The Living Universe

Religions are created by people who have had moments of spiritual insight. As they attempt to share their discovery, they describe it as best they can, as it appeared to them.

When they try to share their moment of "mysterium tremendum" -- as William James called it -- they try to define their communion with this Great Mystery. To them, The Divine may have appeared as a single God, consciously ruling the universe. Or they may have seen The Divine as a general force which flows throughout creation. They may have seen the various things working together toward the same aim. Or perhaps they saw an independant spirit at work in every thing. They may have seen everything working together without an apparent consciousness linking it all together. Or perhaps they saw the Divine Mystery working together, but it was unclear to them if there was anything more behind It.

Depending on how the universe appeared to them, they may have believed in monotheism, or pantheism. They may have believed in polytheism, or animism. They may have seen the universe in an atheistic manner, of perhaps an agnostic one. The amazing thing is that these general patterns of religious thought are repeated around the globe. Monotheism, polytheism, pantheism, animism, atheism, and agnosticism can be found in many places throughout the earth. This would seem to indicate that quite a few religious thinkers have observed the same patterns to the universal whole. I believe, therefore, that these patterns are all valid ways of observing the Divinity.

But how can these points of view all be correct? How can God be one and many at the same time? How can God be formed and formless, conscious and unconscious? How can these vastly different beliefs all be true?

In my own personal search for understanding I labored on this for a good deal of time before finding the only logical solution I could find. I reasoned that the universe itself must be a living thing; that it was a large enclosed sytem which functions cooperatively as a life-form. And if, indeed, the universe is the ultimate organism, which we may call "God", or "The Divine", then these points of view can all be valid. Therefore, God is one: the living universal whole. God is many: the many individual parts which make up the whole -- much as the various organs and cells of our own bodies. God is formed: in the physical substances which make up the universe we can observe. And God is formless: what many refer to as the "Web of Life" -- the connection we all share to the greater cosmic whole. The matter of the consciousness of God is a difficult one, as it is most likely on a level which we can not hope to understand.

Understanding "The Divine" as the Living Universe opens up a great many doors of understanding. As we are contained withing the universe -- and indeed we are a part of it -- we are a part of God, just as the cells of our bodies are a part of us. So, wherever we turn we are looking at another part of the Divine Being. And just as the cells in our bodies contain DNA marking them as parts of our selves, so also do we each contain a part of the holiness of the Divinity within us.

The Web of Being

When we are children we learn about the food chain: the fact that life feeds on life and that some life even feeds on death. We learn that nothing is truly created or destroyed, but that everything simply changes form. And so, we learn that the process of transformation is at the heart of the universe and that everything is connected.

Often in life-affirming religions, we learn about the Web of Life: that all life affects all other life. We learn that the ties which bind one to another transcend the food chain; that is to say, our actions and interactions affect all others. It is as though each action we take is a drop in a great Pool of Life, and whose ripples gradually touch every other drop in the Pool.

However, I believe even this is a narrow view of reality. For I see our interactions as affecting not only life, but also those things which we do not normally consider as living. I see the Web as extending beyond our world, including all things everywhere. It is as though a great candle sits at the center of the universe and all things are touched by its light. For even in the turbulent storm of Creation there is peace at the center.

A Pantheist Song...

We were treated to this at the Unitarian Universalist Church this past Sunday morning. Every so often I find a song which is directly on target for my beliefs. Here it is!

