Many great religious figures, spiritual teachers, scholars, philosophers and thinkers alike speak of a connection between everything in the universe.
At first, to a logical thinker, this can be a hard concept to grasp. How can everything in the world be connected? How can this rock I hold in my hand, be some how connected to you or me? How can you or I be connected to everything we see around us? How can you or I be connected to everyone else on the planet?
We have been conditioned to believe that all physical things on this planet and within this universe are separate physical objects. We believe that human, animal and plant life on this planet are all separate physical objects with separate identities, each having separate traits. This is true to an extent, but how can there possibly be a connection between everything?
This illusion of separateness between everything in the universe has maintained throughout human history. Through years of cultural learning, teaching and conditioning, this hoax has survived and endured, but if explained in simple terms, one will begin to realize how this universal connection of everything is plainly obvious.
First is to understand the true concept and illusion of opposites, 'solid and space', 'inside and outside', 'on and off', 'sound and silence', 'light and dark', 'man and woman', 'life and death'.
Humans with there sciences and philosophies, repeatedly attempt to analyze, understand and define one side of an opposite. We study solid matter yet we ignore empty space, we analyze sound, yet we ignore silence, and we speculate over life yet fail to understand death. Studying only half of an opposite is a fruitless task without also studying the opposite of the whole. For the one side of the opposite that we attempt to describe and understand is defined by its counterpart. Without this counterpart, they would not exist! Let us begin by looking at 'solid' and 'space'.
If we were to look at a rock with no surrounding space, there would be no way of seeing, feeling or conceiving this rock. There would be no edges to define the rock as a rock. For it is the empty surrounding space that defines the rock. Simply, if there were nothing outside the rock, the rock would have no outside. So in attempting to fully describe this rock, one must also describe the space in which it occupies, for without it, it would not be what it is as we know it. Here lies a connection.
As soon as we begin to realize that in this universe, the empty space is just as important as the solid, we may begin to further our understanding of everything. 'Lao Tzu' stressed the importance of the emptiness that gives purpose to things, as he illustrates in this passage from the "Tao Te Ching":
Thirty spokes share the wheel’s hub;
It is the center hole that makes it useful.
Shape clay into a pot;
It is the space within that makes it useful.
Build walls for a room;
It is the space within that makes it useful.
It is the space within a bowl that adds the function, and it is the space within a wheel that adds its function. In every case, the space is just as important as the solid. Yet for some reason we fail to identify the importance of this relationship. Form works because of emptiness, emptiness works because of form. This is the universal dance of opposites that the Taoists would call yin & yang.
Alternatively, the other side must also be considered, if there was nothing solid in this universe, would there be any space at all? For there is no space accept the space between things, inside things, outside things. The solid and space are a mutual part of each other and are therefore connected.
Let us look at other overlooked examples of interconnectivity: If there were no such thing as 'dark', we would have no concept of 'light'. If we didn't have the dark, we would have nothing to define the light. So in describing one, one must also describe the other. Here we see a connection. Furthermore, if we did not have 'woman', we would have no concept of 'man', but of something completely different. For it is man who defines woman, just the same as it is the woman who defines man.
How can you have a peak without a trough? It is the trough that manifests the peak, just as it is the peak manifests the trough. An example of once more ignoring empty space lies with sound. A sound is of course a wave form comprised of peaks and troughs, on’s and off’s. We hear the on’s that make the sound yet we ignore the off’s. Yet it is the on’s and off’s that define each other.
We can begin to see that in describing one thing, one must also describe another. We do not realize that so called opposites such as light and dark, sound and silence, solid and space, on and off, inside and outside, appearing and disappearing, cause and effect are poles or aspects of the same thing. Both opposites are mutually connected and make up part of the whole, even if we have no real word for what that whole actually is.
Let us then broaden this concept into more than simple opposites.
Let us look at the simple human/animal process of 'walking'. If one were to describe the process of walking, you might say, "You move your legs over a surface to arrive at a destination". This is true, but to truly describe this process, one must elaborate. What moves the legs? What is the surface? Where is the surface? What's holding the surface up? What’s holding the stuff up that holds up the surface?
To demonstrate how the seemingly simple process of walking is in actual fact a chain of processes which are part of everything in this universe, let us consider a few more things we may not always think about when strolling along a riverside, or simply walking along the pavement.
In the case of describing a human walking:
First of all you need a human. The human must have 2 legs. The human must have a brain and nervous system to control the legs. (Lets for the sake of time ignore the millions of process’s that would be happening within your body to make these legs actually move). The human must have a reason to move from one place to another. The human's legs must move backwards and forwards in a regular pattern propelling the body over a surface (the pavement). This surface must be held up by something (foundations, soil/earth, ultimately, the crust of the planet). The planet must be held in place by something (gravity, our galaxy, our universe). To ensure the human does not float up into space, we must take note of gravity in the process. The walking surface must clearly be something ‘solid’; therefore we must also describe 'space' to define the solid, and If we are now including space into the process, we must also include time, as Einstein will tell you, the continuum go together as one.
