The Living Universe

by Duane Elgin

  Muslims believe Muhammad to be the final prophet of God. Over a period of twenty-three years, Muhammad received a series of revelations that were recorded by his followers. These revelations later became the Koran (Qur’an), the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be the word of God or Allah as revealed to Muhammad. Here the relationship of God to the universe is very explicit: “God is the Creator of everything; is the One, the Omnipotent.” Not only is God the source and originator of everything but also its sustainer: “God keeps a firm hold on the heavens and earth, preventing them from vanishing away. And if they vanished no one could then keep hold of them. Certainly He is Most Forbearing, Ever-Forgiving.” (Koran 35:41).

  The Islamic view of God sustaining the universe is called occasionalism and describes the universe as being continuously reborn in a series of unique occasions or events.11 Al-Ghazali, who lived in the eleventh century, was a celebrated theologian and great synthesizer of Muslim thought. He advanced the Islamic view that our universe is not an ancient, static structure; instead, it is born anew at each moment—created out of nothing in a series of events by the will of Allah.12 Nothing continues to exist unless God constantly re-creates it. The book that you are holding now will be, in a moment, a new “occasion” of the book that went before it. Nothing endures in time; rather, everything comes into existence freshly in each moment, only to disappear and be replaced an instant later by another fresh expression or occasion.

  Another major Islamic teacher is Ibn Arabi, who lived in the thirteenth century. Arabi wrote more than 300 works and had a powerful influence on Islamic spirituality. Even during his lifetime, he was considered one of the great spiritual teachers within Sufism, the esoteric tradition within Islam that focuses on direct experience of the divine. The central doctrine of Sufism is that all phenomena are manifestations of a single reality and arise out of a deep unity. According to Arabi, we do not notice the world is coming into existence and then passing away at every moment because, when one expression of existence passes away, it is immediately replaced by another nearly like it. He says that in thinking the world endures from past to present to future, we overlook the reality that, at every moment, the world presents a new creation of itself.

  Rumi is an internationally famous, thirteenth-century Persian poet and Sufi.13 His works have been translated into many languages, and his influence transcends ethnic and spiritual borders. Rumi wrote clearly about the continuous arising of existence: “You have a death and a return in every moment. . . . Every moment the world is renewed but we, in seeing its continuity of appearance, are unaware of its being renewed.” He also said that life is like a stream: “it arrives new and fresh at every moment while it appears constant in its material form.”

  Mahmud Shabistari is another celebrated Persian poet. He wrote the following in 1317 C.E.:

  The world is this whole, and in every twinkling of an eye,

  it becomes non-existent and endures not two moments.

  There over again another world is produced,

  every moment a new heaven and a new earth.

  Things remain not in two moments,

  the same moment they perish, they are born again.

  Finally, A. H. Almaas, a modern-day teacher with roots in the Sufi tradition, has written powerfully about all of existence continually coming into being: “The universe is never old; it is always new, for it includes both animate and inanimate objects, the Earth and the sky, the planets, the Sun and the stars, the galaxies and the space that contains them; it also includes all the thoughts, images, memories, feelings, sensations, and all phenomena at all levels of being.”14 All of this, says Almaas—the one totality that continuously comes into being—is something that we can experience directly.

  Hindu Views

  Hinduism dates back at least thirty-five hundred years and is the oldest and perhaps most complex of the world’s living religions. It has no identified founder, but is known by its Vedas, or scriptures. Hinduism is the third-largest religion in the world with roughly 14 percent of the world’s population, the majority of whom live in India. Although the term Hinduism encompasses many diverse sects and philosophies, all Hindus believe in a supreme cosmic spirit called Brahman. Brahman is the sustaining life force that is ultimately beyond description and the reach of human language. Brahman is the foundation of existence, and the source of all things as all things participate in the being of Brahman. By practicing different forms of meditation, Hindus believe that we can directly experience our sacred nature as Brahman. Atman, our individual essence or soulful nature, is Brahman—the sustaining cosmic spirit whose nature is often described as infinite being, infinite consciousness, and infinite bliss.

  At the heart of the Hindu view of reality is the belief that our universe is continuously upheld by a divine life force. Huston Smith, scholar of the world’s religions, writes, “All Hindu religious thought denies that the world of nature stands on its own feet. It is grounded in God; if he were removed it would collapse into nothingness.”15 In the words of a revered Hindu teacher, Sri Nisargadatta Majaraj, “The entire universe contributes incessantly to your existence. Hence the entire universe is your body.”16

  We are continually created from Brahman, and therefore at the most fundamental level, all things are one, unified, whole. The Bhagavad-Gita, written roughly 2,500 years ago, is one of the main holy texts of India. There, Brahman is described as the “king of all knowledge.” The Gita states: “This entire universe is pervaded by Me, the unmanifest Brahman. All beings depend on Me. I do not depend on them.” “I am the origin or seed of all beings. There is nothing, animate or inanimate, that can exist without Me. . . . the creator exists in the creation by pervading everything. . . He is inside as well as outside of all beings, animate and inanimate. He is incomprehensible because of His subtlety. He is very near as well as far away.”

