The living, aware cosmos

There is observational evidence that hints at the possibility that stars, galaxies and galaxy clusters act as living organisms (as holons). All galaxies seem to rotate in some way, and something unusual has been rather uniformly observed. The stars in motion around each galaxy spin centre, and the orbital speeds of galaxies in galaxy clusters don't match the gravitational effects of the observed objects, based on inferred masses.

It turns out that the ordinary, directly observable matter (stuff made of atoms, and their constituent particles) only accounts for less than 5% of all the mass-energy in the cosmos (mass and energy being equivalent through the famous e equals m c squared). About a quarter seems to be dark matter, and the rest goes into dark energy. In other words, we have not much of an official clue (yet) about what 95% of the cosmos is or appears to be made of. Most of the cosmos is still a mystery to us, despite massive advances (in terms of what humanity acknowledged as common, proven knowledge just a few hundred revolutions ago of our planet around its star).

Given this state of affairs, let's suppose, as a working hypothesis, that an underlying unifying awareness underpins all life-forms. Let's also assume that everything manifested (that makes itself noticeable through an effect of some sort in the observable universe) is alive, and quite possibly aware, to a certain degree.

Perhaps this "dark energy" that is currently imagined to spread uniformly across the cosmos is somehow correlated with a cosmic awareness field. Perhaps aware entities somehow create depressions in this awareness field through the flow of their life-force very much like mass creates depressions in space-time, and this in turn has an effect on space-time elements - which may account for some or all of the "dark matter" effects. This may also correlate well with the ancient concept of Qi - the life force of the cosmos.

In this context, imagine that stars are alive and maybe aware in a colossal way. Their rhythm of life is vast, spanning billions of rotations of their satellites. Imagine that galaxies are alive and aware as well - their lives spanning even longer than those of individual stars. Imagine galaxy clusters are alive and aware, their lives even longer than those of their constituent galaxies.

Just because we humans have vanishingly shorter life-spans when compared with planets, other celestial bodies, stars, galaxies, or galaxy clusters, I suggest we shouldn't rush to the conclusion that these much larger and apparently inanimate objects are devoid of any form of awareness or life.

I suspect that life is the norm in the cosmos rather than an exception. It so happens that most of that life vibrates on a different rhythm to the human cycles.

I wonder what shapes the perceptions and thoughts of our Earth. I wonder what the Sun dreams of. I wonder what is the nature of the concerns held by the Milky Way, if any. I wonder what the galaxies in the Local Group are chatting about, if anything resembling chatting is actually happening between them. I also wonder what the Virgo and Laniakea Superclusters are up to, and how their songs fit into the greater symphony of the cosmos.

Did I find my Purpose or has it found me?

I still haven't managed to figure out exactly how my Purpose found me (or I came aware of it) - it just seemed to click into place, to coalesce: I'm here to help as many people as I can to find great joy in creating delightful systems. I get better at that by improving myself as well. I'm here to help others derive intense professional satisfaction from growing into amazing teams and communities. I've experienced great joy (achieved amazing things with amazing teams) and great sorrow in my life (witnessed some dark deeds), and know that I can choose to shine my light everywhere.

The peculiar thing is that more I became aware of my purpose (my inner world began to shine), the more the situations I found myself in and contributed to were in synergy with my purpose (the outer world started to match my inner life) - and on and on in a reinforcing virtuous cycle. One might call this "magical" even – there seems to be great mystery in this law of resonance. In physics terms, maximum transfer of energy (information) between two oscillating systems happens when the oscillations have the same frequency. In human terms, we seem to attract into our lives people with similar beliefs or challenges – people with whom we have the chance to resonate and exchange information better with.

You're in charge – you get to decide how you vibrate. Nothing can force you to stay down when you get knocked a bit. I suspect our spirits come from beyond matter, beyond energy – our consciousness has the ability to shape intent. We can choose to be happy – and success on our terms will follow - it doesn't work the other way round. We just need to practice increasing our awareness, and purposefully defining the meaning we take from our interactions – this is not easy at all, but it's doable.

Increased awareness brings joy in other people's successes and compassion for their challenges. It brings the ability to help by developing a deeper understanding – there's no greater respect to pay someone than training your full awareness on them. I know, I'm sometimes even a bit scary that way, one of my coaches tells me I'm sometimes a bit too intense, I should relax a bit, make it less obvious. I think it's a bit weird (and somewhat sad) that it's currently unusual to give each other such full doses of attention.

Purposefully defining the meaning we take from our interactions means we can choose our response. We can choose to turn the other cheek. We can choose forgiveness, love and compassion. We can choose kindness. We can choose to radiate joy, no matter how bleak our circumstances in the instant. I am unaware of a better world that can be brought into being through hate or discord – the essence of life is love.

We can always help one another - if only we claim the courage to try. A great place to start is by respecting all other beings - after all, they're expressions of the same fundamental intent that shapes the Universe we perceive (and quite possibly anything beyond perception as well). Despite the plentiful illusions to the contrary, I think we're not really alone - in the core of our spirit, we're all one.