So we can see that in attempting to describe something as simple as walking, we must take everything into account. The succession of processes are all connected to and rely on each other. Our mere process of walking is in fact, one small part of a united process of everything that’s happening in this universe at that present moment in time. This relationship is true for any and every process that happens within our universe. Everything’s connected.
This concept of the connectivity between things and process's can also be described in terms of human relationships between other humans. For example: How can I be me, without you? How can I be me, without you to highlight our differences? How can we be us without everyone else to define ourselves? If you were the only human on the planet, you would have nothing to define yourself against, You need everyone else and all there differences to make you YOU! Think about this. In describing one human on our planet, you are also taking every other human being into account, as its there differences to the person in question that make them individual.
Hopefully we can now begin to see how we are all connected at the most basic level.
However is doesn't stop there, the connectedness is everywhere you look. The rich and the poor, happy and sad, love and hate. If we didn't have the poor, would the rich still be rich? No, they would simply just be. The rich need the poor to define themselves as rich, for without them, they would not be what they are. There is a connection. We cannot describe or fully understand happiness without equally knowing it’s unhappy opposite. For without it, it would not exist. If all of our emotions didn't have their opposites, they wouldn't be what we know them as today.
Using the analogies described in this piece of writing, we can see how apparent separate things in this world/universe, can only be known and described by including there counterparts or polar opposites. We have been brought up to think of ourselves as separate individuals, which is true, but this does not mean that we are not connected in some way to everything else in this universe at any present moment.
We feel that this world is an assemblage of separate things that have somehow come together through pure chance and evolution, but when we begin to realize that humans and our behavior are all part of a process, which can only be defined in relation to its environment, which can only be described in relation to everything, we can begin to see that in describing one thing, you must also describe everything. Everything in the universe is connected!
Science struggles to define the most minute features of life on this planet, yet fails to realize that the minutest features are actually part of the whole universe, part of everything and cannot be defined totally on there own. Life therefore can only be one small part of the universes eternal dance of on/off energy. Death will follow, but then so will life. Just as on has off, light has dark and sound has silence, our lives are just a part of this unified process.
But that small part, that small process, that small dance of the universes infinite energy, is part of everything!
*For the entire basis of this piece of writing, I must give credit to the great Alan Watts, who is at this moment, one of my most respected philosophers. It was Watts that introduced me to this concept of the connectedness of everything. I am merely trying to understand and convey this theory in my own words. 
RIP Alan Watts – 1915/1973
The yogi sits in peace,
under the bodhi tree.
His mind like an ocean,
thoughts and emotions flee.
A toad gently hops,
beside a lotus flower.
A koi beneath the lily,
turns fast with grace & power.
On a statue of the Buddha,
a dragon fly takes rest.
Nature is revealing it's self,
for Siddhartha's final test.
For the koan of eternal truth,
the Brahmin does expect,
Enlightenment, Bang! Life falls into place.
Everything is already perfect!
It begins with a gentle humming, a gentle humming moving to a hypnotic hissing, a hypnotic hissing merges into a subtle clunking & knocking, then for the finale...
A crescendo of banging & crashing steel followed by the entrance of a magnificent white vessel! But this is no ordinary ship, oh no sir. For this great ship plays host to the hopes & dreams, ambitions & aspirations of "success", the ever unreachable, illusionary destination of life.
"Please mind the Gap"
There could be anything up to 1000 crew onboard this mighty, aging, metal galleon. 1000 skivvies on route to their final destination; next stop “success”. I will board this ship. Same time, same place. Same weathered crack in the pavement will I stand, every morning, of every day.
I know I know better! I know I can see through the veil of social & cultural conditioning, mindless routine & worthless stress…
But still I will follow.
Still I will conform.
As I board this confined, cheaply furnished ship, I observe, scan my perimeters of personal space and assess my counterparts. Silence, under no condition may you speak. Rustling, knocking, clicking, shuffling. Occupy your mind! Keep your mind active! Do anything but sit in peace to the soundtrack of your own silence. Do anything but enjoy the vast richness of the present moment. My mind endures a thousand thoughts, relationships, work, friends, commitments, past mistakes, future goals…
I know I know better, I know I should be living in the moment, I know I should see the hindrance of incursive thought…
But still I follow.
Still I conform.
The path has me in its grips. Dreams set on the future and memories fixed in the past. The great illusion of success that haunts the minds of the western world looms over me. The paved path of a civilized man from schooling to a career & family is steering me towards its unreachable final goal. I’m losing myself.
