Ultimate Reality

When we consider the monumental issue of reality we need to distinguish between ultimate reality and perceived reality.  Do we exist in a single universe, or in a matrix of multiple parallel universes? Are there merely three dimensions, or ten as proposed by String Theory?  Is the cosmos the creation of a divine being, an evolving universal consciousness, or merely a random accident?  What are black holes and dark matter?

Undoubtedly, there is a single reality that lies in the answers to these questions and many more that we have not even conceptualized.  It is incredibly humbling and rather unsettling, but the truth is that we dwell on the surface of an insignificant planet in a vast ever-expanding universe.  Consequently, our ability to comprehend this ultimate reality is severely limited.  The only certainty is that our understanding is continually changing as additional information becomes available.

Of course, we cannot live on a daily basis with this unfathomable uncertainty, so, we settled for our perception of reality.  Whether or not we are causing micro distortions in the space-time continuum as we drive to work is irrelevant.  Our sensory receptors only register a fraction of the available auditory, visual, tactile, and olfactory spectrums.  Though our concept of the world around us is partial, it has proven to be generally adequate for our day-to-day activities. 

Unfortunately, much of the social conflict we currently observe is due to the intolerant manner  in which many  affirm their perception of reality.  Some adamantly proclaim  outdated world views that were conceptualized in pre -scientific cultures.  Similarly, modern society too often summarily dismisses the wisdom and relevance of religious  traditions regarding our human experience  because they are conveyed through myth and metaphor.  .  If we hope to progress beyond our current awareness, we will need to remain open to alternative ideas which may completely transform our current perceptions.

Given the unfathomable vastness of the cosmos and our miniscule finite place within it, I think a heavy dose of humility is in order.  To dogmatically impose our limited perspective on others is a clear indication that we are ignorant of our own ignorance.  Neither religion, science nor atheism holds a monopoly on the understanding of ultimate reality. 

Instead of boldly proclaiming our knowledge, perhaps we should be like children seeking their way along a forest path in the middle of the night.  If we all just join hands, we can share what we discover with one another and reach the end of our journey with a collective understanding of what we find along the way.  What is really important is that we all stick together and nobody gets left behind.  Maybe that is the most important aspect of the ultimate reality.

At Home Among The Stars

The past few years have been so busy that I have not had time to keep up with this blog.  The last three years were devoted to writing a book.  At this point the manuscript is complete, and I am seeking a publisher or literary agent to handle the search for me.  The title is At Home Among the Stars.  It focuses on a new perspective on our humanity as an aspect of the universe, not the central focus of a metaphysical deity.  Those who may be interested in obtaining the current version of the manuscript may send a request to AtHomeAmongThe Stars@gmail.com.

For the foreseeable future, I intend to share various aspects of what I have written and hope that it will generate feedback from those who may stumble across this blog.  The conclusion of my effort is simply this:

Our generation is living on the surface of an amazing star ship that is streaking through space at a blinding speed towards an unknown destination and an uncertain future.  The presence of our species on this journey is no more guaranteed than that of the dinosaurs.  Any hope we have of creating a sustainable future will require us to actualize our cosmic design, harmonize with the forces of nature, progress beyond a selfish sense of “me” and pass through the gateway of selflessness to a future of “us”.

In the spirit of Quaker tradition, this culmination of my efforts is offered for your consideration.  Some of what is contained here is new, while other ideas are ancient and have been repeatedly presented over thousands of years.  I would not presume to declare that I have discovered the secret of life or anything so grandiose.  Our universe is far too complex to be fully comprehended.  However, this holistic approach has yielded some amazing insights that I would certainly like to share with you.

In all of my exploration, the most important thing I have learned is that spirituality and scientific discovery are not mutually exclusive.  These merely represent two genuine sources of knowledge, intuitive and rational.  Interestingly as science delves deeper into the invisible aspects of our universe, there appears to be a growing harmony between these spheres of understanding.  This harmony is the basis of what I now offer.

