Goldcup Software and Design

The Universe

Category: The Universe
It's important to shake out of the general misconception of the world, that things begin and end.Nothing ever stops and nothing ever starts. What we perceive as starting and stopping is illusory.
 
For example, there's a car parked up. Someone gets in and drives it down the road, where it pulls over and stops again. The car starts and stops, right? Wrong. It only seems to start and stop. When the car is parked up it is only relatively still in relation to the ground it is on. The car and the ground it sits on are never still. The planet is always spinning. The galaxy is always swirling. The universe is always in motion.
 
The car only seems to be stopped. Someone gets in and seems to start its motion down the road. But it was always in motion. Driving down the road gave it further motion relative to the ground and its environment. It seems to stop again, but really its motion has slowed relative to the ground, but not truly stopped.
 
Consider the car parked up through the day. The sun rises in the morning, shining down on the car. The sun passes over the car and descends beyond the horizon, leaving the car sat there in darkness. But this isn't really what's happening. The sun isn't rising and falling. The planet is spinning. The car is moving relative to the sun, not the other way around. We know this, but don't necessarily take the following step of recognising that everything is moving and nothing ever stops.
 
Why is this important? Well, it's important to shake out of the general misconception of the world, that things begin and end. Beginnings and endings are illusory. There is no true starting or stopping. Nothing has a beginning or end. There are no 'things'. There is only What Is. We cannot define what exists here. The universe isn't really divided into separate things. You cannot truly define yourself. You have no beginning or end. It only seems that there is a limited you that starts and stops, that begins and ends. The world is a play of reflection of the Indivisible Infinite.
 
This is the illusion of the world. It's topsy turvy. It's reflected. What seems to be is not what really is. It's not what it appears to be. The sun doesn't move relative to the planet. It's the other way around. We can explore this further. The world "out there" is really perceived "in here". The building in the distance, the car down the street, the far-off mountain, are all perceived right here. The sense of time, of yesterday and tomorrow, is only ever perceived right now. Changing time is always now. Distance is always here.
 
Ultimately, we don't really move. We perceive motion, but it is the reflection of the Stillness from where we are perceiving. All motion is perceived from a place of Stillness. Well, it's not even a place. All places are perceived from placeless Stillness. All apparent motion of starting and stopping, or even continual motion, is perceived right here and now, in the placeless motionless place. We are That in which the universe appears. We are That out of which the universe is made. We are That which perceives the universe as not separate from itself. There is only That.
 

Category: The Universe

It is the idea of 'me' separate from the universe that creates conflict.Some people think, "The universe is against me." Things always seem to go wrong. Good things never last. Attempts to find happiness are dashed against the rocks. So is the universe really against us? Well, yes and no.

Firstly, yes, the universe is against you. The universe will never be peaceful whilst 'you' exist. Notice 'you' is in quotes. This 'you' is the problem. It is this notion of being a separate being that is the problem. There really isn't a 'you' and the universe. There is only the universe. When 'we' mentally identify ourselves as distinct beings separate from the rest then trouble will inevitably follow. The universe flows in a battle for rebalance. The universe seeks the peace and perfect harmony of the singularity from which it seems to have exploded. When 'you' single yourself out in the universe the universe will seek to rebalance you and bring you into harmony.

That sounds a bit crazy maybe. But that's what happens. It's like flowing with the ocean then developing a sense of identity and saying, "No, I'm not part of this. I'm going to sail off on my own." That's kind of what has happened to humanity in its evolution of mind and identity. Now, rather than flowing as one with the universe, the mind carves out its own identity, like a boat floating on a turbulent ocean, struggling defiantly to maintain its sense of independence. Then it thinks the universe is against it.

Let's understand these forces of rebalance in the universe. Eckhart Tolle talks about this to some degree. It's worth seeing what he has to say about it. Basically, the identity, or the idea of 'me', is inaccurate and leads to a life of imbalance, selfish seeking, rather than being as one with the universe. The idea of 'me' separates itself form the whole, creating a conflict. We could be a good 'me' or a bad 'me', or more accurately a 'me' somewhere along the spectrum of goodness. But that makes no difference. If there is an idea of 'me' then it is separating itself from the universe and creating a sense of conflict, and the rest of the whole seeks to rebalance, whilst the idea of 'me' resists to maintain itself. It is the idea of 'me' separate from the universe that creates conflict.

So although the universe is against 'you', it's not really against the real You. The universe can never be against itself. It is One. You are not what you think you are. You are not what the mind thinks you are. Rather, You are all that is. We are all that is. Really there is no 'we'. Only This. It can be called the Universe, the Whole, the Infinite One, God, Being. It is the One Infinite Life.

When this is recognised it can be understood that the universe is never against you. What happens just seems to happen. Difficulties in life are life's way of bringing humanity into balance. This is the human experience. It is one of rebalancing. Tough experiences will happen to bring about harmony. But none of that affects You. The real You. You remain as the unchanging witness of all change. You don't need to become One. You are One, timelessly. You are That in which the world of apparent conflict and chaos plays out. And it's aim? To find You, the real You. The universe plays out its game of separation then returns to the Singularity which is its peace, harmony and rest. But this Peace and Harmony, the Singularity, is never truly broken. The Singularity remain timelessly as it is, throughout the play of time and space that we call the universe.

Category: The Universe

The continual flow of change isn't really divided into causes and effects.We've all heard of cause and effect. People often talk of it and state how one thing causes another thing to happen. It's generally accepted to be the way of the world: something makes something else happen. But it's not really how it seems.