I know I know better, I know it’s all a farce, I know living in this present moment is the only way to experience the fullness and true essence of life, It’s all one big illusion, one big joke. I can escape!
But still I follow.
Still I conform.
The planets over heating,
but I couldn’t give a fu*k.
Im sick of all this climate change,
go bore some other shmuck.
I'm sick of recycling rubbish,
separating plastic waste from tins.
I really couldn’t give a sh*t,
Can you hear the violins?
Im cranking my central heating up,
So I can sit in my pants all day.
You think I give a sh*t about Greenhouse Gas?
This world owes me anyway!
So can we really make it better?
Can we really "save the youth"?
Well fu*k you world, I really couldn’t care less,
Now you've heard my Inconvenient Truth!
Isn't it ironic that a life must endure a death to sustain another life?
How is it that life can only sustain its self through the mutual slaughter and ingestion of its own various species?
Isn't it funny that the only reason I'm here typing this piece is due to life's bizarre arrangement that flourishes by gobbling each other up?
Of course human life is very different to other animal, plant or organic life. As we continue to harness technology, we have reached the very tip of the food chain. We seemingly continue to devour, destroy & deplete any natural resource this planet has left, and as a result, our population is swarming out of control.
We artificially create life, just so that we can then take it to ensure our own survival.
Life seems to be a system in which one life equals a death, a victory equals a defeat, or in our case 1000 battery slaughterings equals 1 human life.
One can perhaps look at this trade off in a more spiritual sense, accepting the ideal that for every death, the energy lost will then reappear in new patterns and forms, dancing to different frequency’s and vibrations. The show must always go on.
But until we endure this process for ourselves, we can only speculate.
Vegetarianism is an often chosen option, but it still means consuming a life, just in another myriad or form. Does it make it any better that this particular form of life does not have moving limbs and a beating heart? Apparently so.
To say that a plant cannot feel pain seems like an obvious statement to make, but we only assume this because they cannot articulate this fact into words.
Allan Watts once said that "deciding to live is deciding to kill", a brutal but honest and true statement that none of us really stop to contemplate.
However I sincerely believe that looking at life in this way, with its ups and downs, victories and defeats, hunters and hunted, is testament to the fact that we are indeed all part of one big cycle as most eastern religions have been teaching since the beginning.
We are all part of the cycle of death & rebirth, ‘Samsara’.
It was somewhere around 4 when something made me stop and gaze up into the stars.
It was a clear, breezy summers evening and I was cold and tired. A shiver ran from the top of my spine right down to the tips of my feet. I should head inside I thought, but after a marathon evening of debauched hedonism, this was my time………this time belonged to me; this was my window of space & time to pause and reflect.
It was one of those evenings where you could see every single star in the night sky.
It was an inter-stellular visual feast; you could make out everything…
The Milky Way was as clear as I’ve ever seen it. Cutting through the darkness like someone had splattered a neon glow stick across the night sky. I could even spot the odd planet. (Planets being the only points of light in the sky that don’t shimmer as they don’t emit their own light but reflect it).
I could pick out everyone’s favorite, Orion’s belt, with its 3 clear points standing in line exactly like the monoliths of the Giza plateau. I can usually pick out the big dipper, and on this unusually clear night I could even make out my own favorite, the ‘Seven Sisters’.
My Grandfather was a navigator in the war and used the stars like we use our GPRS systems today. He used to tell me that he could tell wherever he was in the world just by looking at the stars; and I believed it! It was him that taught me about the Seven sisters, a small cluster of seven stars (which I later found to be also known as the ‘Pleiades’) that are faint on the clearest of nights.
As I stood there alone in the darkness, there were no eerie sensations, even though I knew I was the only person around this place for miles. Instead I had more a feeling of peace, calm and oneness with my surroundings. I could hear the soft rumble of the stream near by and the occasional gust of wind rustling the trees and bushes.
I had the feeling it was going to be one of those nights where it would be clear enough to see shooting stars, but there was no such luck.
Then something struck me.
It was far too cold to be standing there outside without a jacket, but the lack of cloud cover was the least of my worries compared to the glimpse of infinity that my mind had just attempted to process.
I had a deep realization of the infiniteness of this universe.
As I stood there gazing up at the stars, all thoughts, emotions and even time gradually fell silent, then dissolved into nothing. My being opened up, I was becoming hyper sensitive to my surroundings.
I had to stop, snap out of it. I couldn’t get the damn questions out of my head…
What is all this?........ Why are all these things here?.........What’s beyond all this?.......... Where the FU*K am I!...........What am I?
