The Living Universe

by Duane Elgin

  Why should we be concerned with recognizing the “Living One” or the eternal being within ourselves while we are alive in this physical realm? Jesus gives an important answer when he says, “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you.” (John 14:2). I believe Jesus is saying that, in the vast ecology of the cosmos, there are living spaces suitable for all beings. Another saying attributed to Jesus—found on an Arabic inscription on a city gate in India—makes the function of this world clear: “This world is a bridge. Pass over it, but do not build your house upon it.17

  Buddhists also believe we must discover our subtle, inner nature so we can recognize ourselves when we die. They emphasize it is precisely while we have a physical body that it is important to recognize our core nature as pure awareness or as the “ground luminosity.”18 Because the essence of who we are is so subtle, when we die we can become confused, disoriented, and unable to sustain self-recognition. To keep from becoming overwhelmed by the sights, sounds, colors, and visions that arise in the passage with death, Buddhists teach that we must attain some degree of stability in self-recognition in the here and now. If we pay attention to the natural wakefulness at the core of our everyday consciousness, we will be familiar with ourselves at the time of death.19 The Dalai Lama counsels that, because we don’t know when we will die, it is of great benefit to be well-prepared as, at the time of death, the total responsibility for awareness falls upon us. He writes, “The body is compared to a guest house; it is a place to stay for just a short time. . . . When the day comes for consciousness to leave, the guest house of the body must be left behind.”20

  Turning from Buddhism to the wisdom of the fifteenth-century Hindu and Sufi master Kabir:

  The idea that the soul will join with the ecstatic

  just because the body is rotten—

  that is all fantasy.

  What is found now is found then.

  If you find nothing now,

  you will simply end up with an apartment in the City of Death.

  If you make love with the divine now,

  in the next life you will have the face of satisfied desire.21

  If we use our time on Earth to come to self-referencing awareness, we will have anchored the gift of eternity in direct knowing. We can then evolve and grow forever in the infinite ecologies of the Mother Universe.

  If the universe is non-living at its foundations, it will take a miracle to save us from extinction at the time of death, and then to take us from here to a heaven (or promised land) of continuing aliveness. However, if the universe is alive, then we are already nested and growing within its aliveness. When our physical body dies, the life-stream that we are will move into the larger aliveness of the living universe. We don’t need a miracle to save us—we are already inside the first miracle of sustaining aliveness. Instead of being saved from death, our job is to bring mindful attention to our enduring aliveness in the here and now.

  I do not view awakening to our participation in the Mother Universe as the end of our spiritual journey; instead, I believe it is only the barest beginning. As we learn the skills of consciously recognizing ourselves as flow-through beings of cosmic dimension and purpose, we are meeting the basic requirement for our journey through eternity. Once knowingness knows itself directly, then that knowing-ness can live and learn forever as a luminous stream of being in the deep ecology of the Mother Universe. Awakening is never finished: We will forever be “enlightening” ourselves—becoming lighter so that we have the ability to participate in ever more free, subtle, open, delicate and expressive ecologies of being and becoming.

  When we die, we will not need to remember the material details of our lives because the knowing-resonance that we are embodies the essential wisdom of our lifetime of experience. In the words of the spiritual teacher Thomas Merton, “Every moment and every event of every man’s life on earth plants something in his soul.”

  As we cultivate our capacity for mindful living we lessen the need for a material world and a physical body to awaken the knowing process to itself. If 96 percent of the known universe is invisible, then, when our body dies (the visible four percent), that does not mean that the invisible aspect of our aliveness dissipates and dies as well. Ultimately, the physical body that provides the structure for aligning conscious knowing will die, and we can endure as a self-confirming body of light, love, and knowing-resonance.

  Once grounded in our capacity to recognize ourselves as a body of awareness, we can be self-remembering without fear of forgetting ourselves. When we die the full responsibility for self-luminous recognition falls upon each of us. Now is the time to recognize ourselves. In consciously becoming intimate friends with ourselves, we are directly participating in the life-stream of the universe and consciously cultivating the body of knowing that lives and moves within the deep ecology of the Mother Universe. At the heart of life is a simple task: to become intimate and forgiving friends with ourselves and to grow ourselves as a stream of light, love, music, and knowing.

  Part Three

  Where Are We Going?

  Chapter 6

  Where Is the Universe Going?

  The universe is a single living being embracing all living beings within it.

  —PLOTINUS

  Is there a discernible direction to the unfolding of the universe? If so, where is the universe going? How do we fit into its unfolding? Is our evolution as a species in alignment with the developing universe? To explore these core questions, let’s first consider the nature and expression of life in the universe.

