A Nucleus on a Globe, The Cosmos & Eternity

“The Chinese conceived the entire universe as activated by two principles, The Yang and the Yin, the positive and the negative. And they considered that nothing that exists, either animate or so-called inanimate, does so except by the ceaseless interplay of these two forces. Yang and Yin, Matter and Energy, Heaven and Earth are conceived as essentially One, or as two coexistant poles of one indivisible whole. It is a philosophy of the essential unity of the universe and eternal cycles, of the leveling of all differences, the relativity of standards, and the return of all to the divine Intelligence, the Source of All Things.” – Bruce Lee’s brilliant summary of Daoism

You’re never anything more than a nucleus through which a whirlpool forms from both ends, but a nucleus in all cases. Remember that next time you inflate yourself beyond your natural scope. There’s wisdom in travelling light; a whale can only move ever so slowly in the ocean, a bird could not ride the winds were it not so free of the burden of immensity, souls could not float to the horizons where the constellations meet the sea, between the Heavens and the Earth, if they cannot break from the matter that binds them. In one sense, souls are always inching ever closer to that Final Bright Light everything returns to, until we're finally released back to the One in our body’s passing. In this sense, God is transcendent, forever out of grasp and however close we may get to the Light of Reality, we always return to and are embedded in our sensuous and bodily experience. In another way our souls are already There, swimming in God's immanence, the Reality's presence in the pulse of all living beings, animate or inanimate. The Light fields the entire Cosmos, in a way bright and untethered life, in another dark and burbling colors, two sides enveloping the same Seed.

Time and Eternity coincide much like the material Body and an incorporeal Mind do. Suppose you hopped in a time machine and went back to the first second of the Big Bang, right there next to the tip of the needle this Cosmos emerged from, and froze time. Now suppose you went back two seconds, to the moment right before the beginning of time and space for that matter! What would the dial on the panel of your time hopping Delorean say? Would ‘when’ and ‘where’ even be relevant questions to ask anymore? Space is a measure of relative positionality, time is only sequential in a changing, temporal Universe that was born just as we are and that Dies just as we do. Eternity on the other hand is neither a participant experiencing the relative unfolding of Time renewing itself into something that it never was, nor a corporeal junkbox for whom directions like left and right, up and down, yesterday or tomorrow, would gain substance. Nope, Eternity or the One oversees the unification of birth and decay just as much as matter and Spirit, the Principle on which all other structures in this Universe depends on, especially Love. God, or the Reality on one hand, and our lives in the material and temporal world on the other, are coexisting in parallel, God is watching, watched and watches this Universe blink in an instant. Existing simultaneously, ‘here and now’ , except ‘here and now’ are only ways of orienting ourselves with regards to one another in this contiguous plane of causal existence and with regards to God. ‘Here and now’ don’t mean anything to an Eternal and necessary Prime Mover. While standing apart from, enveloping, and in genesis of the Universe, we can nevertheless see the Light of the Real in every day life, experience it in the living world and around the carcass of the dying worlds. Despite this, all that we can see in this World has never been what lies within the Seed; the One is the necessary and indivisible Whole on which this whole Cosmos depends on for sustenance and existence, consequently, the One that lies above the Arch, is independent of All, and the unifying Principle of All -- giving neither birth to nor being birthed by another, the One that stand apart and above All Else.

However close, however far, the choice of the living and dying worlds are within and all-around us. Our History stands a testament to that, moments of peaceful and just love, bright summer afternoons with Friends, well-lived days of communion and care; but also days of ravaging war, dehumanizing neglect and vilification, snares of iron and satin, genocidal imprints of the blind lead by the bloodthirsty. Our History is always ours to form, our individual fates are never distinct from the fate of the Collective, our choices and actions carry with our peoples, our people, but also the People, all the other souls in your community, in your territory, on the Globe and under the Sun. They all share the same Fate, all their lived experiences are in constant communication and co-creation. How we relate to this revisted notion of a relational Self, how we relate to our own soul, and to the World Soul we are in communion with, matters. We can only ever Love and Suffer so far out, trust and be brave so deep inwards; otherwise it’s just overwhelming. Nevertheless the Reality of this Global and eventually the Universal ecosystem is one of collective Love and Suffering. Of caring empathy for its inhabitants’ joy and misery. Choosing to authentically Love the souls that are like and in indivisible communion with us, all the humans, animals and environments our hearts are inclined by natural propensity to care for - also means loving those souls when they call on us for action or support when their wellbeing is being threatened. See, it's a hard truth to act on, to know very well that Their joy and misery, all of theirs, is inescapably, unavoidably and necessarily our Own. Okay 1. That’s heavy dude. Who in their right mind would commit their lives to the wellbeing of the entire living world!? Sounds more manageable when we remember we’re just a nucleus. Housed in a little self–sufficient organism of living beating flesh. My heart can only stretch so far out, and yet to live for expanding the breadth and depth of our Love is a cool purpose. We’re each responsible for our own little circles of care, our people, our parents, our brothers and sisters, the people we have chosen to relinquish our capacity to choose to Love for. We don’t have to carry all the burden of our connective and living fabric, that’s what Allah is here for! God’s Mercy and Love is so miraculous. Nevertheless acknowledging our propensity to care for the Worlds that cradle and raise Us, is also quite miraculous. This World can be polluted by the fog of human insensitivity and cruelty in the face of collective suffering, and every one of us is equipped to care for it a little bit more.