Sunday 23 May 2004

Pic of the day: The trees don't ponder the meaning of life. They just live it. This works quite well too: There are still more trees than people on this Earth. But we can't just let it go like they do.

Synchronicity

In my previous entry, there is an example of synchronicity. Let us briefly reflect on the nature of synchronicity, then. Some people think of synchronicity as magic, and some place it in the realm of religion. But in truth, synchronicity is where the soul meets the world.

If my emotions actually caused rain and hail, then yes it would be magic. Magic is to impose our will on the world without using the normal tools of physics. But there is no reason to believe that this happened. The weather was such that small rain clouds would easily form and move around. It just happened at such time that I encountered it just when I was open for such an impression. The two events happened at the same time: My feelings developed, and the cloud developed, and then the two met. This is synchronicity, events happening at the same time. Since they happen at the same time, one can not be caused by the other. But they can still be meaningful. The meaning is created by the soul, but without the event there would be no meaning either. Thus the world and the soul both contribute to the meaning.

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In theology we have the concepts of omniscience and omnipresence. These attributes of the highest God are not simply superpowers; they are a fundamentally different modes of existence from ours. You may say that a sufficiently advanced God is indistinguishable from fate. All events that happen, whether they be perceived as good or bad, are under the control of the Highest Being. But limited, created beings can only relate to a small aspect of reality. We only see one side of the event. When the sparrow falls to earth, it is almost certainly perceived as a bad event by the sparrow; but your friendly neighborhood cat may perceive it as a very fortunate event indeed! Each of them create meaning in their encounter with the event, but they do not create the same meaning.

If the sparrow and the cat were both believers, the sparrow might say: "Why, God, do you let this happen to me, your faithful servant?" But the cat would say: "I thank you, God, that you in your benevolence gave me this gift." To whom should God listen?

We humans have awesome powers to create meaning. Even trivial details can cause great revelations for those who are open to such. If there is any magic that I know of, it would be this: That in an ordinary world, consisting of matter and energy since more than 10 billion years, we impose meaning and beauty and responsibility and many other concepts which matter does not know. Perhaps we are after all created in God's image. (Although some say it's the other way around.) That such a thing should just happen... well, that seems about as realistic as the whole universe coming into existence by an explosion in nothingness. But then again, this is us who demand meaning. The universe certainly is there. But to make sense of it ... I don't think we can ever do that. And I don't think we can ever stop trying.