Source credit: justscience (2017). [The Big Bang]. Retrieved from http://www.justscience.in/articles/mean-big-bang-theory/2017/08/28
Being a person that has asked "why" all my life, I have come to a topic that might be the biggest "why" of all time - "Why do we Exist?" When I speak of "we," I'm referencing we as physical beings.
I would wager a bet that if people were asked the question of how things are brought into creation, the most often given answer would be that physical creations first begin as "thought." I myself fall into this line of belief. It is a relatively straight forward ideology. Most things of human creation first begin as thought. I suppose an argument could be made that a person could "mindlessly" generate physical creations, but even that theory could be argued that a person who creates "mindlessly" still is under the sub-conscious construct of their mind with some underlying activity of thought. Regardless, for the sake of this argument, I will stay with the known belief that most physical creations exist as thought - first.
So this brings me to a very powerful possibility that I recently stumbled upon while reading "The Disappearance of the Universe," by Gary Renard. The author of this book meets a pair of spiritual helpers while one day sitting in his living room. Gary Renard was of sound mind, highly credited within his career, and not using any recreational or prescription drugs when these amazing events occurred. These "spiritual guides," if you will, take him through a journey of self-discovery and eye opening contradictions to his very existence through a number of visits over a multi-year time frame.
To get to the crux of the topic of this post; the concepts of duality, non-duality, separation and the creation of the ego are discussed at length with help and understanding from Gary's spiritual friends. A very astonishing and thought provoking point is made during one of their sessions - the creation of the physical universe (the Big Bang) was simply a POWERFUL thought, originating from us when we were one with God. This thought of - "What would it be like to become separate from God."
Now I know that is a pretty astonishing perspective to try to wrap one's mind around...the thought that we created the big bang; which in turn is what created the universe and all things; including earth and all life on it.
But, if for nothing else, just consider the possibility...
The Bible tells the story of Adam and Eve being cast outside of heaven by eating the "forbidden fruit" from the tree of life. I personally believe this story is true but metaphorical in it's meaning. If God created us in his image as a powerful spiritual conscious energy form - then we were at one time "one with God," part of the whole, existing in perfect harmony, in heaven where love was abound. We were (and still are) powerful spiritual beings. However at one point, as all children do, we thought upon ourselves (as energetic, non-physical beings at the time) what would it be like to be separate, away from our creator? Eating the fruit from the forbidden tree of life was too tempting and even though we were warned by God not to since we would suffer for it (suffer in a sense of where we are now - wondering, fearing death, asking why, not being at peace, etc.) we simply couldn't resist the urge to feel what life away from God was like. Could this have spawned all the incredible number of events dating all the way back to the big bang?
We would need "somewhere" to be away from God. Someplace that we could exist but not with God (in physical technicality of course because I believe we are always with God and have God within us, but most just don't know it). This is what is described as "The Separation." At that moment, the ego was created. The ego was our own doing and is the reason for the fear of punishment and the reason to fear God. The fact of the matter very well may be that we have nothing to fear. God loves us and wants us to come back to him to reunite with him in perfect harmony and love.
However we now have to deal with our own creation - The Ego. A "separate" creation by us - that now wants and needs us to believe in it, listen to it, and for it to stay in control so that it can continue to exist. The ego is a powerful source; one that makes us run and fear God. The ego creates reasons for us to turn away from God - could the ego be another name for "the devil?" That voice inside your head that wants you to listen to it - rather than the power and insight of God?
In "The Disappearance of the Universe" one of the main points that is brought about is how to live a life path that turns away from the ego and helps oneself open up to the guidance of the Holy Spirit and turning back to God. So that our repetition of reincarnation need not continue and that we can once again be at one in total harmony and love with God.
"The Disappearance of the Universe" many times references another powerful book known as "A Course In Miracles." As the Bible is a learning and teaching source for spirituality; so is "A Course In Miracles." It was written in the 1970's by author Helen Schucman. In this course, the spirit of Jesus is transcribed and is available as instruction on how to awaken and end the suffering that we put ourselves through due to separation from God. Within this book Jesus's spirit mentions that the time is now upon the human race where we can begin to more broadly awaken. The bible was a guide in it's time to serve a purpose and so now is "A Course In Miracles," but for more modern era. Within it, there are many references and points of clarity given to the bible. Those who are ready for more explanation and awakening can gain a very great deal from "The Course," as part of it is designed to be a practical design for ending the cycle and need to reincarnate over and over after each death.
I am only a fraction of the way through "The Course" at this point in time of writing this post. However I can already tell that it indeed is a powerful awaking tool. I would highly recommend reading "The Disappearance of the Universe" as a precursor to "A Course In Miracles." It will help lay some sound foundation of understanding before beginning "The Course."
As always - I hope this is simply thought provoking if nothing else. It is never my intention to preach or attempt to tell others that their beliefs are wrong. I remain and stand by the belief that when we are ready...each one of us will find our way through the awakening process and back together as one collective source with God.