Revisiting the Garden

Many people today miss the points of their own mythology. Interestingly enough, the Creation/Evolution debate becomes nonexistent if we examine the Biblical Creation stories in their mythological context.
Perhaps the most telling tale in the Bible is the "Garden of Eden" story. This story is unique to Judeo-Christendom, as the "6 Days of Creation" story is a copy of the Babylonian Enuma Elish. The "Garden" myth focuses on the origin of suffering, for in this story all is in balance until mankind eats of the Tree of Knowledge and is then cast out of the garden.
Sadly, many believe this story is a literal tale, and so they miss the whole point of the myth. As myths use metaphors to tell their story, much of the "Garden" story becomes very clear when we but try to understand the symbols.
The Garden, it seems, is a peaceful and perfect place. This is where the animals and plants are. Here is where all is beautiful and in balance. Here is where the Tree of Life is. Here, also, is where God walks.
The Garden represents a time when we were in balance with the animals. It is a metaphor for a time when we were no different from animals. A time when we were emotionally-driven creatures -- not the somewhat rational creatures that we are today.
In the Garden we were cautioned not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge. But the serpent, long a symbol of transformation and rebirth, encouraged us to do otherwise. And so, by eating of the Tree of Knowledge we were transformed from reactive creatures into active ones. That is to say that we went from lives of simply reacting to instincts and emotions to lives of active change. And so we began to shape the patterns of our own lives.
And so the "Garden" story represents the moment when we separated ourselves from the Animal Kingdom -- the time when we became human.

Our Dual Nature

Many people today miss the points of their own mythology. Interestingly enough, the Creation/Evolution debate becomes nonexistent if we examine the Biblical Creation stories in their mythological context.
Perhaps the most telling tale in the Bible is the "Garden of Eden" story. This story is unique to Judeo-Christiandom, as the "6 Days of Creation" story is a copy of the Babylonian Enuma Elish. The "Garden" myth focuses on the origin of suffering, for in this story all is in balance until mankind eats of the Tree of Knowledge and is then cast out of the garden.
Sadly, many believe this story is a literal tale, and so they miss the whole point of the myth. As myths use metaphors to tell their story, much of the "Garden" story becomes very clear when we but try to understand the symbols.
The Garden, it seems, is a peaceful and perfect place. This is where the animals and plants are. Here is where all is beautiful and in balance. Here is where the Tree of Life is. Here, also, is where God walks.
The Garden represents a time when we were in balance with the animals. It is a metaphor for a time when we were no different from animals. A time when we were emotionally-driven creatures -- not the somewhat rational creatures that we are today.
In the Garden we were cautioned not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge. But the serpent, long a symbol of transformation and rebirth, encouraged us to do otherwise. And so, by eating of the Tree of Knowledge we were transformed from reactive creatures into active ones. That is to say that we went from lives of simply reacting to instincts and emotions to lives of active change. And so we began to shape the patterns of our own lives.
And so the "Garden" story represents the moment when we separated ourselves from the Animal Kingdom -- the time when we became human.

In truth, we are no different than our animal cousins, yet we still try to view creation without ourselves. We talk about how nature works, labelling our own actions as "unnatural" -- and yet, we are a part of that natural order. We try to understand how animals interact amongst themselves if humans are not around, and we remove ourselves from the equation. We call ourselves human, as if this title somehow negates the "animal" nature we share; as though we are somehow alien to the natural world in which we find ourselves.
In fact, one of the most distinguishing factors about us is that we prefer to distinguish ourselves from our world. We speak of "natural" and "unnatural" actions, as though anything we do could be unnatural. And so we deny our connection to the world; our evolutionary heritage. Instead, we pretend that we are something much nobler.
For so long in our dominant culture we have denied our animal nature. Instead, we describe our animal behavior using words such as "sin". We fail to understand that being animal is an essential part of being human.

The most important fact to remember is that we are animals. Everything we do is governed by this. Everything we are. And as much as we try to believe otherwise, this fact will always haunt us.
Being animals, much of what we do is based on instincts and reactions. We live by emotions, and often we don't think about what it is we're doing. And so, to understand human behavior we need to understand animal behavior.
Perhaps the first thing we must consider is just what it is which distinguishes us from all other animals. We may believe it to be our ability to communicate. But all animals communicate in one form or another. We may consider it to be out ability to use tools. Yet, many animals, especially primates, use tools to obtain food or for protection. I would suggest that the deciding difference is our ability to ask questions: to behave based on reason rather than instinct -- we have "eaten of the tree of knowledge", so to speak.
And so our dilemma becomes more complicated. For we are torn between our thoughts and our emotions. We aspire to leave our animal heritage behind us, and to be rational creatures. Yet this evolutionary baggage is still within each of us.

