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ALL TEXT COPYRIGHT © 2006 LAWRENCE SHEAFF

Absolute Image Book

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1
Setting the Stage		 CHAPTER 6
Consciousness Itself
as the Subject Matter
of Absolute Image		 CHAPTER 11
. . . And then the Line 		CHAPTER 16
The Easel Painting Arena
and Its Components
CHAPTER 2
Origins		 CHAPTER 7
Historical and
Societal Context		 CHAPTER 12
Complete Fullness,
Infinite Sustainability,
Absolute Autonomy		 CHAPTER 17
Handcrafting
CHAPTER 3
Progression		 CHAPTER 8
Modernism Versus
Post-Modernism		 CHAPTER 13
Mondrian		 CHAPTER 18
Knower-Knowing-Known
CHAPTER 4
Absolute Image		 CHAPTER 9
The Graphic Content
of Absolute Image 		CHAPTER 14
Immortality in Art 		CHAPTER 19
From Individual
Creativity to
Cosmic Creativity
CHAPTER 5
Source of Inspiration		 CHAPTER 10
First the Point . . . 		CHAPTER 15
Infinite Silence /
Infinite Dynamism		 CHAPTER 20
Conclusion

Chapter subheadings

CHAPTER 1

Setting the Stage

  1. Art and the Totality of Natural Law
  2. The History of Art
  3. The Complete Knowledge of Consciousness
  4. Veda: The Total Knowledge of Natural Law
  5. Modern Science
  6. Maharishi Vedic Science and Technology
  7. Consciousness: The Ultimate Reality
  8. Art and the Absolute: Connecting Individual Life with Universal Life
  9. The Cosmic Potential of the Easel Painting Domain
  10. Invitation
  11. What Is Consciousness?
  12. Existence and Consciousness
  13. Existence Is Consciousness
  14. The Absolute in Visual Form
  15. Acknowledgement
  16. The Point Value of Existence Together with the Infinity of Existence
  17. Absolute Image: An Interim Exercise
  18. Global Unity
  19. Art in the Ultimate Perspectier of Ancient Vedic  Science

CHAPTER 2

Origins

  1. The Quest for Absolute Image
  2. The Title
  3. How Did the Paintings Begin?
  4. Absolute Image as an Infinite Series
  5. The Foundation of Our Visual Aesthetic reality
  6. Advocacy
  7. Art and Nature and Absolute Image
  8. Not a Symbol, Not a Metaphor, but the Absolute itself in Visual Form
  9. Absolute image: The Fusion of Abstract Principle and Material Expression
  10. Absolute Image: The Senses, the Intellect, and Cosmic Wholeness Itself
  11. Absolute Image: Beyond the Limitations of Space and Time
  12. Individual Creativity and Cosmic Creativity Are One
  13. The Vedic Technologies of Consciousness
  14. Absolute Order Within and Without

CHAPTER 3

Progression

  1. Beginning Anew
  2. The Painter’s Way of Seeing
  3. The Power of Wholeness
  4. The Outer Value of the Object
  5. From the Outer Value of the Object to the Inner Value of the Object
  6. Perception and the Inner Value of the Object
  7. Deeper Levels of Reality in the Easel-Painting Domain
  8. The Scientific Reality of Inner and Outer Unity: A New Paradigm for Aesthetic Expression
  9. From Figurative Values, to Abstract Values, to Consciousness Itself
  10. Existence Versus Consciousness
  11. The Fullest Voice of Color
  12. Color/Form and Consciousness
  13. Square Grids: Exploring the Nature of Pure Color

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CHAPTER 4

Absolute Image

  1. The Emergence of the Absolute Image Series
  2. The Role of Sketchbook Notation
  3. From Outside-In, to Inside-Out
  4. Personal Versus Impersonal—Individuality Versus Universality
  5. A Balance of Personal and Impersonal Values to Be Spontaneously Maintained In the Artist’s Awareness
  6. Individual Aesthetic Preference Versus Cosmic Wholeness
  7. The Material Structure of the Medium and the Cosmic Value of Wholeness
  8. Could Any Other Artist Create an Absolute Image?
  9. The Foundation or Ground State of Our Visual Aesthetic Reality
  10. Art and Truth
  11. Absolute Image: Its Practical Utility
  12. Absolute Values in the Discipline of Painting

CHAPTER 5

Source of Inspiration

  1. Modern Science, Vedic Science, and Absolute Image
  2. Everything is Consciousness

CHAPTER 6

Consciousness Itself as the Subject Matter of Absolute Image

  1. First the Paintings—Then the Principles
  2. The Viewer Is the Content
  3. The Structure of Consciousness
  4. Knowledge and Experience of the Absolute
  5. A Fourth Major State of Consciousness

