The whole witnesses itself self-generating itself. What it was yesterday and what it will be tomorrow shapes what it is becoming today. The whole renews itself continuously (infinitely?) through transforming its parts in the process of birth, life and death. The whole remains itself as it experiences through all its parts. Each part contributes to the total experience of the whole. Each part is a unique expression of the whole. As the part lives its experiences it can only maintain its integrity by being one with the whole.
If you look back on your life you remember being in kindergarten. You gradually became self aware as you watched yourself grow up into an adult, naturally, through your own self expression. How your life is today is being shaped by how you lived your life yesterday and how you plan to live your life tomorrow. Lively Little Yolly is self-renewed into Youthful Young Yolanda. Yolanda is preparing herself to become Mrs. Yolanda Yorkshire. The child becomes a young lady and the young lady prepares herself to be an adult. You feel your mind expanding and your body transforming. All through your life experiences you continually change, but it does not change who you know you are and who you know you are not. But you ask yourself "Who am I?"
I am not you, I am not him nor her; I am me. My heart pumps, circulating oxygenated nutrient blood to my whole body, and I feel empty without my heart. Am I my heart? If not, who am I? My brain orchestrates and coordinates the functioning of all my organ systems. My brain is essential to my mind and body. Am I my brain? If not, who am I? My mind ponders and wanders. I day dream and wonder about my life and this existence. Without my mind I am not me. Am I somewhere in my mind? If so where am I? I know I need every part of me to be whole, to be all that I am.
I look at you and you ask me: "Who are you?" I enjoy listening to you wax poetically about the dance, dinner and movie you enjoyed last evening. I myself stuffed my face with some delicious oxtail and rice and peas, laughed myself to tears watching "Sex and The City" at the movies and partied all night long last night. We both think it is great to be alive, love life and have fun. . . but what is life about and who is this "I" who is enjoying it?
Who I am today was as a result of my personal journey through life up to this point in time and space. What personal journey I start today to arrive at some future time and space depends on my inner fortitude, the goals I set for myself, and the will, desire and needs in my life, here and now. Today. But, as much as I have free will, I could not get here without you; we both got here by supporting each other. I might need you more than you need me now but you needed me more yesterday and we are going to need each other to see us through.
I see myself in my parents. My mother sees herself in my grandmother. My grandmother sees herself in my mother and my mother sees herself in me.
I have my father's strong will, my mother's love and my grandmother's wisdom. I carry their values in me and with me, and endeavor to pass them on to you. The part of me that is me that I discovered in my life’s journey is special and unique. The part of me that I was born with was entrusted to me from my parents, my grandmother and her parents. I exist because my parents were successful in life. I am here because my grandmother did not give up on my mother and she did not give up on me. I will not give up on myself. I have to succeed so you will succeed. Our ancestors dared to continue on in the face of adversity, pain, death and destruction. We stand tall today because we are aloft on their broad shoulders. We have our freer wills, we have richer independent lives and a brighter individual future because they were there for us and continue to live in each of us.
So who am I and who are you I? I am me, and you are you. But we are deeply connected. You are a unique individual made up of a unique set of contributions provided by each of us in one way or another. As you live your unique personal life you put your own personal stamp on each contribution and make them your own. You learn from me but you don’t clone my experiences. You express what you observe in your own personal way. You have to make your life in your own way but you shouldn’t just live for yourself. You have to balance your wants, desires and needs with those of your family, friends and neighbors. It is not only the proper thing to do but your life experiences will be richer for it. Be mindful that you are a part of something, that you are not just yourself. If you are just only selfish and do not share or do not do your part to help maintain the upkeep of you family your life will be poorer for it. When you play your part to help take care of your world and our world, not only will all our children be better for it, but it is a little better because you are in it. I have to both live for my benefit and for the benefit of the world because the world lives in me. You, me, and we are deeply connected. We belong. I am a unique expression of the world. You are a unique expression of the world. We are the world.
I am typing on my desktop PC with the help of my right middle finger. When each part of me does what each does best, I can serve myself and all of me well. My mind says, 'Middle Finger on my Right Hand, 'M', I, we, need you now; and I reply, matter-of-factly, 'And, mind, without you, I, along with M, would be less than what we are right now.'
