Children of the Stars!

Tuesday 24 Oct 2017

We all know now that we are literally made from the Stars. Physicists have confirmed it with astronomical and other observations! We know that we are completely and intimately bound into and connected to the Universe. All of the elements that make our bodies have been manufactured in stars. The heavier elements, most important for the functioning and make up of our bodies --- those elements beyond Iron (Fe) on the periodic table, were made in titanic supernovae explosions at the death of larger stars and they continue to be scattered widely into the Universe. These supernova are vast energetic explosions that provide seed material for new stars and planets. The direct observations of gravity waves produced from such an explosion was observed just last week and connected to one of these supernova events.

We live in a Universe full of Birth and Death, Beginnings and Endings with endings that condition new beginnings, and so it goes. Stars and Planets are being born to live and then die, only to be reborn again and again and again. These cycles are also important from a spiritual perspective. In Buddhism they represent the second and third Noble truth that is in a list of Four Noble Truths which were the first teachings of the Buddha.  Beginnings that condition endings and endings conditioning beginnings, Birth Death and Rebirth, constant relative movement all nested in the present moment! Aeons of involvement with this relative and beguiling delusional movement eventually leaves one world weary and longing for true peace. This is the Dukkha or dissatisfaction described by the Buddha in his First of his Four Noble Truths.

Physics has discovered many facts about the evolution of our universe. Looking back over deep time and space it has been able to describe the evolution of the Universe and it has even peered into the mysterious nature of its Quantum Mechanical beginnings; past the point where measurements are meaningful.  Measurements smaller than 10^-43 seconds and 10^-34 centimetres provide a physical boundary to what can ever be measured. Beyond this we move into the mysterious quantum arena of probability, uncertainty and unknowability. This is where we are approaching the present moment of Absolute Truth. Biological Science has also given us a very good knowledge of human evolution. It has charted our course from what is seen as the beginning of life, at the time of our planet being formed and continues with the natural selection that has evolved since then.

Physics generally has made a good fist of understanding and describing the physical nature of the universe, especially as it pertains to the Baryonic matter that forms the Universe and our physicality. It can all be seen in a vast series of nested beginnings and endings, building and changing with the smallest of movements, evolving with the birth and death of each era and epoch. Each finish, small or large, moves to condition new beginnings and so on, all nested logically and underpinned with Evolution. Natural selection describes the way we have evolved. It is a beautiful framework that is supported by Newtonian Physics at larger scales, then Einstein’s Relativity as we go deeper into time and space until we reach the mysterious realm of Quantum Mechanics. All of this is wonderful to behold and has the ring of truth to it, but it does nothing to explain why! This is where the delusion I mentioned earlier becomes clear, this is where the energy of consciousness will have its sway. Because the human condition is made up from Intellect and Emotion, Head and Heart, and the heart with its feeling and emotion can and does play a big role.    

Physicists have so far accounted for less than 5% of the baryonic matter that they know makes up about 20% of the universes energy.  They are relatively confident of finding the rest of this baryonic matter. Some will be easier to detect and find than other more exotic forms of what is called Dark Matter. There are brilliant experiments being designed to look at areas where this Dark Matter is thought to be operating. Experimentation and inferred explanations (like finding the God particle) will no doubt eventually find the rest of this physical matter, but it will remain so that 80% of the universes energy will not be discovered in the physical arena. We know that it is there in the Universe, because its energy has large effects on the scale and movement of the matter within it. The difficulty comes in describing it or measuring it, because in physical terms all that is left over after the physical is accounted for is the stillness of a vacuum and this is the realm of Quantum Mechanics. Finding the rest of the baryonic matter will no doubt be difficult, but it is a natural job for physics to do. To find and describe the remaining 80% of the Universes energy, we will need to look at things more consciously and from a different perspective. This is where personal spiritual development will come to the fore. We need to understand that all the physical is embedded in our consciousness, and it turns out to be a very personal experience that we need to understand.

We pay very little attention to the realm of consciousness, even though it is such a personal space. We share the universes consciousness but paradoxically it is kept in place with our personal mind stream. It has always been so! Deep meditation allows this process to be seen. Consciousness fills our mind. It is the matrix to everything that we think and do. When we look out into the world, the way we see, hear, feel, taste or smell it is all embedded in the consciousness we experience. The mind itself is another sense, a sixth sense in that it interprets the conditions we experience in the way we have been conditioned. It can also confabulate its own stories and create its own worlds. Our stream of consciousness is constantly changing as it navigates all of the beginnings and ends that are nested large and small; events that include our birth death and rebirth. We affect the universal consciousness and it affects us.

