James A. Beeby

Time

Professor Andrei Pimenov and associates at the Institute of Solid State Physics at the Vienna University of Technology recently discovered a way to directly measure the fine structure constant that relates to the strength of electromagnetic fields. Their method involved interacting a polarized laser light with a thin film. They determined that the thin film rotated the polarization of the laser light in quantized angles exactly equal to the fine structure constant.

This research shows that this rotation in the physical world is not smooth and continuous but rather happens in a series of tiny angles, the way a movie is not continuous movement but rather a sequence of still images. But what transmits the quality of rotation from one angle to the next? In a movie, there is a mechanism that turns off the image, selects the next image, and paints the next image on the screen. Taking a conceptual quantum leap, this suggests that in our world, everything at the quantum level is like this, a series of static moments of reality connected in some way from the past moment to the present, then to the next moment in a series of tiny quantum leaps.

If so, what transmits the information defining the present moment to the next moment of time? Something fluid and invisible happens between each moment and the next and seems to be related to consciousness. Intuition suggests that if we could insert ourselves into that fluid interval between one moment and the next, we could alter reality more profoundly than if we just watch life passively like the audience for a movie. Our physical bodies and senses always lag behind reality by the few tenths of a second it takes our sensors and nerves to transmit to the brain and process the information. We are always reacting to the past. Our deeper consciousness that we call the Soul does not seem to have this limitation.

In meditation, we are told we can access this dynamic fluid moment between each quantum of static reality. In Buddhism, we call this “catching up to the present moment” or “going with the flow.” It takes mental stillness or “no thought” to be in this mental state. It’s what we call wow or aha moments that are difficult to achieve and even harder to maintain for any length of time. When we can do this, magic happens. When I try to conceptualize this process, my brain gets boggled and shuts down. But intuition let me write a poem about this:

When we live within our heart,

We dwell within the cracks of time,

Between the tick and the tock,

Where anything is possible.

This idea of fluid moments connecting quantum leaps is a bit rough and speculative, but aligns with what advanced meditators say to be true. It feels like here may be a key to understanding reality, if only I had the intelligence to put the pieces of the puzzle together. What do you think? Can you clarify, expand, or refute this?

Meditation–Tuning

This is a meditation of the analytical type designed to modify our perception. Our perception of outer reality is largely determined by the internal state of our mind. If we find ourselves in a negative state of mind, we can use meditation to Tune our mind to a better internal state, which can improve our perception of the outside world. This positive state of mind allows us to better help those around us, improving the world for others.

Find a quiet time and place for meditation. Regret any harmful thoughts, words, and deeds you have done to others recently and resolve to do better. Imagine that the universe accepts your regrets and forgives you. Imagine feeling relief at this. Dedicate the benefits of this meditation to all who are in distress. Thank your spiritual guides for the conditions allowing you to do this meditation. Concentrate on your breath, feeling the inflow of air and the outflow of air until you feel relaxed.

Visualize a paradise of peace and beauty, a place you would like to be. Imagine it filled with happy people of all races, ages, genders, and religions, all helping one another. Imagine various animals mingling with the people, predators and prey coexisting. Imagine beautiful plants and flowers. Imagine that the weather is perfect.

You trip and fall, but someone picks you up and tends to your wounds. You become thirsty and a stranger offers you cool, clear water. You become hungry and another stranger invites you to their home for a banquet of your favorite foods and beverages. This makes you sleepy, and your host offers you a room and bed for the night. You quickly fall asleep on the comfortable bed.

You awaken refreshed and greet a perfect morning. At breakfast you ask your host for directions to the place where your most revered master teacher gives lessons. One of your host’s children walks you to the place of learning and you enter. The place is filled with other students of your religion or philosophy. They greet you as a friend and you feel their Love for you and one another. It feels like home.

The master teacher sees and greets you and seems to know you. The teacher then addresses the assembly. You have many questions about the universe and your place in it. The master answers your questions without you having to ask them. During a break, you discover all the students have the same experience. Their questions are answered. After the teaching, all the students request a blessing from the master. The master agrees but asks them for their blessing in return. You have the impression that the master regards them all as equals, not as inferior to the master.

You find a place to stay and a task to perform in this paradise. Continuing the lessons with the master, you find your mind becoming open to new information and more stable. After a long series of lessons and meditations the master invites you to a private conference. There the master questions you, and seemingly satisfied with your answers, touches you on the forehead and heart center and you enter the ecstasy of Bliss. You remain in Bliss for a time and awaken with the clear knowledge that life has meaning. You feel the unity of all things. You become Love incarnate.