CHAPTER 7

Historical and Societal Context

  1. The Fact-Based Approach to Absolute Image
  2. Twentieth-Century Art: Modernism, Post-Modernism,  and Absolute Image
  3. The Neo-Formalism of Absolute Image
  4. Absolute Image: The Integrated State of All Diversified Values
  5. Partial Values of Natural Law Versus the Total Knowledge of Natural Law
  6. From Industrial to the Techno-Information Society
  7. A Culture Is defined by Its Knowledge Base
  8. ‘Automation in Administration’
  9. Freedom Can Only be Purposefully Gained through Wisdom

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CHAPTER 8

Modernism Versus Post-Modernism

  1. Modernism, Post-Modernism / Modern Science, Vedic Science, and Absolute Image
  2. Multi-Media—Multi-Culturalism
  3. Outer expansion Versus Inner Expansion
  4. Returning to the Purity and Integrity of Art’s Traditional Disciplines and Connecting Them to the Totality of Natural Law
  5. Multi-Media Installations: Reconnecting Ephemeral Values of Artistic Expression to the Cosmic Cycles of Natural Law
  6. Collective Celebrations: Harnessing the Evolutionary Power of Natural Law for Society as a Whole
  7. Reviving the Science and Art of Celebration
  8. The Dispersing of Creative Energy Versus the Consolidation of Creative Energy
  9. Integrating Content with the Deepest Values of the Medium of Expression: The Hallmark of Mature Art
  10. Seeking the Ultimate Consolidating Power in the Discipline of Painting: The Foundation or Ground State of Our Visual Aesthetic Reality
  11. Mobilizing the Evolutionary power of Natural Law on a Global Scale
  12. The Inner Structures the Outer
  13. Modernism and Post-Modernism as Repeating Cycles in History
  14. The Infinite Silence of the Absolute Versus the Infinite Dynamism of the Relative
  15. The Eternal Nature of Change
  16. Phenomenal Existence
  17. ‘A Little Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing’
  18. Only a New Seed Will Yield a New Crop
  19. From Fragmented Knowledge to Holistic Knowledge
  20. Mandalas, Yantras, and Absolute Image
  21. Review

CHAPTER 9

The Graphic Content of Absolute Image

  1. Formal Values in Art
  2. Two Values that Define Absolute Image: The Nature of Its Content and the Nature of Its Crafting
  3. Science Versus Art: Intellectual Analysis Versus Sensory Synthesis
  4. The Science of Geometry Emphasizes Linear Mode of Intellectual Understanding (Analysis)
  5. The Art of Absolute Image Emphasizes Sensory Modes of Holistic Experience (Synthesis)
  6. Primordial Geometries as the Structure of Consciousness Itself Sounding an Echo of that Cosmic Value of Wholeness within the Viewer
  7. The Significance of Displaying the Parts in the Context of a Cosmic value of Aesthetic Wholeness
  8. A Cosmic Value of Wholeness: Validating Its Realization
  9. Point-Line-Circle-Triangle-Square: The graphic Content of Absolute Image
  10. The Eternal Total Autonomy of Point-Line-Circle-Triangle-Square
  11. Point-Line-Circle-Triangle-Square: Their Unique Resonance with the Totality of Natural Law, the Absolute
  12. Mathematics: The Hierarchical Sequence of the Five Fundamental Geometries
  13. The Point and Its Origin—00
  14. The Point: An Abstract Concept Structured in Consciousness
  15. The Self-referral Nature of Consciousness
  16. As Is the Cosmos So Is the Individual
  17. The Objective Approach of Modern Science Meets  the Subjective Approach of Maharishi Vedic Science
  18. All Forms Arise from the Point
  19. The Abstract Domain of Mathematics Versus the Concrete Domain of Easel Painting
  20. Painting: An Allegory for the Cosmic Process of Creation
  21. From the Point the Line
  22. Closed Forms
  23. Platonic Solids
  24. Point-Line-Circle-Triangle-Square: The Visual Fullness of Natural Law
  25. The Uniqueness in Nature of Human Artistic Expression
  26. The Superimpositions of the Five Fundamental Forms within Absolute Image
  27. The Fullest Possible Primordial Articulation in Visual Form

