A great example of cosmology as a reflection of what is here now.
It may well be a good model of what happened in a conventional sense, but it is also a good model of how our experience of the world is created here now.
It starts with nothing. Literally no thing. Only the potential for something to exist.
Then, appearances. And to organize it and make sense of it, an imagined overlay of extent and continuity, space and time.
Then, entities such as galaxies and much more.
And finally, the appearance of the Earth and human beings, and ourselves.
Right here, I can find all of this.
There is awake no thing. Appearances within and as this awake no thing. An imagined overlay of extent and continuity to help us organize and make sense of these appearances. Imagined boundaries to create entities. Some of these entities appears as living beings and humans. And one of these is this human being, this me with identities and roles in the world. And finally, there is the imagined entities of a doer and observer.
A great way to explore all this is through the sense fields. Through an imagined overlay and boundaries dividing appearances into – for instance – sight, sound, smell, taste, sensations and imagination.
It may be easiest to start with objects in the wider world, and explore how each one appears in each sense field, and then how the mental field brings it all together into a gestalt and an entity.
I can then explore the me, doer and observer in a similar way.
Then how an imagined space and time helps organize appearances, for instance through closing the eyes, notice how I imagine the space in and around me, and how appearances are mapped onto this imagined space. And also through noticing how appearances are imagined stitched together with memories of past appearances and scenarios of future appearances, creating a sense of continuity and time.
And finally, I can notice how what appears in each sense field is really just awakeness and form without substance. It is awake no thing appearing as something. Sometimes, the mental field may apply the labels “solid”, “substantial” or “lasting” to an appearance, but what is labeled and the label itself is also awake no thing appearing as something.
Finally finally, I may notice that that too are labels from my own world of images. The sense fields appear through imagined boundaries. Awakeness appears through another imagined boundary. No thing also appears through an imagined boundary.
What is left is silent mystery. And it is good to notice that as an imagined boundary as well.
Also, if there is a cyclic pulsing infinity of sequential universes, that too is here now. My experience of the world is created anew here now, and now, and now. Fresh. New. Different.