The Living Universe (13 page)

Although our core nature is ultimately beyond description, four qualities of our soulful experience are recognized by the world's wisdom traditions and can be cultivated in our everyday lives. We turn to our soulful nature as a body of light, music, love, and knowing.

Physicists have described light (photons) as the most fundamental, insubstantial, and free of all energies. Given the convertibility of matter and energy, we can say light is the most delicate form of material expression. Physicist Bernhard Haisch has written, “The solid, stable world of matter appears to be sustained at every instant by an underlying sea of quantum light.”
³
The visible universe rides on the surface of this sea of quantum light. Physicist David Bohm describes matter as “condensed or frozen light.” Light is “. . . the fundamental activity in which existence has its ground.”
⁴
Because we live in a universe of light, it is fitting to describe the soul as a body of light that has the potential to evolve into more subtle ecologies of light after the physical body dies.

Light is a common theme in the world's wisdom traditions. From the New Testament we read, “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (John 1:5). Jesus proclaims the divine light within us, saying “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14). When
his disciples ask Jesus to show them the place where he abides, he says to them, “There is a light within a person of light, and it lights up the whole world.” Elsewhere, in The Gospel of Thomas, Jesus makes an extraordinary comment that would have pleased Einstein, who saw light as a fundamental reality in our universe. Jesus said “If they say to you, ‘Where have you come from?' say to them, ‘We came from the light, the place where the light came into being on its own accord and established itself and became manifest through their image.”
⁵
Jesus saw the universe as a place of literal light, and each human being as a light that came into existence from light itself. Jesus speaks on behalf of the light within the universe when he says “I am the light that shines over all things. I am all. From me did all come forth, and to me all extend. Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there.” In language appropriate for his time as well as for modern physics, Jesus was saying we are literally beings of light and telling “whoever has ears to hear” not to overlook this subtle but immensely important fact.

Gregory Palamas (1296—1359) was a monk and theologian who was venerated as a saint by the Eastern Orthodox Church. He put forth the view that it is through light that God communicates with the world. For Palamas, the physical light that illuminates the outer world is only a pale reflection of its deeper, non-physical radiance. Light is also filled with the
gnosis
, or knowledge, that provides inner illumination. By directly absorbing the wisdom within light, Palamas believed we could bring transcendent insight into our lives.

The idea of inner light is central to the Quaker (Society of Friends) view of the universe. Quakers believe that every person is born with an Inner Light and they sometimes refer to themselves as “Children of the Light.”
⁶
This light can be discovered when we are quiet and look within. The Friends acknowledge this when they
gather to work or worship together; they sit in silence and speak only when moved by their Inner Light to do so. When they glean a “sense of the meeting” from these inner promptings of the community, then action may be taken.

Jewish mysticism has ancient roots, and the Kabbalah is the body of oral teachings and texts that describe the direct experience of God. The most common metaphor with which the Kabbalah speaks of the divine is “light without end.”
⁷
Before this world came into being, the “light without end” was present everywhere. Not only does the Kabbalah view the universe as a creation of divine light but it also views light as the carrier of consciousness. Consciousness permeates the universe, and human consciousness is a part of the larger field of divine consciousness and light.

Islam also celebrates the mysteries and splendor of light. In the Koran we read “God is the Light of heaven and earth” (24:35). Islamic sages taught that an inner light is contained within the visible luminosity of physical light. This “light in itself” or “Light of Lights” derives from a deeper, unnamable source; it not only makes things visible, it also makes them knowable.
⁸
The Sufi poet Rumi expresses this beautifully.

The lamps are different,
but the Light is the same.
One matter, one energy, one Light, one Light-mind,
endlessly emanating all things.
⁹

In Buddhism, awakening experiences are often described with phrases such as “enlightenment,” “self-illuminating awareness,” “seeing the light,” and “self-luminous recognition without thought.” Buddhists also speak of a “clear light”
(Prabhasvara)
infused with wisdom, love, and creative power that permeates the universe with
its shimmering presence. The clear light that infuses and sustains everything is a luminous presence, outwardly transparent and inwardly permeated with qualities such as openness and joy. The luminous energy at the foundation of reality is sometimes described as the “mother clear light.” The luminous awareness we realize in meditation is sometimes called the “offspring clear light” or “child of the clear light.”
¹⁰

Other spiritual traditions also describe a light that infuses the world with both physical illumination and wisdom. In the Tao Te Ching, the sacred text of Taoism, we find the following passage describing the way of a wise person: “. . . the sage is devoted to the salvation of all human beings, without rejecting anyone. He is dedicated to saving things, without abandoning anything. This is the practice of the clear light.”

The revered poet Walt Whitman wrote about the colorless light at the foundations of reality: “ineffable light—light rare, untel-lable, lighting the very light—beyond all signs, descriptions, and languages.” In seeing this light at the foundation of all things, Whitman said he knew the universe did not consist of dead matter but was entirely alive. Andrew Harvey, a contemporary religious scholar and mystic, writes: “Divine Light is what is animating this universe. Light is what is creating everything. . . . Everything that we are, everything that we see, everything that we know is the Light dancing and playing—the Light knowing itself in a thousand different disguises.”
¹¹

When reading these many descriptions of the nurturing “light within light,” I am again reminded of lying on the living room floor of our farmhouse as a child and absorbing the changing textures of light's loving presence. If we look gently at the ordinary things in life—a piece of tile on a floor, the surface of a desk—and don't
press upon them with our seeing but simply receive what is before us patiently and with soft eyes, we can sometimes see an infusing and permeating clear light—a dancing liquid of delicate, transparent luminosity. Like heat waves rising from the Earth in the summer, although faint and insubstantial, we can discern delicate, rippling, shimmering waves of light that are the source and womb of material existence. We live within a field that is thick with energy and aliveness. If we overlook the fabric of seemingly empty space—if we look through it as transparency and do not consciously see into it with soft and welcoming eyes—we can overlook the aliveness at the foundations of existence.

