freer of emotional and mental ups and downs. All that is perfectly OK, but, under the view of Jnana Yoga and Buddhism, in the long run what matters isn’t the search for wellbeing in this world, but to get a one-way ticket when we finally migrate to the next, so that we won’t have to come back to this one ever again.
Please also note that the shape that the Atman has in the montage in question isn’t permanent. The Atman adopts that form as part of the limitations it is subjected to when illumining our individual bodies and minds The Atman itself doesn’t have any shape, characteristics, or limits of any kind. The Atman is just Pure and Eternal Universal Consciousness.
Some of the things mentioned here may well be subject to debate and discussion and everyone is free to have their own perceptions about them. This writer, for one, has his own already properly established.
Salaroche
