I try to fly, but I find my soul is caught in my bones. I sometimes think it true that the same gravity that holds the earth to the sun, seeks to hold my soul here, rather like a flightless bird with nothing but miles of sky around, flaunting itself and urging me to try anyway.
Planet is to star, as body is to soul, I think. Yet, there is a way to escape the clutch of ethereal bond in legitimate and necessary fashion, even if for only a moment: a faint sliver of blissful dream, suggesting there is something better; a pin-head taste of salt and honey on the lips of a dying man.
Indeed, I would fly my life, like I fly my dreams: without deception, or subterfuge, or innocent lies to soften the blow of what-have-you. When we dream we are closer to the truth of it than ever. So close. But still there is the struggle – as if the final destination of a Springtime river, where the once glacial cold and colour-clear turns eventually to mud-laden water, due to the difficulties and insults of life, at times is barely able to carry itself. This river courses through unforgiving mountains and silt ridden plains, which properly saturate it with the effects of its divine lot, through the course of time. The silt and dirt and dead trees and human garbage that are picked up and carried through its rough and trying course, are like bruises and abrasions and amputations.
Self-deception is like this.
My own scarred and muddy self, as yet, stands here at the effluence of a life, and seeks to dream more often than live. Still, I remain standing, watching these waters drift by, less tumultuous now, but now slowly diffusing in an ocean of something greater.
In some way, if you trace it back far enough, dirt and light are the same – come from the same cause and the same condition. A Singularity at the beginning of Time in this place in the cosmos, itself once thought beyond measure, is now a defunct notion, given the conclusions of emerging sciences. Sound becomes light, becomes vibration, becomes frequency, becomes light, becomes substance, becomes life: Life flourishes in its infinite forms, which are, again, beyond measure.
It is within this infinite nature, I believe, is hidden a clue, a whisper, that reveals something of the greater truth of it – this thing that teases salvation somewhere beyond reach, at the very edge of perception.
Still, and I can hear you now, objecting to the essence of my proposal: Is it not much easier to seek plainer, less obligatory terms? Surely it is folly to entertain such fluffy, frilly fantasies and far-flung notions; far better to surrender to the stark reality of life in a closed loop… This may be wisdom in some unique way, no doubt. But to remain held fast and frozen in Time, like an ancient planet, forever trapped in its excruciating orbit, until it falls inexorably victim to its unavoidable and unenviable end is no reward, I think. To be sure, there is an explosion that shakes the very fabric of space and time, but it is still not enough. For, as it’s infinitesimal particles are helplessly swept up in the dance, it will all begin again its ceaseless, thankless course.
This will all continue until the key is at last discovered deep within the Heart – which is a profound unknowable galaxy in its own right. It’s there I hope to find the key and the door.
Dean Unger
Ultimately, this, what is in front of us, is a profusion of light, life and form, seemingly caught up in a dream we all share… Perhaps it’s school for what comes next. Whatever the case, we must learn to be fully in it, before we earn a hall pass and get to know a little of what’s really out there, or in there, or isn’t, but is, due to the maddening fundamental nature of impermanence and self-concept (this according to Buddhist theology), etc.
We have spent the whole of our human history, post-enlightenment, seeking to define the dichotomous nature of existence and somehow acclimate ourselves to it in a predictable way. In taking this tack, we have concluded, historically, through lack of knowing any better, that things are as they are, and there is little more. However, we’ve now undeniably reached a time where the rivers of science have reached the ocean of quantum reality (from a science article published in Science Magazine: “Quantum experiment in space confirms that reality is what you make it.”)
Quantum reality itself, flows into something else the like of which we can hardly fathom and can so far only marvel at. Consider Einstein’s unexplainable “spooky action at a distance”, or the entire mysterious notion of Dark Matter that we now find ourselves swimming in, or, in fact, the nature and dynamics of the very light and gravity that hold us here, of which we really know very little.
The story is changing. Discoveries flow daily from the collective effort of our scientists, who’ve run up against the undeniable mystery of existence and consciousness itself – which, to me, seem one in the same – in the quantum realm, anyhow. It may very well be that the great secret lies in the connection between the heart, and gravity and light, and how they interact with one another. Perhaps not. It is a legitimate question. Consider that very recently, astrophysicists and neuroscientists have discovered that there are impressive similarities between Neuron (brain) and galaxy (space) networks. Writers, Franco Vazza and Alberto Feletti, reported in a recent story in Nautilus Magazine, that “The first results from our comparison are truly surprising: Not only are the complexities of the brain and cosmic web actually similar, but so are their structures. The universe may be self-similar across scales that differ in size by a factor of a billion billion billion.” They also say that our “life’s memories could, in principle, be stored in the universe’s structure.”
Inspiring.
Ultimately, by my take, this supports the hypothesis that profound change is possible with collective effort. Think of the energy a crowd of 100,000 creates when they cheer at the top of their lungs, together at the same time; consider the time it takes for three people to build a house vs thirty people building that same house. I believe it’s really that simple.
Is it possible to find ideals that are suitable to the majority, and to move together toward what inevitable eventuality now purls upon the horizon? How do we prepare for such eventualities.
On an individual level, consider the results of a life spent in deep meditation, practising the art of profound visualization, the centre of which is the Mandala – your life. Keep it organized, keep it clean, keep it growing and expanding in a way that feels right and true. Live from the heart. Master the ability to think thoughts and ideas through to their logical conclusions. Do more for others than self…
What lays ahead is profoundly mysterious, but it’s where we’re indeed headed. Hopefully we can eventually steer a clear course, once our collective head is out of our collective ass, and our soul shakes free from the bones a little.