As you will see, this is a small book and intentionally so.  I have not attempted to prepare a lavish meal with all of the trimmings.  That is a task that lies beyond the capability of any single individual.  Instead, this is a collection of seeds to be planted, nourished, weeded, and harvested.  Hopefully, any meals produced from it will be large pot-luck dinners where we can all contribute in a spirit of fellowship and harmony.

Enlightenment

I find it fascinating that insights and inspirations are almost universally referred to as “enlightenment.”  I have no idea what the origin of that expression is; however, as widespread as the usage is, it is unlikely that it comes from a single source.  Perhaps it is merely an extension of the natural observation that light makes it easier to see the details of material objects.  What I find so interesting about the expression is that, when conducting brain scans, doctors and researchers look for the portion of the brain that is “lighting up.”  So, I guess the term, enlightened, is completely appropriate.

What does it mean to be spiritually enlightened For the Christian, it might refer to the “new birth” experience or the infilling of the Holy Spirit.  For Hindus and Buddhists, it has a very specific meaning and pertains to an awareness of being one with the universe and free from all desires.

There is a funny story about an exchange between an ancient Buddhist master and one of his students.  In general, Buddhists believe that “true” enlightenment frees one from the various winds of life that can blow us about emotionally.  This particular student had studied for many years under his master’s guidance.  He had moved about 300 miles away, which in those days was quite a journey.  At one point, the student composed a poem and sent it to his master to demonstrate his profound enlightenment.  The master read the poem and wrote on the margin of the parchment, “fart, fart, fart” and returned it.

When the student saw what his master had written, he made the 300 mile arduous journey to obtain an explanation for the apparent insult.  When they met, the master asked if the student felt that he was truly free from the winds of life.  The student insisted that he was.  “Yet,” the master responded “three little farts have blown you all this great way.” 

This certainly illustrates the pitfall of setting enlightenment as a badge of accomplishment.  This, I’m sure, is what is referred to in the Tai Te Ching when we read;

24

He who stands on tiptoe

Doesn’t stand firm.

He who rushes ahead

Doesn’t go far.

He who tries to shine

Dims his own light.

He who defines himself

Doesn’t know who he really is……….

Personally, I don’t think that enlightenment is a single event or a particular spiritual level to attain. On the contrary, whatever enlightenment I have experienced has been like a cosmic road map progressively being unfolded along the way.

For me it has required an honest and open consideration of reality.  It has involved reading, thinking, contemplation, a willingness to acknowledge my mistakes, a recognition that truth may come from a variety of sources other than myself, a willingness to carefully listen to the opinions of others, and an abandonment of my desire to be the “source of wisdom.”  One thing is certain; seeking a deeper understanding of spiritual/cosmic truths is not a path for those who are spiritually or intellectually complacent.  Socrates put it this way, “An unexamined life is not worth living.”

At this point, I have come to the conclusion that the truth I have been seeking has been within me all the time.  It is a matter of clearing out the debris that has accumulated in order for the light of truth to shine.  This is by no means a new understanding, as seen in the following quotes.  From a natural standpoint, I think this knowledge is infused in the ground of being that is the underlying substance of the entire universe.  It is as much a part of us as our DNA.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood.  – John 1:1-5

“A person’s soul may be compared to a transparent ball which is lit from the inside with its own light.  This flame is not only the source of all light and truth, but it eluminates everything around you.  In this state, the soul is free and happy.  Only if it becomes addicted to anything outside you will it become troubled, darkened and impenetrable.  Distractions obstruct the light which shows you the way.” -- Marcus Aurelius (2^nd century AD Roman emperor)

“If a passion embraces you, you should remember that this passionate desire is not a part of your soul, but a dark covering that shuts out the true qualities of your soul.  You should be a lantern for yourself.  Draw close to the light within you and seek no other shelter.”   – Buddhist wisdom

“God is not a distant remote being but a living presence to be discovered in the deep

centre of every human being.”  -- George Gorman

“Do not believe that in religion you cannot trust your intellect.  The force of our intellect must support the foundations of every real faith.” -- William Emery Channing

“Personality is the mask that obscures the divine being which dwells in every person.”  -- Leo Tolstoy

Catching Up

To say that I have been busy over the past eighteen months or so would be an understatement.  During that period I have become an active member of my local Quaker meeting, re-married, sold all of my real estate properties and moved.  While these activities have not left much time for writing, I have grown a great deal personally.

