Bring Forth from nothing
In the beginning was the bottom line….
NOTHING…
When contemplating such a thing I have to ask what is classified as some of the “big questions”.
Why are we here?
Why would a perfect nothing bring forth?
What would be the reason why a perfect static field of nothingness would bring forth from nothing?
Let's first define nothing. It's almost impossible this day and age for the average person to contemplate nothing because of the never ending chatter that the human ego brings forth in the mind. Call it the "internal dialogue". Anyway, to contemplate nothing you have to deconstruct yourself or the "I" in thought. Be utterly silent in the mind which puts you out of the human concept of time and into the now of just Being.
Some of you will liken nothing as to a void. We think of a void as an area of darkness with no stimulus of the senses. That's the common minds eye definition. But a true void has no recognition of darkness. Perceiving that there is nothing is actually up holding the darkness or nothingness with consciousness and so you fill the void with consciousness that is to say it's not a true void. So we can say in the beginning there was no consciousness.
The void existed out side of time as we think of time. Then we have bringing forth from the void what scientist call the "Big Bang". Before the Big Bang the Universe was 100% potentiality. All things were possible. Then on the other side of nothing all probabilities collapse into the 1 process from which all cause and effect processes make what we see today as the Universe.
It is self evident if you are curious enough to read about the continuing processes of the Universe that there is a definite direction leading to why the way things are the way they are. For instance, the processes that form stars which fuse basic particles into heavy elements and then by the process of the stars death creates and releases more heavy elements into the ever expanding void to form galaxies and second generation stars which in turn through gravitation distills rogue elements of the primordial Universe and matter into worlds which then are trapped by their parent stars to further distill life from the same elements. When I had heard Carl Sagan some years ago say, "We are made of star stuff" I was young but was able to grasp a revelation from that statement. Some of those very elements created by exploding stars make up my eye so I can see the Universe. I had thought.
The above paragraph gives a hurried description of the processes which allows the current Universe to exist the way we see it today. Notice the terms used like "second generation", "definite direction" and "distills" these are all words describing bringing forth processes.
The point has been raised about the vastness of the Universe and given the immensity of 14 billion years of time the said processes could have occurred randomly to evolve the Universe the way it is today. The preposterousness of this statement was evident after humans became more advanced in probability calculations and quantum theory. Consider the reality. The human DNA strand with its myriad of coded amino acids and proteins to make us the way we are randomly would take ultimately much more time then the current age of the known Universe. Generally speaking we haven't been here long enough to be called an accident.
As stated earlier with the, heavy elements that which make up our eyes analogy, we can conclude that our bodies evolved with its senses for perception, that is to say, we are perceiving machines evolved from the many consecutive processes which stemmed from bringing forth from nothing. Humans share through evolution with many beings on earth perception. You can verify perception when an organism responds, through its senses or instinct, to stimulus. What about the things of our experience which we judge not to perceive? We can peel back perception and give them a more basic trait called "being". The term "being" used generically may be applied to all forms in the known Universe as there can be no way one can verify being as it is unique to everything in the Universe, that is to say, we can not judge a rock's "being" as we have no experience of being a rock.
What then makes us human beings the so far known paragon of the processes which “came forth from nothing”?
The way humans perceive the flow of time, which is essentially illusionary, as past- present-future is because of self awareness/ego. We tag moments of time with events that we place our attention on. This brings about consciousness/ego.
Since our consciousness acts like a spot light we naturally perceive conscious events one at a time which in turn gives time its illusion of direction. One can self verify this statement by trying to consciously perceive two events simultaneously. A good analogy of this would be to have someone drop a red ball and a green ball at the same time from a height. Your attention or conscious perception is either on the green ball or the red ball falling. You may switch your focus back and forth between the two quickly which gives the illusion of simultaneous perception.
It can therefore be said that attention is the essence of time. It is a forgone conclusion then that the brain disseminates to consciousness large amounts of sensory data from the senses. The eyes, for example, see both the green and the red ball falling at the same time but your brain disseminates either one or the other to conscious awareness/ego.
So we have:
Being-Perception-Awareness-Attention-Selfaware-Space/Time-Consciousness/Ego
As far as we know today humans are the possessors of all above traits.
It may be confusing to some that the above flow may seem interchangeable but if you think from the end it goes like this. Anything in space/time can just be (Being). There are Beings that can perceive but not be aware of their perception. There are aware beings that have attention but are not self-aware. Being self-aware with attention allows for the concept of space/time. With the concept of space/time conscious/ego can manifest. As stated you have to have all previous qualities to have conscious/ego however all traits can exist with out the latter trait but not vice-versa.