Experiencing Bliss and clarity of thought, you wish to share this experience with others who still suffer. The master directs you to the council of elders who help you choose a life of service to others. You make a last round of paradise, enjoying all the features, knowing that you can return at any time. Then you return to the ordinary world and are reborn into a better life. And here you are. What will you do first?

Reincarnation–Scientific Support for Immortality

Consciousness is awareness. Computers spawned the new branch of science known as information theory. A key aspect of information theory is, of course, Information. Information is that which reduces uncertainty. Computers manipulate bits of Information to do work, like calculate rocket trajectories. In an effort to replicate human thinking, computer scientists study the manipulation of Information to create artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence appears to resemble human thinking. Some modern scientists have theorized that consciousness is related to Information, and Information organized in a way that is able to do work that resembles thinking can be considered Sentience. This opens the possibility that non-living things can have at least a rudimentary consciousness. A proton may be aware of its “proton-ness.”

Note that the conventional definition of Sentience is the ability to feel sensations. But how do we know if something can feel sensations? We know if the thing responds to a sensory input, like a tap. If we tap a cat, it reacts. In this way we know that the cat feels the tap. If we tap a rock, nothing overt happens, so we conclude that the rock feels nothing. But we do not know what the rock feels from its inside. All we know is that it did not react. The difference between the cat and the rock is the cat has an internal organization that allows it to process the tap and decide on a response, to bite or purr or leap. The rock may sense the tap (e.g., vibration passing through the atoms), but has no way to process the sense and decide on a response. So, the definition we will use here for Sentience (capitalized) is that which is consciously aware and able to process and respond to sensations; the ability to do mental work. It may reflect how well Information is integrated. The cat is Sentient by this definition. The rock’s atoms are defined by Information which may give the rock a rudimentary internal consciousness, but it cannot respond externally. The rock may feel the energy of a tap passing through its atoms, but cannot think or overtly respond, so we say it is not Sentient.

Switching scientific disciplines to physics, physicists define the aspects that make up reality as Information. Spin, charge, and mass/energy are the Information that define particles, and particles make up reality, including people. In collider experiments, physicists can smash particles together and form new particles. But when the spin, charge, and mass/energy of the particles entering and leaving the experiment are examined, they find that the spin, charge, and mass/energy of the entering particles always add up to exactly the same as the particles leaving the experiment. In other words, although the original particles are destroyed, the Information making up the particles is not destroyed, merely transformed into new particles having exactly the same total Information. Information can neither be created nor destroyed, only transformed into different combinations. This is a fundamental law of physics. The Information defining that which makes up reality is physical, real, and eternal.

Switching back to computer science, the smallest possible amount of Information is called a bit, that which reduces uncertainty by half. The zero or one state of a binary computer transistor is one bit of Information. Recent experiments in computer science have demonstrated that in a binary computer circuit, there is a small difference in mass between a binary component set to one versus the same component set to zero. In other words, the bit of Information residing in that binary circuit is physical, it is real. Since everything in the universe is defined by the Information it contains, some information scientists theorize that the entire universe is conscious, and if the Information is arranged in a way that it can process the Information to do work, those parts of the universe may even be Sentient. This is known as panpsychism.

If consciousness is related to Information, and Information is physical, and organized Information is Sentience, then consciousness may be eternal. It is possible that consciousness, like the Information defining reality, can neither be created nor destroyed, only transformed into different forms. The consciousness we experience as humans may endure beyond the death of the body. Buddhism, Hinduism, and my personal experience say that it does.

We know that the matter-energy universe has evolved over time to become the complex structures of galaxies, suns, planets, and the living things that populate this planet, including people. For some reason, probably because we cannot see it, we have always assumed that space-time is bland and uniform. Space-time is invisible. However, recent scientific experiments have discovered that space-time also has structure. Space-time crystals have been demonstrated. What if space-time evolved over time to become complex structures and even invisible living creatures constructed entirely out of space and time just as the matter and energy of the universe evolved into the living creatures we see around us? Why do we assume space and time are bland and featureless, unlike the matter and energy we can all see?