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CHAPTER 10

First the Point

  1. Knowledge Is Qualified by Its Medium of Expression
  2. The Domain of Expression for the Totality of Natural Law: The Unexpressed Transcendental State of Pure Existence Itself
  3. The Significance of the Domed Points in Absolute Image
  4. Infinite Arena—Finite Point
  5. Flat Point Versus Domed Point
  6. Easel Painting: The Cosmic Physiology of Its Arena
  7. The Values of Orientation within the Arena of Absolute Image
  8. Above-Below / Left-Right: Enlivening Their Cosmic Significance
  9. All Values of Placement or Orientation in the Universe Are Ordered by the Transcendent Totality of Natural Law
  10. ‘Knowledge is Different in Different  States of Consciousness’
  11. Manifesting Laws of Nature in Cosmic Terms within Absolute Image
  12. The Cosmic Potential of Human Artistic Expression
  13. The Perception of Art in Higher States of Consciousness
  14. Unity Consciousness
  15. The Microcosm of Absolute Image and Its Macroscopic Counterparts
  16. First the Point And then the Line

CHAPTER 11

And then the Line

  1. The Line in Relation to the Infinite Arena of Absolute Image
  2. The Unbounded Potential of the Visual Image and Its Arena
  3. Hiding and Revealing
  4. Hiding and Revealing: Generating a Wholeness that Is More Than the Sum of Its Parts
  5. The Line as Living Pulsations of Consciousness
  6. The Line As the Totality of Natural Law: The Varying Qualities of Wakefulness Present within the Line
  7. The Dynamics of the Line and Its Parallels in Music
  8. Fundamental Divisions of the Picture Plane: The Basic Resonances within Absolute Image
  9. Complexities of Tone, Pitch, and Rhythm in Absolute Image
  10. Optical Versus Illusory Space in Absolute Image
  11. Integrating Flat Lateral Pattern with Optical Values of space
  12. Integration within the Artist: The Basis of Integration within the Image
  13. The Primacy of Pure Color
  14. Perspective and Chiaroscuro Versus Pure Optical Space
  15. Decorative Values within Absolute Image
  16. Pure Form, Autonomy, and Silent Wholeness in Absolute Image
  17. True Ambient Light Versus Illusory Light
  18. Fulfilling the Ultimate Function of Ambient Light
  19. Absolute Image: Cosmic Wholeness on an Intimate Scale
  20. The Power of Intention
  21. The Autonomy of Absolute Image Versus the Autonomy of the Absolute itself

CHAPTER 12

Complete Fullness, Infinite Sustainability, Absolute Autonomy Three Basic Attributes of the Absolute Itself within Absolute Image

  1. The Principle of Complete Fullness
  2. The Principle of Infinite Sustainability
  3. The principle of Absolute Autonomy

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CHAPTER 13

Mondrian
Part I

  1. Absolute Image and the Paintings of Mondrian
  2. Neo-Plasticism
  3. Relative Autonomy Versus Absolute Autonomy
  4. Symmetry Versus Asymmetry—Universality Versus Individuality—Objectivity Versus Subjectivity
  5. Balanced Asymmetry
  6. The Significance of Absolute Image as a Potentially Infinite Series
  7. The Limitations of Balanced Asymmetry
  8. ‘The Spirit of the Times’: The Reciprocity Between Individual Consciousness and Collective Consciousness
  9. Vedic Technologies of Consciousness Transforming the Quality of World Consciousness
  10. The Dominance of Individuality Versus the Dominance of Universality
  11. Integrating the Universal with the Specific in Relation to Color
  12. Mondrian’s Consistency of Vision
  13. ‘Making the Absolute Appear in the Relativity of Space and Time’
  14. The Perfection of Mondrian’s So-Called Classical Phase
  15. Complete Visual Fulfillment: The Neo-Plasticism of Mondrian

Part II

  1. The Dynamism in Mondrian’s Paintings Increases as the Ground/Form Duality within Them is Dissolved
  2. Bisecting the Picture Plane
  3. The Repetition of the Line
  4. Linear values Versus Simultaneity: A Reminder
  5. The Creative Act: Wholeness on the Move
  6. The Interweaving of Lines
  7. Comparing the Spatial Values in Mondrian’s Former Works with Those in His Final Paintings
  8. From the Unity of Concrete Form to the Unity of Transcendental Form
  9. The Same transcendental Principles Operating n Mondrian’s Paintings Found Operating within Absolute Image
  10. Transcendental values and the Cultural Climate of Our Time
  11. Infinite Silence—Infinite Dynamism
  12. A new fullness of Spatial Articulation
  13. A New Frontier: The Prelude to Symmetry
  14. From the Asymmetry of ‘Victory Boogie-Woogie to the Symmetry of ‘Absolute Image’
  15. Coda: Symmetry and Coherent Brain Functioning
  16. Recapitulation

