Units of Nothing are the Seeds of Everything

Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.

Stephen Hawking co-author of the new book, The Grand Design made that statement at some point in his illustrious scientific career. Few of us question Hawking’s desire to explore the unexplored using scientific truths to answer complicated questions about the universe and the existence of physical life. In that quest Hawking excels but he still fumbles over the question of nothing as far as a rational definition is concerned.

The nothing that spontaneously created the plethora of universes that Hawking and his co-author Leonard Mlodinow describe is indescribable in rational terms, but so are the atom as well as the cells and molecule in our bodies. We only observe and accept what we believe in terms of their abilities as well as accomplishments, but they are capable of performing incredible feats that defy rational descriptions. Those units of consciousness function in time and space but also function outside the limited boundaries of those dimensional characteristics.

Hawking’s statement about intelligence is short and to the point. All energy has the ability to change and does because it is rooted in the foundation of unpredictability units of consciousness. These fundamental units of consciousness could be called electromagnetic energy units. Each unit has the innate infinite properties of expansion, organization, and development, but they always maintains their own individuality. Regardless of what organization a unit becomes part or how it mixes, its own identity is never destroyed. These units are not personified, but they are awareized and they are the source of all kinds of consciousness, so its activities are infinite.

Their unpredictability allows them to become aspects of infinite patterns and fulfillments. They are the vitalizing force behind everything in our physical universe. They can appear in several places at once without going through space which means they can be in all places at once. They can not be recognized because they always appear as something else. They move faster than light and there are millions of them in one atom.

Each unit is aware of the reality of others and can influence others. They can move forward as well as backward in time and can more into aspects of time which are foreign to our limited awareness. All psychological structures are composed of these energy units and they all are endowed with desire and the propensity to create and expand. Since these units all exist at once they are aware of all the organize structures that they are part of, so all possible realities are connected by these units.

All matter is based on these units and their propensity for exploring all probabilities so our atomic structure is poised between probabilities created from the unpredictability of these units. Obviously then we are only aware of one small probable portion of the self we call our identity. That small probable portion is our focused reality.

All systems are being constantly expanded as well as created by these units of consciousness. The nothing that describes the spontaneous creation of our universe as well as the creation of all the universes is rooted in these units of nothing which are the seeds for everything.

The Self is a Divine Master

The two eyes of the soul of man cannot both perform their work at once: but if the soul shall see with the right eye into eternity, then the left eye must close itself and refrain from working, and be as though it were dead. For if the left eye be fulfilling its office toward outward things, that is holding converse with time and the creatures; then must the right eye be hindered in its working; that is, in its contemplation. Therefore, whosoever will have the one must let the other go; for ‘no man can serve two masters.

Meister Eckhart is explaining his multiplicity in religious terms in his work, Theologia Germanica. Our self-created separation is obvious in his words. The left eye is the ego consciousness and the right eye is the inner self. Understanding how to allow the right and the left eye to sense the inner as well as the outer at the same time has been the quest of man ever since consciousness became physical in this dimension.

Man’s physical inception was the result of the left and the right eye working in unison, but free will gradually created a world filled with the idea that man had to serve something outside of himself or a divine master. That divine master is the inner self which is connected to every aspect or quality of consciousness. We are trained through our belief in science to deal with predictable actions, but the motion of consciousness is unpredictable. Our cells straddle probabilities and trigger responses. Consciousness rides on and within vibrational pulses and it forms it own organization. The cohesive picture of our reality is the result of the unpredictable energy of consciousness.

The self as divine master had to surprise himself or herself constantly by granting itself its own freedom or it would stagnate in staleness. So the unpredictability of the right eye flows through all qualities of consciousness.

Our beliefs and intents instigate what we pick to experience from an unpredictable group of actions which the right eye wants to experience physically. The actions that are not chosen from this energy occur on another level and are experienced by another self connected to the nuclei of the self. Probabilities intersect in different realities and out of this unpredictability an infinite number of ordered systems manifest. Anything less than complete unpredictability will result in stagnation. So the left eye has the freedom of motion to experience what it chooses and expands from that choice.

Rather than serving two masters we serve the oneness of our own consciousness in a uniquely unpredictable way.

