Well, it's pretty pretty sometimes.......... (Photo: Nirananda)
As outlined in my previous piece ('Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine', July 10th 2012), things haven't quite worked out as planned this summer. In place of the reading list on alternative history, the expeditions to remote mountain peaks, the various mystical practices, I have been enduring a season of unanticipated, enforced homelessness. Stress and manual spadework have been major characteristics. Yet, among all the emotional and physical upheavals, the inconveniences and privations, the dust and plasterboard, the endless to-and-fro between places, the sense of being rootless with the attendant inability to focus on anything properly, there has been a feeling niggling away constantly in the background. That the entire episode is elegant and gracious, timed to perfection, and absolutely the right thing to be happening. This apparent domestic crisis, with its accompanying element of trauma, has forced me to face fair and square one of the big questions: how does the universe work?
One reading is that it's all a bit of an accident. What happened in my home was simply a dose of 'bad luck'. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, that's all. Specifically, old galvanised water tanks do sometimes spring a leak. Could've happened to anyone, really.
The thing is that intuitively, instinctually, emotionally, physically even, this explanation doesn't really ring true. Once I've seen beyond the debris of personal emotional reactions, it is more like part of the dance of the universe. Once we've got over the puerile (non)distinction between things that are alive (mainly human beings), things that are deemed dead (rocks, tables, oceans), and those that are in between but treated as pretty inert (trees, dandelions, sardines), we see that everything is both interconnected and animated. This is not, apparently, just a strange mystical notion harboured on Pale Green Vortex and by other assorted weirdos: it is borne out by quantum physics and other cutting edge science.
The confection of animation and interconnection as foundation building blocks for the universe implies that there are not literally and ultimately separate beings and consciousnesses at all. My apparently separate being is at most a pragmatic, ever-changing fragment, in endless relation to the flux of the whole, the universal. And in the case of this summer's events, universal consciousness has decided the time was right to help me along my sacred path by arranging an 'accident' that might facilitate my movement onward. As an example, themes that I have been working on, at times struggling with, for years, related to energy imbalance in the psycho/physical organism I call 'me', have been rudely thrown to the fore as a result of this summer's happenings. The old has been ruthlessly flushed out by the destructively purifying agent of the water element. My own shamanic/energetic/mystical/meditation practice has, over the past year, expanded in ways I would hitherto have considered inconceivable. Maybe I have been being primed for the accident event. Maybe I should feel privileged that universal consciousness has decided to take a serious interest in me at this moment, deeming me strong enough to take some hefty medicine. Maybe.
The notion that the universe is not only an interconnected system, but is imbued with intentionality, is not one to find favour with members of the Richard Dawkins fan club. But if life and the universe are not just random directionless accidents, what can they be?
I am reminded of a number of ideas emanating from the diverse world of Buddhism. In one of his more brilliant moments, my former Buddhist teacher expounded on the theme of the 'Cosmic Going for Refuge' (sadly, probably one of his half-lost-and-forgotten teachings, displaced by concerns of a more prosaic and organisational nature). Proposed tentatively and as a poetic rendering, the Cosmic Going for Refuge nevertheless suggests that everything is involved in the movement towards greater truth and wisdom. Subtly, obliquely, imperceptibly even, yet every rock, deer, tree, and can of beans participates. It is hard-wired into the consciousness of the universe.
A more traditional foundation stone, of the Mahayana schools of Buddhism, is Bodhicitta. Though sometimes translated as 'Enlightenment Mind' or 'Thought of Enlightenment', it is really more a matter of volition and of the heart. In its manifestation as 'Absolute Bodhicitta', it expresses the same universal consciousness in its intentional or volitional aspect. It is the fundamental drive in the universe, towards greater awareness, wisdom, and impeccable emotionality. This drive too becomes embodied in the Bodhisattva, a being who traditionally vows not to enter Nirvana until all others have come to enlightened fruition. Given the interconnectedness of all phenomena, it would be impossible for a Bodhisattva to literally disappear off the chart anyway. To even think in that way would be a disavowal of what a Bodhisattva is in her/his deeper aspect, a manifestation of the basic intention at the heart of the universe.
The Gnostics conceived of primal intentionality for the human species in a slightly different way. For them, it consisted of realignment with Gaia-Sophia, the Wisdom Goddess embodied in planet Earth. Gaia-Sophia would have us throw off the deviating influence of the Archons, rediscover our true nature, and embark on a joint venture with her, thereby bringing to fruition both our own deeper nature and hers.
A consideration of the primacy of the intentional, volitional aspect in the universe also sheds new and fascinating light on some of the 'big subjects' of modern times. For instance, there is the matter of 'the environment' and the apparent scarcity of physical resources. If intentionality is indeed hard-wired into the fabric of the universe, then it is not just 'what we do' but 'how and why we do it' that matters. Using up the planet's resources is near the top of the guilt list for members of modern western societies. But we could speculate differently. Maybe Gaia-Sophia, out of the pure love that is the reflection of her great wisdom, has provided from the very womb of her being for our benefit. Use these resources wisely and judiciously, with care and love, to support our own growing awareness and harmony with the greater intention of the universe, and we will be smiled upon by Gaia-Sophia. She is happy to give of herself in the name of awakening. Should we squander these gifts, however, using them for personal gain, to feed separate selfhood rather than our deeper natures, then all hell may well break loose.
Whatever the status of these speculations, a disquieting feeling near the bedrock of my being remains: maybe the universe doesn't work the way we normally think at all.........
