Life — The eternal now of nothing
let's begin with…
Verse of The Universe
“There is nothing before it all started, there will be nothing when it all ends, no matter how big I grow after all I am nothing, but quarks and you are nothing but me.”
- universe
There is nothing before big bang, in a second after that the universe we now know came into existence. Universe was quite hot but eventually like everything else it cooled down and then the quarks & electrons came into existence. A few millionths of a second later, quarks produced protons and neutrons within minutes, these combined into nuclei and then atoms, finally everything fell into place to create hydrogen and helium. These elements are the founding blocks of the entire universe. After this smush and whoosh of quantomania the galaxies, stars, and planets are formed. Exactly after a few billion years a hubris creature stood up looking deep into the sky questioning everything that ever existed, Human. Universe is nothing but quarks and we are nothing but universe this is good to listen but try to understand this in such a way that it embeds in your daily routine life.
Every one of us is nothing but a replica of this entire universe. if you are someone in the niche of wondering how? let me answer. Universe is born and we are too. universe has millions of galaxies and systems in place, and we have millions of cells and biological systems in place. every day a million stars die out there and a million cells die in our body too. there are places where it is extremely cold and extremely hot, and I can go on. Do you care for all those cells that are dying in your body every single day? same goes with universe it doesn’t even care for a star why would it care if you and I die. Every sub-system, sub-particle in fact everything that’s matter replicates and is just a replica of the universe. This happens even inside of an atom. even something as small as an atom is also a replica.
Coming back to the blue dot on which we live, earth. What is life? what is the meaning of it, if at all it does exist? before talking about these remember the verse of the universe which we talked about earlier. That helps you keep the bigger picture always in your mind. A small trick, every time you feel anxious, worried, or thinking a lot about yourself just think of how resplendently colossal this universe is, it can magically offer you an eagle eye view to whatever problem you have. it cannot solve your problem, but it will certainly make them feel smaller. Just try reading out the verse of the universe and see if it works…
Ahh, yes…What is life? what is the meaning of life? why am I here? what is the purpose of the life? and list goes on. There are many such questions which constantly bug our brains.
Before me saying something about this, how many of us know a definitive answer for any of these questions but if I ask who is the 42nd president of USA every one of us can answer, if I ask who won FIFA in a particular year you can answer, if I ask what a mitochondria is, you have a definitive answer it’s the same for everyone but why are we not able to answer these questions about life or about meaning of life or any deep questions definitely or universally? the answer is because there is no answer. Every philosopher from Aristotle to Alan watts had thier own meaning of life had thier own answers they were all subjective. there are no particular or definitive answers. if there are we wouldn’t be seeking for answers and would have missed a beautiful journey. everyone must seek, everyone must start thier journey on the path which they feel like walking. once you start some or the other day you will find the answer, you will find your meaning, you will find your purpose it might be as big as contributing to this world or as small as sitting in woods and just breathing or just watching movies, but you will find your answer all you have to do is stop searching answers from outside and start seeking them from the inside. even if you do find an answer it is exclusive to you and that’s the most beautiful part in the whole paradigm. You might ask, “then all these spiritual teachings or learnings or philosophies out there are a waste of time?” No, certainly not. they’re a million teachings or views out there, but we don't get attracted or we don't follow everything we only like a few or one thing. I personally like Alan watts and Buddhism, but you might hate Alan watts and contradict Buddhism. That is why we must read many as we can and try to gain as much as knowledge, we can and only then you will know your niche. Knowing that is not the end but a start, Alan watts just gave me a start, a direction but I only have to choose my path I must embark my own journey and I must discover my own truth. coming back to the big question, what is life? here is my subjective answer which I’ve came across in my journey. hope it helps you with a start or inspire you to find yours :
Life is an eternal now of nothing.
Let me break this down for you. Time is an invention just like anything else we did. time is one of the greatest inventions of human history. it doesn't just change our psychology but changed us on a biological level. We now never live here, we comprehend the past and then we either feel sad or good by the result of our unreal comprehension. we imagine future and we’d either be excited or scared by the result of our unreal imagination. Past and future both are a lie. Yesterday is done and tomorrow never comes. try to understand it literally tomorrow never comes. All we have, we had and will have is NOW. that Now never ends, right from the moment your born to the moment you die you only exist in one frame of time at any given point that is Now. Your goal might be becoming a football star in 10 years but even that happens only in that minute when you hit that goal but all you can do now is keep hitting that goal until it one gets chorused by a million other voices. All you have is now. think of that, stop thinking in terms of a regular time frame which you are used to. You are always in fabric which continuously is flowing like river in a forward direction that never ends. Time is nothing but the eternal now. No matter where you go there you are.
but why did I mention nothing? let’s go back to the universe again. Pale blue dot. do you remember this a photograph taken by voyager one? from a distance of 6 billion kilometers. In this grand colossal architecture of cosmos earth looks like nothing but a dot. In this is universe if our galaxy dies tomorrow it doesn’t matter at all. we are not even a sand grain in this totality. there is no significance to our galaxy itself. you are a single human being living in a county on a tiny insignificant planet. You might be a noble price winner you might the first person to land on the moon or you might be the president of USA, or you might be sitting on your couch whole life but every one of us is same and nothing, literally nothing in the grand scheme of things. we might invent many things, but we are flimsiest and meaningless sand grains in this continuously ever-expanding universe. answer this question honestly if an ant comes up to you and say, “I am going to change this world, I am going to revolutionize the hierarchy of the animal kingdom on this planet” would you even care to bother. you would laugh. that’s how we are in this universe, to be honest ants have a more meaningful purpose on this earth than we us in this universe. We are nothing, understand this realize this. it is not de-motivating, and it shouldn’t be it’s the truth and this truth gives us power of freedom. yes, when you know you are nothing when you know no matter what you do on this earth it quantifies to nothing, the moment you accept this it gives you the power of freedom to do anything or be anything that you want to be without fear and without being too serious about it. you can be whatever you want, or you can do whatever you want to the best of your capacity. Accepting that we are nothing only gives us humbleness and the power of freedom. when we realize this, we cannot waste time on things which does not concern you and that are ridiculous, you won't be wasting your time on systems that humans created which are now going off rails, such as racism, religion, caste, creed, and color etc. they all suddenly feel so insignificant. All you are left with is experiencing the life, just living every minute of it.
now read this is once again…
Life is an eternal now of nothing.
you might have many questions but to find out the answers you have to stop just questioning and start seeking. if you are yet to find your purpose or your own meaning of your life it’s completely fine all you must do is try as many things don’t stop seeking until you will find one. if you already have found your purpose i.e. your own meaning of life, it might be finding a cure to cancer or eating popcorn whatever that might be if it feels right at your heart do it and live the life. what do I mean by that “live the life”? experiencing every minute of it and cherishing every minute of it. It might be watching stars, being in nature, drinking coffee, talking to loved ones, waiting for someone, or simply listening to music. experience it fully. don’t be half minded at your own life. luckily, we are humans we are the most competent animals no other animal can explore and experience life as we do. So, remember that we only have now to live in, remember that we are nothing but also realize that you are nothing but universe itself, we are just a replica of universe. Always be humble, be kind, love everyone, be grateful for universe and show gratitude for everyone who ever helped you and for everyone who loves you. Never forget this stand on the ground but look up into the sky.
Grieve when you're in pain but you should not go into vain, do not forget to smile every single time you can and no matter what be a person who is full of life.
let’s end with…
Verse of The Universe
“There is nothing before it all started, there will be nothing when it all ends, no matter how big I grow after all I am nothing, but quarks and you are nothing but me.”
- universe
