NYAZEOn Living, Technology and Art

OK, so today scientists think the universe might just be an immense cosmic hologram and all the stuff we thought the universe was made out of might just turn out to be literally nothing at all. I, for one, sure am glad whenever I hear modern science backing up ancient Hindu cosmology, but knowing people, I don’t hold much hope that it will erase the old Western misconception of a difference between matter and energy, mind and body.

But what the holographic model seems to be telling us is that everything is made up of the same nothing. It’s only the way in which the nothing behaves that tells us whether it’s a solid, a gas, or even pure energy. The way in which the nothing “appears” determines whether it is moving fast, slow, or seemingly not at all.

And this means our minds are the same nothing as everything else too. Which totally begs the question, why do we feel different, separate, and often opposed to the rest of existence? Why do I feel like I’m “me” and you “you?” How come when I loan you money, I don’t feel any richer? Why won’t people with health care support the less fortunate getting it too? How come communism seems to stifle innovation while self-interested capitalism fuels it? Where do these sensations and intentions originate if everything is made of nothing?

I think the answer lies in the ability of the universe to create symbols. Notice I say, the universe, not us. What I mean by this is the universe’s singular ability to represent itself in seemingly limitless ways. If you think of everything that exists as a symbol or representation of the universe, complete and total, it begins to make a little more sense. Typically we think of a “thing” as something which is a “part” or “unit” of something else, but if you look closely you will see this is false. Just as an inch is not a separate “part” of a foot, neither is any “thing” a separate part of the universe. The entirety of existence is one continuous event, so that you can determine as much about the concept of distance from an inch as you can from a light-year.

Words are symbols of things we experience because the things we experience are not directly communicable to others. Ultimately our experience is known only to us, but we can point others towards it by conjuring their own experiences. When I say to someone “I have a dog at home” they are not directly perceiving the dog I am talking about or my home. Instead they’re thinking about a very general idea of dogness, maybe a dog they themselves have owned. If I show them a picture of the dog, they are still not experiencing the dog, just a picture of it, which is itself another symbol.

In other words, symbols work because they convey the meaning of experiences or intentions without the experience or intention “appearing.” Now it occurs to me that this is precisely the same way the universe functions. The universe never “appears.” It’s simply too big to comprehend with the mind. It, in fact, comprehends mind and all its contents. Far from showing up, the universe represents itself through all the various “things” it contains.

So if you now understand a “thing” as merely something that represents the universe, it becomes easy to see how the universe is literally made of no-thing, precisely because the universe is made only of itself which is, from our limited perspective, impossible to comprehend at once as a simple thing.

I think this is why our minds turn to abstractions such as God, the Dao, or even… the “Universe.” Unless it is established clearly in the mind that these are merely words for the Ineffable – both what we experience and do not experience – it is easy to fall into confusion as to what This Thing is vs. That Thing. It is easy to take sides which such things and forget our essential stance as ecstatic observer.