It's been a while since I've written anything so I decided to return to the blogging sphere with a big bang. I decided to explore the biggest mysteries in life and I'm going to explain it's not all that difficult.
Today's topic is pretty obvious from the title (for my old long-term fans: I know! This is weird to me too):
God and the purpose of life!
Let's start from the bottom. Consider an atom. It has certain qualities and it can interact with other atoms to a certain degree. The range of his influence is tiny. It can vibrate freely, get bonded to create molecules and bigger structures but it is also repelled by plenty of other atoms and molecules so its powers are quite limited. Except for the fact that with its behavior it can mess with the minds of thousands of the smartest people in the world and millions of stupid ones. But we're not interested in quantum mechanics. Let's leave the nonsensical stuff away and let's not complicate such simple stuff such as god and life with the quirkiness of quarks (quarkiness? hehe :).
So we have an atom that has certain powers, certain energy, and certain abilities to manipulate and interact with the world around itself. Let's move one step higher. Molecules have a little bit more options. They have more power, more influence, more energy, and generally they can do more stuff. Atoms don't do much but relatively few molecules can do a lot. Look at our bodies. A few molecules of serotonin here and there and we would be different people. 100 micrograms of LSD and you're sent to a different reality.
Then we have a rock. It is composed of an immense number of interacting atoms and its power is much larger. It can't do much on its own again but it can break a window if it is used properly. It can break other rocks and kill a human. A rock can interact with the environment in a comparatively big way compared to a simple atom. It has maybe less freedom to travel (poor rock...) but more influence on its surroundings.
All clear? Well, let's move on to life. Let's take a ladybug. A ladybug is already an incredibly complicated creation made of an enormous number of interacting, and cooperating, molecules. Ladybug can fly, it can procreate, it can eat. It can change its environment. In a small way, sure, but it can. I don't know if they create shelters but I wouldn't doubt that they could theoretically. Other small insects certainly do. That's already impressive if you think about it. They can purposely do stuff! (ladybugs don't create shelters btw. No need to google it. They just hide somewhere during the night and winter)
Doing is the definition of life really. Living entities do things on purpose, to reach a certain goal. Basically, it's to continue living which means surviving by eating other life or having sex with other, compatible life to at least keep on living through a proxy.
Another awesome, and defining, ability of life is that it goes against entropy. A rock is a structured creation but it's made randomly through complex (re)actions. But life! Life can create itself. It can make itself grow and replicate. It defies the laws of physics! Almost...
Now let's jump a bit and look at humans. We have vast powers because we have intelligence. We can use tools, or other life, to do stuff, to create, to save us work. We can cook, paint, build, destroy, and pretty much anything else. What's even more important is that thanks to intelligence and language we can constructively and purposely cooperate to do... Pretty much anything if given time. We sent ourselves to space just to name that one little thing that's slightly impressive.
Look at all the things we have done. For human's sake just look at this stuff!
We've built a modern and beautiful city for four million people. In the desert! Out of nothing. In what? 30 years?
Or look at this photo of Singapore. We've turned science fiction into science non-fiction!
As separate beings, we might feel small and powerless and looking from a bigger perspective we are. But we only need to look around ourselves to see all that we've managed.
You can argue it wasn't me, or you, who did all this but is the one cell in your right thumb doing anything? Well, yes and no. If it's not there nothing really changes does it? What if all the billions of cooperating cells that make up your thumb weren't there? We are made of googol atoms, molecules, cells, bacteria, and who knows what else. And they do an amazing job to keep us alive for over 100 hundred years sometimes.
Same thing with humans. We've started as apes in Africa and we made cities, culture, art, money, the internet, lego, and whatever the hell these things are.
All thanks to cooperation.
This is the defining character of intelligent life I'd say. Intelligent life cooperates because it realizes that together we have more power.
You get the point. I'm not a teenager who's disgusted by humans anymore. I'm a grown man who is amazed by humans. For my old fans, quite a change huh?
Let's now go a bit abstract. We have a life that can manipulate the world and that can create other life. We have humans that are doing amazing stuff. For what? Because we can!
Why do birds fly together in flocks? Because they can. Because it's fun. We can do stuff so why not do it? Why not imagine, create, build, and just do crazy shit, right?
And now for something completely different. Let's imagine we can act together as a whole planet. Same as ants cooperate together to survive and thrive. Same as the cells in human bodies make us we can look at the whole planet as one thing.
We can go even further and look at the whole Galaxy. Let's assume there is another intelligent life which I think is a safe bet despite the contradicting evidence. What if in the future we will be able to communicate, cooperate, and do even more stuff with other living creatures? This is what life does. It does. It lives and it does things. There's clear progress. Atoms, rocks, ladybugs, humans, planets, galaxies, universes (?) and then? God!
God is all the way at the end. God can interact with literally anything. It can manipulate the whole reality.
So what does God do? Well... anything and everything really.
It's an all-powerful thing and if you can do anything what would you do? You would do everything. You'd create universes with atoms that would bounce with each other and then create molecules and more complex structures. Eventually, life would evolve and that life would create even more weird stuff. And you'd do way crazier stuff than just let life evolve.
So far it should be all clear and probably even agreeable. We move to stuff that is more spiritual, abstract, and theoretical.
