Time and Place

Each day this week I will discuss the evidence for our interconnection in the world. Our feelings of separateness can lead us to feelings of dissatisfaction because we have lost our connection to the universe, to who we really are.

Monday – Origins - A Moment in Singularity (a.k.a. The Big Bang)
Tuesday - Holarchy
Wednesday - Chaos and the Hidden Order of Life
Thursday - Synchrony
Today - Time and Place

As contemplation of time deepens, a new understanding emerges. There is quiet stillness in each moment. There is also simultaneous change, movement, activity as the universe pivots into the next moment. This realization is quite stunning. There is both stillness and motion in each moment of time.

The stillness emphasizes the interconnection of everything, while the motion emphasizes its separateness. The stillness emphasizes the eternal nature of time, while the motion emphasizes the passage of time. Stillness and motion are not separate but simultaneous.

When we are in the quiet stillness it is as if we have fallen out of time into eternal time, a feeling of no-time. We are witness to timelessness and interconnection within each moment. Yet we know that time marches on.

If we can carry this understanding with us into the pivot of each moment of change, our lives become fuller, more connected to everything. We are now one, interconnected and interdependent in each moment of time.

And then finally as to place; here we are all gathered on our beautiful planet Earth. Of all the billions and billions of stars and their planets, we just happened to end up here, together. Wow, now take that for shared connection!

Interconnection and Interdependence

Each day this week I will discuss the evidence for our interconnection in the world. Our feelings of separateness can lead us to feelings of dissatisfaction because we have lost our connection to the universe, to who we really are.

Most spiritual traditions attempt to teach us how to realize a unity of mind, body and spirit; to expand beyond our societal traditions of individuality and disconnectedness. My purpose here is not to deny your individuality, but to expand your vision of yourself with the evidence of your connection to the universe.

Today – Origins - A Moment in Singularity (a.k.a. The Big Bang)
Tuesday - Holarchy
Wednesday - Chaos and the Hidden Order of Life
Thursday - Synchrony
Friday - Time and Place

Origins - A Moment in Singularity (a.k.a. The Big Bang)
According to the theory of general relativity, the initial state of the universe just prior to the Big Bang, was a gravitational singularity. Imagine all the matter and energy of the universe condensed into a single focused point. And then, BANG!!!!

In that moment before the Big Bang all matter and energy was in close proximity, including the tiny amount that would become us. Let me say that again, to our best understanding, all matter and energy arose at the same time and in the same moment, leading to us as beings.

The materials that we are made of are the same materials that the oceans, and land, all the animals and plants are made. The air that we breathe, the water that we drink is shared with all living things, now, in the past and for ever more. As far as scientists know, no matter or energy is destroyed or created, only converted into a different form of matter or energy. Forms may change, the materials and energy stay the same (e=mc2).

In the pursuit of superconductors, scientists have developed new understandings of atoms and how they act. Starting with theories by Einstein and Bose in the 1920’s, scientists recently reported making atoms work in unison at very low temperatures. This has demonstrated interconnectedness at the atomic level. As this is the very substrate of life, our connection to the universe actually starts here.

With the advent of genetic research we find that the average two unrelated humans share 99.9% of the same genetic material. Humans share 98% with chimpanzees, 79% with whales, dolphins, hippos and camels. Clearly, we are more genetically and physiologically related to other animals than not.

So, from the beginning to now, and into the foreseeable future, the physical connections between us and everything else can be found everywhere we look.


Photo by laura_world_wide via deviantart.com