I woke up yesterday realizing that I am. I am a unity of my brain, heart and mind, etc. I embrace Lindsey, Ashley, Jason, Winny, my mother; my granddad, "Daddy"; uncle Vernie, Keithy, Freddy, Howie, Chester, my auntie Cherry, my many cousins and the rest of my family; and all my friends. My brain allows the different parts of me to talk to each other. My warm beating heart fuels my body. My mind reminds me that Linny and Ash warms my heart, that I love my wife and my mom, Daddy and each one of my uncles, auntie Cherry and each of my cousins; that I have good friends in Jack and Linda. I see now that each contributes to making me the better person that I am today. I would hasten to add that, maybe, I have made a little difference in the quality of the lives of each. As we grow together we are becoming more than the sum of each of us.
I am thinking I am waking up more. Right now I am more awake than yesterday and if I stay focused I will be more awake tomorrow. As I sit right here I am transforming. I say " I am one hundred percent me" and as I speak these words what I was a moment ago is changing, becoming what I will be in the next moments. I am always becoming one hundred percent me but I never quite get there. Which is good because I am never perfect even though I strive for perfection.
I am that is. I am Charley at this moment in this place. A moment ago I was a little less me. I continue to be at this moment but more so. A moment from now I will be Charley but richer in body, mind and spirit. I am that is, and I can only experience this moment. I will continue to be through self transformation of all of my infinite parts. If each part of me does what each part does best I will continue to be and continue to change for eternity.
I am that is. I am Sycamore Tree this second on Earth. Two thousand years ago I was not Sycamore Tree but I was contained in the seed of whom and what I am now. I am Sycamore Tree at this moment. A thousand years from now I will not be Sycamore Tree; I will have transformed as my experiences continue to transform me. Through experience I am knowing myself more and more, becoming more aware. I know myself: I am that is.
There is a mystery here. The mystery was, is and will continue to be solved. For all eternity. At one moment at a time. And it is always only partially solvable.
Right now all I can say is that the mystery is awake. Before it was awake it was asleep. The Mystery awoke to indecision, struggling with questions and answers. It found answers but in so doing the mystery begat more questions and answers. Sometimes it had more answers than questions, and at other times it had more questions than answers to ponder. The Mystery, now in motion with questions and answers, and, trying to decide to go up or down, went both Up and Down in time and space. As it went up in time and space, down was just behind it and up was just ahead. The mystery was moving here, there and everywhere in space and time. Its negative energy and its inertia slowed it down but the mystery is also imbued with positive energy and never stopped its onward progressive march through space and time. The mystery continues its stroll through space and time as a particle, as well as a wave, and as me. . .
I was born some years ago. At that time there were questions and answers about my eventual fate. I became aware of myself and my family. I only knew at that time that I was looking into my mother's eyes. She did not know who I was or why I was here, or what was going to happen next. But she loved me and I felt safe. At that time I had questions and answers and I became curiouser and curiouser. . .
I looked into your eyes and I felt I had purpose in my life again. I belong to you, and you are my beloved. I am in love and it feels good. It sure feels right to feel good! Together we make our journey. Sometimes I get lost on the way but the light of your love puts me back on track. I am thankful for you. I want you to benefit from my experience and spare you from not making the mistakes I did, but even so you can only grow by making your own mistakes. I get upset with you but it is only because I know life can be bitter-sweet. You get pissed off at me but it's only because you know the world can be a dangerous place to live in. When you get lost, know that I will come looking to find you. If I get lost I will be reaching out for you. When you mess up or do wrong I will eventually come around to forgiving you. I don't want to hurt you but when I do I beg your forgiveness. There isn't pleasure without pain. Hate tries to harden the heart but love melts it again. We shouldn't be afraid to love because of hate, because love will always be around to dissolve hate.
OK. Enough with the poetry.
Here is the logical answer. If you pick a part a whole body, removing all its parts, it does not exist. Consider your body. . .
The ear hears. The eye sees. The nose smells. The tongue tastes and the skin feels touch. I have ears to hear, eyes to see, a nose to smell with and a tongue to taste with. But who or where am "I"? If you take away my heart, my kidney, my feet . . . if you remove every part of me, cell by cell, I no longer exist. The truth is that a little of me lives in each one of my cells but I am greater than the sum of my parts. "I", am the essence living in every part of me. Without me none of the cells of my body even have a purpose.
