Article Text
According to the substance theory, or substantial motion, the human being is situated within temporal determinism. Cycles, durations, and conditions expose humans to shaped changes in life. However, by attending to mental or intellectual experiences, humans can be situated in a positional state of mind. By examining the works or remains of previous human generations, we find that regardless of their physical life, they convey specific mental and intellectual experiences. For example, attention to external factors appears in the form of imagining myths, totems, gods, both principal and subordinate deities, and so on.
Therefore, temporal determinism refers to the determinism of the shaped transformations of human life. But in the mind’s positional motion—which involves mental experiences and the extraction of abstract concepts—levels of mind and freedom of choice emerges. In temporal motion, which causes stage-like events, life may be confined to the survival-oriented mind. Yet through concentration, humans can enter abstract thinking, extracting hidden meanings and separating them from shaped appearances. This constitutes a gnostic life. By choosing a positional state of mind and pursuing a gnostic life, humans can distance themselves from temporal determinism. The physical body remains subject to temporal motion, but the human mind is volitional in intuitive or mystical motion.