Yesterday I returned a book to the library. As I went in the door I felt a pull to the magazine section -- a type of pull I have grown to recognize and honor. I dropped the book in the return slot and went over to one of the two perhaps 20-feet-wide floor-to-ceiling displays of magazines. I scanned it with my intuitive eye. Nothing. I turned to the matching display on the other side of the room. Bingo! A magazine stood out, even from that distance. As I got closer, I saw its name was SEED. The articles I was called to read were "The Hive Mind" by Benjamin Phelan and an article in which Paul Steinhardt was interviewed on inflationary cosmology.
My mind immediately formed a link between the two articles, especially Steinhardt's, and Nietzsche's theme of eternal recurrence. Later I remembered the Vedic concept of time measured in kalpas. One kalpa is a period of 4,320,000,000 years. At the end of each kalpa the world is annihilated; there is a pause; a new world is born.
Steinhardt, Neitzsche, and the Vedas appear to be pointing to the same phenomenon. Steinhardt, through "the latest" update on quantum physics, string theory, and other bases for cosmological speculation. Nietzsche, through his willingness to step outside the hive mind of common thought and see with intuitive clarity. The Vedas, through the writings of unidentified "seers" of long ago.
Our current American society is, in terms of longevity -- 233 years compared to 4,320,000,000 (which is only ONE kalpa) -- a pimple on the butt of a gnat, if that large.
I like the multi-kalpa time span and its cyclical nature. Puts things in perspective. It gets us away from that adolescent male question "but what happened before the big bang?" Theologically, we get a respite from that brooding, jealous, paranoid Yahweh (see god-man).
The SEED articles, Nietszche's eternal recurrence ideas, and the span of kalpas link coordinates as a neuronal patterning of my brain, thanks to the library visit and the following of intuitional direction. I have a feeling this ganglion of info will emerge in some way in the story line of The Adventures of Stagger Li.
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Hi George:
ReplyDeleteI have found these overlapping, interlapping ideas compelling as well. There is a theory, called Loop Quantum Cosmology, that posits not a Big Bang, but a sort of Big Bounce. In other words when LQC models of the Universe are run backwards, the Universe gets smaller and smaller until...rather than a bang there is a whimper, a bounce, and then the Universe begins to expand again. It seems this "looped" universe may well be infinitely expanding and contracting; like breathing, or like Hindu cosmology in which Brahma dreams the dream of the Universe: when he opens his eyes, the universe is destroyed; when he closes them, the universe is created again.
This is indeed an interesting discussion. I t is far beyond my my capacity for understanding yet, this makes intuitive sense. The Universe is so relatively infinitely vast compared to my conscious awareness. Poof....puff...alas...its gone
ReplyDelete"It seems this "looped" universe may well be infinitely expanding and contracting; like breathing, or like Hindu cosmology in which Brahma dreams the dream of the Universe: when he opens his eyes, the universe is destroyed; when he closes them, the universe is created again."
ReplyDeleteBrad, I love it! Makes great sense. Condensing and expanding are two major practices of the energetic arts (martial, healing, spiritual). Both our breathing and our heart beat show us this as well.
As to Mr. Brahma, I certainly understand his situation. Happens to me all the time.
Steve, my sense is that our awareness is as large as, and not separate from, the cosmos.
ReplyDeleteSeems it doesn't matter whether "god-man" destroys it all or Mr. Brahma opens his eyes--one kalpa ends and another begins. Luckily, all I have to pay attention to is this moment. It's all I can handle... Thanks again, George. Eve
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