25 March 2012

Does size matter?

There is a coan, well known to Tao students that is used, like the other coans, to stop the mind and attain meditation state.  In fact, coan is a question that it seems that it has no answer.  The mind trying to solve the riddle reaches the state beyond thoughts, which is the desirable result.  Of course, this kind of desire is beyond desire too but that's an other story.
Back to our specific coan.  Its question says: "If everything is reduced to its unit, then its unit to what is reduced?"  Here, of course, when we say unit, we mean the smallest part of what this everything is consisted of.  So, if everything is reduced to its unit that consists it, this unit to what is reduced?  Hmmm...
I thought about this coan when I recently saw a youtube video that compares the sizes of different masses out there starting from small moons to stars to galaxies to clusters and going beyond our known observable universe of the 93.000.000.000 light years (omg!) to reach at the end the unconfirmed Omniverse, where no man has gone before and etc... This is too huge for a mind to really think about it and remain sober and sane.  But it is also a reality that we, here, take our eyes from in order to concentrate on our small and insignificant everyday trends like fashion, football and gossip.
The point to all this is that when the video reached Omniverse, I realized that it reminded me of something.  And I remembered... omniverse looks like a cell, yes, a human cell, as I had seen it in biology many years ago. And that was the moment that time froze and the objects around me got a new meaning and I was not so sure about anything in particular.  Because I also remembered the answer to our coan.  And it says: "If everything is reduced to its unit, its unit is reduced to everything"...
I call you to realize what this may mean and start counting from now the uncountable worlds above and below us that may exist this very moment according to a thought that can seize the ground where we stand and remind us that life is alive and extraordinary by nature.

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