A thousand and one questions tormented my consciousness, which in its current state, gazing into the abyss was almost pure pristine awareness. All the mundane daily messiness of the every day mind was gone. Any grasping of emotion, ego, future or past was not even irrelevant, but non existent. I was truly in the moment.
The awe of my situation suddenly overwhelmed me; I got scared and had to stop. Snap out of it. Come back to the reality that I was familiar with and felt safe in. My mind simply couldn’t comprehend the situation my consciousness had just found its self in.
I was chilled to the bone. It was the early hours of Sunday morning. The drink & drugs had long worn off and the peak of my bodily and emotional indulgence from that evening had passed. But I just couldn’t grasp the situation.
I continued to plague myself…The answers or lack of them just didn’t cut it…
What am I really?........Why is everything here?...... There must be more to everything!............Am I part of this Universe, part of a grand master plan?....Or am I here by pure chance?.....Chance interaction of a bunch of atoms 3 billion years ago…A bunch of atoms to which no one has any answers to their origins!
These are the questions to which I’m plagued with on a daily basis. These are the questions to which I will spend many a lifetime trying but failing to answer. These are the questions to which humanity strives but fails to understand.
Yet these are also the questions to which the answers undoubtedly will never be revealed.
Time to snap out of it I thought. Time to come back to reality (whatever that was or meant). Time to head inside and lay my head down. Close my eyes for 8 hours. My body will be rested. Time to let my mind conjure up an alternative reality for my consciousness to dwell, only to wake, having completely wiped any memory of my travels.
Until tomorrow it is then...
When these cursed questions I knew would arise again……..and remind me that in this lifetime…..I know NOTHING.
Cellulite creams and surgical dreams,
Skinny Frappachinos and a dress without seams.
Anti-aging gels and deodorant smells,
and I bet you've got a pair of those coco channel's?
Suck in your cheeks, your earrings antique,
you must have a new dress for each day of the week.
Sushi for brunch and Boots No7 punch,
don't forget to meet your new toy-boy for lunch.
Botox injections and fake art collections,
Anti-wrinkle complexion and men's limp erections.
Women's Health and material wealth,
make's sure this old spinster isn't left on the shelf.
Time for fake tits and to shape up your bits,
meet your partner in crime where neither admits.
Fighting your age, above average wage,
living out your life as if you're on stage.
Grow old gracefully.
A Diamond and a Rose,
edge to thorn, back to back.
Blood stained reflections,
light the Prince out of the black.
The Rose, natural scent & beauty,
breaths life into day.
It's dress of vivid primary colour,
to the Prince on full display.
But flawless is the Diamond,
in every conceivable way.
This sunset jewel is a perfect prism,
splitting love through every day.
Decision now, must pay visit the Prince,
each other to they must turn.
A flawless Diamond vs. a beautiful Rose,
is this Prince’s prime concern.
The light has the dark,
and solid has space.
Opposites of the whole,
everything is in place.
Every weakness has strength,
and every calm has its storm.
Opposites of the whole,
create life and make form.
Every woman has man,
and true love has pure hate.
Opposites of the whole,
surely this can't be fate?
Every life has a death,
and man's courage has fear.
Opposites of the whole,
Is the reason were here!
I'm infected by the system,
but I can see the golden light.
Another day another dollar,
in the system's cage I fight.
I'm infected by the system,
but the light is clear in sight.
The nights are short and the days are long,
this reality really bites.
I'm infected by the system,
where tales of success are told.
Out of my comfort zone I step,
for life to then unfold.
I'm infected by the system,
where mind storms never weather.
Polluted waters of un-convention,
lead misguided minds by a tether.
I'm infected by the system,
but let bravery be my ally.
Tides of time will be my judge,
eternal light will flood the valleys.
I'm infected by the system,
but will part by shaking it's hand.
The romance is clearly over,
I will make my final stand.
So Farewell infectious system,
I'm off to fight another fight.
Maybe ill be back some day,
and with me ill bring the light.
Saturday 10th January 2009 saw the preoration & ingestion of a "San Pedro" (Echinopsis pachanoi) cactus.
Wikipedia quote: "San Pedro (Echinopsis pachanoi) has a long history of being used in Andean traditional medicine. Archeological studies have found evidence of use going back two thousand years, to Moche culture. The cactus is ingested to invoke a spiritual healing state."
After 2+ hours preporation & 8 shots between 2......nothing really happened.
This is one of my favorite videos on YouTube ever.
Take 10 minutes out of your life to watch this clip, then after watching, take a further 10 to work out what your doing with it.
Dark rainbows thread the sky’s
along the garden of heaven.
Vintage memories flutter into dreams
beneath the silver rains of paradise.
A thousand stars and moons wandered in the night
dancing and flooding their sweet love and white light
like a grand silent guide in the nothing of time.
Patience.
For your spirit will play here,
some golden day.
