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.

Faith

My faith is sometimes a very difficult subject to put into words. I believe that the Divine -- or "God" -- is the living universe: the sum total of all that exists. I find comfort in this belief, as I have studied many of the world's religions for some time and I find that this is the simplest explanation to account for all their differing perspectives. For the theologies of the world vary, from a single God to many, from a God with form to God without form, and from personal Divinity to impersonal -- or even absent -- Divinity.

I find, that a living universe is a simple large organism we may call the single God. I find that It is manifested by the various beings and forces of which It is composed: God the many. I find that It exists as both the many formed parts which we can see and measure, and the abiding unity which binds it all together. I find that It can be personal in our relationship to It or impersonal in the larger view of Its everyday existence.

And I further find this echoed in the various traditions of the world. I hear the Tenrikyo faith say that "any and everything is all the body of God". I hear the words of Mohammed in the Koran: "wheresoever you turn, there is the face of God." And I hear the words of the Greek mathematician Empedocles: "the nature of God is a circle whose center is everywhere, and whose circumference is nowhere."

I find that this starting point opens us up to a much broader world of spiritual understanding. For we cannot remove ourselves from the Cosmic equation, as we are want to do. Rather, we find that we are part of the living universe; that we are part of the body of God! We find that each and every thing is part of the body of God, and therefore every thing has a tiny piece of God with it: Cosmic DNA, if you will. That is to say that that which makes God holy and sacred: a piece of that is contained within us all. And so we each have that Holy Spirit within us. There are no worthless or useless people. There are simply people who fail to live up to their potential.

As we each contain a piece of God within us we find that we should love our neighbor as we should love ourselves, for "wheresoever we turn, there is the face of God!" We may find God in nature, or in a stranger, or the eyes of a child, or in our own mirror.

We also discover that we are not the separate beings we appear to be. We are all interconnected, interrelated, and interdependent. How can we be as cruel to one another as we are? For we simply harm ourselves when we harm others.

And so I shake my head as I watch the ways people treat one another daily, from abuse and disputes and murder to the saber-rattling and wars around the globe. So many people want to destroy so many others. And we treat each other and our world as useless and disposable.

Perhaps we would get along better if we could only see ourselves in the eyes of others.

A Matter of Perspective

I believe that religion is shaped by our perspectives. If I live in the desert and you live in the jungle our views of the world would be quite different. I may believe that God is a fierce and demanding God. You may believe that God is bountiful and always-giving. Yet each view would be true, from our certain points of view.

When I began searching for spiritual meaning I began to examine the various beliefs people have concerning God. These can be classified into various ways of conceptualizing the Deity. Some believe God is one. Some believe God is many. Some believe the Spirit of God flows throughout the universe. Some believe that each person, each animal, each plant, each inanimate object -- that all things have a spirit associated with them. Still others believe that God doesn't exist: at least not in a form that can easily be recognized. I examined these beliefs and wondered how they could all be true. I wondered why people would have so many vastly differing beliefs as to what the Deity is.

I then began looking at how the universe works together. I looked at how things are organized. I saw the atoms as reflections of solar systems and galaxies -- spinning as greater and greater wheels. I looked at how our bodies work: how the cells of our bodies do the many things that they do in order that we may survive. And I looked at the thoughts of other pioneers in the religious, spiritual, and scientific worlds. I looked at the works of Carl Sagan, Joseph Campbell, and Stephen Hawking. I looked at theories such as evolution and the Gaia Hypothesis. And, as always, I looked to the patterns which shape the world we live in.

Perhaps the greatest revelation I had came to me one night as I contemplated these various views of the world and of God. I thought for a moment about how the many parts of the universe work together as the cells of a living body: all interconnected and all interrelated. I thought about how a tiny pebble thrown in the ocean ripples across the entire ocean, even as small as the ripples become. I wondered how God could be one and many, formed and formless, spirit and host. And the conclusion I came to was a radical one indeed: that all this is God. My solution was a simple statement: the universe is alive!

I began to understand the universe a living organism -- in fact, the largest conceivable organism. And I began to think of God, not as a being outside and in control of the universe, but as the living and creative force within the universe itself.

And here is where my re-conceptualization of divinity began to make a lot of sense. All of a sudden the many different ideas about God began to fall into place.