If Information is consciousness and eternal, and complex, invisible beings made only of time and space are possible, then the existence of immortal, invisible Souls is at least possible. And if everything in the universe is conscious, then there may be one or more Sentient supreme beings. If space-time has structure, there may be heavens and hells invisible to our matter-energy senses. If Souls are made of the same invisible Information and space-time structure as a supreme being, our Souls may be able to become one with our supreme being, just as the Mystics say. That is a lot of “ifs,” and these theories certainly do not prove that our Souls are real, immortal, and can reincarnate and evolve to become one with the universe, but science has uncovered evidence that this view is possible.

(Excerpted from the upcoming book, Western Tantra, The Red Path of Meditation)

New Cover Promotion

The book cover showing Rodin’s sculpture “The Kiss” was deemed too erotic for use by Amazon ads, so a new cover has replaced it. The new cover features a stairway into the sky, symbolizing a spiritual path to higher realizations. To introduce and celebrate the new cover, the price for both the paperback and Kindle editions has been temporarily reduced. Now is a great time to purchase extra copies as gifts and to recommend the book to friends.

Musings of a Failed Physicist, © 2022 J.A.Beeby

I was a freshman in the tough Reed College physics program in 1965. I understood the concept of calculus, but applying the mathematics to solve problems baffled me, so given the choice between morning calculus class and breakfast at the cafeteria, I thought breakfast would do me more good, and I almost failed the course. I left Reed to change fields, build a career, and raise a family. But I never lost my interest in physics and have followed developments in the field.

My mother, Betty Beeby, was an artist who valued creativity above all else, and I grew up thinking “outside the box.” Never having to focus on a minute area of physics to get a PhD allowed me to think of some possible answers that still baffle researchers. Unfortunately, I’m not trained to do the math nor do I have time enough to do the research to work on any of these ideas, but some of you readers do have the skills and hopefully the resources. So take a look at these ideas from an outsider and see if they open new fields of inquiry. Not all these ideas are going to be correct, but these are at least new and worth considering.

Antimatter: To begin, I’m pretty sure I know where the missing antimatter is located. One thing I am sure of is all of the “stuff” that makes up our universe had to come from nothing. Logically, everything had to start from nothing, because if there were something, where did that come from? But we know that this nothing is unstable due to quantum oscillations. One can get something from nothing if something less than nothing is created at the same time. We know that matter-antimatter pairs are constantly popping out of space constantly. But there is a problem with the matter and antimatter we often see. When it recombines, we get energy. Energy is something. We are looking for true antimatter that combines with matter to produce nothing. Matter has spin, charge, and mass/energy. True antimatter must have anti-spin, anti-charge, and anti-mass/energy that combines to make absolutely nothing. Equal amounts of this true antimatter must have been produced at the time of the “Big Bang/Expansion,” so where is it?

The answer seems obvious to me. The ordinary matter and energy that we see is going forward in time. True antimatter must travel backwards in time. Anti-space and anti-time. It occupies the same space as the ordinary matter we see, but we can’t see it because it is currently 28 billion years in our past, and it does not annihilate our ordinary matter because of the temporal separation. Collider experiments might be able to see true antimatter by looking at what happens in the detectors before particles collide. In our forward-time, true antimatter going backward in time should look like ordinary matter rushing to the scene of the collision before they collide.

Gravity: If gravity works across time, this theory could explain a couple of things. First, if gravity works on both matter and true antimatter, we would expect matter to clump in places where true antimatter concentrates in the anti-universe. If the anti-universe evolved the same way as our universe, there will be anti-galaxies and these would tend to cluster near our galaxies. This may be some of the dark matter we are looking for. We can only see the effect of its gravity on space-time.

Secondly, if gravity operates across the temporal separation between our universe and the anti-universe, this could explain the apparent weakness of gravity. As the temporal separation increases with the passage of time, we would expect gravity to weaken with time. This would look like the expansion of the universe is accelerating as the temporal separation increases. This could be part of the explanation for dark energy. Models might show this effect.

Cosmic Evolution: There is a question of how our universe got so big from quantum oscillations. Firstly, “big” is relative. We have no objective “small” to compare to. Secondly, as both universes evolve, we would expect symmetry between them to diverge as chaotic processes like life and quantum variations create differences between the two universes. It is unclear if some process causes the Big Expansion to reverse and collapse eventually. I know of no process other than black holes that could do this. But matter and antimatter recombine on a small scale and I believe that universe expansions are cyclic, at least early in their evolution. When universes and anti-universes re-combine, the match will not be perfect due to chaos and quantum oscillations. Time and space will not exactly match at the collision of opposite universes and the excess matter and energy would not completely annihilate. This would form two or more new universes of matter and true antimatter. Iterations of this process over time could form larger universes and parallel universes. There is currently no way to tell if our universe is an original expansion from nothing or one of many iterations. Or maybe our universe is the inside of a black hole formed inside some ancient older universe.