  Turning to even older sources of wisdom in the Hindu tradition, the texts of the Upanishads, we find this declaration:

  Out of himself he brought forth the cosmos

  And entered into everything in it.

  There is nothing that does not come from him.

  Of everything he is the inmost Self.

  He is the truth; he is the Self supreme.

  You are that . . . you are that.

  —CHANDOGYA UPANISHAD

  Hindu mythology portrays the cosmos being born anew at each moment through the cosmic dance of Shiva. “Nature and all its creatures are the effects of his eternal dance.”17 All expressions and aspects of the living world are but momentary flashes from the limbs of the Lord of the dance.18 In the Hindu view of the universe, there is nothing permanent; rather, the cosmos is seen as one body being continuously danced into creation by the divine life force.

  For a more contemporary Hindu perspective, the writing of the revered sage and philosopher Sri Aurobindo is insightful. He wrote: “. . . there is but one Force in the world, a single unique current which passes through us and all things . . . it is this force which links up everything, animates everything; this is the fundamental substance of the Universe.”19 Finally, when Mahatma Gandhi, the great spiritual and political leader of India, was asked what he considered to be the essence of Hinduism, he quoted the first verse of the Isha Upanishad, which begins with these lines:

  Filled with Brahman are the things we see,

  Filled with Brahman are the things we see not,

  From out of Brahman floweth all that is:

  From Brahman all—yet is he still the same.20

  Again and again, in Hinduism, we find the theme of a life force continuously regenerating the universe in a dance of cosmic-scale creation. Heinrich Zimmer, the respected scholar of Indian art and civilization, summarizes Hindu cosmology by saying: “There is nothing static, nothing abiding, but only the flow of a relentless process, with everything originating, growing, decaying, vanishing.”21

  Buddhist Views

  Buddhism is a family of wisdom tradi
tions and its followers comprise about 6 percent of the world’s population. These traditions have their origins in the historical person of Siddhartha Gautama, who was born in the foothills of the Himalayas in India in the sixth century B.C.E. Siddhartha was an Indian prince who eventually renounced his power and wealth to meditate on the nature of reality. After his “enlightening experience” other monks saw his newly discovered radiance and knowing, and asked him, “Are you a God?” He replied no. They then asked if he were an angel? Again he answered no. “Then what are you?” they asked. He replied simply: “I am awake.”22 He became known as the Buddha, which means “the one who is awake.” After his awakening, he taught for the remaining forty-five years of his life, traveling through northeastern India, teaching and mentoring a diverse community of people. Primarily, he taught that, through meditation and spiritual inquiry, anyone could awaken from the sleep of ignorance and directly realize the nature of the universe and their own nature.

  What was the core realization that the Buddha awakened to? At the foundation of the Buddha’s teachings is his description of the simultaneous arising of all things in the universe. Variously translated as “interdependent co-arising” and “interdependent co-origination,” the Buddha said this insight was at the heart of his awakening. According to the Buddha, to discern the moment-to-moment, interdependent co-arising of all things in the universe is to awaken to a reality that is subtle, sublime, hard to perceive, and not accessible through logic alone. Because the co-arising of all things in the universe is a process that completely includes us, we cannot stand back to observe it; instead, to know this reality we must relax completely into ourselves and become transparent to more subtle levels of our own experience. When we consciously experience ourselves in this way, we find nothing permanent; instead we find complete dynamism and flow, including the direct experience of ourselves.

  From the perspective of Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama has written, “At the heart of Buddhist cosmology is not only the idea that there are multiple world systems . . . but also the idea that they are in a constant state of coming into being and passing away.”23 The Tibetan teacher, scholar, and artist Lama Govinda writes, “The world is in a continuous state of creation, of becoming, and therefore in a continuous state of destruction of all that has been created.”24 He also writes, “This apparently solid and substantial world [is] . . . a whirling nebulous mass of insubstantial, eternally rotating elements of continually arising and disintegrating forms.”25 Namkhai Norbu, another esteemed teacher in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, states, “All phenomena . . . no matter how solid they may seem, are in fact essentially void, impermanent, only temporarily existing.”26

  Because the world around us is being continuously regenerated—arising freshly in its totality at each moment so absolutely nothing endures—it makes sense that the Buddha would describe existence as a “flash of lightning in a summer cloud,” a “flickering lamp,” an “apparition,” and a “phantom.” The world flashes into existence as a unified whole at one moment—presenting itself in all its vividness—only to disappear completely and be replaced an instant later with a new representation of itself. In learning the skills of meditation, the Buddha said we can become centered in the flow of natural time and experience directly the co-arising of the cosmos.

