0630 Exploring the Song Dynasty Welfare State and "Quiet Humanity" parallels with Delphi - (Let's introduce you to: Wang Anshi and Dara Shikoh)

0630 Exploring the Song Dynasty Welfare State and "Quiet Humanity" parallels with Delphi - (Let's introduce you to: Wang Anshi and Dara Shikoh)

I love this session. It was a usually-weekly Group Chat led by Delphi that unexpectedly became a treasure trove for exploring parallels. And I'm all over that shit, as you all know.

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Channeled by Nick Sweeney on June 30th 2022.

MEntity: Hello, we are here now and can begin.

Kurtis: Hello Michael and Nick. Nice to see you. 

I think there are branches from around 1045, 1070, 1100 and 1120 CE that moved into the Crystal-powered parallels and I would like confirmation. My reasoning is that these appear to be times where the Qingli or New Policies Reforms in the Song Dynasty could have succeeded against the Conservative court opposition, transforming China into a Welfare State. These also appear to be times where the Chola Empire could have held onto Srivijaya and kept expanding.

We already know that China went Mohist, which was a staunch supporter for welfare reforms; and that the Chola survived and expanded in those parallels, so these seem like accurate time frames to branch towards that world.

Based on this I am also curious to know more about how the cultures of India and China contributed to the evolution of life in that Crystal-powered world, in general.

MEntity:

Yes, one moment while we compile our response.

Yes, you appear to be correct in your assessment of these contributing branches to the "crystal-powered" parallels.

In regards to how India and China contributed-

India appears to have contributed much in the way of setting the tone for a more holistic view of life and between organism and its environment. This more holistic world-view is at the heart of these parallels and is experienced as  more than an intellectual idea.

China appears to have influenced most of the actual structures and organizational "forms" within this holistic paradigm. Many of these organizational patterns reflect the communication and organization within bio-organisms where there are not distinct, competing entities, but rather communicating parts that are integral to sustaining and evolving the whole. We are doing our best to convey what we see through our channel. We are referring to the structural patterns of the various "systems" in these parallels such as political, educational, transportation, healthcare, etc.

Kurtis: This makes sense to me.

Especially because that China appears to have focused on reforming their government system so it functions better for all people. All parts, in other words.

Delphi: This seems to fit the vision of the future I got where in about 100 years our world economy is patterned after the nervous system or cell signaling, and central banks or elites have become 'central pattern generators' instead.

MEntity: Yes, the emphasis, here, is on applying the insight that comes through from a far less impeded flow of communication to and from all the parts. Rather than energy and communication being "hung-up" in certain centers of power and self-interest, the "information" is in a continuous cycle to, from, and through all of the various "hubs" and centers of "power" and integration, much like the information processing in the human body.

Delphi: Amazing, seems like something all of us are trying to move towards.

Kurtis: Should we move on to Question 2, Delphi?

Delphi: yes.

Kurtis: Thank you, Michael, for that.

Question #2 now:

"I want to ask about the potential parallels we thought of being in the Crystal-powered branch. I brought up 7 of these, but we had more.

These would be: A branch c. 300s CE where Diocletian's Tetrarchy system to stabilize Rome actually worked. 

A branch from c. 312 where Constantine lost the Battle of Milvian Bridge so Christianity wasn't so much legalized as integrated into a pantheon of gods. 

A branch from c. 363 where the Rise of Christianity was repelled after Constantine died, absorbing it back into the pantheon. This is probably under a surviving Emperor Julian reinstating Paganism.

A branch from c. 535 where it seems Northern Wei, a state in China, survived.

A branch from c. 613 where Sui Dynasty in China survived and sort of merged cultures with Tibet, while Mohammed didn’t follow into Islam and the religion never arose.

A branch from c. 678 and 718-732 where Muslim Arabs successfully invaded Europe from Anatolia or France and integrated with the Christian cultures.

And c. 1633 and 1658 where Aurangzeb died, and Dara Shikoh won the Mughal Throne instead of Aurangzeb. This may have pushed India towards an acceptance of mysticism, pluralism, religious tolerance etc.

When I asked: “Are any of these valid branches that still exist?”

You said: “Yes, but this would take more time and care to delineate in a way that is clear and useful for your "project".

So! We are curious which of these above are valid separate branches, and what they are like today.

I think some or all of these have moved towards the "Quiet Humanity" branch from 1453/1492, where the Reconquista failed and the European Age of Conquests never happened.

Can you confirm if this is true?

When Delphi and I tried to visualize the "Quiet Human" branch, we saw a world with an Arabic Europe and Turkic-Tibetan China. It is a far more syncretized world. Is this valid?"

Delphi: A note on the Arabic Europe: this seems to have been a syncretizing of Islam and the Catholic Church based on neoplatonic ideas of the 'One'. I saw a strong reverence for the sun in my vision of this world, it seems to be a central organizing theme.

All life emanating from the sun (the one), and also the focus on illumination through observation and experimentation.

