(This is Part 8 of a continuing series. Go back to Part 7.)
2. The Principle of Destiny
This principle focuses on what it means when we make a "choice" or "decision." Do we have freedom, and if so, what kind is it?
I believe that we do have "freedom," but it is a special kind. In a very subtle paradox, our "freedom" comes from the reality that on a deeper level we and everything else are completely determined.
Imagine for a moment that everything in this universe is determined, down to the last detail. The main reason for this is that in order for the universe to not be determined there would have to be "random" events now and then.
My problem is that I can't imagine how a truly random event could occur. It seems to me that what we call "random" is simply a way of saying that we don't yet understand the process involved at a deep level.
In that sense, it may be that calling some event or process "random" is just a confession of ignorance. (It's worth mentioning here that Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle in physics is about measuring reality, not reality itself.)
In the history of humankind, many events and processes that we used to consider "random" have come to be understood as obeying determinate laws.
For instance, humankind used to think that the occurrence of eclipses was random. Now we know that they're not, but rather, are expressions of a determinate process of motion between the earth, moon and sun.
Similarly, many other natural processes, such as the branching of trees, the inheritance of traits or the occurrence of rainfall were once considered to be random but are now known to be determinate.
As another example, mathematicians have found it actually impossible to produce a truly "random" series of numbers. Every set of "random" numbers that they've been able to come up with is the result of some algorithm or process.
And that mathematical algorithm, no matter how complex and subtle, is still determined. Thus the resulting strings of numbers look random but aren't. They're the result of a determinate process.
Let's look for a moment at an equation called the logistic equation. The logistic equation is very simple, yet it is capable of producing staggeringly complex and random-looking results.
What makes the results of the equation seem so random is the equation's great sensitivity to initial conditions. A change in initial conditions—input to the equation—as slight as one in a trillion trillion trillion and beyond can utterly change the equation's output.
In what is known as Chaos Theory there are many other sets of equations that share this quality, that the minutest changes in initial conditions can completely change the outcome—making the results, which are determinate, nevertheless completely unpredictable.
Perhaps the universe is this way—an ongoing process so incredibly complex that, even though everything is determinate and the effect of everything else, yet many of the "results" or "events" are unpredictable and therefore seemingly random.
Now, how does all of this relate to us?
Imagine that a friend of ours just made a "decision." If we had a computer large enough, one that could take account of the trillions of electrical and chemical potentials in our friend's brain and the state of all possible external events impinging on him or her and so on, we probably could have determined what our friend's "decision" would be.
And if we had a computer large enough to take account of the state of all macro and micro events in the universe that could possibly affect our friend, then perhaps we could have determined with absolute precision what our friend's "decision" would be.
Such a computer does exist, of course. We call it "the universe," and part of its calculations are "decisions" arising in us human beings. But because of the immense complexity involved, these "decisions" are essentially unpredictable.
In my understanding, the "calculations" which the universe is making—which we call "the evolution of the universe"—cannot be speeded up. The "calculations" are already proceeding at the maximum possible speed. And so, in order to see what the results of the "calculations" are, we notice what shows up in reality.
In this perception, the Oneness, the one energy is doing everything—and since at the deepest level there are no separate beings, there are also no separate beings around to make any "decisions." Everything is Being Done.
Paradoxically, when we surrender to the nature of this process, we experience freedom within it, an amazing freedom which consists of a surrendered and intense love of wherever the divine flow is going.
But since this surrender is itself determined—though unpredictable—it can best be characterized as Grace descending, which is how it is experienced.
Subjectively, of course, we always have the experience of going through the process of "making choices," along with a voice-over in our head telling us that we have "made a choice." And this is not invalid at the level at which it occurs.
Just as "you" can exist simultaneously as both molecules and a personality, just so, at the level where we appear to be separate beings we also make what appear to be personal choices.
And those choices for all practical purposes are "real" to us at the level of "separate" reality, even though at the deepest level there is no separate anything and all is happening by Itself.
In this principle, if you "decide" at this moment to cultivate a consciousness that will discover heaven right in your midst, you and your life-experience will indeed change as a result of your decision.
That is, the results will be "real" in your life—and yet your "decision," though unpredictable until this moment, was also preordained from the beginning of time.
(This is the end of Part 8. Go to Part 9.)
—jim sloman, 12.18.03 for Apr 24
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