God is one: the largest organism which exists. All things are contained within the universe. In fact, "universe" means "one word" -- the one word which describes everything, both the known and the unknown. The Living Universe has countless parts to it: all which effect all else in a continuous chain of actions and reactions.

God is many: the many faces and voices of which the Living Universe is composed. Every person. Every animal. Every plant. Every grain of sand. Every drop of water in every ocean. Every distant star. Every force of nature. All are different aspects, or faces, of the Divine.

God is formed. For all that exist are parts of the body of God.

God is formless. For as all things which exist are part of the body of God, so do all things have part of that Divine Whole within them. That is to say: just as the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle each have a piece of the whole picture in them, so also does each piece of the Living Universe. Just as each cell within a living body contains DNA: the blueprint to that organism, so also does each thing existing within the Living Universe contain a piece of that (w)Holiness. So it stands to reason that every place, every thing, every plant, every animal, and every person -- we each have that same Sacredness within us which is a part of the Body of God. And so there is Holiness every where if we but look for it!

In the Q'uran it is said "everywhere you turn, there is the face of God!" And rightly so. If we can but find it ourselves, our neighbors, and our world perhaps our future history may be a bit less bloody...

One

God is One.

One beginning. One Being. One universe. One reality.

God is Many.

Many choices. Many possibilities. Many people. Many faces.

God is Peace.

Peace of mind. Peace of heart. Peace and joy. Peace and love.

God is Harmony.

Harmony of Thought. Harmony of Being. Harmony of Rest. Harmony of Action.

Some Pantheist-oriented Quotes From The World's Religions

"I am easy of access to that ever steadfast seeker who constantly meditates on Me and gives no thought to anything else."

Hinduism, Bhagavad Gita 8:14

"Pray without ceasing."

Christianity, Bible I Thessalonians 5:17

"Know Thyself."

Greek, Socrates

"The Supreme Reality exists WITHIN."

Hinduism, Bhagavad Gita 6:5

"One who knows the inner self knows the external world as well. One who knows the external world knows the inner self as well."

Jainism, Acarangustra 1.147

"The Kingdom of God is WITHIN you."

Christianity, Bible II Corinthians 6:16

"Know that you are God's Temple and that God's Spirit lives IN you."

Christianity, Bible I Corinthians 3:16

"As a mother with her own life guards the life of her own child, let all-embracing thoughts for all that lives be thine."

Buddhism, Khuddaka Partha, Metta Sutta

"I am the Self, seated in the Hearts of all creatures."

Hinduism, Bhagavad Gita 10:20

"All you under heaven! Regard heaven as your father, earth as your mother, and all living things as your brothers and sisters."

Shinto, Oracle of Atsuta

"Even in a single leaf of a tree, or a tender blade of grass, the awe-inspiring Deity manifests itself."

Shinto, Urabe-no-Kanekuni

"Any and everything of this universe is all the body of God."

Tenrikyo, Ofudesaki 3.40

"Everywhere You Turn, There Is The Face Of God."

Holy Q'uran, 2:115 (translated)

"Undivided I am, undivided my soul, undivided my sight, undivided my hearing, undivided my in-breathing, undivided my out-breathing, undivided my diffusive breath, undivided the whole of me."

Hinduism, Atharva Veda 19.51.1

"God needs no pointing out to a child."

African Religions, Akan Proverb (Ghana)

"The nature of God is a circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere."

Greek, Empedocles

"Jesus said to them, "When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same, so that the male not be male nor the female female; and when you fashion eyes in the place of an eye,and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, and a likeness in place of a likeness; then will you enter [the Kingdom]."

Christianity, Gospel of Thomas 22 (Gnostic)

En Tota

God is the universe. And here, by "universe" I mean the word as it's component parts suggest: "uni" + "verse" = "one" + "word", the one word which describes everything everywhere, including those things we know of and extending to those things we cannot even begin to imagine. In short, God is part and parcel of all that exists.

And so, to put it simply, as we ourselves are part of all that exists, each of us is also a part of the body of God. That is to say, we each contain but a small part of that Sacredness within us. And so do all people, and all things everywhere.

We need only look within ourselves to find God, or in the mirror, or the eyes of a child, or to the birds, the rocks, the oceans, or the stars. Everywhere we turn we find God. And so, as it is said in the Tenrikyo religion: "Any and everything of this universe os all the body of God." Also, the Greek Empedocles said: "The nature of God is a circle, whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere." God is within us all, if we will but look.

