I recently received an invitation to connect with an individual here at Gaia who sent me a simple message:


Although I consider my answer incomplete due to time and other projects, I feel it appropriate to place here what I wrote because the question itself is a very apt one always needing asked and an answer always attempted.

The thoughts of others are always of interest to me, most especially as they relate to this kind of question.

My response:

You ask a good question but, after reading your profile page, I think the best answer to your point of view is this: abandon divisive religions so horribly consistent in promoting the “us vs. them” mentality. Rather than continue to preach that human beings are worms unworthy to be living, perhaps we can promote the idea that every - EVERY human being is a living treasure … even in light of their many mistakes. We must abandon the false idea of “evil” to finally overcome our fears of nature and of each other. We must abandon the idea of a “universal perfection” because there is no such quality. “Perfection” is always circumstantial or context-dependent and thus can never be universal. Abandoning the idea of “universal perfection” we find the way to abandon the idea of “universal imperfection” - an equally absurd notion.

There is no evil, there is only correct or incorrect thinking, correct or incorrect action, correct or incorrect speech … all of it using the truths of nature as the standard of judgment.

Unite people by emphasizing the priceless value of their individual gifts and their comforting similarities to one another. Discard everything that smacks of “us vs. them”.

“Division” is mental construct. All is connection - always has been, always will be. “Other” is merely extension of self and “self” merely one point of view in a universe of seemingly endless ways of seeing.

My Gaia friend Enlightened Thinker has generously shared Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" in honor of this month's poetry celebrations. In keeping with my own passions for poetry, I thought I too would offer a favorite poem by one of those sensitive souls who grant us such insightful art.

If each of us saw the universe as a living thing, we would see it and ourselves genuinely for the first time. The simplest path to that point of view is to see and accept the truth - "universe" and "I" are not two - they are the same. They are one. They, in fact, are not "they". Universe is you and YOU are universe self-aware and asking the question.

The living, conscious universe ... is you and, of course, every living consciousness. The question seems to be seeking a universal life and consciousness somehow separate from you, from me, from Earth. If universe is "all that exists", YOU are necessarily the life and consciousness you seek. We humans see the lives and consciousnesses on the planet as "many" but they are all irrevocably tied to one another as "universe". Where is this "many" but in our own minds? Where is "separation", "division", "isolation" but in our own misunderstanding?

Universe - you - ought to ask instead - why do I not already extend "me" to all that is - everywhere, everywhen? Why do I not already embrace all that is "me"? Why do I look to be apart from from that which is inseparable, from that without which I could not and cannot exist? Why do I not already see myself - universe - as "living", as "conscious"?

Why You-niverse, do you divide yourself from yourself? What is it you do not see? What is it you do not understand? What is you will not see or will not understand?

What is it you wait for, what do you need to be genuinely whole?

Unlike with a single human being, it is impossible to know the full potential cycle of life for the entire species. We cannot know whether we are collectively in our infancy or at some other stage in our full development - if it can even be said there is some ultimate end to it. Without knowing the ultimate end, we cannot determine the stages themselves. Truly, we do not yet have a single extraterrestrial life with which to make comparison and any intellectually honest answer would require many examples of "life out there". Statistically, it is said there must be abundant other life in the universe. Although I have fond wish for that to be true, I'm also aware that somewhere and at some time there must be or must have been a "first life" and there's yet no sound reason to say we are not the first just as there is none to warrant saying we are. The answer is indeterminate. If we judge ourselves by our ignorance regarding how much life there actually is in the universe, its nature and location, one is compelled to say we are simply toddlers in that respect. Surely a truly "mature" species has a more complete knowledge of life beyond their own world. All we actually have is speculation. Some are working very hard to turn at least a small piece of speculation to tiny but cold hard fact.

Compared with other species on the planet, one might say we are further along in complex consciousness but, again, looking at our mismanagement of the complex, dynamic and highly interdependent environment upon which we all completely rely, it's not entirely clear whether our additional complexity is a survival advantage or disadvantage here on Earth. With regard to the rest of the universe, it is certainly unclear what advantages and disadvantages our complex consciousness gives us. There are certainly some who think we are much better off staying home and foregoing everything but a simplistic awareness - "Don't ask questions" is their motto - but aren't there always? I suppose I count myself among those fully prepared to ask every question I'm able to ask and chance adventure as deep into the unknown as I'm able to get before I am stopped by the inevitable ignorances. Personally, I can think of no life more fulfilling than to continuously seek what I have not experienced, what I do not know or understand. Curiosity is what keeps my heart beating and without the constant wander, the constant question - "Is this all that I am? Is there nothing more?" I would surely perish. Of course, I've in no way experienced all that can be experienced right here at home, but I've always believed that to fully understand the nature and value of "home" one must venture until the journey leads unavoidably back to where one began. Call it "home" if you like. I call it the "center" and have never entirely known it to have an identifiable place or time as much as it is an evolving idea I carry with me wherever I happen to be. I suppose I will find that "center" when my personal need to journey comes to an end.

What we can say is we seem sufficiently and collectively mature enough to begin asking this question but there is a far greater number of us unprepared to ask it than there are those with the insight to ask and perhaps find some piece of an answer. It is always the few that lead the many.

Perhaps it will not always be so.

As for what has pushed my transitions through moment to the next in my life, you probably have already guessed - an obsessive curiosity and a deliberate attitude that I will never reach a point where any of my answers are entirely satisfying. I'm at peace with the fact that, as much as I wish contentment, I will never have it and I even encourage discontentment to avoid my one and only fear - apathy.

Paradoxically, the joys my lack of contentment brings me through constant discovery give me a measure of contentment that, as you might guess, makes a bit nervous. I continually seek serenity and, when I momentarily find it, I'm soon driven to end it before it begins to sink in.

I sometimes envy those for whom serenity is everything, their depth of place, their intensity of time. Maybe they too sometimes envy the adventurer their restlessness and unique discoveries. Certainly, one is encouraged to think the ideal human life is a blend of the two. I like to think there is a purpose for both extremes in the universe we've all yet to experience.