Sunday, March 17, 2013

Why do we Create, or What is the Force which Opposes Entropy?

I always wondered why we are driven to create?

On one hand we have dissatisfaction built into our brain-bodies.  That drives us to change the world.  Drives us to discover the natural world.  We postulate laws and theories, build libraries of knowledge, and edifices to our works. 

Why? 

The law of entropy says everything tends to disorder.  Iron rusts.  Roads are upheaved by frost or plants.  Buildings crumble.  We eventually grow old and die. 

What drives the Universe to order?  What force causes the stars to form?  What creates everything and our selves from this stardust?  These heavy elements formed from simple hydrogen by fusion. 

Why does this stardust become animated?  What force animated this first one-celled organism?  What drove evolution from these simple one celled creatures into the questing, creating, beings we are today?

On the psychological side, we are all wounded individuals.  We have individual wounds from prenatal life, through birth, and afterward.  The classic wound is that first time we realize we actually are not part of our mother’s being.  That is a deep wound, healed often by transcending this wound within the embrace of our mother’s love. 

But, being embraced in our mother’s love does not always happen.  Then the wound is more difficult to heal. 

We then receive further wounds.  Such as the first time someone is mean to us, and the second time, and on and on.  These are wounds because they are showing us that we are not one with something we wish to one with. 

Then there may be wounds from the father, often abandonment or abuse. 

Then there are our ancestral wounds.  Wounds that are part of the culture we grow up within.  Multiple holocausts.  There are the wounds of our parents.  And, if time is truly not linear, perhaps the wounds of our descendants (scientific heretic!). 

So, being wounded is part of being alive.  The question is what do we do with these wounds? 

Perhaps part of our “drive to create” is based in the drive to heal our wounds.  Some of us become seekers.  Sometimes we are tortured by, or sometimes we may be just interested in, this feeling of estrangement from the Universe.  

We sometimes use drugs to cover over this profound feeling of loss.  Sometimes within the use, or abuse, of some of these drugs, such as the entheogens, we discover that we are already always one with the Universe. 

Sometimes, like Ramana Maharshi, we are called to lie down and “die,” to our past self, and spontaneously become one with All-That-Is. 

Sometimes in the deepest blackest part of our life we suddenly awaken to the realization we always already are part of All-That-Is.  Sometimes we meditate for 30 years and then awaken.  Sometimes we never awaken.  

The Universe is built on these 2 processes, which are really just one complementary process:  
1-The entropy of falling into component parts, and
2-The creativity of building into something more complex, i.e., evolution. 

These component parts are termed Holons by Koestler, and later adapted and expanded by Wilber into the 4 quadrants.  Everything is a whole into itself and a part of something more complex.  Carbon atoms are whole atoms, and can be part of a sugar molecule, the sugar molecule is part of a plant, the plant is part of a forest, and so on.

As humans, we are a reflection of these 2 processes of entropy and evolution, as is everything. 

But, then you ask the deepest questions, “who am I, and why do I exist?”

Why does the Universe, Source, G-d, Spirit, the Ineffable, split itself into “the 10, 000 things?”  Actually, it splits into billions and billions of holons. 

The answer within the mystic traditions is that Universe hides away from itself.  Playing hide and seek.  The Universe does this because it is the only way that the Universe can appreciate a beautiful sunny day, the touch of a loved one, or the laughter of a child.

I like the explanation of why this is true, which is based on the statement by Wilber, “because it is no fun to have dinner alone.” 

Hence, we are the sensory organs of the Universe. 

So, that is why we suffer.  We have been torn asunder from All-That-Is.  To heal, we try to meld ourselves back into that one Source. 

Sometimes, we pray to G-d to show us the way.  Sometimes we build temples to whatever we conceive Source to be.  We build religious temples, universities dedicated to knowledge, or a McMansion.  They all reflect our desire to be one with All-That-Is. 
 
Sometimes as the male animus we have a tendency to try to merge with the All by becoming a monk on a mountain.  Sometimes as the female anima we have a tendency to try to merge with the All by first helping other’s on the path. 

Yet, a woman can be in love with the solitary contemplative life, and a man may play the white knight, trying to heal individuals, or the world. 

I contend that we must first fill our own cup, and then let it overflow to others!   

One way of healing is to tell your stories of your wounding to people who will listen with deep love, compassion, and steeped in radical acceptance.  Another way is to gather with like-minded folks in celebration of our essential woundedness, and at the same time our essential wholeness.  (Every truth resides in paradox). 

In the deepest depth of meditation we can awaken to the truth that we were never apart from our wholeness.  We were just fooled by our animal brain-bodies. 

Perhaps than you can engage in deep true forgiveness for the perceived wounds inflicted upon you.  Compassion for yourself, and All-That-Is, arises. 

You can forgive yourself, and forgive all others, and then realize that there is no difference.  There is no other.

Then let go of these stories.  Let go of this construct you call “self.” 

Thereby, merging with Self. 

Become the creativity that brings this world and all worlds to a higher stage of evolution.   

Then kick back, relax, and enjoy the show.  

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