Other Portions of the Self

There is something we must admit, in Zen that defies explanation, and to which no master however ingenious can lead his disciples through intellectual analysis. Zen is after all is not a thing to be gained through understanding. But once the key is within one’s grasp, everything seems to be laid bare before him; the entire world assumes then a different aspect. By those who know, this inner change is recognized.

D.T. Suzuki in his 1927 essay, Satori explains something which even after it’s explained takes on the air of the unexplained. Zen or consciousness is a whole that will not be broken down in words or symbols. Basic units of consciousness are in the non-physical, but all things physical spring from the innate properties of its expansion. Consciousness develops and organizes a plethora of realities, but within itself always maintains its own individuality. Regardless of the organizations that it becomes part of, or mixes with, its own identity is never destroyed or annihilated.

The varieties of its activities are infinite as well as unpredictable. That unpredictability allows for an infinite number of patterns and experiences. Once we recognize or sense this unpredictable consciousness that is a whole part of us we are able to draw from this vast bank of unpredictable actions and identify the ones that are significant to us. The result of that private significance is what seem to be predictable actions.

Propensity then is a selection of significance or the inclination to form a selected experience. The harder we work to create an official accepted idea of the self the more we block our innate unpredictability, which means we allow our ego consciousness to choose from a predictable set of patterns that are comfortable as well as familiar. But the element of unpredictability creeps into our physical consciousness and creates contrast in order to expand the whole and from this action we expand our awareness of self.

As the awareness of self expands we develop a greater identity of the multiplicity of the self and our reality changes. As Suzuki mentions Zen or consciousness is a greater identity that is aware of its probable existences and expresses impulses that suit its own unpredictable nature.

Something Flashes Upon My Reason

I become aware of something in me which flashes upon my reason. I perceive of it that it is something, but what it is I cannot perceive. Only meseems that, could I conceive it, I should comprehend all truth.

Meister Eckhart the 14th century German theologian, mystic, and philosopher had his share of physical and mental challenges Eckhart continued to express his thoughts about the nature of consciousness even though they were completely foreign to religious beliefs at that time, and in a sense, are still very esoteric thoughts for those who have limited their awareness. Eckhart’s statement shows that he recognized other aspects of the self that he explained as a perception that he could not fully perceive using rational thoughts.

Everything that materializes in this reality independently exists in another reality. Imagination is the vehicle that allows us to tap into those other realities and we manifest them on this plane. Consciousness forms its own mental interactions and physical organizations at all levels. Consciousness tries to express itself through probabilities and does in some form. The all that is complete its own being is experienced through these probabilities, but is interpreted through familiar significance. Probabilities grow like petals of a flower and each one follows its own reality using some aspect of the self.

Eckhart is expressing the truth of multiply probabilities and selves six centuries ago. We like to deal with things in a predictable way so we perceive a small amount of data in a very limited way. We don’t see the unpredictability of the molecule, atom, or wave that is apparent but not in focus. Our true order of multiple selves can only be perceived by granting ourselves the freedom to express our own unpredictable nature. Just like the wave, particle, and atom the self is free-wheeling, unpredictable, and undetermined. The result of an unpredictable group of selves adds to the structure of this reality even when we are unable to perceive or conceive them through our limited awareness.

Seeing Into Our Multiple Self Nature

The essence of Zen consists in acquiring a new viewpoint of looking at life and things generally. By this I mean that if we want to get into the inner most life of Zen, we must forgo all our ordinary habits of thinking which control our everyday life, we must try to see if there is any other way of judging things, or rather if our ordinary way is always sufficient to give us the ultimate satisfaction of our spiritual needs.

D. T. Suzuki is explaining the essence of Zen Buddhism in his essay On Satori, but his statement applies not only to Zen, but to understanding the self or the various aspect of the self that move in and out of choices and probabilities to create experiences.

The self is not controlled by the ego consciousness. alone. We look at the self as a singular, but it is actually a gestalt nucleus that contains a plethora of selves that are constantly in motion. The psyche is a conglomeration of highly charged particles of energy that follow properties and rules that are simply unknown to us consciously. The intensity of the nucleus attracts certain masses of the entire energy available to a particular identity or self. In other words each self vibrates at a particular frequency and they blink in and out of various realities in order to experience beliefs and choices.

