We're all familiar with space and time. We perceive distance that gives the appearance of space, and we notice the continual flowing change of what appears and we call this time. You may also be familiar with the Big Bang theory, where it is reasonably suggested that the universe began with an explosion into this multiplicity of interacting elements. With this explosion space and time were created.

So far so good, and there's evidence in the movement of the universe that suggests this to be the case. Then comes the brain boggler, "What was before the Big Bang? What was before time?" Before time there was obviously no time. Before space there was no space. But it's difficult to imagine time suddenly beginning from no time.

It helps to understand about the Singularity. Before time and space there is no appearance of the universe. There is no separation into changing moving forms. It's an unmanifest Singularity. It's like zero before -1 and +1 appear. The Singularity contains everything, locked up as one. It's not even a number. There are no numbers in a Singularity, no limits, and no division. There is no inside and outside of the Singularity. There is no appearance of form and there are no opposites. It's neither big nor small, neither here nor there. It's infinity.

And it's from this state of unmanifest Singularity that the Big Bang happens. Space and time appear as if the Singularity is split in two, changing from unmanifest potential into an explosion of energy, outwards from the centre. It's the start of the world of opposites, where attraction and repulsion plays out between the separated parts that have fallen out of the state of Singularity. Zero has become -1 and +1. They are blown apart but essentially connected, and it is this force between the separation of a singularity into opposites that becomes the energy of the universe. Opposite forces become the building blocks of the universe that we see now. Those forces continue to operate in the push and pull of the universe.

But let's not forget the Singularity. It still seems odd that there was no time, and now there is time. The reality is that the Singularity remains timeless. The Singularity cannot really explode into a multiplicity through space and time. It is beyond time. It doesn't change. It cannot really divide itself. The Singularity remains Here and Now, where here is nowhere and now is no time. Wherever the universe appears to go and whatever time seems to have passed, within the Singularity it is always Here and Now.

You see, the explosion of time and space appears within the unchanging formless Singularity. There isn't really a before or after. Reality is timeless and formless, but within this the universe appears as a world of opposites as if it has fallen out of the perfect balance of a Singularity. The Singularity remains throughout. To put it in simple mathematical terms, -1 + 1 = 0, or -144 +144 = 0. The universe of space and time appears as if the Singularity is being stretched out into a multiplicity, but the underlying reality is that it remains timelessly complete and whole as it is.

The way that the unmanifest Singularity can seem to become manifest is through the apparent separating out into opposites. But what separates connects. The sum total of the imbalance of the universe equals the perfect balance of the Singularity. The forces that appear between opposites in this world of opposites are the forces of unity. The apparent separation and division is the play of the Singularity, whilst it remains timelessly as it is.

I should add that this Singularity is not lifeless. It is the Fullness of Life. It is that which all apparently separated forms long to return to, by the nature of the forces of apparent separation. There are no separate forms. There are no separate creatures or life forms. There is One Infinite Being that plays at being a multiplicity. We are the Singularity. The core of who we are is this same timeless, formless Being, from whom and in whom the universe seems to appear. Wherever we go and whatever time it may seem to be, we are always Here and Now.