If this post helps only a single individual - - - then we are one step closer to where we all eventually will be - together again with God, in perfect harmony and love.
A preview on "The Disappearance of the Universe.":
http://www.garyrenard.com/Preview.htm
Foundation for "A Course In Miracles":
https://facim.org/foundation-course-miracles/what-is-acim/
Wow there is so much here. Bravo!
I as well follow the line of thinking that all physical manifestation first begins as thought. This is explained thoroughly in the Hermetic text the Kybalion as the Principle of Mentalism.
http://www.kybalion.org/kybalion.php?chapter=II
You bring up an interesting point about the ego being another name for the devil. That very well could be the case and the reason he is depicted as grotesque is to show his inner nature. The meaning of the word Satan is "The great adversary"... and if you think about any movie that you have seen (especially martial art movies)... who is your greatest adversary? Yourself!!! Your ego, your wants, desires that all come from physicality and tie you to this place through attachment. When you learn to master your ego, that will mark the beginning of you learning how to master yourself. Some people stop there... but that is only the beginning!
Well said and good point you brought up! :)
There is a saying in Zen Buddhism (as well as other places). that says "When a student is ready, a teacher will appear". That is very true and I know it to be true through personal experience (gnosis). So as long as we do the bare minimum to at least be open to this information, a whole new world opens up for you.
Great post! Very insightful. Keep up the good work!
Thanks again @dividebyzero. Moving forward I want to continue to post useful and thought provoking conversation, but I may need to slim them back just a touch ;-) There is a lot of thought contained in that recent post - some of which I believe the human race is becoming brave enough to ask and ponder.
Until recently I would never have thought to think of the ego as another name for the devil. However when you realize that the ego is what constantly tries to keep your focus on materialistic world views, how others feel about you, what “image” you portray, etc. - not to mention all the “self-talk” and temptation to deviate back to dependency on the physicality of life - it paints an interesting perspective. Could the ego be what keeps an individual in “Hell?” - physical world? Simply stated - away from truth or God...what we really are? Amazing to consider in my opinion...
I love Eckhart Tolle. His readings are what first brought the awareness of the ego and the “present moment” to my awareness. “The Power of Now” was a life changing read for me.
I’ll check into some of the suggestions you made in your comments to my post. I’m always looking for ways to further expand my understanding and perspectives. Thank you for commenting and for sharing some further helpful insight.
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I'm Jeffrey by the way. Yeah that is a good idea. It does take some time to digest all that so breaking it up might be easier on the reader, but still good stuff all the way.
In my opinion, the ego is actually useful and allows us to experience individuality and separation from each other and from God, just enough to experience separation but not truly be separated. The problem comes in when ego thinks it runs the show instead of just being a tool (albeit an important one) in the toolbox. So we need to have the understanding of what it is and what it is not and what it's proper role is.
A powerful exercise to ask people is "Who are you?"... most will reply with their name or their occupation or their a father or wife, etc. You keep asking until they start looking deeper and deeper beyond their ego. My answer to this question is that:
So to your point, I don't think it's ego that keeps us in Hell... but unchecked, unbalanced, rampant ego is what keeps us in Hell. What's your thoughts concerning that?
You are most welcome for the comments, keep writing cool stuff! :)
I completely agree about the ego. It only hurts us if we allow it to. The ability to grow and step back to observe it is important. That is the difference rather than instinctively reacting to the spontaneous ego. There is no doubt it is a learning device; one that benefits us once we know how to observe it and differentiate ourselves from it. It doesn’t always have to be bad. That’s where the learning and spiritual growth begins in my opinion.
I’ve started listening to Mark Passio now. I’m two shows into his 200 episodes / podcasts. It’s the first time I’ve heard the term “solipsism.” So far I like where he’s going. Hard to imagine it was 2010 when he first started. His first few shows are like the old public access radio stuff - but good! Thanks for the suggestion...
And I’m Ken; in this life...or rather I’m the spirit / soul of that identifies as the physical body known as “Ken.” Nice to continue these conversations with you Jeffrey.
So awesome that you started listening to Passio! He is honestly one of the best teachers I have ever had. He will take you really far down the rabbit hole... haha so be prepared. The quality of the audio gets better after 20 or so if I remember correctly. I think I mentioned it before but I went through all his material and it took me almost two years because he has so much of it. But I had to take some breaks because it did start affecting me emotionally. but after a week or so I was good again to keep drinking from the fire hose lol.
Yeah solipsism is people being their own arbiters of truth and anything outside of their own mind is unknowable. Seems to conflict pretty strongly with those who value objectivity reality and objective truth. I think his position on solipsism makes sense. I agree with the vast majority of his work, but there are a few things I don't. Not much.. but there are a thing or two.
Overall, the biggest things that I learned was how much I still had to learn so it was very exciting to get introduced to a lot of these topics and then you can do deep dives on the things you want to learn the most about.
Likewise, soul that is currently occupying "Ken's" vessel :) You cracked me up with that, but you are totally correct!
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