Saturday, May 18, 2024
3:45 a.m. Onward? Did you want to tell us what you meant by the universe making up its mind? Or did you have a different direction you want to go in?
By saying that, we meant merely that the universe is one thing, comprising many things. You will remember, we described the structure of reality as fractal, “as above, so below.” Man is the measure of all things.
I get it. That holds psychologically as well as physically.
We have to smile at that formulation. Don’t you think that’s kind of backwards?
I guess it is, now you mention it. Of course psychologically would be primary, given that the physical is mind-stuff.
So, at any level you care to examine, the same processes are going on, although their similarity may not be obvious. If the life of an individual is choosing, so is the life of any level above or below the individual.
That raises an image of the microbes within us choosing.
As we said, not always obvious. How do you suppose your health fluctuates, if not in response to fluctuations among the microbes that you are?
- They are affected by their environment, physical so-called and, mostly, mental.
- They are affected by their chemical composition, by every combination that surrounds or comprises them.
- They in turn make certain things possible or easy or impossible or difficult in the larger organisms they help comprise.
- And – remember, though this must seem counter-intuitive, given the continuous evidences of your senses – they too are mind-stuff, hence are part of the equation, not afterthoughts.
- Why else do you suppose that your physical health is affected by your choices? We mean, the physical directly responds to the mental: How? You see?
- Be careful not to be misled by the fact that a given phenomenon may be called by this or that name. That doesn’t mean it’s separate, it means it may be considered separately, the way an arm may be considered apart from a hand or a shoulder, but does not function meaningfully outside the context of arm and shoulder, and of course the same for them.
And, as usual, what goes when you look downward goes when you look upward. You may be considered a microbe in a larger organism you can scarcely conceive of. That doesn’t mean that’s all you are; it means you can be seen that way. Everything connects; everything is sentient in this same manner; nothing is unconscious or extra or insufficient to fulfill its function.
Plus, remember, this goes on continually, in the eternal present. It isn’t a matter of past, present, future, except in appearance. So in that sense the choices continue not only in all directions laterally but also temporally.
It’s all alive; it’s all in interactive motion. In that sense, the universe may be said to be perpetually deciding what it is, what it knows, what it is for.
You may want to explain that last. “What it’s for?”
If you as individuals repeatedly ask, “What is the purpose of life,” do you suppose you’re the only ones?
I hadn’t thought about it, but I suppose I would have said yes, we are.
Well, then you would be something unique in the world, wouldn’t you? Do you think that’s likely?
We’ve been told that humans are unique in 3D in that we are the ones who change the environment that creates us: mentally, I take it, no less than physically. If we are unique in that, why shouldn’t we be unique in other things?
There’s a difference. Changing your environment by your choices is your role. Trees, minerals, other animals, all have their roles. So in that sense, you are not unique. You are playing your specialized part as everything does. But if would be different for you to be the only ones concerned with the meaning of life. You would be more conscious than the rest of reality.
Is that so impossible? I thought the purpose of the 3D environment or at least its result, is to increase our focus.
This is ranging a little beyond our intended scope, but since it comes up, we can pursue it.
As 3D affects mental life, it both sharpens and narrows your consciousness. You can perceive only here-now; you can experience only here-now. But that very limitation provides the ability to conceive, to virtually experience, what you cannot experience within the 3D environment. Thus you are brought to your toes, and are given wings. Does this make you more conscious, or less conscious, than those in non-3D?
Not sure where we’re going here. Both or either, I suppose.
And if you, why not cats? Or elephants? Or fields of grass? They live in 3D constriction. They respond to life minute by minute. They function and their lives are “recorded” same as yours. Is there a difference?
It feels like there is, but I’d be hard-pressed to say what or how.
We would see it this way: Each kind of 3D creature has its specific function – its ecological niche, you might say – and in that sense is different. But they are all part of the same reality.
It’s the usual thing: Do we identify with the actor or the director or the movie as a whole.
Precisely. Where you begin limits how you cans see things. But the cure for that limitation is merely to see it from a different starting-place, and take in the new view, not forgetting or overriding the previous, but adding to it.
As you told us as long ago as Muddy Tracks.
Reality hasn’t changed.
To return to the mental life of microbes –
Here you can see the power of words to channel or limit your perceptions and reasoning. If we said “The mental life of microbes” it would seem artificial, almost ridiculous. But if we said, “The mind-stuff molded into microbes as it was similarly molded into humans,” would that seem such a stretch?
I see your point.
Reality is all one thing. You have to keep coming back to that. If you allow 3D dualistic bias to overcome your ability to intuit unity, you will never come to the greater truth that lies beyond sensory evidence.
So perhaps you can see, in saying that the universe if making up its mind, we mean (among other things) that everything is alive, it is conscious, it is aware, it is questioning, it is deciding (weighing) as it goes along. Each part of reality has its own specialization, but specialization does not mean separation, it means a different emphasis.
“Man is the measure of all things.” If you want to know reality, come to know yourself. You can’t know the mind of a planet, or a star, or a nebula. You can’t know the mind of a cat, or of cats as a group-mind, or a microbe or a piece of granite. But you can come to know you, and in coming to know yourself you can feel your way to the rest. We don’t know any other way to say this that will make it clearer.
I get that you’re ready to stop for the moment, and it has been an hour, but tell me, what do I call this session? What was its center of gravity?
“The universe deciding” would do as well as anything.
Okay, our thanks as always.