Cosmos, briefly, is that part of the universe we understand. It is growing.
One end of the universe is an irreducible spark. Other end doesn't. It is a shape, pattern and process echoed in nature, in lives. It's hard to imagine every particle, every physical event both big and small, as central to every eventual particle. Harder not to, once we have. Universe seeks ever-expanding regions of organization, so does thought.
How big is this thought? Not very. It fits in a spider.
It fits into mystics and physicists less easily; they ask questions. The universe is made of time and space. If the future doesn't exist until the universe gets there, but unfolds from singularity, then time contains all reality in an ever-inflating bipolar field. Everything happens in it.
That too fits in a spider.
If time involves Now as an effect and enlargement of Then, then Then is a diminution of Now. But, on the other hand, if light modulated by the event of my birth is now 61 light years out in space, in all directions, I exist Now as a tiny possibility of my nascent self while he's humongous. Think of the diapers! We need an experiment that is safe to try at home.
Spiders live in the middles of webs.
Humans wander the earth. Colette thought this: "The true traveler is he who goes on foot, and even then, he sits down a lot of the time." So let's compose an experiment. It is a sunny morning. You decide to hike west into your shadow. I predict you will reach its head at noon. It doesn't matter what time you started off. Nor does it matter if you sit down, drink French wine and read La Vagabonde (1910), you'll still reach your shadow's head by noon. How do I know this? I am a prophet, give me all your valuables.
Spiders ignore me.
Funny: I've noticed that, but never expressed it so prophetically or well! Now, I'll think of the connection between, on the one hand, spiders and their webs, and this concept of my shadow's head....
ReplyDeleteThanks Will. Only flaw in my test is problem of reaching one's head-shadow at night, when it is everywhere.
ReplyDeleteIMO, that's not a flaw at all. To me, it's another illustration of the non-duality philosophy called the alchemy of opposites, that everything contains its opposite. Google that phrase or go to:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.google.com/search?q=alchemy+of+opposites+non-duality&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
Well my head went all over the place in that post. I hope that wherever we end up, it's with that sort of laughter.
ReplyDeleteThanks Austan. Your thoughtful, kind comment is one sort of valuable I'm after.
ReplyDeleteInteresting thoughts; great spider web!
ReplyDeleteThanks Tim! David took the picture when his band performed at the walled port city of Saint-Malo. Morning sea-mist made the web stand out.
ReplyDelete