The early Celtic Christians had a fascination with the similarities between the human being and the universe as a whole. The human being was understood as a microcosm, meaning a miniature cosmos. This idea stretches back to ancient Greece and is common throughout the ancient and medieval Christian world…
– from The Cosmic Blueprint, New Eden Ministry
This has been a fascinating topic for me too, since my mid-teens.
I especially like to explore this as projections and where I can find what this points to in my own direct noticing.
WHEN IT STAYS AS IDEAS
We can explore these ideas at the level of ideas, and that can be interesting and may help us a bit in daily life.
If we stay at the level of ideas, the ideas can get a bit abstract, fanciful, and mixed in with fantasy.
They may stay as largely unrecognized projections.
DIRECT NOTICING
Fortunately, there is another way to explore what these ideas point to.
We can notice it directly. And when we do, it tends to clarify, simplify, and ground us and the ideas.
THE WORLD AS A MIRROR
When I have a story about anything or anyone “out there”, I can turn the story around to myself and find specific examples of how it’s true in this moment and in other situations.
In this way, I discover that any characteristics I see out there are also here in me and my life. It may not look exactly the same, but the dynamics and essence are the same.
[Structured explorations: The Work of Byron Katie & Kiloby Inquiries.]
HAPPENING WITHIN OUR SENSE FIELDS
Anything I experience happens within my sense fields. It happens within sight, sound, smell, taste, sensations, and mental representations.
To me, the world and anything at all happens within and as my sense field.
To me, the world happens within my field of experience.
This is a concrete example of how the cosmos is here. To me, the cosmos is already here. It’s already happening within and as my sense fields. It’s happening within and as this field of experience.
It’s not (only) “out there”, it’s very much right here.
[Structured explorations: Traditional Buddhist sense-field explorations & Kiloby Inquiries.]
HAPPENING WITHIN AND AS WHAT WE ARE
In one way, I am this human self in the world.
And when I explore it in my own direct noticing, I find I am more fundamentally something else.
I find I am more fundamentally capacity for anything appearing in my sense fields. I am capacity for the world as it appears to me.
I find I am what the world, to me, happens within and as.
What I am forms itself into any and all experience.
Here too, what’s “out there” is very much here.
[Structured explorations: The Big Mind process & Headless experiments.]
EXPLORING AS PROJECTIONS AND FINDING IT HERE
In general, I like to explore any map, cosmology, or anything at all as projections and find it here.
It helps me ground it in something concrete and something I can find in myself.
In this case, it helps me find my inner richness and find my nature.
And the stories are not so interesting in themselves. I use them as pointers and reminders, and that’s enough. I don’t need to go into them too much, or elaborate on them, or use them to feel better about myself or the world.
Note: The structured explorations I mention here are just a few I happen to be familiar with. They are not the only ones out there, and not the ones that may work the best for you.
INITIAL OUTLINE
- as above so below
- is intuited or seen more clearly and then passed on in words
- often convoluted, caught up in stories, speculation etc.
- but can be understood in a more simple and direct way
- the world as a mirror
- happening within/as sense fields, field of consciousness
- happens within/as what we are
WHY ARE SOME OF US INTERESTED IN THESE IDEAS?
I suspect there may be several reasons.
We may intuit that there is something to it. It feels right at a deep level.
….
The idea may be passed on from someone who had a direct experience.
We can arrive at it logically.
It’s appealing to us. It gives us a sense of connection with the larger whole. It gives us a sense of vastness. And it may fit our sense or intuition.
And these ideas may be rooted in a combination of all of these.
Fortunately, there is another way to explore what these ideas point to.
We can notice it directly, which is simpler and grounds it in our own experience.