There isn't really a cause that makes an effect happen. That's just a useful (but inevitably inaccurate) way of describing how the world works. What I mean is that there isn't a divide between a 'cause' and an 'effect'. There isn't one thing then another thing. There also isn't a knock-on effect, where a cause brings an effect which then becomes the cause for another effect, and so on. That's not really what is happening. That's just a way of understanding or describing what is happening.

So what is really happening? There is an appearance of flowing change. The continual flow of change isn't really divided into causes and effects. Just as time isn't really divided into seconds and space isn't divided into centimetres. We use those terms to describe the world, but they are human made and not real in themselves. We don't really perceive one thing that causes an effect to happen. We perceive what seems to happen.

Let's look at an example. Consider a dog barking and a cat running away. It's fair to say that the dog barking causes the cat to run away. That makes sense. But it's not wholly accurate. We could say that the cat makes a noise, which causes the dog to see the cat, which causes the dog to bark, the cat hears the barking and this causes the cat to flee. So we could say the cat hearing the bark is the cause of the cat running away. But we're just picking at other points that aren't really discrete points. More accurately this is a flow of activity without any true dividing points. There are no true distinct points that are causes or effects.

We can go a bit deeper and consider the cause of the universe. It's accepted by many that the universe was created or caused by the Big Bang, where a singularity exploded into activity. But, although this is a good theory, there is a problem with it. If we assume that causes are real, then what caused the first cause? Ultimately we can say that the singularity has no cause. It wasn't created. The singularity is prior to the appearance of time and space. It is formless and without change. But then what caused the explosion and the beginning of time and space?

The Non-Duality answer to this is that there was no explosion, the singularity remains intact. The universe only seems to explode from a singularity into a multiplicity. All the while the universe, or What Is, remains complete as it is. This ties in with the recognition that there is no 'cause and effect'. There is only the appearance of flowing change within the content completeness of the singularity.

Any cause we attribute to an effect will not be wholly accurate. Better to drop the idea of cause and effect and look to the greater understanding that there is no separation or multiplicity, no beginnings or ends. The universe is a complete undivided singularity. It appears to flow with change, but it is always complete in itself.

Category: The Universe

The universe appears within this perfect Consciousness as a world of reflections.Through the Non-Duality understanding we see that consciousness is all there is. Everything we know is known in consciousness. Everything we experience is experienced in consciousness. The universe itself is experienced in consciousness. Nothing can be known or experienced outside consciousness.

Let's understand that a bit more. You perceive the world through the human senses of seeing, hearing, smelling etc. We consider this to be our perception of the outside world, or the universe. You also perceive thoughts, ideas, and dreams, which we consider to be internal and in the mind. Yet the perception of both the internal and external happens in the mind. It is the mind that seems to be a central focal point of knowing or experiencing. The mind recognises a mountain in the distance through the aid of seeing. The mind recognises the voice of a friend calling from another room.

Seeing, hearing, smelling and so on, are all experienced right here. The perception of the mountain in the distance is right here. All distance is perceived right here. The ideas of inside and outside are right here. Although the mountain may be considered to be far away, we see it right here. It is here in consciousness.

We can go further, in realising that we are not a body that we see or feel. We see it. We feel it. We are not it. So too with thoughts and dreams. We perceive these. We are not them. We are where they are perceived from. They are neither far nor near from us. They are right here. But we are not something that we can perceive. The eye cannot see the eye. Consciousness cannot perceive itself. At best we can only perceive a reflection of ourself. And this is the obvious secret of the universe, looking right back at us.

The universe appears to be a reflection of who we really are. The true nature of consciousness, which is what we are, is unbound, undivided, perfect clarity. The universe appears within this perfect Consciousness as a world of reflections, where we experience limitation, separation, and confusion. The universe appears as a world of opposites, pushing and pulling, gaining and losing, rising and falling, separating and uniting. All the while Consciousness remains timelessly as it is.

Consciousness is like the screen in which the movie of the universe plays out. The screen remains unchanged by whatever seems to happen in the movie. Buildings may appear to be in the distance. Planets may seem to be huge in size. Burning fires may rage and torrential rains may soak the landscape, but the screen remains untainted.

But how does a perfect, pure, dimensionless Consciousness give rise to a world of opposites and reflection? Well, one answer is that it doesn't really happen. The universe doesn't explode outwards from the Singularity of Consciousness - it's always right here. But it seems that it has, at least from a human perspective. Even if we consider that the universe is always right here, we must conclude that there is an illusion of separation and distance. So how does the illusion of the universe come about?

Consider Pure Consciousness as a perfectly smooth, endless blanket, before time or space began. If this blanket compresses within itself it can seem to form ripples. These ripples naturally give the impression of a duality, of highs and lows. Each crease has the appearance of a high peak and a low trough. From the perfect Singularity there then appears to be definition and a seeming divide into opposites. But the opposites of the peak and trough of a ripple in a blanket are only illusory, as the singular nature of it remains. A blanket isn't divided in two when ripples appear. It is the same with the appearance of duality on the Singularity of Consciousness. Consciousness is not divided; it only seems to be. Multiple ripples can continue and become the vibrations of energy that constitute the universe. All the while these ripples in Consciousness are nothing other than the Singularity in which they appear.

  1. Extraterrestrial Life
  2. How Vast is Space?
  3. Before the Big Bang
  4. The Appearance of Time and Space