  Life Within Life Within Life

  At the foundation of existence is a pervasive life force—unstoppable, unquenchable, untiring, and forever manifesting itself. Not only does this life force burst irrepressibly into the everyday world and then tenaciously cling to existence (think of grass growing through cracks of a busy sidewalk) it is also found nearly everywhere we look. Living forms have been found beneath the polar ice caps, in high deserts with no water, beside erupting volcano vents thousands of feet under the ocean, and in pools of water as caustic as battery acid. Communities of microbes have also been found more than two miles underground in pockets of water that have been isolated from sunlight for at least two million years, living only on the chemicals in the rocks and the water that was likely carried there by meteorites. Life presses at the edges of material existence at every moment and in every place, seeking opportunities to emerge and find expression. No matter how remote or harsh the circumstances, the life force will seek to express itself and to organize itself into some kind of sentient entity.1

  The deeper we look, the more complex the living universe becomes. An exquisitely creative, inexhaustibly intelligent, and infinitely aware life energy is both immanent (present throughout the cosmos) and transcendent (present in ecologies that extend far beyond our cosmos). This life force is simultaneously personal (upholding the most intimate aspects of our existence), impersonal (sustaining all of creation with great freedom), and transpersonal (extending beyond the boundaries of the cosmic system we inhabit).

  A core insight comes into view from the combined wisdom of science and spirituality. Life is both fundamental and emergent: It is the fundamental ocean in which we all swim and it is ever emergent as life-forms organize themselves into higher levels of complexity and consciousness. The sustaining life force is fundamental, whereas surpassing life-forms such as ourselves are emergent. The aliveness of the Mother Universe has given birth to and continually sustains our living universe. In turn, our universe is able to give birth to planetary systems that can give birth to beings able to look back at the universe and reflect upon the magnitude and mystery of existence.

  Because consciousness is an integral property of the aliveness of the universe, it means that everything has a consciousness or knowing capacity that is appropriate to its nature. Instead of emerging only recently with the development of complex life forms, consciousness is a fundamental property of t
he universe that has always been present. Different material forms mobilize this capacity with modes of reflection that are appropriate to their material nature.

  We are life-forms who live within a living universe that, in turn, emerges at every moment from the aliveness of the Mother Universe. Life is nested within life, which is nested within life. Instead of a cold, gray, and empty place, the world around us is thick with aliveness, dense with unfathomable life energy, and sparkling with immeasurable potential.

  Growing Self-Organizing Systems

  Assuming the universe is a completely dynamic living system, a core question emerges: How does the transparent aliveness of the Mother Universe enter into material form and manifest itself as coherent and persisting structures like galaxies, planets, and conscious beings? How can we live in a universe of flowing movement that nevertheless appears as the stable forms we see in the world around us? That, I believe, is a central project of our daughter universe.

  Everything that exists is a flowing movement that endures, not because it has inherent solidity but because the life energy of the universe flows through it. Like an eddy in a stream or vortex in a whirlpool, all that exists depends upon the flow-through to sustain a persisting pattern. If the flow-through stops, the whirlpool or the eddy disappears. What is true for the fabric of reality is also true for us. Human beings are not solid or permanently existing entities—we are flow-through beings whose very existence depends completely on the life energy of Mother Universe flowing through us.

  Instead of spraying energy in all directions and losing coherence, the universe is continually focusing and conserving its flow-through energy by creating self-organizing systems. Everywhere we look the universe is busy with one overriding project—creating and sustaining dynamically stable entities. Throughout the natural world, we see a recurring organizing pattern of dynamic stability. This form is called a torus, and has the shape of a donut. At every level of the cosmos, we find the characteristic structure and geometry of torus-like, or toroidal, forms. The torus is significant because it is the simplest geometry of a dynamic, self-referencing, and self-organizing system that has the capacity to keep pulling together and sustaining itself. By virtue of a reflexive nature that curves back upon itself, the torus has the potential to be connected with and “know” its own dynamics.

  The accompanying figure shows six expressions of this easily recognizable form—from atoms, to humans, to galaxies.2 The physical forms found throughout the universe are visible expressions of nature’s evolutionary intention and direction. We see forms that are turning back upon themselves in a reflexive process—connecting with themselves so they can become self-possessing and self-stabilizing.

  Because we find this characteristic form at every level of the universe, it shows that a fundamental activity and evolutionary intention is being expressed in nature’s designs. Life is constantly seeking to connect with itself—to know itself and grow itself to higher levels of self-organization. A natural expression of this deep, evolutionary impulse is humanity’s striving to fulfill our species name as the creatures who are doubly wise (we are able to directly experience and be aware of our capacity for knowing). Humanity’s efforts to awaken and evolve are a direct expression of the central project of the cosmos. In turn, we can learn a great deal about ourselves by considering the most basic properties of the self-organizing systems found throughout the cosmos.

  The Torus Found Throughout Nature

  • Centering. A self-organizing system requires a center around which and through life energy can flow. The center must remain open to flow if the system is to be healthy.

  • Consciousness. A self-organizing system has a level of consciousness that is appropriate to its form and functions. From a capacity for primary perception at the level of atoms, to full reflexive consciousness at the level of humans, systems must be able to reflect upon themselves in order to be self-organizing.