There are three ways consciousness can impinge on us, first we can be conditioned consciously. We can know what we are taking in and consciously know how we are interpreting it. Second, we can react to a stimulus or take in a suggestion subconsciously; the suggestion may reinforce previous conditioning or challenge us to take on a new concept. Then thirdly, we can be changed unconsciously by external conditions that affect us, even when we don’t know! Many unconscious beings that are in that state knowingly or unknowingly are manipulated both for good and evil, not just mentally but physically as well. Consciousness is ubiquitous, it is all pervasive and there is no doubt that it is the remaining 80% of dark energy unaccounted for in the universe.

It is doubtful that Physics will ever be able to detect this energy directly, much less ever get control of it in the normal way we work with the physical. As mentioned it is a very personal thing, and every one of us has direct contact with it. We use it to get our way, we use it to manipulate our circumstances, we follow the way it has conditioned us to love who we love and to hate who we hate. We are so easily manipulated by others. Advertising and ideology’s get in subconsciously. Our Parents Families, Schools, Institutions and Governments all condition us.  The powerful have control over the weak including the consciousness of animals and we can be conditioned to do the most beautiful and generous of things, or perpetrate the most heinous of crimes. We can use it to justify and destroy or to create and build. Such is the influence of consciousness when it is conditioned. When it moves and we believe in the conditions of the movement we grasp it, so to speak, and it brings the entire Universe into play, because consciousness is there in everything, and every movement has it affect.

How do I know this is true? I know because I have practiced to make my mind still so it can be used as a datum to observe the conscious movement of my life. I have done enough work to know the structure of consciousness beyond any doubt.  As said, it is a very personal thing and I do not expect or want my readers to believe me. I would however respectfully request that everyone look into their mind and discover the stillness for themselves, just as the Buddha did. He first discovered this Absolute Truth at the core of the present moment some 2500years ago. The Buddhist practice of meditation teaches us how to know about this stillness. The Buddha talked about still consciousness as an aggregation that forms the matrix of mind. It is the basic condition of the mind and it naturally allows everything else is built upon it. The Buddha listed five aggregations to explain the Universe. The last four or 80% are mental conditions, while the first aggregate, 20% is physical. (This is basically in line with the energetic composition of the universe described by Physics)   Moving consciousness, (the fourth aggregation) continues to build mental conditions with past volition embedded. (See my last blog “The Will of Consciousness?”) These conditions will then fuse into the physical as required. Still consciousness can also be seen as spaciousness or emptiness. The space of the universe can be seen in this condition. The space in your living room is the same. Still consciousness has a quality, a texture that can be known because it is feeding back into the present moment continuously, countless times in the wink of an eye according to the Buddha. This feedback gives it an identity for the mind to know even though it is still. It then brings the entire universe with it. It is all being born and dying, beginning and ending countless times in the wink of an eye.

With practice the right view of the way things are starts to come into mind. Our perspective changes! First we notice the stillness in our mind, and this is a tremendous insight. We notice that the stillness not only creates but also penetrates to break up conditions. It is a healer and a peace maker. As we practice with it our perception changes again and we start to see it is there wherever our attention goes. We see the stillness surrounding the objects of our mind. Then we realise it is everywhere and that the entire world is embedded into it. We start to see that all of the conditions are nested with stillness at the core. As this insight develops we pay more attention to the stillness because it is compelling and as we settle and relax with it even more we come to know it completely, beyond any doubt, then --- it just finishes! It finishes feeding back from the world and we know that the universe has integrated within us and it has unified with us. Rebirth has finished in that moment. If this knowledge remains in place at death there will be no more rebirths. All this has happened in the present moment.  We see that all that has past is embedded in this present moment. This personal knowledge leaves no doubt that the present moment is where Absolute Truth resides. It is always there. It is there right now. We need only to faithfully practice the fourth Noble truth of the Buddha, which sets out his Noble Eight Fold Path, to realise the beauty of the Truth Absolute. Here all conditions end in balance and we can realise like the Buddha before us, Absolute Peace of Mind.