We find God within ourselves, within others, within nature. Sacredness is everywhere; everything is Sacred. And the only profanity comes from what we do, or what we think. We can choose to bring forth the Holiness within ourselves. We can choose to be a part of the greater picture.

"God within,

God without,

but never without God!"

Acts Of Worship

Worship is an integral part of spirituality. Yet people often seem to think that it consists largely of talking and praying and singing. In worse cases people believe it consists mainly of groveling!

Worship is an act of faith -- a "payback" to that which we revere -- a fulfillment of our pledge to the Divine. Worship is how we do our duty to the Divine -- trying to live the way our God wants us to. Do we really believe that God wants us to sing and grovel and sermonize? Perhaps we should instead concentrate on those "little things" of the Spirit which give meaning to life.

We should worship by lying in the grass; by helping the lady to her car with her groceries; by helping someone who's hurting; by simply listening to someone who needs to talk. We should worship from our hearts, and not from our mouths. We should worship through the acts of the Spirit, not the expectations of the mind!

Doing good things is an act of worship. Do good things not because you think you should, but because you feel you should. Worship should be a spontaneous act, not rehearsed -- it should flow freely from the heart. How we live our lives should be a Holy Sacrament. And everything we do should reflect the Sacredness within us!

A Kind Word...

Our world is so screwed up today. Each day, as our world gets smaller, we build walls between ourselves. We hurry off to our workplaces in a mad competition. We focus only on the things which make our lives unpleasant. We lash out at strangers on the street -- and the ones we love!

Our mindset is based on the belief that we are the separate beings we appear to be. And yet this is far from the case.

Spiritual teachers have been trying to teach us for millenia that the Divine -- that is, that God -- is to be found within each of us. From the Hindu teaching of "That Art Thou!", to the words from the Holy Q'uran: "everywhere you turn, there is the face of God!", to the teaching of Empedocles: "The nature of God is a circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere!", -- and from many other teachings -- we learn that God is everywhere we turn, even in the face of a stranger, even in the face of the mirror. If we could simply embrace God wherever we turn we could learn that we are all a part of that much greater Divine Power.

A smile. A kind word. A thoughtless gesture. Giving what little we have, or even giving a little of what we have. So long as our actions come from the heart perhaps we can put an end to this senselessness!

Peace

Oftentimes people wonder why I'm "always so happy" -- even when I'm not feeling well. It makes me wonder sometimes. And the only answer I can offer is that I have a positive outlook on life.

I try to understand the complex interrelations of all things: how we are all interconnected and interdependent. I understand that the Web of Life sustains us all and helps us to grow. I know that there are no worthless, no useless, lives lived within the Web.

I know that life is not a game of heaven or hell determined by our ability to follow a list of arbitrary rules. Rather, we create our own heavens and hells as we live, for we are the most critical judges to our own behaviors.

I understand that the universe works through balance. I know that for every pain there is a joy -- and vice versa. I know that for every breath in there is a breath out, and for everything given, something will be taken away.

I understand that the Divinity -- that God -- is the living universe. I understand that all things which exist everywhere make up the body of God, and that we are all a part of It. And so we each contain a piece of Holiness -- of Holy Spirit -- within us. That is not to say that we are gods, but that That which makes God Sacred and Holy -- a Piece of That is within us all! And so I ask, how can we treat each other with such disrespect as we do? How can we be so hateful and hurtful?

Each of us is programmed with the survival instincts of millions of years of evolution, and therefore selfishness and fear are at the core of our being. Yet we can overcome both with compassion and understanding. We are no longer simply another animal species, but we have yet to transcend our animal nature. We like to think of ourselves as higher than angels, and yet we treat one another as though we are worse than devils.

So long ago, we came down from the trees, we stood upright, and we began to make sense of the world around us. We stopped simply reacting to the world -- as animals do -- and started acting on the world: making changes to everything we touch. We stopped thinking of ourselves as animals, and thus we threw ourselves out of that Garden of Eden. And so, instead of simply existing, we began living in a state of blisses and pains.

