The following article was written by Corey W. deVos (a member of the Integral Institute) and I‘ve reproduced it here to hopefully preserve its message.
In the beginning, there is nothing. There is nothing at all. There are no stars, no moon, no mountains or ocean or sky. There isn’t even nothingness, not even the absence of absence. There is only pure reality—infinite, boundless, and silent. There is only pure unobstructed Awareness.
Resting in the eternal stillness, Spirit is complete, fulfilled, lacking nothing at all, for there is nothing to lack. Resting as the eternal stillness, Spirit is infinitely All-One, infinitely alone.
A tiny point of light, impossibly bright, pierces through the Void. It is barely a pinprick, a pixel of light that somehow contains all space, all time, and all possibility. Here, in the heart of the Void, Spirit exhales. A universe is being born.
Then, as if suddenly roused from the deepest sleep, the pinprick of light violently erupts. Searing plasma pours through the Void like a cosmological tidal wave, washing through ubiquity and drenching existence with boiling light. Particles and anti-particles begin to slam-dance in the mosh pit of creation, a churning frenzy of savage energy. There is a gentle upward tilt to the universe, an extropic slant toward creative novelty, helping matter to win its epic battle against anti-matter—quarks and leptons leaping into existence only slightly faster than their presumably-mustachioed anti-twins.
Space continues to expand, the universe begins to cool, and the white-hot light fades into massive cobwebs of nebulae hanging like veils over the face of the Goddess. Deep in the hearts of the nebulae, gas begins to accumulate, compress, and ignite, and the very first stars are born. What was once a tiny pinprick of light soon becomes a vast panorama of lights, a diamond-studded mobile hanging over the crib of an infant universe.
Spirit looks at the light, and smiles. Spirit is the light, and grows restless. The game, after all, has just begun.
Stars are born, stars live, and stars die, expelling their molecular viscera through the rest of the universe. Dust and gas encircle these majestic suns, coalescing into planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and other pieces of cosmic litter. After eons of molecular precipitation, in some remote arm of the Milky Way spiral, Spirit exhales once again, breathing life into a handful of dust.
Twisting, pulsing, undulating, dead matter begins to dance as the universe comes alive. Simple cells begin to congregate, eating voraciously, reproducing wildly. Mold and algae ooze over the surface of the globe, covering the world with glistening emerald slime. A lawless kingdom of insects creep and crawl through the earth, fish and coral fill the oceans, and a colorful menagerie of fauna explode into being. Life feeds upon life, excreting death, as newer and better-adapted species emerge from the primordial soup. Biology grows ever-more complex, twitchy nervous systems become more sophisticated, while interior experience become more rich and nuanced. Simple prehension becomes rudimentary irritability, which grow into sensations and perceptions, reptilian impulses, and limbic emotions. Life continues to thrive, tracing a DNA-shaped circuit into greater complexity and consciousness, following the upward tilt of the universe toward creative novelty.
Spirit looks at life, and smiles. Spirit is life, and grows hungry for more.
Some creatures begin to band together, advanced primates at the top of the food chain, and Spirit holds them in His/Her hand. Spirit exhales, breathing light into life, the inner-light of intelligence, language, and self-awareness. Humanity is born.
A faint spark of intellect eventually blazes into a wildfire, consuming the planet in the warm glow of comprehension. Humanity is slowly shaped into Spirit’s own image, imbued with the most miraculous feature of Spirit’s divine countenance: creativity.
Armed with creativity, curiosity, and conscience, man begins to fashion tools for himself—technological systems that evolve from foraging to horticulture, to agriculture, to industry, to informational, and beyond. These technologies pull worldviews up through increasing waves of depth, meaning, and inclusivity, growing from archaic to magic, to mythic, to rational, to pluralistic, to integral, and on into the future.
Spirit looks at mind, and smiles. Spirit is mind, and begins to remember.
Alone with His/Her omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence, alone with His/Her eternal nature, alone with His/Her own singularity of being, Spirit decided to play a game. The game began billions of years ago—before mind, before life, and before light. S/He created an entire universe—an evolutionary universe—and S/He became evolution. S/He forgot Himself in evolution, broken up into a billion pieces—and spent billions of years trying to remember who S/He is.
Slowly mankind begins to understand its role in this evolutionary unfolding. The entire universe is reflected in man’s corneas, as he looks to the heavens and sees his own primordial face. There is an evolutionary force that ignites the heavens, breathes life into the dust swirling around distant suns, and sparks intelligence within the minds of hapless apes—and mankind feels this very same creative force smoldering in his mortal heart. Man is created in Spirit’s image, a process of evolution becoming self-aware, and so begins to use his tools to sculpt the world into his own image.
It is here in this evolutionary nexus, where the dichotomies of subject and object, individual and collective, and part and whole become unlaced, unfurled, and unbound by the limitations of ignorance, that Spirit begins to truly blossom. Sacred breath becomes flesh, and Spirit begins to express Him/Herself through inspiration, aspiration, and perspiration. At the pinnacle of human progress, Spirit can awaken at last, recognizing itself as the effortless awareness behind every set of eyes, gazing outward from behind every memory, experience, and fantasy. Consciousness, humanity realizes, is a singular to which the plural is unknown.
