The Nature of Nature

Whenever I enter a wooded area or what I would consider a solitary serene nature setting, I am always immediately calmed and a sense of peace comes up through me. This experience has been confirmed in other humans, so I am fairly confident that we can all experience it if we are open.

I speak of the nature of humans, but had I ever heard anyone speak about the nature of Nature? Of course not, that's why it's called Nature. It is exactly the way it is supposed to be. That's also why It's peaceful, because It is a system that is completely in order and functioning exactly the way It is supposed too.

Humans deem things in nature as chaotic (tornadoes, tsunamis, earthquakes, black holes, death, pain) but those are necessities in the system of the earth and the universe. Only our perception of them labels them good and bad. Or the question of Why me God? Why me? Why would Nature or God or a Higher Power allow suffering and death? Well, that's the way It Is. Resistance is futile, yet insanity prevails.

The opposite of Natures' nature is every other system that mankind has developed - economic, social, religious, political, familial, etc... These are all inherently in a constant state of disorder. They are set up to counter-act the effects of Nature, and this is subsequently why they all miss the mark and fail. I probably don't need to cite examples as anyone can readily see this is and has always been the state of the majority of humans on this planet.

If you read the first blog, thank you. In it I spoke about the First Law of Thermodynamics, which basically states that you cannot create or destroy energy, just transform it. The Second Law Of Thermodynamics deals with the entropy or dispersion of energy in systems. This is very useful in science, but no one besides maybe Schaake is a physicist. (He probably crawls with wanting to correct my limited knowledge of science) Instead of showing my lack of physics training, I'm going to attempt to relate my limited knowledge to my and your daily life.

The SLT involves a term call entropy, which was classically and erroneously defined as "disorder" and more recently as the "dispersal of energy". In essence all energy has a tendency to flow outwards from it's concentrated source. Heat disperses, light travels, sounds waves move, etc... energy is not static. I'm being overly simplistic, but if I don't, I'll spend all my life researching and none writing.

The term disorder is a human classification of the result of the dispersion of concentrated energy. So, in our world, who is dispersing the energy creating disorder? We are. What's labeling it disordered? We are. What is disordered? Human society is. Why don't we see this?.. Denial maybe, or we're busy watching American Idol, who knows. If I sampled 100 people, I'm sure most would say they want order (harmony) in their lives. Yet, we construct society in a most inharmonious way. In most cases actually pitting ourselves as a foe against Nature. Think building your home below sea level on an ocean and being surprised by a large hurricane and flood destroying everything. We saw the denial during Katrina and every subsequent natural disaster.

The reality is things are ordered and do go right in our lives the majority of the time. It is the human mind which tends to focus on, create and label the disorder and negativity. Every moment of your existence the Second Law of Thermodynamics has operated perfectly to keep your human form alive by processing oxygen and fuel to live. Yet, how many people really feel all that grateful about it? I didn't for a long time, and most days I'm not overly joyful to be creating energy through a digestive process. My mind wants to grasp much larger desires than the Krebs Cycle.

Another subject which must be discussed in the SLT is that it requires psychological time. Something dispersing energy does it... over time. I can't disperse something in our physical world in "zero-time", that's an imaginary quantum mechanics theory. I have to do it in "space-time" or in the 4 dimensions (3-D + Time). I feel it is better to enter our lives through this theory of psychological Time, which as discussed last week, it basically a delusion of the human mind.

We live in a 4-D world. Remember in grade school learning how to draw a 3-D box instead of the flat 2-D one. It was a huge leap in ability and intellect to experience creating 3-D. As children we struggled mightily to draw that first perfect 3-D box. Then we looked at a circle and our mind goes "ERROR". (Try drawing a 3-D circle w/o shading) I'll expound my theory of zero and circles in another blog.

Well we really live in 4-D, the fourth dimension being Time. In regards to the SLT, there is a concept called the Arrow of Time, which basically points to the future. It could point in any direction, but we live and experience time toward the "future". Go back to grade school and drawing time lines. They all go left-to-right to signify the movement of history forward. If you drew your timeline right-to-left you got a big fat F. If you drew it up and down you were sent to a psychiatrist. Although, if you did draw it up and down you'd be closer to the Truth than any of us back then.

Imagine living in a world in which time could move in any direction, it's just plain weird to us. Try undropping a cup, not possible in our world, but maybe it is in others not constrained by our Laws of Physics. You can undrop a cup or move in any direction of time using a concept called Imaginary Time, which really exists as a mathematical concept (so all 4 year-olds may be correct). When using Imaginary Time, the distinction between space-time as we experience it on Earth disappear. In my opinion this can be experienced, although explaining it to someone else will be impossible. Imaginary Time is essential in developing theories about what was before the Big Bang. Our greatest questions in life, what was before what first was ~ The Theory of Everything.

Who cares? Well, as I discussed last week, I feel time as we understand it is an illusion. We perceive we are moving forward and that the past is behind us. Neither actually exist, only Now does. In a few minutes it won't be the future it will be Now still. The peacefulness of Nature lies in the inherent lack of the knowledge of space-time. Just as humans were peaceful until Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the 'knowledge' of good and evil. The notion of duality is humans' biggest mental problem. The mind and false-self must cling to this duality to exist as a separate entity. The reality is though, that we are all One and all duality is false.

There is no anxiety in Nature because there is no concept of space-time. My dog is not worried about surviving tomorrow because he has no concept of space-time, he just Is. He walks, poops, eats, sleeps and does it again without any concerns. The tree does not worry about not being tall enough, or having enough leaves, it just Is. Only human animals experience psychological time and psychological worry. Should we live in the woods as heathens or do whatever we want, no... we have a thing called wisdom, which comes from experience.

So, the idea is to be able to transcend the limited confines of space-time as we know it. And in my experience the only way to do it is in the Now. You can't do anything not in the Now anyhow, just try. Transcendence can be accomplished many ways once in the Now and all major religions have sought this transcendence into the Essence of Being. If you're not in the Now you have no chance. Meditation is one way to enter through this gateless gate of Now, but if you sit and meditate on the past and future the whole time it's going to be rather frustrating and exhausting, I can affirm this whole heartily.

Unfortunately knowledge is not a way to enter the Essence of Being, and it is actually a hindrance. Which means if you learned something from what I wrote then I may have screwed you up more than helped you. I'm now debating not posting this, ah, the mind at work. Just as understanding what an orange is won't help you describe it's taste to someone; knowing about these concepts will not help you transcend. You must experience it for yourself, and then in an act of selflessness help others.

The Way I See It... Inner Peace lies in returning to the True Self within. Not relying on disordered systems of the mind or of mankind's making. No religious, political, economic or societal/familial system will help you transcend the confines of space-time, only living in the Now can. It is futile to waste the limited amount 4-D time we have dispersing energy to change and fight systems when we can return to the Essence of our Being at any time we choose. Just go sit and meditate in a quite wooded area for even 5 minutes and you may be returned to your True Nature. I wish you great peace.

With Metta,

doug