Spooky - purpose connects events over time

How do we find our purpose? Or does it find us? Or do we find each other? I find it amazing how life either seems to conspire to articulate a purpose for us, or we read purpose into life, or a bit of both happens over and over. Adaptation seems to play a hand.

I admit to feeling a "spooky action at a distance" across time every now and then - there are times when I know the rough shape of what's going to happen. It's as if a purpose, or strong intent, draws me through time. For instance, I knew what highschool and university I'd study at - even though it wasn't in any way a given that it'd be easy to achieve, not by a long shot. Very hard exams were studied for and passed with flying colours. A couple of decades ago, I knew that I'd travel to New Zealand, even if only for a skiing holiday. At the time, I didn't have any idea how I'd ever travel anywhere beyond Romania - didn't have any resources apart from this bundle of awareness condensed into a body. It turns out that life happened such that I've been living in Aotearoa since 1997, and loving it.

Now I feel intensely drawn to help lots of people to think, work and live better in tight-knit communities. I wonder what life will make of this...

Imagination - the engine of life

Imagination seems to have a most powerful impact on our lives, although we seldom stop to consider it.

Every once in a while, random changes may turn out to work out as improvements. Random improvements work well as an evolutionary mechanism on a geologic time scale. For humans, our brief span of life precludes us from using a similar strategy for improving our lives. In order to establish a habit of continuous improvement, we must practice imagining better ways of thinking, organizing or doing.

The better we become at using our imagination, the more we can create a fresh world. When we respond in an unusual way to a stimulus, we typically do so by engaging our imagination.

Forgiveness also requires imagination and courage. Retaliation is easy - folks choose it because they can't imagine a better way of resolving their grievance, and it may be perceived to satisfy a sense of fairness or justice. Forgiveness is hard - it requires imagining a world in which an agressor may go unpunished. Yet, the forgiver may imagine ways of influencing the forgiven such that the aggression ceases, amends are made, and harmony is achieved. That is very hard. Many despair of it being achievable, and can't imagine it possible.

Imagine more of us would make a habit of saying "I have a dream" more often...

Space - we're already everywhere

Assuming instantaneous "travel" by shifting awareness focus were possible (similar to the fold-space concept in the Dune universe, although I don't quite buy the fold part), how would we "know" how to orient ourselves in the Universe? How would we develop awareness of the galactic realms on an inter-galactic scale, so we then zoom in and out to find specific "spots"?

And do we need a "body" in the remote location as a focal point for the awareness, or can we sense the universe somehow directly? Reminds me of Milarepa's "being in multiple places at once".

Awareness everywhere

Could it be that "spooky action at a distance" in quantum physics hints at the fact that space-time may be an illusion of some sort? By illusion I mean a deceptive appearance that obscures the underlying truth.

In that way, if the "substance" of awareness is already present in all locations, then instantaneous "travel" to any location ought to be possible by "simply" shifting the personal focal point of awareness of an observer, and intergalactic travel might turn up to be trivial - assuming that the extension of awareness indeed covers the full universe and way beyond.

Another interesting challenge lies in figuring out how the individuality of observers arises in the first place - if that is actually what's happening or if it turns out to be an illusion in itself.

Why is our awareness bubble so small?

As humans, the focus of our awareness appears to be typically pitched on a small point in time and space. We seem to get wrapped up in this illusion of a body separate from the rest of the universe.

Can we sense only through our physical organs? Or could it be that our awareness may actually be free to sense directly as well, unrestricted by the physical body? Through the practice of meditation, the "no-mind" state may free the awareness to expand to a wider time-space n-sphere or tesseract.

Why is it that we get pushed into this illusion that constrains our focus of awareness so narrowly? Who benefits from this "division" and the relative interactions that ensue?

It's fascinating to see how modern research in quantum gravity suggests the possibility of timelesness - a universe that just is, with time as a derived characteristic. This idea leads to some interesting questions about the free will concept.

It gives an interesting perspective on: "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." and "I am Alpha  and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come".

We are one.

Enthusiasm is a choice

Enthusiasm, zest for life and the pursuit of excellence are personal choices.

It is quite likely that everyone likes success and admires masterful skills. Anyone who has proven some level of mastery in a particular field will be able to relate to the delight felt in exercising excellence.

Focus on specific objects or outcomes may lead to a view that excellence is something that is to be achieved, somewhere to be arrived at.

A focus on life as an enduring process may lead to a view that excellence is something to be continuously demonstrated through action and impact on the lives of others.

Widespread awareness and appreciation of the continuous improvement efforts required to practice excellence has yet to occur in human civilisation as a whole. Indeed, there are numerous pockets of excellence, in various great organisations and the traditions of some civilisations.

Yet, there is still plenty of ignorance, and violence, and malice, and stupidity... No matter. The power to change the world rests with every one of us, as change can only happen one awareness at a time.