At birth our identity is composed of a variety of selves which are attached to a self nucleus and from that bank of selves the ego has the freedom to draw and create a personality. The other selves become trace selves which help form a particular personality. The abilities and interests of these trace selves become subsidiary or they remain latent, but on occasions these highly charged selves exert as much energy as the focused self and they may actually interact and experience things in another reality which we call unreal. At certain points in life the sportsman self is not as active as the writing self or the business self, but they still are present and can be energized in this reality by the focus self by forgoing our ordinary habits of thinking.

Zen is not about the separation. It's units of consciousness that express themselves by “doing without doing” or “seeing without eyes.” Intent is stabilizing and no system is closed so becoming aware of the unification of self or the impetus of Zen is the act of seeing into our multiple self-nature.

Non-Theological Exploration

Those who are esteemed umpires of taste, are often persons who have acquired some knowledge of admired pictures or sculptures, and have an inclination for whatever is elegant; but if you inquire whether they are beautiful souls, and whether their own acts are like fair pictures, you learn that they are selfish and sensual. Their cultivation is local, as if you should rub a log of dry wood in one spot to produce fire, all the rest remaining cold. Their knowledge of the fine arts is some study of rules and particulars, or some limited judgment of color or form, which is exercised for amusement or for show. It is proof of the shallowness of the doctrine of beauty, as it lies in the minds of our amateurs, that men seem to have lost the perception of the instant dependence of form upon soul.

There is no doctrine of forms in our philosophy. We were put into our bodies, as fire is put into a pan, to be carried about; but there is no accurate adjustment between spirit and organ, much less is the latter the germination of the former. So in regards to other forms, the intellectual men do not believe in any essential dependence of the material world on thought and volition. Theologians think it a pretty air-castle to talk of the spiritual meaning of a ship or a cloud, of a city or a contract, but they prefer to come again to the solid ground of historical evidence. But the highest minds of the world have never ceased to explore the double meaning, or, shall I say, the quadruple, or, the centuple, or much more manifold meaning of every sensuous fact.

Ralph Waldo Emerson in his 1844 essay, The Poet is explaining an interesting belief we have about the separation that exists within the self or the nucleus of the self. We believe in fragments and act out those fragments in order to experience them physically. Consciousness is unpredictable and within every action there is a conglomerate of energy units that surface as needed in order to express the essence within all consciousness. That essence is expressed in the energy of awareness and experienced by all aspects of the consciousness or the soul (in religious terms) of each fragment.

Hence different selves choose unpredictable probabilities differently so the consciousness within can experience every aspect of itself and sense the artistic creativity of being a whole fragment of another whole. The world of the self is more than historical facts that produce an erasable path of meaning. It is a world of vibrational harmony that resonates with the desires of each unit flowing through individual consciousness.

Art in present time is not material creations alone; it is the unpredictable energy that manifests from those energy units which then become another experience of consciousness. We choose a separate shell of being in order to sense the inner beauty of self that sends truth through vibrational impulses where all aspects of consciousness merge into a flowing stream of non-theological exploration.

The Meaning of Understanding

An appeal to the analytical understanding is never sufficient to comprehend thoroughly the inwardness of a truth, especially when it is a religious one, nor is mere compulsion an external force adequate for bringing about a spiritual transformation in us. We must experience in our innermost consciousness all that is implied in a doctrine, when we are able not only to understand it but to put it in practice.

D.T. Suzuki in his 1926 essay, Doctrine of Enlightenment explains the separation we experience within the self. Our analytical understanding gets in the way when we explore the nature of the inner self. Religious truths are filled with rational concepts as well as limitations. We innately assume it is impossible to experience something that we believe is impossible within the boundaries of our reality. The intellect is designed to assess the practicality of an action, but spiritual transformation is an individual expansion of the inner self that we physically put in practice without effort. We are taught that all expansion is the result of effort or hard work, but consciousness does not conform to our limited beliefs about the self.