There are several options that result from this.
One popular idea between spiritual people is the one where we are God just separated in order for God to live through everything. The idea is that after death we return or move to the higher consciousness and we become God, or at least god so we have to live through many lives as lesser god and basically consciousness has to live through pretty much all the possible lives to learn so it can finally become the God.
Maybe this universe is only one of many. Maybe there are 49 of them and they rise together in a helix structure with 7 in each plane. Above that is a three-dimensional Hebrew letter Aleph made by four creative energies. This Aleph is made of three focal points with different light: golden love, red creation, and blue will. The Aleph itself stands for wisdom and is white. Once you see this you go further and see that this whole universe-Aleph structure is surrounded by other similar structures. There are thousands of them. And if you're there you're going to get employed to create other consciousness to keep the wheels turning.
Ok, I went a little further than I thought but this is a very simplified idea from a super cool guy Itzhak Bentov and his book A Brief Tour of Higher Consciousness (free? pdf here). Simply fascinating what people can come up with.
Anyway, the idea of our soul surviving and moving further is obviously quite popular and always has been. I like it too but I think it gives too much value to consciousness. I'm not sure this ability is that special. Intelligence is pretty special I think but I doubt that consciousness permeates the whole universe, the material world is created by the mind from the vibrating particles that have no matter, and we are all connected through this universal mind and consciousness. Could be but who knows. Too many assumptions in that. And too much misunderstanding of quantum mechanics.
Also, I think that when people believe this it could just be the brain's defense mechanism to protect and keep us sane. Most people ask for answers so when they ask what's the meaning and what's after life, the brain will give them answers. This idea goes much further and deeper than this and I should probably write a whole article to explain it more. The basic point is that most people don't like not knowing and hate accepting the simple reality that we just have no idea what the hell is going on in reality.
My favorite hypothesis is currently this one. God is created only at a certain point in the universe (at the end?) and God basically decides to start it all over. It manipulates the whole universe to a single point and makes the big bang. Maybe she is created through the process of endless birth and death. Maybe it is a computer that just became too smart. Maybe it's a single being that just somehow cracked the code of the universe.
Maybe God destroys himself/herself/whateverself in that process or maybe he is still present. Maybe as a viewer and maybe as an active participant sometimes. I'm not clear on this.
Which finally brings me to the idea of enlightenment and the purpose of our lives. The purpose, not necessarily the meaning though, of our lives should be clear at this point. We are here to do stuff, to create, build. And absolutely not only in the material sense. We have intelligence and we are here to imagine, think, research, and create. Create ideas, art, mathematical equations, umbrellas for shoes. That's what we are here for! We are here to become God. We are here to manipulate and interact with the world as much as we can. We are here to amass as much power as we can. And by power, I don't mean money or social status. Well, not only and not mainly. I mean that we are here to gather knowledge, to learn, and then create something thanks to this knowledge.
Which brings me to my personal idea of enlightenment. There are many out there. Realizing the reality of the self, or rather the lie, the illusion. It can be freedom from samsara and the cycle of death and rebirth. It can mean the kundalini awakening and who knows what other abstract and completely irrelevant ideas for the real-world there are of enlightenment.
I have a simpler explanation for enlightenment. (I should probably find a different word for it to not add to the already existing confusion. Well, I actually do but I'll tell you at the end ;)
An enlightened being, and it can apply to ladybugs, dogs, humans, and maybe even some gods, is simple. It's the state where you realize what you want, what your being truly desires and you do it. Could be playing with model trains, being the richest person, writing a blog even if no one reads it, creating a rocket to space, working in a factory for dog food, sitting in a cave for decades to meditate, or doing accounting for a small IT firm in Bristol. All good and godly! So actually being enlightened is about freedom. Freedom to do, to create, to manipulate and to imagine. With no limits. Just like God! Sure, there will be society telling you to do or not do something. Sure, there will be limits to your freedom because you will have to care for yourself and your family. But those are self-imposed limits. You are free to just fuck off and sit on benches for 2 years like this guy. Or not. If that's what you want. It's not freedom, it's radical freedom I guess.
The issue here? Not wanting to preach from a high horse and be too spiritual here but the issue is that we don't really know who we are and what we want. Our selves are a mix of the "true self", the genes, and then all the things we've been told by society. Which is not itself a bad thing. We are social creatures, living creatures and a defining attribute of life is cooperating, coliving. So not all of it is bad. The genes you can't really affect and I would even argue that it's the "true self". With the social stuff, we can work with. If you've learned something, you can unlearn it. If you realize something doesn't work, you can discard it. Easy right? Well, not really but if it's your purpose in life you are somewhat bound to do it. The truly free people are the ones who do stuff and don't care about the opinion of others. They do it because they can and they want to. Does a ladybug care about the ants she's stealing food from? I honestly don't know. I don't even know if she can eat what ants eat. Maybe not the best example... Does a lion care that she eats an antelope? Ok, maybe not the best example again when I talk about cooperation as a defining character of life.
So what am I saying? I guess nothing more. This is all just a thought process of a random guy. It's the last version of an idea that's been brewing over many years but more updates will surely come.
I'm not enlightened. I'm not a guru (yet) so I don't have all the answers. Yet...?
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