Heaven's Fractal Net: Retrieving Lost Visions in the Humanities, Volume 1Indiana University Press, 2004 - 311 pages "Fractal" is a term coined by mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot to denote the geometry of nature, which traces inherent order in chaotic shapes and processes. Fractal concepts are part of our emerging vocabulary and can be useful in identifying patterns of human behavior, culture, and history, while enhancing our understanding of the nature of consciousness. According to William J. Jackson, the more one studies fractals, the more apparent their connections to the humanities become. In the recursive patterns of religious music, in temple architecture in India, in cathedral structures in Europe and America, in the imagery of religious literature depicting infinity and abundance, and in poetic descriptions of the nature of consciousness, fractal-like configurations are pervasive. Recognition of this structure, which is also found in social organizations and ritual symbolism, requires only that one develop "an eye for fractals" by studying the work of researchers and observing nature. One then begins to see that the separation of humanities and science is convenient oversimplification, not an ultimate fact. Includes a DVD of animated fractals. |
Contents
Introductory Reflections Little Alps and Big Alps Again and Again | 1 |
Standing Back and Learning Lessons from Fractal Beauty and Fractal Unity | 8 |
Strand One The Weave of the | 19 |
Nets Work | 27 |
Envisioning Heavens and Hells | 39 |
Tamil Correspondences Levels and the Thread of Unity | 46 |
Water as an Embodiment of Cosmic Possibilities | 54 |
Strand Two Shipshape Earth and Other Fractal Holding Patterns | 60 |
175 E O Wilsons Mammal Genes and Mammal Society | 175 |
Evolution as Mental Process 180 Bateson and Systems Theory Chaos and Paradox | 180 |
Evidences of Mind in Matter | 184 |
Nature and Culture in the Relations of Humanity and Land | 189 |
Descartes Encounters Chaos and Backs | 194 |
What Way of Culture Shall We Iterate? | 200 |
Child of Oneness 205 Child All Awe and | 205 |
Child of Wonder Oneness | 210 |
Examples of Fractals and Related Patterns in the Literatures of Spirituality | 72 |
SelfSimilarity in Structures of Ancient Religious Systems | 86 |
Hinduism and the Following of Divine Patterns | 92 |
The Madness of Art and Arts Rational Strength | 113 |
Child Creativity Wholeness Echoes of | 119 |
Wave upon Wave of Catchable Energies | 126 |
The Way of Art as Opening and Paradox | 128 |
Sensitivity to Resonating Nuances and Chunks | 132 |
Drawn by the Updraft Taking Risks Involved in Love | 134 |
Fractals in Literature 138 Philosophers and Poets on the Signs of Mind in the Cosmos | 138 |
8 | 140 |
148 A Mystics FractalLike Paradisal Reflections | 148 |
152 Other Mystic Poets of Cosmic Sensibility | 152 |
Notes on Fractal Sensibilities in Various Stories and Verses | 158 |
NatureCulture Fractal 167 Wholeness Overlappings of Nature and Cultural Traditions 167 Discovery and Invention Inspiration and Cultivation | 167 |
13 | 170 |
Dreams of Reason in the Furnace of Concealed Flame | 173 |
Hidden in the Layers of Scale from DNA to Stretchmark Galaxies | 215 |
Interweaving Strands | 218 |
Pao | 219 |
VedicUpanishadic Vision See and Become the One Consciousness | 220 |
Listen to the One God One and Only Only Reality | 222 |
Ascending to the Ones Presence 224 Living an Inspired Dance around the | 224 |
The Wholeness of Nature Meanings SelfRevelation | 225 |
Fractal Process Structures | 227 |
Envoy to the Envoy | 236 |
Conclusion Unfoldings without a Finale 241 Something Fractal This Way Comes Why Are There Fractals in Culture? | 241 |
Nothing New and All Things New | 247 |
The Proof of the Principle Is in the Practice | 253 |
Notes | 259 |
21 | 260 |
41 | 266 |
305 | |
Other editions - View all
Heaven's Fractal Net: Retrieving Lost Visions in the Humanities William J. Jackson Limited preview - 2022 |
Heaven's Fractal Net: Retrieving Lost Visions in the Humanities William J. Jackson No preview available - 2022 |
Common terms and phrases
References to this book
Arbeit am Symbol: Bausteine zu einer Theorie religiƶser Erkenntnis im ... Birgit Luscher Limited preview - 2008 |