“The essence of unconsciousness is … identification with form.”
The concept of field and form is challenging, so we begin with a description from Edgar Cayce. “It [energy] was a power sent out from God [field], a primary ray, as man thinks of it, which by changing the length of its wave and the rate of its vibration became a pattern of differing forms, substance and movement. This created the law of diversity which supplied endless designs for the pattern [form].”[i]
The Old Testament Christian Bible (Genesis 1:1) says “In the beginning, God [field] created the heavens and the earth [form].” Field is “God” energy, within us, around us and through every fiber of our being, and therefore in all of Creation. Field is synonymous with Paradigm-A, the Absolute, the True Self. Field or “God” energy is unchanging, Infinite, unlimited. And “there is no difference between the energy that shapes your ideas and the energy that grows a flower, or that heals your finger if you burn it.”[ii]
Form is everything else. It is synonymous with Paradigm-B, the relative, and the false self. It is the material world revealed by our senses, ever changing, and limited. It is an “illusion,” like a mirage in the desert that “seems” very, very real.
We have been led to believe that the material world (form) will bring us happiness, security and peace of mind. Does it? You may own a home, a car and have a six-figure income, etc., but all of that is impermanent, which means it can be “lost” in the blink of an eye. Yet we have placed our trust in this material world.
This book answers the important question facing us—how do we transcend the world of form? Professor and author Arnold J. Toynbee points out that our problems will not be resolved by a return to “the good old days” or a promise of an “ideal future.” He says: “Only birth conquers death—the birth, not of the old thing again, but of something new. … The first step, detachment or withdrawal, consists in a radical transfer of emphasis from the external [form] to the internal [field] … a retreat from the desperation of the waste land [form] to the peace of the everlasting realm [field] that is within.”[iii]
Insight # 16 comes to us from Eckhart Tolle (b. 1948), a spiritual teacher and author. In 2008 The New York Times called Tolle “The most popular spiritual author in the U.S.”
“The more unconscious you are, the more you are identified with form. The essence of unconsciousness is this: identification with form, whether it is an external form (a situation, place, event or experience), a thought form or an emotion. The more attached to form, the more unsurrendered you are, and the more extreme, violent or harsh your experience of the polarities becomes.”[iv]
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Additional Reading:
- Field and Form, The ABC’s of Simple Reality, Vol 1
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[i] Sugrue, Thomas. There is a River. New York: Holt, 1942, p. 361.
[ii] Roberts, Jane. The Nature of Personal Reality. New York: Bantam, 1974, p. 124.
[iii] Campbell, Joseph. Hero With a Thousand Faces. New York: Bollingen Foundation, Inc., 1949, pp. 16-17.
[iv] Tolle, Eckhart. https:/www.eckharttolle.com/article/Relationships-true-love-and-the-transcendence-of-duality
