Through noticing what’s here in immediacy, we can find a few things….
We may notice that the One experiences itself as many.
No-thing experiences itself as something.
Consciousness experiences itself as matter.
And sometimes….
The One experiences itself as separation.
Love as not-love.
Clarity as confusion.
It can help to use a more structured form of inquiry to notice this, for instance Headless experiments, the Big Mind process, Living Inquiries, or The Work of Byron Katie.
This is all what we can notice for ourselves here and now.
COSMOLOGY
And we can also see it in the universe as a whole. We can make it into a cosmology. (After all, any cosmology mirror us here and now.)
Existence is oneness experiencing itself as many. No-thing as something. Consciousness as matter.
And sometimes – locally and through us and other beings – oneness experiencing itself as separation, love as not-love, clarity as confusion.
MORE DETAIL
There is easily one or several books worth of material here if we want to go into more detail. I’ll just say a few words.
I find that I am capacity for the world as it appears to me – including this human self and any me or I or observer or doer. That’s the oneness. It all happens within and as what the mind may label consciousness. Within this oneness is immense diversity. The world is many. (It’s an overlay of thought that divides the world up in this way, and it’s a very useful function of thought.)
I find that no-thing experiences itself as something. What I am is no-thing full of the world as it appears to me. No-thing full of somethings. (Again, the somethings are separated from each other through an overlay of thought.)
Similarly, consciousness experiences itself as matter. What I am – and I assume what you are to yourself – can be labeled consciousness. The world as it appears to me happens within and as consciousness. And when thoughts label some things in the world matter, and sensations come in to lend a sense of substance to those thoughts, then consciousness experiences itself as matter.
Also, when these dividing lines created by thoughts – often in the form of mental images – are held as true, there is an experience of separation. So the One experiences itself as separate, as an I here and others out there.
When thoughts are held as true, the mind can tell itself that this human has been wronged, is a victim, and so on. And then love – which is another word for oneness – experiences itself as not-love.
And when the mind takes thoughts as true, clarity – which is yet another word for oneness – can experience itself as confusion.
STRUCTURED FORMS OF INQUIRY
We can all (?) find this for ourselves, and structured forms of noticing – AKA inquiry – can help here.
Headless experiments can help us find ourselves as capacity for the world as it appears to us – including anything connected with this human self and any I or me or observer or doer.
The Big Mind process can help us find ourselves as Big Mind (AKA capacity full of the world), Big Heart, and a variety of other aspects of what and who we are.
Living Inquiry – which is based on traditional Buddhist inquiry – can help us explore in detail how thoughts (words and mental images) combine with sensations to create our experience. Specifically, it’s helpful to notice how the mind associates certain sensations with certain thoughts, and these thoughts lend a sense of meaning to the sensations, and the sensation give the thoughts a sense of substance, reality, and even truth.
The Work of Byron Katie is a great help in exploring thoughts we take as true, and in finding what’s more true for us in our own direct experience.
There are many other forms of inquiry out there as well, which may work as well or better for you. These are just the ones I happen to be familiar with.
Note: For whatever reason, I had trouble finding the right angle into this post so it went through a few drafts. I think it’s because I initially started with the cosmology, but it’s much more honest to start with our immediate experience. That’s where the cosmology comes from anyway.
DRAFTS….
….
How can we describe the big picture reality?
We can say that existence is reality exploring, expressing, and experiencing itself. Life is the dance of reality. It’s Lila.
The evolving universe is Life experiencing itself in always new ways. Each of us is Life experiencing itself – locally and temporarily – experiencing itself in always new ways.
There are also other ways to say this.
We can say that the One experiences itself as many.
No-thing experiences itself as something.
Consciousness experiences itself as matter.
And – through humans and perhaps some other beings…. Oneness temporarily and locally experiences itself as separation. Love experiences itself as not-love. And clarity experiences itself as confusion.
Any cosmology is a mirror of what’s here and now. So we can make somewhat of a leap and say that this is applies to existence as a whole (cosmology). Or we can say it applies to us here and now (psychology), and use this as a pointer and explore it for ourselves and see what we find.
…..
One way to see existence is as lila, a dance or play of self-exploration.
We can say it’s the One experiencing itself as many. No-thing experiencing itself as something. Consciousness experiencing itself as matter. And – through humans – Oneness as separation. Clarity as confusion. And love as not-love.
Lila and any cosmology is a reflection of us here and now. And we can find all of this here and now.
…..
Existence expresses, explores, and experiences itself in always new ways including through and as this evolving universe and everything that’s part of it – and also us as humanity and individuals.
Any cosmology is a reflection of ourselves here and now.
One is that it’s the One’s way to experience itself as many.
…
We can say it’s the One experiencing itself as many, or no-thing experiencing itself as something, or consciousness experiencing itself as matter, or – through humans – Oneness as separate, clarity as confusion, and love as not-love.