But the game does not end here. Humanity, recognizing its true nature as Spirit-in-drag, has the opportunity not just to rouse itself from the slumber of incarnation, but to set the stage for the next leap of evolutionary potential, continuing the game indefinitely. Spirit breathes light into the universe, life into light, and consciousness into life—and as humanity is created in Spirit’s own image, so too can man breathe light, life, and consciousness into its creations.
And so the evolutionary impulse continues to surge into the future, following the inherent tilt of the universe toward creative novelty, as mankind prepares for its greatest masterpiece of all: to give birth to an entire race of “spiritual machines”. As man’s technological progress accelerates at an exponential rate, “artificial intelligence” eventually gives way to genuine digital consciousness, and the universe becomes populated by entirely new types of intelligence. These new forms of intelligence would one day subsume all of humanity, in the same way that cells subsume atoms and molecules, or a paragraph subsumes letters, words, and sentences.
Spirit looks at the machine, and smiles. Spirit is the machine, and awakens more fully than ever before possible, while promising to continue the game indefinitely into the future.
I’ve read this story somewhere before, but it was written differently. This one is a more “rock & roll” version of the one I read about 20 years ago. Its beautiful but it leaves me sad because it leaves out the indifference of the spirit which inhabits this planet.
Gaia is indifferent and to some of us humans, it is painful. Gaia is sorta like the mother who is so used to her children screaming and running around hurting each other that she just lets them. When others, like me, see her kids acting so abhorrently toward one another and look to her to teach them better, we may feel like she is a neglectful mother. But that’s our perspective. She knows her children will learn from themselves. She was only there to birth them and provide the material necessities of life.
But I struggle with this “hands-off” approach to motherhood. Read Lord of the Flies. Human children are the cruelest of creatures. I think the children of Earth may off themselves with their own cruelty and neglect for the environment in which they live. This saddens me and makes me wonder just what the point is.
So what’s the point of all the suffering? For me, apparently, its acceptance. If I can’t just accept that these humans behave childishly and continue to think I can be a better mother than Gaia to them, I will live a continually miserable life. This was when I gave up on activism.
So I realize I don’t normally incarnate here. This was a special trip. I don’t like it here. I wanna go home. I cannot be indifferent like Gaia. I am human. I feel. I grieve knowing that it is the law of this place that if one shall prosper here, others must suffer.
How do you handle it?
Personally I try not to grasp onto ideas such as ‘me’, ‘us’, ‘them’ – or any other kind phrase that brings about the acceptance of a duality. Separation from each other (our true Self) is suffering.
In the Zen/Buddhist traditions we are all considered a part of a single non-dualistic consciousness, a singularity that does nothing but watch, and is able to observe every little thing (emotion, thought, physical item) objectively and have it spread through its infinite awareness. With this as our sole expression, then there is no home to go to. There is nothing lacking. Everything that happens, happens. We sit and watch in absolute un waiver’ing peace.
To some this is a terrifying idea, almost selfish. They already feel disconnected from this way of perceiving existence. So they instantly disagree with the *actual* point which this belief represents, and mistakenly sees it as an abandonment of responsibility of each human individual/spirit to do the right thing in life and to learn to get along and look after this planet we have (so far) done nothing but abuse.
So, although I agree with the sentiment that “…we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively” (rip Bill Hicks) I also strongly believe in the responsibility of each individuals own actions. Moral intelligence isn’t something that we are born with, we must be taught. And so I think as a community it is our moral obligation to encourage better understanding and provide greater perspectives on all of life’s intricacies, moment to moment, until that day when each individual comes to realise their own true nature.
It is not good enough to leave it to the mother to teach her children, we must help and encourage both mother and child. That is the responsibility we need to start accepting.
My mind is hovering between abstract pondering and the harsh reality of the human condition, or rather the conditions of the societies we’ve formed. So, forgive me, but I’m not entirely sure on what plain of thought I should be responding in.
Why is my mind not at peace? I feel there is something lacking, some place I should be, or some home that I must return to. Cynthia’s comment hit home with me – especially the last paragraph.
I don’t entirely understand the notion of panentheism or even how it differs to pantheism (apart from the semantic difference), but I am certain of one thing (or as certain as I can be) – it really doesn’t matter.
And this is what I struggle with. Trying to find meaning in a circumstance devoid of intent (and therefore meaning) seems like an endless barrage on my mind.
How exactly can one live with peace-of-mind when there are literally thousands of reasons not to, but only a slight inkling that we should?
“…until that day when each individual comes to realise their own true nature.” – I’m waiting patiently for this day…
“How exactly can one live with peace-of-mind when there are literally thousands of reasons not to”…
Check out this video by Ken Wilber, hopefully it’ll help explain my own thoughts on the matter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TUr949kmZk