CHAPTER 14

Immortality in Art

  1. Principles Realized through the Process of Painting Itself
    ‘Oh Sons of Immortality’
    The Symbol Versus the Real
    How Can a Relative Object Be Made Absolute?
    Absolute and Relative as One Seamless Continuum Diversity Hides Unity
    Reinstating Wholeness
    How Absolute Can Absolute Image Be?
    As Absolutely Absolute as it Can Relatively Be
    Both Graphic Content and Its Crafting Made Resonant with the Totality of Natural Law
    The Universe Is to You as You Are to the Universe
    Immortality in Art
    Structuring Immortality in the Field of Art: The Mechanics
    Again, Not a Symbol, Not a Metaphor, but the Absolute itself in Visual Form

CHAPTER 15

Infinite Silence / Infinite Dynamism

  1. Reductionism
  2. The Monochrome
  3. Silence and Dynamism Displayed Together in Their Infinite Value
  4. Silence, Dynamism, and Four-fold symmetry
  5. The Necessity of Beauty

CHAPTER 16

The Easel Painting Arena and Its Components

  1. Defining the Picture Plane
  2. The Visual Image: A Domain of Pure Silence Free of Both Time and Motion
  3. The Picture Plane as an Infinite Arena
  4. The Picture Plane as An-Infinity of Points
  5. ‘Point, to Line, to Plane’ and Absolute Image
  6. The Scale Factor
  7. Two-Dimensionality Versus Three-Dimensionality
  8. The Frame
  9. Form and Color
  10. Format
  11. The Circle, Triangle, Square: Determining the Absolute Format for Absolute Image The Triangle
  12. The Square
  13. The 36 by 36 Inch Square Picture Plane

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CHAPTER 17

Handcrafting

  1. Crafting Absolute Image
  2. Creating Maximum Intimacy Between Artist and Materials
  3. The Computer Generated Image
  4. Actualizing ‘The Acutest Vibrancy of Life’ in the Materials of Expression
  5. Responding to an Image and its Cosmic Value of Wholeness
  6. Transferring the Unity within the Artist Directly to the Viewer
  7. Musical Performance: The Rapport Between Artist and Audience
  8. Making the Finite a Vehicle for the Infinite
  9. Individual Creativity at One with Cosmic Creativity
  10. Individual Human Creativity: A Complement to Nature’s Own Universal Creativity
  11. Unlocking the Freedom of the Infinite from the Singularity of a Point
  12. Point and Infinity together: ‘Wholeness on the Move”, in the Process of Handcrafting Absolute Image
  13. Mobilizing the Viewer’s Own Creativity
  14. Dynamic-Individual-Uniqueness Versus Silent-Cosmic-Wholeness
  15. Fulfilling the Quest

CHAPTER 18

Knower-Knowing-Known

  1. Knower-Knowing-Known: The Total Structure of Reality
  2. The Togetherness of Knower-Knowing-Known: Consciousness Conscious of Itself
  3. Self-Referral Consciousness Versus Object-referral Consciousness
  4. The Painter, the Process of Painting, and the Painting Itself
  5. What, in Reality, Is It that We See in Front of Us?
  6. Again, Diversity Hides Unity
  7. Absolute Image: Object-Referral Made Self-Referral
  8. Absolute Image and the Extended Environment
  9. From Believing to Knowing

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CHAPTER 19

From Individual Creativity to Cosmic Creativity

  1. Ground and Form
  2. Consciousness and Knowingness
  3. How Does It All Begin? What Is the Genesis of Everything?
  4. How Pure Knowingness Begins to Know Itself
  5. The Total Wakefulness of the Absolute
  6. Symmetry Simultaneously Broken and Maintained
  7. The Central Point of Absolute Image
  8. Collapse and Expansion as a-Simultaneity in Absolute Image
  9. Precision of Placement (Orientation): The Basis of All Order in the Universe of Absolute Image and the Universe Itself as a Whole
  10. The Cosmic Rhythms of Rest and Activity—Silence and Dynamism
  11. From Individual Creativity to Cosmic Creativity

CHAPTER 20

Conclusion

  1. Art and Geometry / Abstract and Concrete
  2. Further Issues
  3. Unprecedented Wholeness
  4. Namaste
  5. The Creative Process—Individual and Cosmic
  6. The Vedic Technologies of Consciousness: The Transcendental Meditation Technique
  7. C L O S I N G  R E M A R K S
  8. In Gratitude to the Reader
  9. Global Awakening

APPENDIX

  1. Maharishi Vedic Science
  2. The Forty Aspects of Maharishi Vedic Science and their Qualities
  3. Natural Law
  4. Enlightenment and Higher States of Consciousness
  5. Human Physiology: Expression of Veda and Vedic Literature
  6. Governance and the Total Knowledge of Natural Law
  7. Constitution of the Universe
  8. Scientific Research: The Technologies of Consciousness of Maharishi Vedic Science
  9. Absolute Image: Viewer Response
  10. Artist’s Résumé and Exhibitions

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

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