Much of our Western Heritage has viewed sex as horrific. I believe this is because sex is an act which reminds us that we're animals. When we have sex we bring a great deal of our primal instincts to the surface -- parts of ourselves we often try to hide.
Again, this is an item which brings back our evolutionary lineage. So often we try to think of ourselves as something much nobler than the other animals. Yet, our passions are a slap in the face for the deified vision we have of ourselves. They are a cold reminder that we still live and breathe.
We should learn to balance our passionate side and our noble side. For without the noble side, we are no more than the others animals. And without passion we lose our connection to the universe.

We carry with us the baggage of countless millenia of evolution. And this heritage brings us to an odd place. For, on the one hand, we are animals driven by our instincts and emotions. And on the other hand we strive to be rational creatures, basing our judgements on our rationality.
We threw our own selves "out of the garden". For a long time since our branch of the evolutionary tree grew out from the rest of the animals we lived with them in harmony, surviving by our instincts and our emotions. But somewhere along the line we began to think rationally: basing our reactions on the questions we have about the world around us. By becoming rational creatures we separated ourselves from the animals and began to consider ourselves superior. And so paradise was lost .
Today, this evolutionary baggage creates many of the problems in our world. We still have greed, aggression, and fear. And these threaten to destroy everything we've created. Our greed drives us to accumulate ever more -- depriving others of their basic needs. Our aggression makes us hostile to one another at every turn. And fear drives the strongest wedge between us -- begetting anger and hatred among our societies.

We live at a time when we can use our rational nature to counter our dominating instincts. We can learn to think calmly when faced with fear. We can learn to live more simply -- making wise choices to reduce our consumerism. And we can channel our aggressive energies in more productive ways.
Chief among the changes we need is a new ideology. We need to understand ourselves, each other, and our world better. We need to understand that our sense of individuality often leads to isolationism, and we must seek out the ties which bind us all together. We must understand that we are all interconnected through the Web of Life.
We must learn that there is Sacredness within all. We must find it in ourselves, in others, and in the world at large. Perhaps then we can truly learn respect for life.
Respect, compassion, and harmony: these things will be the keys to our survival.

The "Garden of Eden" is a mindset, not a physical place. The Garden represents a time when we made no distinction between ourselves and the other animals. It represents a time when we reacted based solely on our instincts.
The universe exists in a state of balance. For every action there is an opposing reaction. Life creates life and life destroys life.

Duality

Much of what we have come to believe in the world today comes from a belief that everything is one way or the other. That is to say, the belief that there are only two different ways things can be. This is most popularly espoused by our concepts of good and evil: eternally opposed, but the only possible choices.
This dualistic approach to the universe seems to come from the product of our evolution. So often we try to separate ourselves from the world in which we live. Many of our religions deny that we are products of our environment; that we are products of evolution, that we are animals.
Yet, even if we acknowledge that we are an animal species we must somehow understand that something separates us from the other animals on this planet.
Animals are governed by passions and instincts. They react to things as they happen to them: to hunger, to greed, to fear, to lust. These are all survival instincts deeply programmed into every animal. Animals simply react to things as they happen to them.
But humans make changes. We have the capacity to reason: to ask questions and act accordingly based on what answers we discover. The difference between us and the animals is knowledge: the ability to ask questions and seek answers.
In a moment of our prehistory, we began our quest for knowledge, and we began to think of ourselves as different from the animals of this world. This was the moment we stopped being simply another primate species and we became human.
Interestingly enough, the Judeo-Christian religions capture this moment very elegantly in their mythology. For in the second Creation Myth of the Tanakh and the Bible (Genesis 2) is the story of humankind, living in a garden paradise with the other animals. Only when he "eats of the Tree of Knowledge" does he manage to evict himself from the garden paradise. The Garden of Eden is a time, not a place. It is a time before we were truly human.
Being human, we have the ability to reason, but being animals we are governed by our passions. So here is our dilemma: we are trapped between two worlds -- thought and emotion. Just as the character Spock on Star Trek, so must we find our own path between these two. This helps explain why we humans like to think of ourselves as mightier than angels, while we treat each other worse than devils. Angels and devils are simply metaphors for the dual parts of our nature.