“You are everything, every being, every emotion, every event, every situation. You are unity. You are infinity. You are love/light, light/love. You Are. This is the Law of One.”
(Ra, a humble messenger of the Law of One)
I would like to begin with a question; quite possibly the most important question that has ever been asked in all of human history. A question that we shall return to again and again throughout the course of our journey together in the months that lie ahead; and one that, I hope – as the mystery begins to unfold before your eyes – you can begin to answer for yourself.
It is of the most profound importance and is a question we often ask ourselves, albeit most of the time without ever really stopping to ponder the implications of seeking a meaningful answer. So, let us begin our journey together by asking this deceptively simple question:
Who are you?
You may be tempted to answer by telling me your name; however, is this really you? Or is it simply a label that has been attached to you, from birth (or shortly thereafter) to give you a sense of identity, of so-called “self” – a way to distinguish yourself from the billions of other humans that inhabit this planet? To feel unique, distinct – separate?
Søren Kierkegaard, a Danish philosopher and theologian said:
“If you name me,
you negate me.
By giving me a name, a label,
you negate all the other things
I could possibly be.”
Your name does not define who you are. Names are unimportant, meaningless in fact, as we shall see later. Labels quantify, separate, constrict – and, in the context of a limitless, unbounded awareness and intelligence – which is in fact our true nature – this only serves to hinder our understanding of the greater reality of our Being.
Perhaps you would tell me about your job, your hobbies, your daily exercise routine, or what makes you tick and get out of bed in the morning. But again, are these things really you? Or, are they simply things that you do – to pay the bills, the rent / mortgage; to pass the time and feel happy, to stay fit and healthy or to alleviate boredom and amuse the mind?
Speaking of the mind, perhaps you would be tempted to say, “Ok, well, surely I am my mind, my thoughts and my feelings?”
But, are you, really? Experienced meditators will tell you that, when you learn to watch your Mind – you realise that you are separate from it – an observer – and that the daily barrage of thoughts, worries and concerns that buzz around inside our heads like an angry swarm of bees, are not in fact, who we are at all. The question is then, who is doing the observing?
We shall discuss meditation in later chapters in some depth, but for now, simply reflect on this – when you learn to observe your thoughts, you will quickly come to realise that you are not your thoughts. That something, or some-“one” else is doing the observing; the watching.
This can be a powerful revelation and catalyst to awakening to your true nature – if you allow it.
***
We are not who we think we are. The truth is that you are not – as you might currently be inclined to think, or have been lead to believe – an accident, a chance occurrence of nature, a set of biological systems that evolved by some random chance and somehow happened to reach a state where you can contemplate your own existence through purely chemical reactions in your brain; you are not simply an organism that is lucky enough to be in the dominant species, you are not an ape who wants to wear clothes and buy expensive toys – and you are not here purely to reproduce and provide the next generation of human beings, to rinse and repeat ad nauseum.
You may be tempted at this point to think that I am talking about God. Let me be clear on this before we proceed – I am not in any way referring to the idea of an all powerful, all knowing, all seeing deity who created us in his or her image, demands our worship, punishes us when we sin – and is, most importantly – separate from us, or in some way more powerful than we are.
The reality of who you are, who we all are, is much more magnificent, empowering and exciting than most people realise. And once you begin to explore your true nature, to remember the essence of what makes you truly You – you will be falling down the rabbit hole fast, and will only want to fall faster. And trust me, the ride is worth it.
***
How many cells are there in the human body?
As it turns out, this can be a pretty tricky question to answer accurately. Over the past couple of centuries, many scientists have attempted to tackle this question.
However, their estimates have varied widely, ranging from a lowly 5 billion, to a staggering 200 million trillion cells! Additionally, almost none of the scientists in question have offered explanations for how they arrived at their estimates.
It is not physically possible to count the cells in the human body (even if you could, it would take tens of thousands of years, so don’t start) so how does one go about coming up with a meaningful and realistic answer to the question?
One way is to estimate based on weight. An average adult male weighs in at around 70 kg and the mean weight of a cell is 1 nanogram. This would mean that the average number of cells in the human body would be 70 trillion.
We could also estimate using volume. The mean volume of a human cell is estimated to be around 4 billionths of a cubic centimetre. Thus, based on the typical volume of an adult male, we could conclude that the human body contains approximately 15 trillion cells.
As you can see, the numbers are drastically different. However, even at the lowest estimates, the average human body contains more cells than there are stars in the Milky Way (our galaxy), which is estimated to contain anywhere between 100 billion and 400 billion stars!
Now think about this: the average human cell contains – according to a study from Washington University – approximately 100 trillion atoms. A calculator returns 7e+27 as the result of cells multiplied by atoms at our largest estimate.
That’s a seven with twenty seven zeros after it. I’m not a particularly good mathematician, I will happily admit, but that is an incredibly large, almost incomprehensible number.