We can then follow this logically and say that consciousness/ego is the by product of 14 billion years of evolution. We can consider the Big Bang as the one true and ultimate process or birth by which the Universe some 14 billion years later through continued cause and effect processes has evolved its self to have conscious beings who can actually witness its own evolution thus far.
"Forgetfulness of Being is the primary error and the illusion of absolute separateness that turns reality into a nightmare." ~Eckart Tolle
As stated by Tolle in the above quote we then see the double edged blade of consciousness/ego. You can not have ego without consciousness that is why I connected both traits with a "/" with no spacing. Being self aware is the prelude to consciousness/ego because we use that trait in a comparative manner to bring forth consciousness/ego. Sort of an "I am therefore you are" consciousness.
Here in through the natural course of human development and the way humans have organized themselves we can see the "primary error" Tolle speaks of. "I am therefore you are" is the perfect phrase which describes division. Notice the underlined above, "have conscious beings who can actually witness its own evolution thus far". We can see how easy it is to view ourselves as separate from everything else. This illusion may be considered a "growing pain" that humanity still to this day fosters and our current organization i.e. societies counts on this "nightmare" to perpetuate itself.
Let us not be too critical of this "growing pain". It is a process by which we as humans have accomplished much. All our science and technology that has enriched our quality of life is the by product of the consciousness/ego to innovate to make itself comfortable in the world. Indeed the ego is a self serving entity and its motivations are based to that end.
We have done this successfully to the point that there are an excess of over 6 billion of us alive today stressing the very world we were birthed on. Good or bad humans are biologically a success story.
There is however a consciousness forming that recognizes that we have grown and therefore should shed this "growing pain" if we are to survive. The growing pain of viewing our selves as separate beings has had obvious repercussions. The illusion of separateness has relieved humans of the responsibility of their actions to the point where we are now at war with the vary world that has birthed us and thus has brought our evolution as human beings to an astonishing halt. A "growing pain" is experienced then after a phase of development disappears. This is precisely what has to happen if we are to survive as a species for like it or not all that is on the earth is of the earth and in the light of this fact the earth may be thought of as a single organism. Our new consciousness should there for be then the undeniable fact that any organism at war with itself is ultimately doomed. ~ more later DRS
NOTHING…
When contemplating such a thing I have to ask what is classified as some of the “big questions”.
Why are we here?
Why would a perfect nothing bring forth?
What would be the reason why a perfect static field of nothingness would bring forth from nothing?
Let's first define nothing. It's almost impossible this day and age for the average person to contemplate nothing because of the never ending chatter that the human ego brings forth in the mind. Call it the "internal dialogue". Anyway, to contemplate nothing you have to deconstruct yourself or the "I" in thought. Be utterly silent in the mind which puts you out of the human concept of time and into the now of just Being.
Some of you will liken nothing as to a void. We think of a void as an area of darkness with no stimulus of the senses. That's the common minds eye definition. But a true void has no recognition of darkness. Perceiving that there is nothing is actually up holding the darkness or nothingness with consciousness and so you fill the void with consciousness that is to say it's not a true void. So we can say in the beginning there was no consciousness.
The void existed out side of time as we think of time. Then we have bringing forth from the void what scientist call the "Big Bang". Before the Big Bang the Universe was 100% potentiality. All things were possible. Then on the other side of nothing all probabilities collapse into the 1 process from which all cause and effect processes make what we see today as the Universe.
It is self evident if you are curious enough to read about the continuing processes of the Universe that there is a definite direction leading to why the way things are the way they are. For instance, the processes that form stars which fuse basic particles into heavy elements and then by the process of the stars death creates and releases more heavy elements into the ever expanding void to form galaxies and second generation stars which in turn through gravitation distills rogue elements of the primordial Universe and matter into worlds which then are trapped by their parent stars to further distill life from the same elements. When I had heard Carl Sagan some years ago say, "We are made of star stuff" I was young but was able to grasp a revelation from that statement. Some of those very elements created by exploding stars make up my eye so I can see the Universe. I had thought.
The above paragraph gives a hurried description of the processes which allows the current Universe to exist the way we see it today. Notice the terms used like "second generation", "definite direction" and "distills" these are all words describing bringing forth processes.
The point has been raised about the vastness of the Universe and given the immensity of 14 billion years of time the said processes could have occurred randomly to evolve the Universe the way it is today. The preposterousness of this statement was evident after humans became more advanced in probability calculations and quantum theory. Consider the reality. The human DNA strand with its myriad of coded amino acids and proteins to make us the way we are randomly would take ultimately much more time then the current age of the known Universe. Generally speaking we haven't been here long enough to be called an accident.
