I like to think that the universe evolves in spirals. The evidence
for this is not complete, but is gradually emerging from the
studies of both scientists and yogis. Viewed from above or below,
a spiral appears to be going in circles, cycling through the
same states again and again. But from another perspective, the
upward or downward motion of each cycle becomes apparent.
From our limited perspective, what is most obvious is that
the universe is expanding, creating new space as its galaxies
rush apart from each other, and gravity brings what it can together
into stars and planets. With equations and computers, we can
extrapolate backwards in time to a hot, dense past where everything
was crushed together and forwards to a cold, lonely future where
every particle has either decayed or has become isolated beyond
hope of communication with any other particle. Our equations
break down and become suspect, however, both in the infinity
of density at the beginning and the infinity of time at the
end, so its hard to say for sure what really happens.
Scientists best current guess, guided mostly by mathematical
consistency, is that the universe began from a state of pure,
unmanifest potentiala beginningless and endless state where
time and space have little meaning. This state is at once completely
empty of the existence of any definite particles and, at the
same time, so full that it contains all possibilities, has every
symmetry and every potential. This is a void where left is the
same as right, where big is the same as small, where weak is
the same as strong, where what-will-become-gravity is the same
as what-will-become-electricity, and what-will-become-an-electron
is the same as what-will-become-light.
This pure and seemingly simple void is unstable. Something
in it wants to choose among all the possibilities, to bring
something definite into manifestation. Different parts of it
are free to make different choices, but it does not exhaust
itself in choosing. There is always something left to create
new and different universes.
What triggers these choices is something like a sound: a fluctuation
or vibration arising from the restlessness and uncertainty that
quantum mechanics imposes on all things. Like a crystal forming
in a still pool, something seemingly formless and directionless
acquires beautiful facets that point in definite directions.
Forces and fields and particles, and other more subtle potentials,
originally all the same, became distinct. In the process, the
tremendous amount of energy that it took to keep everything
the same is suddenly released in an enormous explosion that
stretches the fabric of space itself. Its size doubles a hundred
times, and then almost a hundred times more, expanding from
a tiny seed to a universe inconceivably large.
Many of the particles acquire mass in the process, and their
heaviness slows them down and draws them together into the stars
and galaxies, planets and black holes that we see today.
We still dont know whether the universe is finite or infinite,
whether it will continue to expand forever or begin to collapse
again. Recent observations suggest that its expansion is accelerating,
driven by a kind of antigravity implicit in the crystallized
void. If this is the case, then in the very distant future,
long after all the stars have burned themselves out, the universe
will begin to dissolve again, trillions of trillions of many
more trillions of years from now. Most particles will eventually
decay, pulled so far apart by the continued expansion of space
that two could never meet, never tell by their patterns the
story of what had been.
This would be a sad way for evolution to end, but I suspect
that much more is going on than scientists now realize. The
yogis tell a similar story about the evolution of both consciousness
and the universe. They explain it in terms of the progressive
differentiation of an omnipotent, unmanifest potential called
Brahma or the Absolute. Triggered by a cosmic, unstruck sound
(Om), the Absolute takes on many names and forms, while always
remaining complete and timeless in its original nature. It is
a process in which the infinite willingly limits itself to seem
to become the finite, playing a game of temporary ignorance
called maya, which literally means that which can be measured.
Eventually the universe of maya, of differentiated consciousness,
is also said to dissolve back into its original nature, until
in some timeless way the cycle begins again.
This process of going out and coming back, like the mythical
journey of the hero, does not really end where it begins. Instead,
it contains the seeds and memories that will give rise to a
new and richer cycle. This is the spiral that I spoke of in
the beginning. There is still a great mystery about how this
all happens, a mystery that goes beyond time and space, beyond
existence and nonexistence. Ive often wondered how the Absolute
could evolve, but perhaps something which is beyond time has
the patience to wait while its perfection is being made manifest.
The bud is no less perfect than the flower, but part of its
perfection lies in its willingness to continue to grow.
