(This is Part 15 of a continuing series. Go back to Pt 14.)
It's amazing to me that reality works at all. I consider it a complete miracle. It would be so easy for it not to.
Consider: Various parameters needed to be just right for the universe to form properly, sometimes to within tolerances of 1 part in a trillion trillion and more. For instance, if the constant for gravity, g, had been just slightly different the universe would have collapsed in upon itself before stars could form.
If another constant had been just slightly different, stars would not have been able to ignite the nuclear fires within to become sources of light and energy. If another constant had been just slightly different, molecules would not have been able to bind together to form life.
Without speculating on how all these constants got to be exactly the values they needed to be, we can appreciate how lucky we are to exist in a universe where these tolerances came out to the precise values they needed to be—so extraordinarily well that we could be here to speculate about them.
Consider: The universe is incredibly stable. The sun rises every morning just as we expect. Gravity works very consistently; we know exactly what to expect of it. Chemical reactions can be depended upon to happen in the ways that they do, providing enough stability for cells to carry on life. Various types of networks maintain
homeostasis, internal stability. The universe provides a bedrock of stability upon which everything else is based.
At the same time, the ability to have some change is also provided. The limits within change can occur are apparently just right. Things can change and grow and evolve and yet a basic stability is also provided. Indeed, we live in a miracle.
Even the so-called "bad" or "evil" or "wrong" things about reality seem part of a delicate balance somehow that enables existence to exist. This exquisite blending of win and lose, pleasure and pain, summer and winter, light and dark and so on not only provide the balance that the universe appears to rely on for its very existence—since we never notice it without its ever-present dualities—but also allows some extraordinary things to take place.
Consider The very quality of compassion itself arises from pain and suffering. Without the existence of pain and suffering, the quality of compassion could not exist. Which means that the human heart would not be the miracle that it is; it would be much more shallow, and would have no resemblance to the compassionate heart that we've come to associate with various masters and mature people who point us toward the light.
If I could make all the pain and suffering in the world go away, but had to let go of the existence of compassion at the same time, I wouldn't do it. If it were up to me, I'd have to choose to keep things just as they are, so that compassion could continue to exist in our hearts.
In the end, I can only bow down to the perfection of this existence and celebrate its balanced, mysterious beauty.
(This is the end of Part 15. Go to Pt 16.)
—jim sloman, 1.20.03 for 3.30.03
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