As stated earlier with the, heavy elements that which make up our eyes analogy, we can conclude that our bodies evolved with its senses for perception, that is to say, we are perceiving machines evolved from the many consecutive processes which stemmed from bringing forth from nothing. Humans share through evolution with many beings on earth perception. You can verify perception when an organism responds, through its senses or instinct, to stimulus. What about the things of our experience which we judge not to perceive? We can peel back perception and give them a more basic trait called "being". The term "being" used generically may be applied to all forms in the known Universe as there can be no way one can verify being as it is unique to everything in the Universe, that is to say, we can not judge a rock's "being" as we have no experience of being a rock.
What then makes us human beings the so far known paragon of the processes which “came forth from nothing”?
The way humans perceive the flow of time, which is essentially illusionary, as past- present-future is because of self awareness/ego. We tag moments of time with events that we place our attention on. This brings about consciousness/ego.
Since our consciousness acts like a spot light we naturally perceive conscious events one at a time which in turn gives time its illusion of direction. One can self verify this statement by trying to consciously perceive two events simultaneously. A good analogy of this would be to have someone drop a red ball and a green ball at the same time from a height. Your attention or conscious perception is either on the green ball or the red ball falling. You may switch your focus back and forth between the two quickly which gives the illusion of simultaneous perception.
It can therefore be said that attention is the essence of time. It is a forgone conclusion then that the brain disseminates to consciousness large amounts of sensory data from the senses. The eyes, for example, see both the green and the red ball falling at the same time but your brain disseminates either one or the other to conscious awareness/ego.
So we have:
Being-Perception-Awareness-Attention-Selfaware-Space/Time-Consciousness/Ego
As far as we know today humans are the possessors of all above traits.
It may be confusing to some that the above flow may seem interchangeable but if you think from the end it goes like this. Anything in space/time can just be (Being). There are Beings that can perceive but not be aware of their perception. There are aware beings that have attention but are not self-aware. Being self-aware with attention allows for the concept of space/time. With the concept of space/time conscious/ego can manifest. As stated you have to have all previous qualities to have conscious/ego however all traits can exist with out the latter trait but not vice-versa.
We can then follow this logically and say that consciousness/ego is the by product of 14 billion years of evolution. We can consider the Big Bang as the one true and ultimate process or birth by which the Universe some 14 billion years later through continued cause and effect processes has evolved its self to have conscious beings who can actually witness its own evolution thus far.
"Forgetfulness of Being is the primary error and the illusion of absolute separateness that turns reality into a nightmare." ~Eckart Tolle
As stated by Tolle in the above quote we then see the double edged blade of consciousness/ego. You can not have ego without consciousness that is why I connected both traits with a "/" with no spacing. Being self aware is the prelude to consciousness/ego because we use that trait in a comparative manner to bring forth consciousness/ego. Sort of an "I am therefore you are" consciousness.
Here in through the natural course of human development and the way humans have organized themselves we can see the "primary error" Tolle speaks of. "I am therefore you are" is the perfect phrase which describes division. Notice the underlined above, "have conscious beings who can actually witness its own evolution thus far". We can see how easy it is to view ourselves as separate from everything else. This illusion may be considered a "growing pain" that humanity still to this day fosters and our current organization i.e. societies counts on this "nightmare" to perpetuate itself.
Let us not be too critical of this "growing pain". It is a process by which we as humans have accomplished much. All our science and technology that has enriched our quality of life is the by product of the consciousness/ego to innovate to make itself comfortable in the world. Indeed the ego is a self serving entity and its motivations are based to that end.
We have done this successfully to the point that there are an excess of over 6 billion of us alive today stressing the very world we were birthed on. Good or bad humans are biologically a success story.
There is however a consciousness forming that recognizes that we have grown and therefore should shed this "growing pain" if we are to survive. The growing pain of viewing our selves as separate beings has had obvious repercussions. The illusion of separateness has relieved humans of the responsibility of their actions to the point where we are now at war with the vary world that has birthed us and thus has brought our evolution as human beings to an astonishing halt. A "growing pain" is experienced then after a phase of development disappears. This is precisely what has to happen if we are to survive as a species for like it or not all that is on the earth is of the earth and in the light of this fact the earth may be thought of as a single organism. Our new consciousness should there for be then the undeniable fact that any organism at war with itself is ultimately doomed. ~ more later DRS