written 23 June 2019
published 1 July 2019
President Trump is not the problem. Climate change, wealth inequity, chemical contamination, misogyny, racism, religious fundamentalist, another stupid war in the Middle East: none are the problem. They are but symptoms of the same problem: the belief is the perception of separation. You see what you believe.
The text of "A Course In Miracles" describes it thus. "Perception selects, and makes the world you see. It literally picks it out as the mind directs. What you look for you are far more likely to discover. Perception is a choice and not a fact. On the sights you choose to see, depends your whole belief in what you are." If you choose to see separation, "you will see yourself as tiny, vulnerable and afraid. You will experience depression and a sense of worthlessness. You will believe that you are helpless prey to forces beyond your control. It is your faith that makes reality." Choose instead to see the unity of the world.
I was educated in the tradition of western scientific investigation of reality. Material atomism, defining primary parts, and reductive analysis, where large systems are broken into smaller pieces, are core assumptions, which seem relatively accurate. This powered the industrial revolution, transforming the planet. A century ago, western science evolved quantum mechanics, which showed the world to be whole and fundamentally irreducible. It also brought consciousness into the center of investigation as a causative force. What you pay attention to shifts. The observer and the observed are effectively connected. The repercussions of this shift are still evolving in western civilization.
Classical physics assume that space and time are the ground of reality, a stable stage upon which matters plays. But modern physics has shown that as one approaches the speed of light, time contracts to the point that there is no time at all when moving at the speed of light. From the point of view of a photon, a unit of energy that can only travel at the speed of light, it leaves the sun and arrives at a solar collector on Earth at the same time, and experiences no distance. From our point of view, it took over 8 minutes to travel 93 million miles. Photons bind the Universe together, instantaneously from their perspective, suggesting a fundamental unity, despite our perspective.
Light travels a path of least time, described by Fermat's Principle. When traveling in a constant material, that path is a straight line. However, traveling through a mixed media, with different transit speeds, for instance water and air, the path of least time is bent, and calculated as the angle of refraction. Imagine a life guard rushing to a drowning person. The quickest path is not to swim directly to the person, but to run along the beach until the path through the water is the shortest, as that will take the least amount of time. A photon travels a similar path, minimizing the time in the slower media, to make the overall path the shortest in time. But the life guard knows both his location and the location of the swimmer before starting on his path, allowing for the least time. Since the photon is already at the end point when it "starts", perhaps it also knows both the starting and end points. Eastern scientific investigation of reality has long known the unity of the world, and the primacy of consciousness as a creative force.
Once we open our mind to the perspective of unity, there are a couple of simple practices which help. The first is gratitude, which is giving thanks for all that you have already received, as opposed to praying for what you want in the future. As you expand awareness of what is already working in your life, the difficult parts are tempered. The other practice is to be in the moment as often as possible. The only part of time that is real is now, this moment. All the rest is story, just concept, still being considered in the now. A photon is always in the now, and is connected to the universe. Perhaps we can be as well, and the world would be a more pleasant place to thrive.