I started off life as a single cell. Then I was two cells, then four. . .
"I" was a single cell. This cell copied itself. Then there were two. Where am "I"? Am I THE first cell, IN the copied cell or am "I" both cells, or am "I" in both cells? Look at a baby. The baby is an organization of about a trillion cells. Is the baby made of cells or is what it IS in each of its cells? Consider a baby from conception to birth. If you go backward in time the WHOLE baby shrinks to a WHOLE fetus. The WHOLE fetus shrinks to the size of the small WHOLE embryo. The WHOLE embryo shrinks to the smaller size of a WHOLE zygote. Finally the WHOLE zygote shrinks to the smallest size the baby can be: ONE WHOLE cell. Reverse time and the whole baby would shrink back into a whole cell. A cell is the smallest part of a baby. If you do not watch the cell under a microscope but only with your naked eye you see a cell “swelling up" into a zygote. The zygote swells into an embryo. It grows into a fetus, and the fetus, at birth, becomes a baby.
The baby is, essentially, a program. The genetic program is the information of how to make another human being. This information, this essence, is in every one of your cells. Each cell is a unique expression of the genetic programming. 3.85 billion years ago or so, a simple cell emerged on this life-friendly Earth. This original emergent cell contained a wonderful genetic code of information made up of 64 genetic letters. Each organism is a different book written using this genetic alphabet. You are a unique expression of this code. There were a great many more books written over the eons of time. Only a scant few survived. Homo sapiens are a special book. The Chimpanzee book is a special book. The Sycamore Tree is a special book, the. . .
EXISTENCE is information, a code, a program. Each thing in existence contains this code (the mystery is that we are yet to find this code). Each thing is a unique expression of this program of existence. This code is the "I" of existence. "I" am in everything and "I" is everyone.
Let us begin with the human genome and journey our way back to the genetic code and beyond and see how far back we can go.
Each of your parents contains half the information of how to make you. The unity of the two information halves is you. As the two halves come together you are now "live". The cell that is you is alive as soon as the information halves unite and become a unique expression; YOU. This alive cell contains its whole essence (the genetic program). As the program "runs" this is you developing: This cell matures and become an embryo. The embryo matures and turns into a zygote. The next stages follow in order: Fetus, neonate/newborn, infant, toddler, etc. Each stage is generated out of the previous stage. The information of how to make a human being is already pre-programmed when the two half-programs unite to become a unique essence; MY PROGRAM, YOUR PROGRAM and HIS & HER PROGRAMS are unique expressions of the genetic code. Each of us is a unique copy composed using this first and only sixty-four letter original program.
This sixty-four letter alphabet/genetic code is the birth right of every organism; from a virus, to a bacterium; from a blade of grass to an elephant. Each genomic recipe (each species) is written using this and only this alphabet. The unsolved mystery is this: From what did this living information emerge? Was this life-information pre-programmed into the universe? Are human beings a winning jackpot of a cosmic lottery? In The Mega Millions lottery you have a very very very slim chance of hitting the jackpot. You say "A hundred million to one odds? I can never win so why should I even bother". But as they say 'You have to be in it to win it'. The chances of the guy who is not in it is zero. The chance of you getting lucky if you only have one ticket is at least one (one is not nothing!). The thing about The Mega Millions is that SOMEONE ALWAYS WINS! Suppose there are actually gazillions of universes. If this is the case it should not be a surprise that a few just happen to have life-programs. I mean, if you have numbers from one to virtually near infinity, it is no surprise to find the number 999,125,300,123 or 0.000,125,634 etc. Is it impossible for a few universes to have life-giving properties? The odds might be billions of times higher than The Mega Millions but if almost all possible universes exist there is an actual chance of being in one that is life producing. If there are googols upon googols of universes (see M-Theory) then there must be at least a few universes that are life-friendly. Actually, there is at least one, ours. If this were not true I could not be here talking about it! Of course, the eight hundred pound gorilla in the room is the near impossibility of proving that we are part of a so-called "Megaverse". But then there is a real lottery called The Mega Millions. Hey, you never know. . .
