It came to my mind the Big Bang, the great explosion that gave rise to our universe, the zero point of our universe. Nobody could see the explosion, only the echoes of its occurrence. Scientists affirm that there was this Bang based on the measured radiation in the background indicating an explosion, together with the sign that all elements observed in the universe are moving away. What scientist can see are only the echoes of the Big Bang, only its trace.
In a Buddhist book, I read that: “Nothing can be said to exist which is not registered on the screen of mind. Does a falling tree in the center of an uninhabited forest make a noise? The Buddha warned his followers against making any assumptions which were not functions of immediate experience, for preconceptions of an, kind are hindrances to the path.â€
Perhaps the scientists, influenced by the logos of the order, did not bring real knowledge to the front, because of the disconnection from the object and the act of observation. Let’s look at the notion of zero point.
The zero is there in each act of observation. At zero point, Being takes occupancy, in a merging in intimacy of Space and Time. This intimacy is said to occur “keenly†thought the interaction of the content of what is observed, the being of the observer, and the act of observation, unlocking their inherent dynamic.
Free of comments, conventional mind can fall silent allowing times rhythms to move in slow waves of intimacy, too subtle for the patterns of the temporal order to acknowledge. In the intimacy of the instant, Space and Time open to Being.
As the power of time becomes rhythmic, creating ‘friction’, the silent is lost. We accept the comments of conventional mind, which reflect the ‘measured-out’ rhythms of lower-level time. It is said that zero is the gateway to zero. Fully open, and not preconditioned, zero can reach a neutral and balanced point beyond friction, within the chain of thoughts, a point when mind fall silent.
“The strangely moving power of passages…irrational doorways… through which the mystery of fact, the wilderness and the pang of life, stole into our hearts and thrilled them.†William James
Eliana,
I also had some more thoughts: about the Big Bang. Without knowing much about the astronimical theory whcih asserts that our current universe started from an initial moment, it seems a useful critique to observe that the entire idea that there was a starting “event” that set in motion a momentum lasting billions of years, is an obvious imposition of linear time onto a process that appears not to be well understood in those terms. For instance, to maintain that the universe is expanding from that initial instance, it has been necessary to import the notion of “Dark Matter”, undetected in itself but required to account for the overall theory.
If it’s all a single “read-out”, then the need to create a consistent history can recede into the background in place of an appreciation for phenomena as appearance. In that context, there is an interesting group of scientists who assert that treating the cosmos has an electrical manifestation (as opposed to material bodies) does a much better job of accounting for observed appearances in the universe. And instead of gravity there are affinities in operation, like those assumed to operate inside atoms.
I would like to add some more comments about zero.
Zero, a point of intimacy, a point where space, time and knowledge meet, is always available, but we are, most of the time, blind to it.
We usually look for zero with a predetermined label, in the set of events in our life. But zero is not something that we can grasp or identify.
Zero come to us as we drop the comments of our busy mind, and let the silent connect us to Being.
Reading your post makes me wonder if the moment of birth could be a kind of zero point in a human life. Perhaps it’s not a point that we know how to penetrate, because we have to live for many years before we develop any interest in our own birth.
As a point in prior time from which an open mystery peers forth at us, we need to also be aware of our inevitable death. Perhaps that could provide a clue: we need to look in two directions to be able to look nowhere. Otherwise we will always look with eyes that try to label and possess. If birth and death are a single zero point–windows into a unitary vastness–then we have to believe in them both before we can look through either.