Kurtis: Yes I envisioned that too, actually.

Way back when I started my parallel explorations.

DelphI: Wow interesting, that's a long time ago. (Note from Kurt: Considering our world today, maybe 2016 is a long time ago, honestly. XD)

MEntity: We are unclear about your questions about these given "branches". Are you asking if any of these branches have led to their own separate parallels apart from the crystal-powered parallels?

Kurtis: Yes. Particularly, if they're part of what you call "Quiet Humanity".

Apologies for the poor wording confusions.

MEntity: 

Ok, we understand.  One moment.

Yes, in one way or another, all of these selected branches or lines contributed to and moved towards the "Quiet Human" parallels. This is our short answer, as the review of more of the details would take far more time and focus. And your "vision" of the syncretized expression of these parallels is valid. In fact, this is a trait that characterizes these parallels on the whole: the way the paradigm is open and allows continuous merging and reflection of various truths and wisdom into its expression. Indigenous peoples' insight and understanding from various parts of the world is also incorporated in time.

Kurtis: Thank you for the confirmation. We have been and shall keep peeling back the layers over time. 

MEntity: It is true that the Sun is a strong symbol through which inspiration and insight flows for the "visionaries" and "engineers" in these parallels. They are quite attuned to the assimilation realm of the Tao.

Kurtis: Wow. So Delphi and I got it on point!

I’m pretty sure Delphi and I are both interested in how the Indigenous Americans contributed to that world as well.

Delphi: wow interesting.

Kurtis: I've also been interested in what specific cultures/civilizations in Native Americas contributed most. But I imagine that would be a bit too difficult without further references.

Although I have thought of Teotihuacan as relevant to there, as they were very syncretic and cosmopolitan.

Delphi: To be specific, the music I heard was Arabic singing with the hurdy gurdy and the organ. But it was a mass.

Ok follow up qs:

I've sort of been obsessed with the baroque/helioarchic motifs and the "quiet humanity" aesthetic for the last few days for some reason, with the idea of choral singing and composing new works based on this aesthetic. I wonder why? I think part of it is healing the Spanish colonial past, another part is healing the abuses of sound and psychic powers during the Atlantean era.

A new 'golden age' of music.

MEntity: We think your awareness of this music is heightened because it has become a kind of "carrier wave" helping to "carry" you through these particular "windows of time" and into these worlds, as well as helping you to sustain your contact with and presence in these worlds as you do your exploration and research. How this music is "coming together" for you in your psyche is a product of your creativity, as it is an amalgam of various threads of aesthetic in music from multiple worlds/parallels within the worlds you have mentioned and beyond. In other words, as you "hop around" to various worlds, you add to this "music" that is in turn "carrying you" and "sustaining" your contact with and presence in these worlds. We would not say this is necessary for your exploration but merely your creative and "entertaining" way of traversing realities.

Kurtis: I for one, would love to hear translations of the music you discover Delphi.

Delphi: I see, it seems like it is more of a personal symbol for me? I don't think it would necessarily help others who I show this aesthetic to to recall their places in these other worlds

Kurtis: Some people are rather musical, and use music to navigate, so I think that quite a few would benefit from sharing in them.

Delphi: Is there any particular significance to my sudden locking onto this snapshot of the quiet humanity parallel as I try to consider how exactly to go about reducing loss in information in communications?

And the rather large project of 'downloading memory' or 'enhancing intelligence'.

It seems that my musical mentors sense subconsciously these worlds or waves I am carrying with me.

MEntity: 

The healing component would likely be valid for you if you attempted to re-create and re-present this music, here and now, even if only in humming to yourself. The reflection, here, would be that no matter the scathing of the physical plane and its challenges, there are always elements of beauty and patterns that can be, with creativity, allowed to coalesce into healing music.

We must conclude here for today. Goodbye for now. Good day to you all.

Delphi: Thank you Michael and Babylove!

Kurtis: Super informative, thank you both of you.

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For those wondering how I got the dates for this Song Dynasty Welfare State...

The Song Dynasty was a melting pot of prosperity in the 11th Century. It had a boom in technological development, began to mass produce steel for construction, and found new use in domesticating a type of rice that could grow even during flooding seasons. This made the empire immensely rich and powerful. Everyone from anywhere came to the Song Dynasty to gain from the rich resources it could give. It was a trade haven that in some ways, kind of replaced the great prestige the Abbasid Golden Age once held. There were schools, hospitals, restaurants, clubs, hotels, guilds, public and private entertainment venues, bustling markets. China was really rather "modern".

But its power and wealth was a ticking time bomb as its rigid bureaucracy made it stagnate in technological development, and this made it vulnerable to fall behind its neighbors that vowed to usurp and overthrow them. Not only that, but if the Song Dynasty failed to reform and kept preventing the poor from having access to developing personal businesses to gain wealth that could make their lives better, the government would run the risk of immense peasant revolts. And peasant revolts, of all things, were known to be the most deadly thing to a dynasty's continuation.

