Where Does My Universe End?
Ken Drummond, 2003
Where does my universe begin and where does it end? Certainly I am included in it, but is everyone else? I think that it is a matter of perspective and also of relativity. If we look at an insect we see it as a unified whole, even though it is made up of millions of cells. A theoretical observer of our universe might see it also as a unified whole, though it is comprised of trillions of apparently separate beings.
Perhaps more relevant questions might be: "Where does my conscious awareness end? At what point do I limit the scope of that which I include as my own? Where do I stop? Do I consider the well-being of others as I do my own well-being?"
We can all say such things as, "This is my body, my car, my house, my country. Can we also say, "This is my continent, my planet, my galaxy?" To what degree do we own and identify with these larger aspects of ourselves? We are used to saying, "My body is me." Yet the body can be seen as an extension of the mind. If you have a prosthesis, is that you also? If you have a tool to extend your reach, is that you? Is your car a kind of extension of your body?
If you were deprived of your senses of sight, hearing, touch, etc., how would you know where you begin and where you end? If you do not remember having senses that give you experience beyond that provided by the five physical senses, do you thus conclude that you are a creature limited to this little mortal frame called a body?
When we are born our horizons are small and we are dependent on others. As we grow in size and experience our horizons expand to include our room, our house, our yard, our neighborhood, and our town. There is no particular reason why this growth needs to stop. The human mind is quite capable of wrapping itself around concepts that are both vast and abstract. Dwelling on particular people, places, situations, or concepts we come in time to identify ourselves with them and indeed come to have difficulty seeing ourselves as separate from them.
I submit that so-called reality is a reality of our times, a localized reality, influenced by trends and influences of others and especially of our own thoughts, interests, fears, and desires. We live in an early 21st century reality, a reality of big business and automobiles. Our attunement with nature is almost a foreign concept to many. Our attunement with our true inner nature or God seems to be a concept equally foreign. We look outward through the two physical eyes and see a small part of a limited universe, a creation of thought frozen in the relativities of time and space.
As we begin to understand that somehow we have gotten into a situation of "sitting in a corner staring at the wall," an urge begins to awaken in us to learn the necessary skills to somehow turn around and get a glimpse of the large room that we have been sitting in all along. These skills, perhaps more than anything, involve modifying deeply entrenched habits of thinking--and acting.
How big are you in relation to the universe? I think you will find that you are as big as your thoughts allow you to be, as big as you think you are. But the real growth is not only of physical perception but of mental conception, and of spiritual awareness or intuition. Expansion into wisdom, love, peace, and bliss will take us consciously to places far beyond the limited day-to-day realms of money worries and concerns about the little fragile mortal frame. It is a place difficult to imagine until we go there, but once there we wonder how we could have tarried so long -- as we look toward the next step on the ladder, the step of ever-greater inner freedom and ever-deepening divine attunement and joy.