This post might sound a bit philosophical but the amazing power of consciousness work, if done deeply enough, consists in answering questions that many people hold as impossible to be tackled without falling into the hypothetical world. This power will make you live and experience the every day life with a new fresh sense of excitement and awe.
"What if, without changing a thing, there is the possibility to change how we perceive
what everything is such it is of truly different nature that what we have always believed?"
"Enlightenment: Some Nothing From Which to Come"
- Peter Ralston-
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler"
"The definition of genius is taking the complex and making it simple"
- Albert Einstein-
Finding an answer to the question "What was there before the Big Bang?" might appear as something that has nothing to do with Consciousness work, that tries in making you directly conscious of your true nature. It seems more a question that should be left to scientists that through experiments and analyses might one day manage to solve this intriguing question. However, as it turned out in my personal experience, many (only apparently) different questions share the same answer. I came to conclude that questions such as: “What was there before the Big Bang?”, "How something could emerge out of nothing?”, “Who Am I?” , “What is life and existence?” and "What is reality?" are deeply interconnected.
Consciousness work and many spiritual teachers draw your attention within your self because the only way to become conscious of such amazing and puzzling realizations is through personal and direct insights. Relying on outside sources is not a valid approach to get to the core issue of this specific matter.
Science tells us that some billions of year ago there was a huge expansion, the Big Bang, that brought us here today. What science cannot still answer and prove experimentally is what was present before such an amazing event occurred. To ask what was there before the Big Bang is more or less the same than asking "How is possible that something could appear out of nothing?". Religious people might bring on the table the creation's card whereas scientists might either admit their inability to answer such a question or they could launch themselves into some hypothetical scenarios. It does not really matter on which side you stand on. The fact is that none of them will be able to solve this puzzling question as long as a profound shift in their way of holding reality will be accomplished.
In both scenarios the fundamental problem is that whatever they will come up with, either God or a Double Big Bang, religious people and scientists will still have to explain from where God or whatever other event prior the Big Bang have emerged. Religious people base and defend their position with faith. Even though I have absolutely nothing against faith, Consciousness work does not really give much space to faith, because the encouraging premise of this work is that you can become directly conscious and therefore “prove” what is the nature of your self and the reality you are immerse into. At the same time the scientific approach is like a dog biting its own tail: whatever science will find out to be the cause of the Big Bang, that event will have to be explained too, leading to an infinite and hopeless attempt to get to a final conclusion.
The problem with many religion traditions is that they holds God as something external, as something outside and separate from us. Simply put they think in dual terms: God is there and its creation over here. Religion holds God as some content, as a vortex (see my post "Like Water") rather than being the context or the infinite land of water that constitutes all reality. Consciousness work wants you to realize that you are the infinite land of water not separate from it.
The same problem resides in science, busy in finding some-thing that might explain the whole, without realizing that whatever they will find is just another piece of content. Do not get me wrong, science has an extremely important role in society as far as it focuses on the content of reality, as long as it focuses in explaining how the different forces within reality interact among each others. However, science gets too cocky when it tries to discover the ultimate nature of reality. Science studies and holds reality as if itself is separate from reality. Science do not get that itself is made out of the same "substance" that it is looking for and therefore it will never be able to quantify or detect the ultimate nature of reality as a separate object. Waking up would be sufficient and less expensive.
The reason why neither religion nor science will ever find the answer in holding this position is because they start from a wrong premise: that there is some-thing that has originated from no-thing. Put it simply, posing to our self this question we take for granted that right here, right now there is an objective reality made out of physical objects. Awakening solve this apparent paradox gracefully: it shows irrefutably that there was, there is and there will be only Nothing (capital letter meant). It shows that reality is Nothing. It shows that the only way that something could come up out of Nothing is through an illusion, an illusion so well designed that most of people cannot even notice that they are living a dream.
If your goal was to design or create something would not be easier and convenient to create nothing at all and just being able to give the illusion that something has been created? This illusion had to be ingeniously created, it could not be the three card trick performed by some crooks in London’s streets. This illusion had to be so well presented that Nothing has to appear as something, that absolute has to appear has relative, that non-duality has to appear dual, that the infinite land of water has to believe to be a vortex (check my post “Like Water”). And trust me, even after having discovered the magic trick life will not lose its charm. At the contrary it will gain a sense of fascination and awe that most of us have lost by believing that reality consists in a physical thing made out of dumb matter. Mind will never truly and fully understand this explanation and it will be always puzzled about how this can be possible, how something like that could have been accomplished.