  Turning from the Buddhism of Tibet to that practiced in Japan, we again find this insight of the moment-to-moment arising of the universe. The respected Zen scholar and teacher, D. T. Suzuki, has Written, “My solemn proclamation is that a new universe is created every moment.”27 Elsewhere he writes, “All things come out of an unknown abyss of mystery, and through every one of them we can have a peep into the abyss.”28 Also from the Zen tradition we have this unequivocal statement from Alan Watts: “The beginning of the universe is now, for all things are at this moment being created, and the end of the universe is now, for all things are at this moment passing away.”29 Others in the Zen tradition describe the continuous arising of the universe. Robert Linssen describes the world seen through the eyes of a skilled meditator: “A tree, a stone, an animal cease to be seen as solid and durable bodies . . . in their place the practiced disciple discerns a continual succession of sudden manifestations only lasting as long as a flash of lightning. . . .”30

  At the foundation of Buddhism, then, is the view that the entire universe is arising freshly as a unified whole at each moment. Because everything arises or emerges along with everything else, this means that the condition of anything depends upon the condition of everything to which it is connected—and that is the totality of the universe.

  Taoist and Confucian Views

  Taoism and Confucianism represent the spiritual beliefs of about 6 percent of the world’s population. They are the foundational religions of China that have also influenced Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.

  The origins of Taoism are generally traced to the third or fourth century B.C.E.and Lao Tzu, a mythical figure whose existence is still debated. Legend has it that as the “old master” prepared to ride oft” and disappear into the vast China desert, he was asked by a customs official to write down his philosophy. In response, he wrote the Tao Te Ching—roughly translated as “The Book of the Way and Its Virtue.” This book is the only written record of Lao Tzu’s philosophy.

  At the heart of Taoism is the understanding that the Tao is the sustaining life force and the mother of all things; from it, all things “rise and fall without cease.”31 The Tao is the source of all there is and so is the unifying principle that resolves all contradictions and oppo-sites. Because the Tao is both everything and the source of all things, the Tao is ultimately beyond names, language, and thought. For this reason, it is called the “nameless way.” The Tao is the “Mother of the Universe,” a generative and maternal life force that continually gives birth to the universe. Because the Tao is regarded as inexhaustible and unbounded, it is empty of limiting characteristics.

  The goal of Taoism is to live in harmony with the flow of existence. Life is forever moving, never still, always becoming, so the wise person learns to watch carefully and ride the ever-cresting wave of life’s flow. Taoists see the universe as a vast ocean of interacting energy. Since they believe that chi, or life energy, is abundant throughout, great importance is placed on cultivating harmony in our energetic connection with the universe. By bringing an awareness of life energy into our direct experience, we see ourselves as participants in a vast dance of becoming, where everything participates with everything else. In experiencing ourselves within the flowing river of life, we can sense when we are pushing against the current or riding with the flow.

  The second great religion of China is Confucianism. Its primary concern is the establishment of harmony between the energies of heaven and Earth. This religion was founded by Confucius, a sage and social philosopher who was deeply concerned about the troubling times in which he lived. Although his ideas gained little acceptance during his lifetime (551—479 B.C.E.), his teachings have deeply influenced Eastern Asia for twenty centuries.

  Confucianism perceives life as a seamless and continual interaction between three realms: “Heaven” (a life force), “Earth” (the natural world), and “Humanity” (the socially constructed world). Confucian social ethics were intended to bring a harmonious interplay between humans, the natural world, and the forces of heaven through the binding force of the life energy or chi. This energy is the unifying, vibrant, and ceaseless vitality that underlies our physical reality. Ch’i is the life force of heaven that gives birth to the universe and nourishes it in a profoundly unified, interpenetrating, ceaselessly active cosmic process.

  While Taoism and Confucianism are quite distinct in their specific teachings, they share a perspective of the universe that might be described as organic, vitalistic, and holistic.32 They both see the universe as a unified whole, permeated with life and involved in a continuous process of transformation.

  Indigenous Views

  The indigenous or tribal peopl
es of the world represent roughly 6 percent of the world’s population. “Native” or “indigenous” or “first people” societies are found throughout the world, and historically they have relied on subsistence farming as well as hunting and gathering. Without a written language, native peoples have preserved their rich knowledge of the world in stories, rituals, songs, and legends. Many people living in cultures with a written language tend to view the oral traditions of indigenous peoples as more primitive and less articulate. However, this is an erroneous perspective, as native cultures often possess an extensive and sophisticated language with a subtle and complex worldview.

  Indigenous traditions observe an invisible presence throughout the world—an animating force permeating the universe and connecting all things into a living whole. According to Navajo tradition, a “sacred wind” blows through the universe and brings the capacity for awareness and communication with others. Our individual consciousness is simply a local part of this larger, animating wind or life force that moves through all of nature.

  For the Lakota, who inhabited the upper midwest of the United States, “religion” is a direct experience of an all-pervading aliveness throughout the world. Luther Standing Bear, a Lakota elder, said of his tradition, “there was no such thing as emptiness in the world. Even in the sky there were no vacant places. Everywhere there was life, visible and invisible, and every object gave us a great interest in life. The world teemed with life and wisdom; there was no complete solitude for the Lakota.”33 Since a living presence is felt to be in and through everything, all things are seen and experienced as related. Because everything is connected through the Great Spirit, everything deserves to be treated with respect.