"Indifference"... or "Mystery"?

                                           Is the Universe Indifferent... or "Just" Mystery-Within-Mystery?


​Looking out the study window, the sky is white, the forest a January bare with the larger branches holding snow, carefully as a Mother holding her newborn... Forests, as much as the oceans of the world, protect within them some ancient, primeval, knowing that is now only approachable by means of sacred imagination... Whenever Michelle and our beautifuls take off on one adventure or another, and I am home with the dogs, a reverent melancholy soon anchors itself in my mind...

​Last night and on into this morning, I've been pondering what is evidentially clear: the universe operates with an indifference that is simply mind-numbing for every self-aware consciousness... Our dogs, Dobby and Bella, operate on a plane of consciousness that could spark jealousy in the hyper-activated human mind that is riddled with endless philosophical ponderings: well, that's me. Is it you as well? They wake up rambunctious until they are fed: then they simply sleep... My job is to feed and, in an hour, take them for their morning walk. They pee. They poop. And Bella always looks intently at hers as if wondering, "Where the hell did that come from?" My living is no where that simple and clear...

​Even while washing the dishes I am seldom "mindlessly" present: usually I will have music in the background: John Coltrane is good... Beethoven not so much... The Rolling Stones work if I had gotten rowdy with the dogs outside... Here are some of my notes that I scratched out at my desk late last night: Indifference in the Universe might just as well be rendered instead as Mystery... Indifference implies (does it not?) a fundamental lack of meaning (besides that of survival and reproduction)... Perhaps Mystery summons the meanings in care, cooperation, and compassion: essential ingredients for every community... and more than what we can easily comprehend...

Increasingly, as we approach in our studies of both quantum physics and the roots of mysticism, the clarity we seek is in the taken-for-granted reality of co-existence as the most essential link: we are all (and everything) connected... Now, is it possible to look and see without drawing conclusions? (This is fundamental to Taoism.) Is it possible, that in the Mystery of the Universe, opposites can be simultaneously true?

So, the Universe is simultaneously "indifferent" and a "benevolent Mystery": we get sick, we suffer in a multitude of ways, and we die, whether or not any of it fulfills our needs or our desires... "indifference" hunts us all down... And through it all, many of us have opportunities for pondering, for play, for cooking great meals, for art, for music, for literature, for mutuality and pleasure, and for the companionship of dogs... all of this, and more, is the work and presence of "benevolent Mystery"...

​Ancient sages in India and China likewise pondered, as I have, and likely you as well... By means of their observations, meditations, and conversations, they concluded a definite veracity to indifference... but more! There is also Mystery: variously described as Tao, dark-enigma, and Mother (these descriptions originate from China)... and from India came the stunning insight of advaita (without duality)... You see, I started with duality, right? In the beginning, there was indifference and mystery... But the expereience of the mystic always points directly at cosmic unity... That Oneness, for the Hindu sage, was experienced as being (Sat), knowing or consciousness (Cit) and bliss (Ananda)... 

​Thus, in the core teachings of the ancient mystics, and philosophers like Leibnitz and Huxley, we are presented with the Perennial Philosophy: (1) there is an infinite, changeless reality beneath the world of change; (2) this same reality lies at the core of every human person; (3) the purpose of life is to discover this reality experientially... And so we steadily practice... this is the building of your sacred life... Bella is snoring behind me. It's now time to pull on my socks, shoes, and winter coat. Let's go dogs! Got the poop-bags and plenty to ponder some more...