I have been thoroughly enjoying my Quaker experience.  Often, when I tell people that I am a Quaker, it is clear that they don’t know much about the Religious Society of Friends, Quakers.  I get responses like, “Oh yeah, they make really nice furniture,” or, “Don’t they make their women wear bonnets?”  My knowledge was pretty limited before I started doing a little research, but many people confuse Quakers with more conservative groups like the Amish or Mennonites.  The reality is that most of the Quakers in the United States are very contemporary, socially active and often rather liberal.

For me, this fellowship is incredibly comfortable, but two things are of particular importance.  First, there are no doctrinal creeds.  So, I have the freedom to openly embrace my own understanding of the divine.  Second, one of the core beliefs is that “there is that of God in everyone.”  This promotes a wonderfully spiritual community where there is love and mutual concern among the members and toward the world at large. 

It is a spiritual environment that promotes personal growth and development with no pressure to conform to prescribed beliefs.  Instead, there is a focus on “Quaker testimonies.”  These are core values that include simplicity, peace, integrity, community and equality.  I find this to be a much more rational approach to spirituality because values, after all, are the most important aspects of religion.  The stories are merely the symbols used to convey the underlying spiritual truths.  Yet, too often people argue about the details of the stories while the underlying values are trampled underfoot in the tumult.

My hope for our world is that we can progressively move towards a greater acceptance of our differences, a greater awareness of our shared dreams and a greater sense of our interconnection and mutual dependence.

The Next Chapter

My current theological/cosmic understanding is bittersweet.  On the one hand, I am incredibly relieved that I have been permitted to recognize the connection between the spiritual truths of various religions, my personal experience and perceptions, and contemporary scientific knowledge and theories.  While I am fully aware that my understanding is woefully incomplete, I do feel that I have reached a new plateau of understanding.  Nevertheless, the joy of this enlightenment is tempered by the awareness that this knowledge has arrived so far along my personal journey.  It reminds me of the old saying attributed to the Pennsylvania Dutch, “Too soon old and too late smart.”

I definitely have a sense of entering a new phase of my life.  With a keen sense of who God is, I am striving to apply my concepts to the world around me.  This involves recognizing my misconceptions and either discarding them or redirecting the thought process.  The clearest example of this is the “I-ness” I have lived with throughout my life.  At present it is necessary for me to consciously recognize my connection to everything around me.  However, I find that as I practice this awareness, it becomes increasingly integrated into my sense of self.  That self is gradually becoming a universal Self with a capital “S”.

I am extremely thankful that a recent development in this unfolding adventure has been my involvement with a local Quaker meeting.   There, I have found others who are engaged in their own journeys along this spiritual pathway.   It is very comforting to be part of a spiritual community that does not impose specific doctrines or dogmas, but recognizes that we are all enlightened by the same cosmic source and that our divine experience and knowledge is individually unique.

I am quite certain that an association with like-minded individuals is essential for personal growth.  Like Tolstoy, I believe that true spiritual knowledge comes through personal introspection and contemplation coupled with their application through social interaction.  Theories and philosophies lack significant value if they are not relevant to the world in which we live and the people who inhabit it.  Therefore, interacting with others who are striving to live an authentically spiritual life provides us with a marvelous opportunity to share, learn, and grow together.

Who Am I?

This has been a very difficult entry to write because my sense of self has undergone a significant transformation over the past few years through reading, reflection, and realization, and I am quite certain that I am nowhere near finished because life itself is comprised of continual change.  .  After several attempts to express my present understanding, I have discovered that conveying this process in this brief format is quite challenging. 

For years, I, like most people in western civilization, viewed my body as “me”.  I saw myself as a separate and distinct entity defined by the limits of my physical being.  Though I had genuine concern for others, I viewed all events, relations, activities, possessions, etc. as they pertained to me, my desires, goals, and well-being.  However, as I have considered the teachings of eastern philosophy and explored current scientific cosmology, my perspective has changed dramatically.

