The Void and All that Is

I am publishing a few days early this week because I will be busy this week end in a workshop.
Enjoy and don't forget to feed the wild birds!

Perhaps this week, we can consider  the research of Nassim Haramein (2015, The Intelligent Optimist, 12(4) Winter 2015, pgs. 54-59) whose findings on the nature of matter suggest some interesting ideas about how reality is created. He proposes that all matter appears to oscillate between a vacuum and form. Further, his research suggests that the place where matter arises from is the vacuum that surrounds and is within all atoms. This vacuum, is not empty and in fact, holds all the information needed to manifest the universe. Nassim goes on to explain that the Void (I prefer this term since the vacuum is not empty) , can be imagined to be in the shape of a two donuts which spin into themselves in an oscillating movement that flickers in and out of manifest matter.  

                You can check out his video lecture on YouTube, so I will not  attempt to reiterate any further the mechanical details of his research. Suffice to take away from these findings is how the manifestation of reality influences and shapes who we are in the everyday experience of our lives.

                The void holds all the information which the world i.e. all matter, needs to manifest. Haramein’s findings are all in keeping with the ancient Hindu and Buddhist writings about the nature of void and form. The heart Sutra ascribed to the Buddha from about 350 CE most famously states that :

                Form does not differ from the void,

                and the void does not differ from the form.

                Form is the void,

                and the void is form.

(downloaded from http://www.usashaolintemple.org/chanbuddhism-heartsutratranslation/)

                Haramein’s findings are especially eloquent in describing how the flickering back and forth between void and form oscillates so quickly that our everyday consciousness does not notice the flickering and strings all sensations into a discrete experiences which appears to have permanency and independence. However, all reality arises form a ground level voidness. So although form arises from the void, it is different from the void. But in manifestation they can be thought of being one since there appears to be an interdependence between the two. Perhaps what Haramein calls a vacuum and what the Buddhists calls the Void, others have called God , Source, the universal spirit or Soul. And many other names, each according to whoever names it. As the Heart Sutra continues, the Void is described as what it is not-

                Therefore, in the void there are no forms

                and no feelings, conceptions, impulses and no consciousness:

                there is no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body or mind;

                there is no form, sound, smell, taste, touch or idea; no eye elements,

                until we come to no elements of consciousness;

                no ignorance and also no ending of ignorance,

                until we come to no old age and death;

                and no ending of old age and death.(same source as above).

This explanation is contradictory and almost incomprehensible, but perhaps Quantum physics can explain this in more modern terms.

                We appear to be ‘here’  at all times, but quantum physics states that we are absent during the oscillation between void and form. Our consciousness strings together the individual concrete moments of consciousness into a coherent narrative which has meaning, significance and sanity for who we are. The truth is, however, is that we are absent from this reality which we cling to for our identity and anchor in experience, as much as we are present.

Where are we during the times that we are oscillating into the void?

Who are we at these infinitesimal absent moments?

                Perhaps we oscillate at unimaginably fast rhythms is and out of form, to check in and guide the co-creation of our lives with all being and therefore, by extension, our universe. So to really transform, consciously, what we are creating, moment by moment, this theory suggests a number of critical points.

                First, we can only deeply transform who we are and by extension, our lives and experience, in the only place that we can ever truly be, the moment. This is the nexus point of transformation because in the moment, we have access to formlessness, this great reservoir of information which holds all that we need to move forward consciously. By sinking into some kind of phantasy about the past or the future, we will just descend deeper into the imaginative hell realms of our limited ego. We have to step out of the mire which our lack of awareness has created, into light and Soul, into the Void.

                World Metaphoric Transformation gives us the directions and process to step out from the ego centred hell realms into the infinite possibilities of Soul. Remember the first tenant of World Metaphoric Transformation-Soul lives outside the self. The Void creates the world, therefore to return to the source of all matter, we have to follow back to the source of creation. Not through our imagination, memories or limited definitions of self and identity, but into the Void.

                We can reach the Void in various ways, one way is through arduous training in meditative practices, combined with strict physical regime and aesthetics which takes years and indeed , life times.

                Or we can step into Soul using World Metaphoric Transformation, which is always available because it functions it is the only place we can ever be, here and now, inter dependent with all that is. By closely observing how the world is manifesting all around us, in the moment we step directly in Soul and therefore all possibilities.

Try This!

1.       Take some time this week, while you in a state of quietness, contemplation or in the parasympathetic  body/mind state of healing and notice how your mind flicks in the out of moments. Ask yourself, where am I when I’m not here?

2.       Another way to trace your mind and consciousness back to soul, is to notice the world around you, here and now. Notice one thing that will help you understand how you create and co-create your world. E.g. Right now I notice black headed juncos fliting in and out of a tree by my office window.

3.       Using World Metaphoric Transformation, notice why you notice this message. E.g. The birds flit in and out the  tree and I have no idea where they go when they fly away. But they return because I have food here and they are hungry. There is something in the quickness of their flight and the seeming randomness of their coming and going that is mysterious and fascinating. I also notice that they have boundaries to their life- how they fly, eat, return to the feeder, and so forth.

4.       Now, take the message that the world is giving you in the moment about the nature of creating your reality. E.g. I notice that when I am very quiet and my mind has no words going thru it, that there seems to be moments when I am absent, and then I return and I’m in the next moment which appears as a concrete experience. Like the birds, something draws me back, a hunger, a need, some force. If I can tune into that force more subtly then maybe I can define myself and my life’s direction more fully.

5.       This week, also try this. When you are falling asleep, notice how your mind becomes fluid and shifts into other realities. Notice what happens in this between states of mind. If you become very astute in noticing these in between states, you will find that you are different persons in different times with different experiences. This is not a dream state fully, but a kind of lucid dreaming and participation in hidden aspects of self. Is this also where your consciousness goes when you are absent from ‘here’?

6.       Notice and then embody-journal, write poetry, dance, sing, converse with others who are also on a spiritual journey.

Joy in the journey!