Thoughts, like cells, have their own sort of structure and they pursue their own fulfillment. Thoughts move towards familiar thoughts and as a species we have a mass body of thought that we draw from and as we experience those thoughts cells change and our personal environment is altered in some way. We experience a constant give and take of thoughts and our bodies respond as we believe it should. We accept one specific consciousness as real and ignore others which makes effortless expansion difficult to understand. It also makes the concept of communicating with our inner self a hit and miss experience.

The process of experiencing one aspect of our consciousness and ignoring other aspects automatically causes a breakthrough into other areas of consciousness. Solutions for a wide variety of limited beliefs expand in some way. As Suzuki points out we should allow our innermost consciousness to express itself without effort. We allow our cells to operate without effort and they form a brotherhood even though we ignore the individuality of each cell. We are the same spiritual brotherhood as our cells and when that brotherhood is expressed physically without analytical understanding we put in practice the limitless probabilities and choices that change the meaning of understanding.

An Unpredictable Fashion

Ignorance is departure from home and Enlightenment is returning. While wandering, we lead a life full of pain and suffering, and the world wherein we find ourselves is not a very desirable habitat. This is, however, put a stop to by Enlightenment, as thus we are enabled once more to get settled at home where reign freedom and peace. The will negates itself in its attempt to get an insight into its own life, and dualism follows. Consciousness cannot transcend its own principle. The will struggles and grows despondent over its work. ‘Why?’ the intellect asks, but it is the question no human intellect can ever hope to solve; for it is the mystery deeply inherent in the will.

D.T. Suzuki in his 1927 essay, Enlightenment and Ignorance explains how we create while we are in a state of ignorance or self-inflicted limited awareness. Our creations are manifestations of the self. The self is connected to the awareness that exists within the whole of consciousness, but our focus restricts total awareness from seeping through all the cracks of thought until we release ourselves from the illusion of separation.

The consciousness wants to experience dualism physically and expand from the contrast created by the process of energy moving through varying aspects of its own consciousness. In the act of expressing the inner self we transcend the principle of an unpredictable consciousness.

Fragments of enlightenment occur when a focused self changes in a predictable fashion, but the unpredictable mystery of multiplicity is still hidden in the sludge of self-created limitations. Claiming unity through enlightenment is an attempt to know our own multiplicity even though our beliefs about multiplicity are limited by the self-created fear of what we already know.

The struggles we deal with are chisels that gradually break through self-constructed limits. Enlightenment of the self is the ongoing action of energy moving through a chosen dimension. In each dimension the self expands using this energy. The intellect is restricted by beliefs, but the desire to expands through awareness still occurs. Self expansion affects all consciousness in an unpredictable fashion.

Truth of the Cosmos

The faces of all the snowflakes that have fallen on the earth for millions of years have all been different; water crystals emerge for twenty to thirty seconds as the temperature rises and the ice starts to melt and the truth of the cosmos become visible, if only for a few moments.

Masaru Emoto wrote those words in the prologue of his best selling book, The Hidden Messages in Water. At first glance his message seems to be a bit unrealistic, but his findings begin to make some sense when we reign in our thoughts, and listen to our conscious mind. The truth of the cosmos lies where we fail to look; it rests quietly in the conscious mind that expresses itself physically as well as non-physically. How then do we describe the conscious mind in a manner that makes rational sense? The answer of course is the conscious mind can not be understood completely using external senses and preconceived beliefs. The conscious mind seeps through the cracks of rationality, and permeates the essence of all energy.

Trying to draw a mental picture of our complete conscious mind, and how it acts has certainly been a life quest for all humans. We try to make some sort of sense of physical life. We use our beliefs structure to confirm the myths we create. All these actions are energetic expressions of the conscious mind functioning within the stream of consciousness.

We can think of consciousness as an ocean. Within an ocean there are individual water molecules that function as a unit, but they are actually independent qualities of the whole consciousness. The molecules act as a group, but they also can act on their own. Water molecules can change their form and express their reality in different ways. Water crystals express emotions, but we don't believe water has emotions. We are over seventy percent water as adults so water does display emotions. The conscious mind exists within a belief structure, but it also exists as an ocean.

The unknown realms of the ocean are known to the molecules in the ocean just like the unknown aspects of the self are known and expressed by different energy within the conscious mind.