Now consider this: If there were nothing but silence, it wouldn’t exist
for you; you wouldn’t know what it is. Only when sound appears does
silence come into being. Similarly, if there were only space without
any objects in space, it wouldn’t exist for you. Imagine yourself as a
point of consciousness floating in the vastness of space — no stars, no
galaxies, just emptiness. Suddenly, space wouldn’t be vast anymore;
it would not be there at all. There would be no speed, no movement
from here to there. At least two points of reference are needed for
distance and space to come into being. Space comes into being the
moment the One becomes two, and as “two” become the “ten
thousand things,” as Lao Tse calls the manifested world, space
becomes more and more vast. So world and space arise
simultaneously.
Nothing could be without space, yet space is nothing. Before the
universe came into being, before the “big bang,” if you like, there
wasn’t a vast empty space waiting to be filled. There was no space,
as there was no thing. There was only the Unmanifested — the One.
When the One became “the ten thousand things,” suddenly space
seemed to be there and enabled the many to be. Where did it come
from? Was it created by God to accommodate the universe? Of course
not. Space is no-thing, so it was never created.
Go out on a clear night and look up at the sky. The thousands of stars
you can see with the naked eye are no more than an infinitesimal
fraction of what is there. Over 100 billion galaxies can already be
detected with the most powerful telescopes, each galaxy an “island
universe” with billions of stars. Yet what is even more awe-inspiring is
the infinity of space itself, the depth and stillness that allows all of
that magnificence to be. Nothing could be more awe-inspiring and
majestic than the inconceivable vastness and stillness of space, and
yet what is it? Emptiness, vast emptiness.
What appears to us as space in our universe perceived through the
mind and the senses is the Unmanifested itself, externalized. It is the
“body” of God. And the greatest miracle is this: That stillness and
vastness that enables the universe to be is not just out there in space
— it is also within you. When you are utterly and totally present, you
encounter it as the still inner space of no-mind. Within you, it is vast
in depth, not in extension. Spacial extension is ultimately a
misperception of infinite depth — an attribute of the one
transcendental reality.
According to Einstein, space and time are not separate. I don’t really
understand it, but I think he is saying that time is the fourth
dimension of space. He calls it the “space-time continuum.”
Yes. What you perceive externally as space and time are ultimately
illusory, but they contain a core of truth. They are the two essential
attributes of God, infinity and eternity, perceived as if they had an
external existence outside you. Within you, both space and time have
an inner equivalent that reveals their true nature, as well as your
own. Whereas space is the still, infinitely deep realm of no-mind, the
inner equivalent of time is presence, awareness of the eternal Now.
Remember that there is no distinction between them. When space
and time are realized within as the Unmanifested — no-mind and
presence — external space and time continue to exist for you, but
they become much less important. The world, too, continues to exist
for you, but it will not bind you anymore.
Hence, the ultimate purpose of the world lies not within the world but
in transcendence of the world. Just as you would not be conscious of
space if there were no objects in space, the world is needed for the
Unmanifested to be realized. You may have heard the Buddhist
saying: “If there were no illusion, there would be no enlightenment.”
It is through the world and ultimately through you that the
Unmanifested knows itself. You are here to enable the divine purpose
of the universe to unfold. That is how important you are!