More poetry:
Each being has a purpose. Personally, I think the purpose of human beings is to give the universe consciousness so it can know itself. Personally, I feel if humanity continues to be destructive to the good life-friendly Earth we shall perish, becoming a forgotten blip that was once a promise that was unfulfilled. . .
You have left The Twilight Zone. . .
You have arrived at your destination. . .
You have awakened to GNOSIS. . .
US (in a nutshell)
You scoop up a heap of clay from the earth and pull it to pieces. You mold the pieces into head, beaks, torso, legs and wings and you have the likeness of a bird in clay. Where did this simulated bird come from? It emerged from the Earth as bits of clay. These bits were molded into body parts, and the put together body parts are the bird. If the bird disappears all its parts disappear. Without each body part the bird is incomplete but as you add body parts the bird is completed. Why does a bird have wings and we don’t? The bird actually evolved from a particular dinosaur species of reptiles. This particular species had the ability to jump-and-glide from tree branch to tree branch. Its off springs became better at it. Further descendants became more adept. Descendants millions of years hence became successful masters of the art of flying and wouldn't live any other way, so gliding structures morphed into wings over evolutionary time.
We human beings evolved from a particular ape species of mammals. Humans and chimpanzees have a common ape-like ancestor. The ancestors of chimps stayed in the forest jungle trees. The ancestors of humans either climbed down or were pushed from their jungle tree "Garden of Eden" and they were forced to take their chances in the grassy African savannahs. They had to compete with hyenas, lions and tigers and other beasts specialized with dagger claws and butcher knife-like teeth; these awesome predators ran like the wind. We did not stand a chance in direct competition. Those early "human" ancestors who could stand on two legs freed up their forelimbs to carry scavenged food back to the camp. Those who stayed on all fours could not always see these dangerous beasts coming until it was too late. They slowly got better at walking and carrying stuff. They could pick up a stone and throw it, scaring off threats. They could use a stick to knock dead helpless small animals, and when the hyenas and buzzards finished stuffing themselves full, they would use their free hands to grab bits and pieces of meat and steal away into the night. As millions of years went on our ancestors evolved a bigger brain. Standing tall on two legs they dexterously applied the tools they invented with their free hands guided by bigger and bigger brains. Up until about thirty thousand years ago, our ancestors had to compete with other ape-men: A. robustus, H. erectus and Neanderthals. None of our ape-men cousins survived to the present; the second most successful, Homo neanderthalensis, faded into extinction about thirty thousand years ago. H. sapiens sapiens, human beings, us, are the only descendants remaining. Homo sapiens is the most awesome predator in history. Our very advanced technological culture has transformed us from ape-men to brainy tool wielding men, and, compared to any other species on Earth, we are a highly advanced super species.
This is where we stand; the most powerful and awesome organism on Earth at anytime in the History of this planet. Will we survive? Or will Homo sapiens sapiens exit stage left like Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, the last of our cousins, and fade away into history? How much longer will mother earth tolerate our ravaging, despoiling and poisoning of her body? How much longer will we continue to rape mother with impunity? There are very serious consequences for ignoring our deep connections and deep dependence on mother. Mother is who gave us birth and on whom we depend on every second of every minute of every day. She is the source. If she withholds her sustenance for a split second we start to die in the next second. If we continue to destroy her ozone layer we will be fried to death by UV “fire”. Don’t take heed and continue to ignore the calls by our science to stop Global Warming, and the twenty five percent of dry land we live on will be reclaimed by her ocean waters. If we continue to prepare for war and ignore the calls for peace, and continue to stock pile WMD’s then MAD is guaranteed (Mutually Assured Destruction). When we remain indifferent who are we hurting but ourselves. We ignore our infinite connections with mother earth only to our peril.
We can only attain the fullness of our humanity and avoid self-destruction by being consciously aware of our inseparable vital organic connection with mother earth. You emerged from the earth and you remain embedded and wedded to mother. You continue to be vital because you are anchored in her and sustained by her. You are a unique expression of mother earth. Do not take her quiet, timeless and often unspoken wisdom for naivete. Stop taking mother for granted. Wake up to this truth. Become consciously aware of the connectedness of being and begin the journey to know thyself.
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