Selected Writings
on the Universe from

Richard’s Journal

Peter’s Journal

Vineeto’s Writings

________________

Audio-taped
Dialogue

Richard | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |

Peter | 2 |

Vineeto

Others

The Universe

1 the universe, all existing matter, space, and other phenomena regarded collectively and esp. as constituting a systematic or ordered whole; this regarded as created by a divine agency; the creation; the cosmos b fig. A domain or sphere characterized by a particular (specified) quality or activity; a sphere of activity, existence, interest, etc. c Physics. Any of a class of entities of which the known universe is considered to be a member. Formerly also (in full island universe), a distinct stellar system, a galaxy  2 The world, esp. as the scene of human existence or activity; transf. humankind in general Oxford Dictionary

The current NDA fashion is to regard the physical universe itself as God, as though this somehow satisfies those people who find the fairy stories of the formal religions a bit too much to stomach. So now we have a universe that is both physical and metaphysical and apparently bleeds and suffers at mankind’s hunting animals, digging holes, felling trees, clearing land, building dams, etc. We are to feel guilty (yet again) for our sins and atone by respecting and worshipping Mother Nature and the associated spirits of the land. In primitive tribes, the earthly and heavenly spirits were appeased by sacrifice and ritual. Nowadays the modern, usually affluent, environmentalists preach a return to primitive times and animal / land spirit worship, even to the point of actively campaigning against industrial and agricultural development in poorer countries, thereby denying those people a chance to develop out of their subsistent primitive lifestyle.

This physical universe is so perfect, so vast, so complex, so varied that to see and understand all of its facets is beyond the capacity of any human brain. Most people, when faced with trying to cognitively understand this boundless universe, end up with awe, beauty, terror, dread or whatever other feeling is evoked. This is due to the fact that we perceive the universe, the air we breathe, the food we eat, the land we walk upon, the sky we see, as alien and separate. We are made of the same stuff as the universe, we are not, in fact, more alien than the soil is, a tree is, or any other animal. But given the infliction of thinking and feeling ourselves to be an alien entity trapped inside the physical body, we think and feel ourselves to be separate.

Therein lies the problem. It is ‘who’ we think and feel ourselves to be that is alien, not the physical universe, and it is no wonder that our only way of feeling ‘connected’ is to regard the actual, physical, infinite and eternal universe as a metaphysical entity. ‘What’ one is, as a flesh and blood corporeal body free of this alien entity, is the physical universe experiencing itself as a human being. What else could one then be?