Every atom in your body is like a tiny little solar system. It has a nucleus (sun) around which electrons (planets) orbit, just like our own familiar planets orbit around our own sun. Every cell in your body, if you could magically shrink down small enough and take a look, is like a tiny little galaxy (or based on numbers, cluster of galaxies) of its own. Full of trillions of tiny little suns, and planets, all going about their own business, all (supposedly) blissfully unaware that they are part of something much greater – you.
***
In the ancient Vedic traditions of India, it is said that “As is the smallest, so is the greatest. As is the microcosm, so is the macrocosm.” Some of the oldest known texts ever written hint at the fact that the universe is fractal in nature, that is, that as you go smaller or larger, the same patterns appear and repeat over and over – and more importantly – that every part contains the whole, or, all of the information required to recreate the whole.
A recent computer simulation of what the universe looks like at a very large scale suggests that the billions of galaxies that make up the universe are spread out in long, spider web like strands – and that at this scale, the universe looks uncannily like the neural network in the human brain! So much so, as to be indistinguishable from it.
The microcosm is a physical – and metaphysical – mirror of the macrocosm, or possibly the other way around – it doesn’t matter which way you look at it, as long as you see the significance – which is that patterns in nature repeat at different scales. You are comprised of the same fundamental rules or laws of nature internally, at the infinitesimally small scale, as is the perceived universe itself. The clues are everywhere that, there is more going on here than it would appear at first glance… We shall explore this in much greater depth in the chapters on Sacred Geometry and the Golden Ratio.
Additionally, every single atom in your body – and every other atom, everywhere in the universe – winks out of existence, and back in again, millions of times a second. Together. They go somewhere; somewhere else. Then, they come back. Wait, what? Where do they go? And why?
You have no idea this is happening to you, because it happens all the time, and so fast as to be imperceptible. You don’t realise that the particles that make up your body, and your physical mind – the stuff that you usually call you – is not really here at all, half the time…
Atoms are made of even smaller parts, called quarks. These are very strange beasts indeed, and have never been directly observed. Protons and neutrons, which make up the nucleus of an atom, are made of quarks, of which there are six different types, usually organised in pairs.
It doesn’t stop here, either. Drill right down to the smallest unit of reality that we know (or at least theorise) about currently with modern quantum physics, and – what you have is not a physical thing at all – but instead, something called a quantum string.
These appear to have virtually no mass, but enormous amounts of energy, each one the equivalent of a steam train at full pelt (!) – and they give rise to the particles that make up everything else in the known universe.
They are literally little tiny vibrating packets of incredibly dense energy or – as we shall see later, according to The Law Of One – Light, that comprises and creates everything else in existence, including you and me, and everything we see around us.
From a holistic perspective, if our bodies are made of trillions of tiny independent little systems of energy, all spinning away doing their own thing, independently of us, but that somehow work together cohesively to give rise to man, to intelligence and (supposedly) to consciousness – if we are then capable of learning about and watching those smaller parts in their endless and beautifully engineered dance – and we recognise that star systems are like atoms, that the universe looks like a giant neural network and is fractal in nature – if we then turn our minds and hearts to the heavens and contemplate the greater reality as well as the familiar, does that not hint at something? Something important?
Like, for example, that it is perhaps possible that in the same way that we observe ourselves and our constituent parts and see them as fundamentally “us” – perhaps it is not beyond the realms of possibility that the universe does the same thing on a much grander scale?
What if the entire universe is conscious, awake, and aware of itself, just as we are?
Consider this: what if our entire purpose for existence in the first place is simply to be a part of something much vaster than ourselves? To live, to exist and experience, unaware of the greater reality, incapable of even perceiving it, like the cells in our body supposedly do? What if we are all just “cells” in some gigantic, cosmic organism?
To take things one step further though, what if our purpose is not only to be a part of a greater whole, but also to realise that we are? To remember that we are all essentially part of a single, universal Consciousness, that is manifest in all things, and in fact gives rise to the material world?
That we are all connected; that we are all One? How would this shift in perspective change the way we look at ourselves, each other, the world around us, and beyond?
We are literally, each of us, a mirror of the entire universe. As above, so below, as the saying goes. A whole, comprised of an unimaginably vast amount of smaller parts, all working together in harmony, to bring us into being. Additionally, every part contains the whole – is the whole – as we shall explore later. You are not just in the universe, you are the universe.
All you have to do, is remember.
***
Meditation – Your True Essence
This meditation is an opportunity for you to bring yourself back to a state of stillness, to the part of you that exists beyond the name and identity you were given.
Pure consciousness is the fundamental state behind this reality. By becoming the observer of your thoughts and being in the stillness beyond the words and emotions that occupy your mind, you remember your true essence – the limitless awareness that permeates all that is.
