The Living Universe - Duane Elgin [47]
Part Three
Where Are We Going?
Chapter 6
Where Is the Universe Going?
The universe is a single living being embracing all living beings within it.
—PLOTINUS
Is there a discernible direction to the unfolding of the universe? If so, where is the universe going? How do we fit into its unfolding? Is our evolution as a species in alignment with the developing universe? To explore these core questions, let’s first consider the nature and expression of life in the universe.
Life Within Life Within Life
At the foundation of existence is a pervasive life force—unstoppable, unquenchable, untiring, and forever manifesting itself. Not only does this life force burst irrepressibly into the everyday world and then tenaciously cling to existence (think of grass growing through cracks of a busy sidewalk) it is also found nearly everywhere we look. Living forms have been found beneath the polar ice caps, in high deserts with no water, beside erupting volcano vents thousands of feet under the ocean, and in pools of water as caustic as battery acid. Communities of microbes have also been found more than two miles underground in pockets of water that have been isolated from sunlight for at least two million years, living only on the chemicals in the rocks and the water that was likely carried there by meteorites. Life presses at the edges of material existence at every moment and in every place, seeking opportunities to emerge and find expression. No matter how remote or harsh the circumstances, the life force will seek to express itself and to organize itself into some kind of sentient entity.1
The deeper we look, the more complex the living universe becomes. An exquisitely creative, inexhaustibly intelligent, and infinitely aware life energy is both immanent (present throughout the cosmos) and transcendent (present in ecologies that extend far beyond our cosmos). This life force is simultaneously personal (upholding the most intimate aspects of our existence), impersonal (sustaining all of creation with great freedom), and transpersonal (extending beyond the boundaries of the cosmic system we inhabit).
A core insight comes into view from the combined wisdom of science and spirituality. Life is both fundamental and emergent: It is the fundamental ocean in which we all swim and it is ever emergent as life-forms organize themselves into higher levels of complexity and consciousness. The sustaining life force is fundamental, whereas surpassing life-forms such as ourselves are emergent. The aliveness of the Mother Universe has given birth to and continually sustains our living universe. In turn, our universe is able to give birth to planetary systems that can give birth to beings able to look back at the universe and reflect upon the magnitude and mystery of existence.
Because consciousness is an integral property of the aliveness of the universe, it means that everything has a consciousness or knowing capacity that is appropriate to its nature. Instead of emerging only recently with the development of complex life forms, consciousness is a fundamental property of the universe that has always been present. Different material forms mobilize this capacity with modes of reflection that are appropriate to their material nature.
We are life-forms who live within a living universe that, in turn, emerges at every moment from the aliveness of the Mother Universe. Life is nested within life, which is nested within life. Instead of a cold, gray, and empty place, the world around us is thick with aliveness, dense with unfathomable life