All of the world's wisdom traditions point to the presence of a clear light infusing the universe that, although subtle and difficult to discern, is glowing with aliveness. The clear light of the Mother Universe is an ocean of intelligent luminosity that is not “in-visible” but “trans-visible” because it is far more than simple nothingness. The light of the Mother Universe is clear because it is unlimited and unbounded—and therefore completely lacking in obstruction. Because this clear light is the source and foundation of everything in our universe, it cannot be limited within the confines of our contracted world and so presents itself as transparent. Despite its transparent nature, this luminous and living presence has been recognized, tasted, and celebrated by sages throughout history.

The universe is a single, extraordinarily complex, pattern of resonance. The world looks solid and concrete but upon close inspection solidity breaks down, and material reality becomes a vast ocean of vibrations, frequencies, and harmonies that converge, moment
by moment, to produce the stable reality around us. Everything that exists—from atoms to humans to galaxies—has its “song-line” or unique orchestration that contributes to the whole. We are made from music. To say we are a body of music isn't just poetic; it is also true.

Physicists are now exploring the foundations of physical reality with what is called string theory. Despite its shortcomings, it is giving us a new way to picture matter. In this theory, matter is no longer seen as tiny, solid points or particles; instead, the particle nature of matter gives way to unimaginably small, vibrating loops of non-material strings. These loops of energy vibrate like violin strings and different vibrations are thought to generate different patterns that manifest as unique energy-particles.

Given that resonance and vibration are fundamental to the universe, it is understandable that we would each embody a unique hum of being that is recognizable to others as they experience the feeling-tone of our soul. Different temperaments and personalities naturally express a unique symphony of knowing-resonance.

Returning to the cosmic scale, many spiritual traditions portray our universe as being sung into existence. In the Bible, we read “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself” (John 1:1). It has been suggested that the Word is the vast primal sound of creation itself.

From the Islamic tradition, the Sufi poet Kabir who lived in India (1398—1448) spoke of the music of creation in his ecstatic poem “Sound”:
¹²

The flute of interior time is played whether we hear it or not,
What we mean by “love” is its sound coming in.
When love hits the farthest edge of excess, it reaches a wisdom.
And the fragrance of that knowledge!
It penetrates our thick bodies,
It goes through walls—
Its network of notes has a structure as if a million suns were
arranged inside.
This tune has truth in it.
Where else have you heard a sound like this?

The ancient Hindu Vedas (scriptures) tell us that in the beginning was Brahman, the Absolute reality. Brahman is often portrayed as the great sound that gives birth to entire universes. Here music is viewed as the divine thread that connects the individual soul with the Supreme Soul of the universe. Brahman manifests everything in the universe as vibrations, from the smallest to the largest. Physical forms are thus sound forms. Music can help us to spiritually awaken to the resonant soul of the universe. For many Hindus, the primal sound of creation—the “sound body” of Brahman—is embodied in the word
OM
, the sacred sound of the Mother Universe that evokes her core qualities.

Chinese Taoist stories speak of the “Great Tone of Nature” and, in Indigenous cultures, the combination of chanting, drumming, and dancing is often used to connect with the spirit infusing the universe. Music provides a rich universal language for growing our soul. In the words of Plato, “Music gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.” Beethoven said that “Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks, and invents.” In different ways, all of the world's wisdom traditions recognize existence as a living field of music.

We are all musicians of the soul, and the optimal condition for any person or society is a high level of creative tension. Think of a violin. If the strings are too tight, it will break the body of the instrument; if the strings are too loose, they will produce no resonance.
Only when there is the appropriate level of creative tension can the violin make music. Likewise, to serve our soulful nature it is vital that we find our unique balance between straining so much that we harm the instrument of our being or becoming so slack in our lives that we are no longer engaged in a dance of participation and discovery. To play the music of our lives, we must become skillful musicians of our soul, continually discovering the right amount of creative tension.

With careful attention to our everyday experience, we can cultivate the songlines or musical qualities we want within ourselves—for example, the tempo or pacing of our responses to life, the harmony or disharmony of our communications, the degree to which we improvise in our interactions with others or, alternately, stick to classical scores and behaviors. We each bring a different songline to the larger orchestration that is the universe. Our orchestration matches our character and consciousness and is tuned through our bodily experience, emotions, and mental qualities. We participate in a cosmic symphony as a vast number of individual songlines come together in a new expression at every moment.

The vibrations of sound, light, and knowing-resonance at the foundations of the universe convey a feeling tone. When skilled meditators from diverse traditions reach into the finest essence of reality, to the very foundations of existence, they report a common experience. The feeling-tone at the foundations of the universe is not a gray mechanical hum devoid of feeling; instead, it is a subtle resonance of aliveness and love.

With love at the foundations of the universe, it is understandable that love is a core theme of the world's wisdom traditions.
The Encyclopedia of Religion
states, “. . . many great figures have argued
that love is the single most potent force in the universe, a cosmic impulse that creates, maintains, directs, informs, and brings to its proper end every living thing.”
¹³