You might anyway wonder how all this can be possible. Reality looks so physical and made out of many objects! You look so real! I mean looking yourself in the mirror you can clearly see that you are there! True, I am not denying that. I am just saying that what you think is there is not what it is actually there. Your self and the world have to be looked from a different angle so to speak. This angle will not change the content of what you see, that is, how reality looks like but a profound shift in consciousness will make your realize that right here right now there is Nothing at all and that everything you see and perceive exist only because you have created it. These things exist only because you think they exist. These things exist only because you have created the distinction.
The Nothing I am talking about is not the absence of things as the mind might believe. The Nothing I am talking about is the reality as it looks like right now on which distinctions have been created and imposed over this Nothing to only apparently create something. Distinctions are the "mechanism" by which absolute looks relative, one looks two, Nothing looks something, non-duality looks dual.
The problem in grasping this point is that our mind, when we think about nothing, looks for a empty space, for a black hole, for the absence of objects and therefore cannot really grasp what it is meant. The only way to realize this profound true is by becoming directly conscious of this illusion you find yourself living every day. As I have already mentioned in previous posts, this does not mean that we are living in a Matrix or in a projected reality or whatever other scenario you can come up with. This simply means questioning your assumptions and re-frame the model of reality you are so attached to. You simply have to be able to destroy the spell that keeps you sleepy and look at reality with new fresh eyes. After this realization, reality will look like exactly as it looked before but its interpretation will have changed. It is like what happened in the 16th century when people believed that the sun was turning around the earth to then discover the contrary. Nothing had really changed visually but at the same time a revolution had just started.
Since our life as humans is mostly valued by the utility of something and in term of our own survival in this world, you might be wondering how this realization might benefit your personal life. Hugely. And more you go deeper more you, as a human, will act and behave as such and not as a puppet. In my personal experience I could find many different benefits in adventuring myself into this inner journey and I want to share with you three of them.
First, you realize that you are not part of the world but you are the world, you are literally the infinite land of water that had to assume a specific perspective to be able to interact with itself. This realization could (or not) immediately discard dysfunctional behaviors that are unconsciously running your life by thinking to be a specific limited form that has no much margin of evolution. It does not mean that all your pathological behaviors will disappear as soon as you realize this truth but probably the most dysfunctional will fall apart right away (see my post "First Glimpses Towards My True Nature" for an example).
Secondly, the understanding that you are the whole, that your are the "substance" of which the all Universe is made out of, give you the power to consciously change the character you are playing in life. Each of us has its own personality and unique traits but most of them have been acquired unconsciously just imitating either our family or the culture we are living in. If you realize that some of these traits have no purpose to exist anymore, this realization gives you the power to shape your personality as you want. Even though this might sound scary and psycho, this change will be based on consciousness, a trustful ground from where transformation can occur safely. It is likely that your new character will be more loving, more open, more integral, more curious, more compassion, more caring towards others and nature since you will have grasped that everything is you. This work allows you to realize that there is the possibility of change and this is a huge insight if you really want to change. You will never be stuck in life, you will always find a way to put yourself back in the game by shaping yourself in new forms.
The last point is creativity. This realization will show you that existence and life is a constant attempt in creating something new, in evolving in something more complex than before. This happens both at the macro and micro level and therefore also in you as a human. When I talk about creativity it does not mean that we will all become artists or poets. It just means that you will be able to create whatever you love in your life (see my post "You Are Nothing, You Are Zero: An Effective Path Towards Real Change"). For most of people working becomes a burden because it lacks the joy and the creativity component that is present in each of us. We are mainly pushed by getting money and security to be able to live a decent life. Even though money and security are certainly two important aspects to consider in the relative world, they cannot represent the main force that make you wake up in the morning and go working. I believe that your job has to be an appendix of what you believe in life, a place where you can express your creative way of seeing the world. Awakening helps you in removing those blockages and fears that prevent you to try something crazy, innovative and risky. It empowers you with the creative force that is present and manifested in every moment of your life.
I just want to make clear that awakening is not the magic pill that makes you invulnerable. Life in its relative aspect has to contain both sides of the coin: happiness and suffering, good and bad, ups and down, yin and yang and you will experience all of them even after having awaken. But the difference is how you will relate to life. Having grasped that you and reality are Nothing, gives you the freedom to relate to life in a different way without attachment and with much more acceptance than before. You will not anymore be dragged by the ups and downs of life like in a roller-coaster but you will learn patiently how to move in life in a much more smooth way. This attitude is an endless process and it is acquired though dedication and patience.
So yes, I lied. I have no idea what was present before the Big Bang and I leave to science the pleasure to figure this out. I am simply conscious that whatever it will find it will be Nothing at all.
Embrace the paradox, it is what makes you growth!
Thanks for reading!