And now we are governed by passions and by rationality. We feel and we think. Too often we let either our feelings or our thoughts overwhelm us. We react too easily. We fail to show compassion. And the world is a darker place for our dilemma. It seems that until we lose sight of our own self-centeredness we will never really achieve peace.

Divine Will

There are patterns in the ways our lives are lived. I have devoted much of my life to observing and trying to learn from them. The patterns are repeated in everything from the organization of the universe to the makeup of our bodies and the subatomic particles which make up all things.
Yet the patterns do not stop simply with the physical organization of things. There are patterns of belief among the often-warring religions of the world. There are patterns in the ways our lives are lived and in the history of people. And there are patterns in the ways our lives flow and interact, one with another.
I concluded long ago that I do not believe in coincidences. For too many "random chance" happenings seem to populate my life, much more than I could account for as being simply "random". At one point I believed, as so many do, that a human-like God was orchestrating the many melodies of my life in strange and sometimes surprising ways.
And then, the world stopped making sense.
When I decided that the faith I had been raised in made little sense in the modern world, I lost the simple explanation for the "Divine plan" which guided my life. My spiritual journey took me through an understanding of many faiths. And I eventually concluded that all this, and perhaps more, is the Divine Being; that is, God is not separate from the universe: God is the living universe.
This revelation brought with it baggage all its own. For the question of Divine Will again became an issue once again. I had concluded that the Divine was not conscious in a way that we can easily understand. I had concluded that it is interested in our well-being as we each are interested in the health of our various body parts. But the "Divine Plan" idea died terribly.
Yet there are still these patterns, as currents in the river of time. Perhaps they are just as sentient as that river. And perhaps there is more.

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!

One and the Same

I believe that what is above and what is below are one and the same.
I believe that what is within and what is without are one and the same.
I believe that everything, everywhere, is one and the same.

No one great spiritual teacher has a monopoly on spirituality. Only now -- as the world grows smaller and we begin to understand each other a bit better -- do we even begin to see the whole picture with regards to the spirit. And there is so much more yet to discover!
But we do understand enough to know that all the larger things are made up of the smaller things. That the universe is simply made up of many many simple things. And we can know that the universe makes much more sense than it at first appears to.
Everywhere we look -- in chemistry, physics, astronomy, medicine, any of the sciences -- we see the same patterns repeated. The arrangements of atoms and molecules looks no different than the arrangement of stars and galaxies! And so, also, are our bodies arranged.
Some time ago a philosophy called "The Gaia Hypothesis" became popular. In this world-view it was assumed that the earth is a living organism who maintains herself -- that is, that the environment is a living entity with all the repercussions that life entails.
I believe this idea helps to explain the way we find the earth. But I believe it does not go far enough.
I believe the entire universe functions as a life form: the universe is alive! Not in the way we normally conceive life to be. Rather, I believe the universe maintains itself and grows and does the many things which make itself complete.
I look at the universe as the ultimate form of life. And I tend to believe that it is That which we call God. I find that this is perhaps the best explanation to reconcile the various god-interpretations of the many world religions. For there are some who believe that God is one (the universe as a whole), and some who believe God is many (the various parts which make up the universe). There are some who believe God is a formed being (matter/people/the many parts which make up the whole), and some who believe that God is spirit (the unifying force behind creation). There are some who believe that all things have a spiritual nature to them; that is to say, they believe that everything has a spirit associated with it. This is easily explained in that, as we are each a part of the universe, and therefore a part of God, we each contain a tiny piece of that Great Spirit within us.
And here is the great charge: as we each contain a piece of God within us, we should each treat one another with the same respect and love we would have for God -- and for self. We are not the many separate beings we appear to be. In fact, we are both interrelated and interconnected. We must work together in harmony for the body of the universe -- the body of God -- to function well. Therefore, it is important to "do unto others as we would have them do unto us".
And so we discover that we are part and parcel of the Body of God, and so is all else. We live in a sacred place; a holy temple. Everything here is sacred. We simply must look for the Holiness -- for God -- wherever we turn.
God creates, preserves, and destroys: to recycle and create again. The Hindus have long understood this, as their trifold groupings of deities demonstrates. As an example: Brahman creates the universe, while Indra preserves it, and Shiva destroys it. And the universe works in cycles of creation, preservation, and destruction. Brahman opens his eyes and the universe comes into being, and as he closes them it is destroyed. Again, and again, the cycle repeats itself. So we see the cycles in our world. Seasons come and go, to repeat the following year. Lives are lived, and new births for those which will take their places. And also stars are born and destroyed and reborn. It is no wonder the Hindus place such an emphasis on reincarnation. Although, I believe we are not recreated as we are today, I believe that all the makings of our bodies are recycled.
Many times we are fearful of others because they look different, or believe differently, or live differently, or love differently. But we should be more accepting because they are and they do believe, and they do live, and they do love -- as we all do.

