A Mind-blowing Idea (Part 2)

In my last blog I pointed out that the world we see and think we live in is an appearance. Deep down there is simply a mess of sub-atomic particles — collectively called fermions — whose interactions are governed by fundamental messenger particles called bosons.

All kinds of strange stuff happens at the sub-atomic particle level and this has been observed and verified. Information seems to travel at speeds faster than light and a particle can exist simultaneously in more than one state. We do not ‘understand’ this but we are learning to make use of it. Expect quantum computers with vastly enhanced processing capability to arrive in your lifetime.

So if — blink! — a quark can suddenly appear and — blink! — disappear, why not an agglomeration of quarks like a house or a car? Perhaps it can and perhaps this is precisely what is happening!

Here is the world you live in. There is this unimaginably vast universe with billions of galaxies and many billions more waiting to be discovered as the James Webb telescope starts scouring the cosmos.

Each of these galaxies contains billions of stars and many are hundreds of times larger than our sun. Our sun is an average denizen on the outer fringe of an average galaxy. Our earth is a minor planet that whirls around this inconsequential star. More than 70% of the surface of this planet is covered with water and the remaining 30% is divvied up into various nation states and more than half this area is uninhabitable.

You live in one of these nation-states and are not even a fleck in the scope and scheme of the cosmos. You take this as the ‘given’. In this vast cosmos you are sometimes John, the software engineer — blink! — and sometimes Julius Caesar — blink! — and sometimes you just disappear — blink! I wrote about this in an earlier blog.

Now here is a mind-blowing idea. Sit down before you read further.

What if you are wrong? What if you were the reality and the universe with its billions of galaxies was the entity that blinks into existence and blinks out as fast?

The ‘you’ that is real is not the body-mind-intellect complex labeled John, the software engineer. It is not the dream figment called Julius Caesar. It is the entity that is aware of both.

Watch this three minute clip from the last Harry Potter film. Watch it ’til the end when Harry Potter asks Dumbledore if his battle was real or was it all happening within his head. And Dumbledore’s reply that of course it was happening inside his head but why should that mean it’s not real?

For millennia, philosophers have grappled with questions such as “If a tree were to fall in the forest and there was no one around, would it make a noise?”

Mystics know that the forest, the falling tree and the noise are all inside ‘your’ head.

There is no space and time. There is only space-time. Similarly, there is no you and the universe. There is only awareness manifesting as both.

When you grok this, all your problems will drop away. In fact, you will recognize that you never had any problems to begin with.

If all this is making your head spin, take two Advils.

Peace!