The Song Dynasty, in our history now, looks like it felt no need for change. But this hides the reality that there were several efforts at reforming the government.

When I found out that the Song Dynasty had a dude called "Wang Anshi" living in it that was a bonafide Socialist before Socialism was even a thing, I lit up and KNEW there had to be some kind of parallel where his ideas were implemented. Wang Anshi was inspired by a previous set of failed reforms in the Song Dynasty known as the "Qingli Reforms". These reforms had three main aims: Strengthen defense. Strengthen local governments so that the main central government does not snuff them out. Increase administrative efficiency through more equal resource distribution.

To sum it up: Increase competence and decrease corruption.

The Qingli Reforms failed, so Wang Anshi was later appointed by the new Emperor Shenzong to implement better reforms that could save the Song Dynasty from its slow burning demise. These are called the "New Policies Reforms". Wang Anshi advocated for reforms that would transform Song Dynasty into a Welfare State. He was China's FDR, trying to implement a kind of New Deal, if you will.

For those that do not know, this is very similar to the aims of "Mohism", from 1500 years prior.

These reforms too, however failed. And the reason is due to a corrupt, intelligent and incredibly persuasive Conservative court that did not want the Reformist faction led by Wang Anshi to win for fear that it would reduce the amount of wealth they had. Money allocated to peasants? Preposterous!

Nothing new there. *rolls eyes*.

Wang Anshi was used as a scapegoat for climate changes that swept the nation in the 1070s and made peasant revolts grow, as feared. But the Song held on, and Wang resigned in disgrace.

This wasn't the end of things however. Conservative Grand Empress Dowager Zao ruled as Emperor Zhezong came of age, and appointed Wang's conservative rival Sima Guang as chancellor. Zhezong didn't really like her ideals and policies, or Sima Guang. He preferred that of Wang Anshi, so when he became Emperor he began to reinstate these policies. Unfortunately he died very young from an illness. His successor and artsy polymath younger brother, Emperor Huizong, would continue to try to implement the policies, but eventually he just gave up because it was too difficult.

In 1125, Song Dynasty's nightmare came true. A new power arose and with the Song's help, defeated the Song Dynasty's main rival, the Khitan Liao. This power known as the Jurchen Jin, then betrayed this alliance and invaded Song, pushing its citizens south in a brutal fashion. They captured Emperor Huizong, where he would then die. This is known as the Jingkang Incident. China views the period before this Incident/Invasion as the Northern Song period, and the period after as the Southern Song period.

I view this whole court politics waged over the dumb antics of greed and complacency very sad and irritating. The promise of the Song Dynasty and its legacy to the world was destroyed in many ways from within itself.

Now, on the second set of questions:

Last time Delphi and I asked about the parallels in the second set of questions, we thought they moved towards the crystal-powered world. We got a big no on that, so I looked deeper and thought that it's possible the parallels we both got moved towards the quiet humanity world instead.

Looks like I was right!

On the topic of Dara Shikoh, specifically:

When Dara Shikoh came of age, he invested deeply into understanding the truths of reality. Every religion proclaimed different tenets, but he found they had similar core truths. He became a strong supporter of Perennialism aka. Universalism, which espouses that at the core of all faiths is a core truth shared. He sought a world in which religious differences and quarrels could be resolved through the realization of this cosmological oneness, and he taught this to those that would become his students.

He was to be the heir after his father Shah Jahan would die. But Aurangzeb, his brother, killed him in a rather brutal battle when Shah Jahan's health was failing, and delivered the head of Dara Shikoh to his father Shah Jahan to his horror. Aurangzeb would go on to fund and wage militant wars of conquest, and as a Fundamentalist Muslim, he wasn't exactly popular with the Hindu population that much favoured Dara Shikoh to rule. Aurangzeb's relationship was rocky with the people of India. To this day, he is still seen as the point in time that India fell from its place of glory. Its place of religious tolerance and erudite leadership.

I find articles in which Indians continue to contest what the world would be like if Dara Shikoh had just become Emperor instead. It's very contentious. There are many conflicting streams of thought about Religious interpretations, the fallacies of the "Theory of Great Men shaping history", the plague of disinformation and revisionist history etc.

I also found an interesting tidbit on the kinds of syncretic reforms that could have happened under Emperor Dara Shikoh. This is known as Din-i Ilahi, a new kind of syncretic religion of all faiths present in India, that was formed under Mughal Emperor Akbar as a rather elite religion. It wasn't exactly exclusive, it just spread slowly due especially to the opposition of religious fundamentalist sects.

Dara supported this religion and tried to bring it into the public. Of course, it fell with his death. Not so much because of him, as because the people that gathered with him broke in their unity and stopped their continued development and study of world truths.

Interestingly, Din-i Ilahi also supported a kind of reverence of Light, especially the Sun. A point of validation perhaps.