  • Freedom. To be authentically self-organizing and self-creating, living systems must exist within a context of relative freedom, as life-forms interact and affect one another in a co-evolutionary dynamic.

  • Paradoxical nature. Self-organizing systems are both stable and dynamic (they are flowing systems that manifest as stable structures); both open and closed (they are continuously opening to the flow-through of energy and continuously closing into an identifiable entity); and both unique and unified (they are uniquely manifesting themselves at each moment while being completely immersed within and connected to the whole universe).

  • Community. Communities of self-organizing systems are the foundation for life. An expanded scope of community supports new levels of learning and life-experience. Self-organizing systems grow in concert with other systems in a mutually supportive process of co-evolution.

  • Emergence. We cannot predict what creative configurations will emerge as self-organizing systems grow to higher levels of connection and synergy. Smaller systems do not reveal the potentials that can emerge from larger combinations. To illustrate, we could not predict the properties of biological cells by looking only at molecules. In a similar way, we could not predict the ability of molecules to build cells by only looking at the structure of an atom, the building block of molecules. There is an extraordinary jump in aliveness at each level that could not have been anticipated by the properties of the previous level.

  Where is the universe going? The universe is rolling out self-reflective systems at the local scale that are able to join into communities at larger scales that offer the opportunity for learning and creative expression in a context of ever-broadening freedom. If we want to go with the flow of our cosmos, we will orient ourselves in this direction.

  Humanity’s Central Project

  If the universe is busy nurturing the development of self-organizing systems at every scale, then how does our journey of awakening align with nature’s evolutionary intentions? If we fight against nature we are fighting against ourselves, and our evolutionary journey will be one of alienation and frustration. If we cooperate with the cosmos, we are serving our deepest potentials and our journey will be one of satisfaction and learning. Although we may not have been aware of it, the human community is on a path of development that is aligned with the self-organizing direction of the universe.

  As mentioned in Chapter 2, our full name as a species is Homo sapiens sapiens, or doubly knowing humans.3 Simply stated, this means we can see ourselves as objects in the mirror of our own consciousness. Being able to observe ourselves gives us an entirely new level of freedom and creativity. If we use our scientific name as a guide, then our core purpose as a species is to realize—both individually and collectively—our potential for double wisdom or conscious knowing in a living universe. As we awaken, the cosmos also awakens. This is what I have called the “great awakening.” The cosmos is bending back upon itself as we humans cross the threshold of reflection and begin to contemplate ourselves within the cosmos. As the bending arc of evolution follows its course and consciousness returns to itself, we are fulfilling the potentials of the universe for creating self-organizing forms of life that are progressively ever more self-reflective. A simple visualization of stages of awakening follows. These stages are discussed in detail in the next chapter.

  Does our development as doubly wise beings align with the universe’s central project of developing self-organizing systems? As the figure’s simple images suggest, I believe that humanity and the universe are evolving in the same direction. After billions of years of evolution, a life-form has emerged on the Earth that is literally the universe looking back at herself and her creations through the unique perspective and experience of each individual person. A gardener appreciating a flower or an astronomer peering out at the night sky actually represents the closing of a loop of awareness that began with the birth of our cosmos some 14 billion years ago. We are the eyes, hands, voices, and heart of the cosmos. Our universe gave birth to and sustains living planets, which, in turn, have giv
en rise to life-forms that are now able to look back at the universe with wonder and awe. The awakening of a reflective human consciousness enables the universe to know itself and to experiment consciously in its own evolution.

  A Simple Visualization of Humanity’s Central Project

  We can see a fundamental principle at work in the universe: Evolution requires both matter and consciousness. Matter is blind in its evolutionary ascent without the mirroring capacity that consciousness provides; consciousness is blind in its evolutionary ascent without the grounding capacity that matter provides. Evolution is a mutually supportive process whereby matter seeks reflective affirmation of its presence through consciousness as much as consciousness seeks clarity of expression through matter. The goal of evolution is not to move from matter to consciousness; rather, it is to integrate matter and consciousness into a co-evolving spiral of mutual refinement that ultimately reveals the Mother Universe from which both continuously arise. Matter and consciousness support one another in their mutual ascent toward an ever-wider scope of integration and differentiation, unity and diversity. At very high levels of mutual refinement and dynamic alignment, the Mother Universe from which both arise is directly evident as non-dual or unified awareness.

  In the ceaseless flow of our ever-arising universe, we are each a unique conduit for the aliveness of the Mother Universe. When we are consciously connected with the living universe, a loop is closed—“the broken pipe is repaired,” as Tibetan Buddhists sometimes say—and the life force of the Mother Universe can flow through us and into the world embodying whatever qualities we choose to cultivate with our being and knowing.4 Paradoxically, it is through our experience of unity with the life force that we also experience our highest individual creativity and greatest distinctiveness.