“Nothing Exists That Is Not Consciousness”

The entire material universe resides in a veritable
                  OCEAN Of CONSCIOUSNESS

“Because there are laws such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the Universe going.”             — Stephen Hawking

This statement bears repeating, as its ramifications are so profound and far-reaching that we feel it must be addressed in the worldwide forum of philosophical discourse.

“It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the Universe going.”

May we respectfully submit that, when any of us use a global platform to present ideas and opinions with such consequential import, it does become incumbent upon us to defend those hypotheses in the court of public debate.  The internet is, after all, a place that is visited by everyone, especially the youth of the world.  They often look to the authorities and experts of the planet to receive wisdom and guidance about the true order of things.  Therefore, we begin this debate by asking the following rather provocative question.

Has common sense, as well as the ability to utilize the human faculty of reason, completely fled from some of those who people the highest echelons of scientific inquiry?

When Stephen Hawking uttered these words during an appearance in an on-line video about his new book — The Grand Design — he made a fatal and obvious error in pleading this extremely tenuous and quite indefensible case.

 Stephen tells us that “… the universe can and will create itself from nothing.”

We have no quarrel that something was created from nothing, except that “the nothing” is perhaps an infinite void of Consciousness, which is actually far, far from nothing.

We are compelled to ask who or what created “the nothing” that is doing the creating?!

Furthermore, we might ask what or who is doing the willing that is quite necessary for the creating from nothing?

Has Stephen now conferred the powers of creation on Creation itself, without the agency of a Creator?  This faulty reasoning represents a much greater collapse in humankind’s capacity to utilize its God-given faculty of reason.  Which is, by the way, also responsible for the ongoing collapse of modern society, as well as the whole of Western Civilization.

Now we do see that Stephen has given us a GREAT teaching moment here.  God often does create little dramas in order to draw in a grand audience who will be duly informed by the global discussion that one of his little creations (that would be Stephen Hawking) has helped co-create.  Thank you, Stephen Hawking!

There are, incidentally, a few layers in this line of inquiry that ought to be properly unpacked if the right conclusions and true order of things are to be revealed.

Stephen makes direct reference to a universe.  Who or What created the universe?

Let’s back up and first ask from where did the agency of creation which created the universe come.

In other words, who, pray tell, created the Creator?

Even the most simple and child-like among us know that there is a Creator.

What most fail to contemplate, however, is who or what created the Creator.

Asked another way, “From where did the ground of being come – the ground upon which the Creator could create and the created could exist?”

Since there are many levels of creative agency going all the way back to the Prime Mover (the CREATOR of  all  Creators)  we can quite safely assume that all and everything in the universe is made of the very same stuff of creation.

Shall we call it Consciousness?

As the wise sages, seers and siddhas from the East have uttered:
“Nothing exists that is not Consciousness”[1].

Even the hardcore scientists among us now admit that all of Creation flows from a primordial wellspring of cosmic energy (aka consciousness) in the form of so many newly emerging energies and forces, particles and matter performing a veritable “play of consciousness”.

Let’s make this our point of departure, as we collaboratively co-create a comprehensible theory of Cosmogony of Creation — one that even Stephen Hawking can understand.

In the meantime he, and we, can enjoy the visual contemplation known as the E8 Diagram.  This diagram has been represented by some as a mathematical blueprint for the known universe.  Each line, color, angle, etc., taken in the aggregate, portrays every known force and particle in Creation.  The relationships between each force and every other force, between each particle and every other particle, between each force to every particle, and each particle to every force are now quite exquisitely delineated on the worldwide web.

The E8 diagram may just elegantly illustrate the awesome beauty and perfect order and phantasmagoric wonder with which the Creator has imbued His/Her Creation.

Surfer dude stuns physicists with theory of everything

The Primordial CREATOR of Creation (aka GOD) has just prompted us to make one more observation before we conclude this blog.

Although we are far from proving our central thesis, one point has been made quite conclusively.  Stephen’s statement that, “It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the Universe going” will bump up against evidence provided by many of his peer scientists, which points directly to something way beyond all the forces, and particles, and energies and multifarious forms of matter. Quantum physics itself, as well as the current form of the “Grand Unified Theory”, beg for a true understanding of the very backdrop of the cosmic stage of existence.

Blue Ocean of Consciousness

Some existential philosophers refer to Consciousness as the very ground of being.  The theoretical physicists have identified it as the substratum from which the universe has emerged.  The artists among us call it the canvass upon which the mosaic of creation has been painted.  Others, like the ‘weavers’, refers to Consciousness as the underlying fabric of the cosmos into which the tapestry of Creation has been woven.

As we telescope back in time and through space, we find the wisdom of the rishis — the sages and seers of ancient India — to be especially perceptive and descriptive, and as accurate as words can possibly be.  They call it Brahman, the Absolute, and consider Consciousness to be the Ultimate Reality.

“He is the Supreme Brahman, the Self of all, the chief foundation of this
world, subtler than the subtle, eternal. That thou art; thou art That.”
— Atharva Veda

In the same spiritual tradition, a great Siddha Master has written these words:

“The Self is called satchidananda – absolute existence, consciousness, and bliss.
It is the Supreme Truth.”[1]
— Swami Muktananda

By the way, we often hear that the estimated age of the universe is 13.75 billions years, and that it has been rapidly expanding in all directions since the Big Bang (aka the Primordial Spanda).

Therefore, we think that the ultimate ontological question might be, “What in God’s Good Name is the universe expanding within, if not within Consciousness itself?”

Truly, “Everything exists within the primordial Blue Ocean of  Consciousness!”

Endnotes:

[1] Excerpt from: SECRET OF THE SIDDHAS by Swami Muktananda
Sutra #172; page 39; 3rd Printing (1983)

[2] The title of this essay, “Nothing Exists That Is Not Consciousness”
is based on the following sutra #383 from the SECRET OF THE SIDDHAS by Swami Muktananda:

“As Consciousness contracts, it takes the form of the universe.
Although it is contracted, Consciousness still exists in its fullness.
As it descends from its natural state of limitless, it contracts and
becomes the objects perceived.” ~ Swami Muktananda