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.

In Part

God is known, in part, to all the religions of the world.
I say “in part” because our faiths have been formed by people who could only understand the world as they perceived it. Without a complete understanding of the diversity of our world it is impossible to fully understand our world. And likewise for understanding the Divine.
And so our world is full of people who lived in harsh climates who believed God to be an angry storm god. And in the prolific jungles, a mother-like spirit of fertility. In some places the divinity is understood as being many gods who influence the fate of the universe. And still others see no god-forms at all, but a unifying Whole to the universal whole.
I submit that our modern world of amazing communications makes it much easier to understand these many differing views of the Divine – and perhaps come up with a more complete view. For over a century we have been able to communicate with telephone and telegraph over incredible distances. And we have been able to travel by plane and boat to these places as well. More recently, we have been able to have images from distant lands on our televisions in our living rooms. And now we live in the information age. All one must do is touch the World Wide Web to hear the voice and thoughts of someone far away in the world. And we have access now to so many differing perspectives of the Divine.
And I believe it is now possible to gain a more complete understanding of “God” than our ancestors had. For religion is created by those who have lived before us. And they have only left us understandings of the world as they saw it.
Today, it’s like picking through a jigsaw puzzle of faith: trying to find out how all the pieces work together for a better understanding of the whole. I believe we can learn from our ancestors by understanding the many things that affected their world-view. If we can understand their climate and culture, and the peoples they interacted with, we can begin to unlock the mystery of why they believed the things they did.
And I believe that once we begin investigating, we won’t necessarily lose our belief in the Divine, but rather gain a stronger understanding. So many have believe that God is One, or God is Many; that God is formed, or that God is formless; that God is knowable, or that God is unknowable. And I believe that we can understand why they believed these things and maybe even understand how these things are not at all in conflict.
After many years of exploring these issues myself I came to the startling revelation one night that perhaps all these views are right after all. The solution I found was that God is the Living Universe: the sum total of all that exists. I came to understand that the universe is the largest living organism and that everything exists within it as a part of that much greater Body. God is One: the One of which we are all a part.
All the big things are made up of all the little things. Our bodies are made up of so many component cells. Our communities are made up of so many people. And our world is a diverse collection of many different living and non-living things. So too it is on the universal scale. For the universe is made of countless stars, worlds, and so much more. God is Many: the Many that we all are.
God is made of these many things: God is formed. And God is the Spirit which connects all these things together: God is formless. We can know this general view of God, but God is unknowable completely, for we are contained with it and therefore unable to see the whole picture.
The implications are enormous. Suddenly we are no longer the separate beings we appear to be: we are interrelated, interconnected, and interdependent. Many faiths use the phrase “The Web of Life” to describe this. Everything we do affects everything else everywhere. It’s like so many pebbles tossed in the Cosmic pond: the ripples may get smaller as they spread out, but eventually they reach every shore.
Another discovery is that we are all sacred people. If we are all a part of the body of God, then a tiny piece of that sacredness is in the heart of each one of us. There are no worthless or useless people. Indeed there are no truly evil people. Rather, there are misguided people, and those who fail to understand their potential and live up to it.

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.

"Hymn to the Divine"

(note: I wrote this as my beliefs were coming together at the end of my college years)

There is Something present in nature
some force which cannot be explained
It shapes and drives,
It sings and dances,
and through it all things are made Complete!

Where is this First Power?
It is all around us!
It shines and draws us near,
It sings and dances before us,
and to those who see and hear it, it gives substance.

When did It begin?
It has always been!
Why did It begin?
only It knows!

How did It begin?
with a Bang and a Whimper!

Which God is this Something?
"I am all that have been,
I am the Father,
the Mother,
the Son,
and the Daughter,
I am the East,
the West,
the North,
and the South,
I am the pool of water,
and the immovable mover,
I am That Which Is'!"