In light of the fact that our natural perceptions do not accurately reflect reality (as I presented in my posting Is Perception Reality), I now believe that the Hindu/Buddhist teaching regarding duality is quite accurate.  Our sense of individuality is an illusion.  We are, in fact, interconnected with everything in the material world through an energetic and conscious source.  The challenge is to embrace this reality and nurture this realization on a conscious level.

For me, it is necessary to deliberately rethink old concepts.  For example, several years ago I learned that the elements that comprise the world around us were forged in a star billions of years ago.  That is a concept that I have to revisit periodically.  As I consider the things around me, I contemplate the fact that it all is stardust and once existed in the midst of a thermonuclear fusion reaction.  The fact that that awareness does not present itself automatically does not detract from the reality of the situation.

I go through a similar process regarding the identification of myself with my body.  I look at my hands, arms, torso, etc., and my natural tendency is to think of it as “me”.  In one sense “I” am 60+ years old.  However, the cells of my body are continually dying and being replaced.  Consequently, almost every cell in my body is probably less than 10 years old.  Furthermore, the elements that make up the atoms that comprise my body are over 14 billion years old.  Am I my body?  No.  I am viewing the material world through this life form at this point in time and space, but it is not me.  For thousands of years, the sages have been pondering this very issue, “Who is it behind my eyes that is asking the questions?”

I happen to believe that God, the universal consciousness, energizes every living thing and is the self behind the eyes.  Similarly, many people believe that the universe is becoming progressively aware of itself through evolving consciousness in the material world.  If this is true, the implications are enormous.  It means that there is no “me”, only “we”.  It means that we are all part of one another and what we do to others, we, in fact, are doing to ourselves.  Oddly enough, that is precisely the message that has been presented to us through various religions for thousands of years.

This is just one more aspect of reality that does not reveal itself naturally.  However, I have discovered that as I ponder this concept, I am developing an ever increasing sense of connection with others.  At times, I really do have an awareness of being one with them whether they share this perspective or not.  It has given a whole new meaning to what Jesus may have meant when he said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Does this mean that I think I am God?  Is a wave the ocean?  Is a leaf the tree?  Is one brain cell my entire body?  I believe that I am an aspect of God, but that is all.  However, through prayer or meditation I have access to the entirety of God and can become all that I am designed to be, fulfilling my purpose whatever that may be.

There are 10 clips associated with this video.  I would recommed viewing them all.

Speaking of God......

1

The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.

The unnamable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.

Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.

Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.

Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.

                               ---- Tao Te Ching

What a dilemma.  We exist in a material world and from our childhood are taught to attach names to everything around us.   Under most circumstances this approach enables us to communicate with others more effectively.  Yet, when it comes to God, our ability to use words when referring to Him is woefully inadequate.

For the past couple of years I have avoided using the term “God” because of the traditional connotations associated with it.  In an effort not to convey the concept of an anthropomorphic being I started using expressions like, “the universe, cosmic consciousness, cosmic intelligence” and other non-theistic terms.  However, these seem so impersonal and do not convey the intimacy that exists between the universal source and all that is sustained by it.  I find that the difficulty becomes even more complex when I try to make a reference using a personal pronoun.  Certainly this cosmic entity is neither male nor female, so using terms like He or She seem inappropriate.  Yet, referring to God as “It” seems to lack the proper respect for this pervasive consciousness.

I like the term “Universal Source.”  We could shorten that to “US”, which would also convey the idea of the connectivity that exists between all conscious beings.  Unfortunately, that would probably be confused with “U.S.” which is already associated with the United States, so that’s out.  We could make up a name like Tsoe (The source of everything), but then people would think we were referring to Chinese food or something.  Some people use the term “Mother/Father God”, but I can’t bring myself to do that because if you say it too fast, it just sounds like profanity.

So I have come full circle and have decided to merely use the term, “God”, knowing   full well that it is inadequate but gets about as close as I can to what I currently believe.   I am going to use the masculine pronouns simply because that is most commonly used and understood.  In my personal communion with Him, I generally refer to Him as “Father” because I know implicitly that He is the source of who I am, whatever that may be.