“We have only this moment,
sparkling like a star in our hand...
and melting like a snowflake.”

The Inner Cosmos

We find ourselves journeying through a landscape of the seen and the unseen, of the known and the unknown. The whispers of the 'Why' - that beguiling question underpinning the First Cause or the Big Bang (should such a singularity truly have danced its cosmic dance) - seem to dissolve in the echo chambers of time. For to hold that answer in our palms, we'd need to step outside of time's march, to observe what came before the First Spark. Yet, within our current grasp of reality, this stands an impossibility, rendering the question a mute enigma to the grand narrative of Science.

Yet, don't we sense a yearning, deep in the marrow of scientific exploration, to decipher the cryptic 'Why'? Beneath the stern facade of data, formulae, and observations, I believe Science harbors a tender heart, pulsing with the philosophical blood that once gave birth to its very existence.

In our pursuit of understanding, Science requires us to tether ourselves to the tangible, to tests replicable and observations scrutinizable under the collective gaze of discerning minds. But what if we dared to untether ourselves, if only for a moment? Let us wear the hats of the 'Truth Seekers,' our minds teeming with a child-like curiosity and a dash of intelligence.

Imagine, then, that we could peer into the vast expanse beyond the First Cause, to decipher the mysterious hand that moved the primeval pawn - our Great Mystery. Across cultures and epochs, human hearts have been imprinted with transformative experiences of unity, enlightenment, liberation - each a personal dialogue with the cosmos.

My own heart bears such imprints, ineffably real to me, yet often dismissed as whimsical or arcane. But let me share a wild hypothesis: What if the Great Mystery chooses to reveal itself to us not through the microscope or telescope, but from the inner cosmos of our being? Aren't we, as conscious beings, living embodiments of the universe's grand symphony? Could the cosmic conductor not play its melody from within us?

The conundrum lies in the intensely personal and subjective nature of these experiences, their ephemeral quality rendering them elusive to the firm grasp of empirical Science. The most we could achieve would be to observe their external manifestations - the brain's rhythms and the body's signals - and attempt to infer the inner experience. But the shadow is not the object. The measurement is not the thing measured.

What, then, might nudge Science to lend an ear to the symphony of subjective experiences? Could these be the wellsprings of the insights that propel our understanding forward? Could we, perhaps, imagine a new breed of voyagers - not Astronauts, but Psychonauts - who instead of charting the outer cosmos, dive into the nebulae of the inner?

Curiously, the term 'Psychonaut' has been used for those who traverse psychedelic landscapes, bringing back tales of unity, of the dissolution of dualities, of a reality where 'the 2 becomes 1'. It appears that the potent substances stir dormant connections within our brain, quietening the Default Mode Network - the cradle of our individuality and temporal awareness.

Could it be that in this state, we touch the ineffable reality of the Now, of our shared being? Like explorers venturing into the unknown, we must bring back insights of manageable proportions - not monstrous behemoths that overwhelm us, nor insignificant trifles, but substantial ideas that nourish our collective wisdom, guide us through the labyrinth of our current predicament.

Returning then to our primordial questions of 'Why' and 'How', in the silent depths of our shared unity, we might glimpse an answer. A simple, profound truth: there is no 'why' or 'how', there simply Is. It is an invitation to let go, to Be, and to navigate this extraordinary cosmic dance with love for each other and for all that Is.

The Question

The most ignored questions are most often the ones that require our most attention. I'm talking about from a point of view of the common, everyday human being.

Asking these questions, or reviewing them and trying to conceive of an answer, places our consciousness on a road to a destination that, although we might never get to, will inevitably make us cherish more this moment and each other, and lead to decisions and actions reflecting just that.

Our day-to-day routines, habits, and cultures are distracting us, distancing our minds from noticing this ever-present questions. These questions are right here right now right in front of our eyes, constantly challenging us, like an itch, an unconscious unresolved fear or doubt that won't go away no matter how much we try to distract ourselves.

The fact that we have a mind that can ask these questions, or The Question, might just be what has separated us from the answer. Our burden is that we need to get back to the question and forever contemplate it, forever ask it. But asking it can at least allow us to find a path that redeems ourselves and lets us find a certain amount of release, peace, happiness, harmony, with ourselves and each other.

Trust the Flame

Life feels easier if we pass down responsibility of choice to something other than our own mind: Authority. We are socially conditioned to remain in a child-like state of mind and therefore, sadly, most of us do not realise self-awareness which is adamant to truly assume responsibility for our own thoughts, beliefs, feelings and choices: the entirety of our Being. That's what freedom is. And so we sleep and remain as children for ever searching for safety under our protectors' shadow blindly and happily followings its dictates. 

Children come to this world as a bright Spark. This fragile Flame get's squashed by not being allowed self-cultivation and growth. That blockage of the natural growth towards self-awareness is brought about through a traumatising process which artificially diverts the natural flow of the Will from realising self-awareness, to a path of obedience and dependency. 

After the fragile Flame fades, later in life, if we dare to listen to its whispering calls for attention and search for its source, we will be confronted with the pain of the trauma. This is one of the hardest things a person can do and most of us don't want to walk that path. We are weak, afraid and under a very strong spell. 

The world is going bananas. Everywhere we turn we're being confronted with the most insane levels of irrationality, lies, propaganda and injustice that we've ever seen. This current situation has a positive side however: whenever we are confronted with information that has potential to make us question Authority or our internal reality tunnel, it is an opportunity for us to defy an unconscious father-like mental construct running on the back of our minds that was put there as a replacement for our True Voice. This mental form is the gate keeper which needs to be confronted and seen through before we can embrace our pain. It's not easy and once we see through it we become very vulnerable because now we have no guidance, no reality map, nothing is true anymore: the Dark Night of the Soul inssues. And after that dark night, a Star rises.

This present system looks like it is undergoing transformation and I suspect it carries the seed of it's own collapse. As this present paradigm becomes more and more irrational and destructive more and more we are being confronted with our own darkness. It's not going to be an easy ride for any of us that's for sure. Let us not be afraid of being afraid because we will be. Amidst the chaos we'll need to find the Courage to do, think, speak and bring about into the world that fragile Flame within. 

Answer to ForbiddenKnowledge22

One Buddhist teacher that I respect once said:
"If it shouldn't be it wouldn't be."

The Fountain

“Asia, Europe are mere nooks of the universe. Every ocean is a drop in the universe: Mount Athos a spadeful of earth in the universe. The whole of present time is a pin-prick of eternity. All things are tiny, quickly changed, evanescent.
All things come from that other world, taking their start from that universal governing reason, or in consequence of it. So even the lion’s gaping jaws, poison, every kind of mischief are, like thorns or bogs, consequential products of that which is noble and lovely.
So do not think them alien to what you worship, but reflect rather on the fountain of things.”
Marcus Aurelius
Meditations, Book Six, 36