So I
get an email from the JazzLion, dropping his phone number, asking me to call. His
words are brief but intimate. I take notice.
I last
saw him in December 2014, right before he split to BC for a series of
adventures which attempted to bridge the natural world which he tries to hang
on to, and the sleazy commercial world we humans have insisted on letting
dominate ourselves. Early reports were promising. I began to think he would not
be returning. Apparently so did he, at least for a while. I telephoned.
In his
words, he hit rock bottom in Calgary, knocked out of employment by the third boss
in a row to con him with false promises, at least according to his perception.
With no home or money and a head full of destructive thoughts, aimed at himself
and others, he called on Mom for a loan for a coach ticket back to Ontario
where his greater support system lies.
His
considerable intelligence never seems to match up to his emotions. His goals
never seem to match up to both his perceived purpose and circumstances
simultaneously. The gifts he offers never seem to match up to the wants of his
neighbors.
We seem
to meet up on a little better than annual basis. He will spend the next few
days on a bus and then we’ll get together. I know he is feeling lost and
hurting and questioning his purpose in life. I know where I want to start in
terms of trying to help him find his way toward life pursuits that might work
for him, and I shall write it here and now, for his benefit (review) and mine
(reminder) and hopefully others (something to think about):
Purpose
If you
want to get at the truth of anything you have to start by identifying the
appropriate context which is always the largest relevant context. In this case,
the universe.
The
universe is mind-bogglingly huge and relatively empty of life; to what degree
we are not sure, but we can be almost certain of one thing: There is no species
in existence in the universe quite
like us. That is a logical near-certainty. Because in order to be wrong about
that, the other humanoids would have had to come into existence at right about
the same time we did, so close to the same time that this would represent a
wildly unlikely coincidence when mapped on the scale of the universe’s immense
duration. We can observe enough of the universe and of earth to know that life
occurs in the universe in extremely unlikely circumstances and intelligent
conscious life in staggeringly unlikely circumstances; a staggeringly rare
event. But given the immensity of opportunities in the universe: trillions of
trillions of trillions of worlds (we can predict); such unlikelihood may happen
more than once. But given the humanoid passion (and rate) for exploration and
expansion (no doubt a primary factor in what we’ve become; what we are), any similar humanoid species
not of Minerva (or Earth as you might say) has to either have killed
itself off by now (as we have proven to be fully capable of and are currently
forecasted to do) or else has simply not yet evolved anywhere else in the
universe. We know this is a mathematical near-certainty because otherwise we
could not have avoided this race because to be anything like us and thus with a similar rate of expansion capacity, it
would have flooded the universe by now. And we have not run into them.
So
trusting we occupy a rare supervisory role in the universe, what does that mean
for us?
It
means that something brand spanking new is happening in the universe which is well
beyond its previously normal scope: that of swirling matter snowballing according
to gravity and densities and explosiveness with one or more isolated oases of
death-life where cellular organization takes rapidly altering compositions as
different forms rapidly consume the prior forms and are rapidly consumed in
turn: evolution as we know it. The brand-spanking new thing is consciousness
and it has the ability to utterly transform the nature of the universe but
might tragically decline to. Consciousness is subject to evolution of an
intentional form without need of countless generations and has proven to me,
and (I interpret) to others, to be capable of very rapid evolution.
Consciousness
enables a web of intelligence, love, empathy (much more love and empathy than
most people even begin to realize), communication and cooperation; the kind of
cooperation which can put a man on the moon, set its sites on Mars, and soon
beyond, with startling growth of reach (technological advancement).
Consciousness,
though infantile at this early stage, in the care of humankind, has the
capacity to perhaps sadly disappear, or else evolve and flood the universe with
harmony and benign intent instead of this cold physical circular causality with rare
blips of death-life.
This is
a drama of utterly epic proportions which affects the entire universe and makes
all other dramas, especially the contrived human societal ones, completely
irrelevant, as much as we pretend otherwise. And we are at the centre of it. We
are the universe’s witnesses to this event, as well as in the starring role. And
the thrilling thing is that we participate in that role at every moment, no
matter what we do, and we are able to witness this drama at every waking moment
(and arguably when dreaming, perhaps) if we choose to! Because everything we
do, if you break down the components fine enough (not a lot of work in most cases)
either propagates our normal beastliness or else propagates the evolution. Everything.
At
every moment we can be slave to our instincts or else be mindful. (Speaking
from a variety of established perspectives:) We can be spiritually asleep or
spiritually awake. We can be animal or truly human; a grown child or a true adult. We
can experience living death or be poetically alive, serve our internal devil or internal
godliness. And every choice, every moment, is huge! Every one of our actions,
in adherence with the laws of causality, are potentially eternal – or awfully
damn close to eternal; eternal for all intents and purposes.
Eckhart
Tolle, who has earned my immense trust, would tell JazzLion that being this witness
is his internal purpose, with an outer purpose being his duty to design. I
would add that choosing a side in this cosmic fork in the road, must form a
basis for his purpose, whether you call it inner or outer.
Tolle
says that some people who recognize the human purpose will involve this
spiritual reality as a core component of their outer purpose. I know that that
has to be true of me; that I must make it true, and given JazzLion’s capacity
for intelligence and empathy and wakefulness, I would suggest the same of him.
Frankly,
I would say this of quite a few of the special people I know. And I know that
some of you read this blog. I really hope you are listening!
