SPACE.
Authors note 1: This is part one of a two part article on my realizations and learnings about the reality of existence, our existence in space, our travels through time, our explorations of consciousness, and how those learnings have positively affected the way I live my life.
Authors note 2: After learning much more about quantum physics, many parts of this essay is basically balderdash from a scientific perspective. I challenge you to consider it instead from the perspective of a conscious human’s comprehension of reality.
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“Letting go of all else, remember that man lives only in the present, in this fleeting instant; all the rest of his life is either past and gone, or not yet revealed. This mortal life is a little thing, lived in a little corner of the earth.”
Marcus Aurelius
At this very moment, the only reality that I am able to perceive and understand is the current assortment of atoms that make up the universe around me. To the extent of my human senses, the incredible sum of my conscious experience, this is the truth. Extrapolating the extent of human observation and comprehension outwards into space, all “things” have a place and a time in the universe. At this exact second, every atom in existence is somewhere, in some location relative to me, participating in the dancing ripples of the universal blast wave created by the big bang, resonating on the path towards oblivion. In our daily lives, we are encouraged to believe, to fret, and to obsess over concepts like the future, the past, currency, politics, relationships, race, religion, and every human construct in between. While these concepts are important tools to contextualize our human existence, they are not the truth of existence. They are not the true universe.
So what is truth?
Imagine that time “stops.” Imagine that every atom, proton, electron, and photon in the universe were able to freeze in its exact place, relative to one another. Obviously this is not possible, but let us imagine such a quiet moment. This is a slice of space time — a photograph of the placement of every piece of matter in the universe. In every moment of your life, imagine that this slice could be carved, and that time itself is just an infinite spectrum of these moments, these theoretical snapshots. The future and the past are only concepts, with the current arrangements of atoms in the universe being the only true reality. Being made up of matter, I am part of that infinite spectrum of snapshots. My body is a great, complex mass of atoms, surrounded by other atoms, exchanging matter and energy with its environment. My physical form is an arbitrary concept in the vast, seemingly infinite sea of atomic existence.
And yet, somehow, I am self aware. I “am.” My mind is a mote, an island of strange consciousness, matter made self-aware somewhere within the grand spectrum of existence. It is defined by matter, contiguous with matter on all sides, it even exists only because of matter, but the consciousness that exists within is something else. Using my senses I perceive my universe. I begin to understand how my body is similar to the environment around me, but my consciousness is unique from the elements that make our bodies, our planet, our stars. I am here, I am now, I am.
From these realizations, I am able to manifest a skill for living my life. This skill is the most important element of my own ability to enjoy my life, to find contentment. The skill is simple in its construction — to recognize the reality of my immediate physical space in which I exist, to be present in the exact slice of time that I am conscious of, and to use that context to find a way for enjoying that fleeting moment. No money, no politics, no future or past, no abstract concepts that define our humanity is real in this moment. Instead, recognize the truth — You exist, and being conscious while you exist is among the rarest phenomenons in the universe. You only get to exist for, on average, about 30,000 days, and after that you return to dust. What you do in this moment matters. To you, in this slice of time, this arrangement of the universe, this moment is the only thing that is actually real.
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Thank you for reading. Contact me! I’d love some feedback.