Black Holes: I’ve always had a problem with the idea of a singularity in the middle of a “black hole.” We are nearly certain that when matter and energy reach a certain value in a given region of space, gravity becomes so strong that not even light can escape. Some physicists think that gravity collapses matter-energy to infinite density. I believe that it can only collapse to the Planck dimension, no further. The very center of any mass concentration is weightless because gravity is working from all directions equally, the center is weightless and under incredible pressure. As the event horizon forms, particles move under pressure to the event horizon where they stop (time stopped equals zero velocity). So as the event horizon moves out from the center of mass, the particles move with it, and the event horizon becomes an expanding shell. Mass is concentrated on the event horizon, with only Hawking radiation on the outside of the shell and with the inside hollow and weightless, filled only with particles that escaped the event horizon shell via quantum tunneling. Gravity of the shell would stretch the space-time within the shell and space inside would be flat. Matter within the weightless interior would clump via gravity, and the interior of very large black holes would resemble mini universes which would expand as a result of in-falling matter. Universes might bud from other universes in this way.

Hidden Dimensions: I may know where more dimensions are hidden. This is more speculative and comes from the thought experiment of a spaceship travelling near the speed of light. We believe that the laws of physics are invariant in all inertial frames of reference and the speed of light in a vacuum (C) is the same for all observers.

This means that occupants in a spaceship travelling at close to the speed of light will not see light appear to slow down in the direction of motion (the dimension parallel to the velocity vector) nor will Newton’s laws appear to change. Invariance requires that that space will shrink and time will slow in the direction of motion so that the speed of light from a laser shining forward will continue to be the constant C. The light has less distance to travel and time has slowed for the occupant, so C appears unchanged. The same goes for Newton’s laws of motion. At uniform velocity, pushing the laser in the direction of motion will appear to the occupants to have the same inertia as when the spaceship is at rest, because while the mass of the laser has increased due to velocity near the speed of light, the distance in the forward direction has contracted and time has slowed, so the inertia of the laser being pushed forward appears the same to the occupants.

But what if the laser is aimed perpendicular to the direction of motion? The spaceship has not contracted in that dimension, yet time has slowed, so the light traveling perpendicular to the direction of motion would have farther to travel than when aimed in the contracted forward dimension, but in less time by the spaceships clocks that are running slower due to time dilation. To the observers in the ship, light would appear to moving faster than C. This would violate invariance.

Similarly, if the now more massive laser is pushed perpendicular to the direction of motion, the occupants have more distance to move it in the same dilated time than in the contracted forward direction and the inertia would have appeared to the occupants to increase until at some velocity near the speed of light the occupants would lack the strength to move the laser or themselves in the dimension perpendicular to the direction of motion. This also violates invariance.

If we instead assume that rather than contract to a disk, the spaceship contracts toward a point as the speed of light is approached, invariance is still violated, because two spaceships traveling at the same speed in parallel at a fixed distance from one another would appear to the occupants of both spaceships to have moved away from each other, yet their com lasers would still communicate with each other with the same time lag, violating the constant C.

This apparent paradox disappears if we theorize that time dilates and mass increases only in the direction of motion, and both time and mass perpendicular to the direction of motion stay the same, just as space only contracts in the direction of motion, but stays the same in the two dimensions perpendicular. This preserves invariance of physical laws and the observer’s measurement of C in all inertial frames of reference.

However, if this theory is true, it means that time and mass are not point qualities that are uniform in all dimensions. It means that both time and mass are three-dimensional (or greater), just as space is three-dimensional (or greater). As velocity approaches the speed of light, mass increases, time slows, and space contracts, but only in the direction of motion. These qualities skew from the direction of motion, possibly accounting for inertia.

To date, high velocity particle experiments use what are essentially point particles. If experiments use larger objects at near light speed velocities, they may show this skew effect. If the qualities of time and mass are actually three-dimensional, then we will know nine dimensions of reality: three of space, three of time, and three of mass. They are not curled up, they are always visible, but only diverge at high velocities.

This last speculation about added dimensions stretched my ability to visualize and draw space-time light cones beyond my brain’s limits, so may contain logical errors. Smarter people than me should check it and possibly model it on computers. I’m quite a bit more confident of the earlier theories in this paper.

Western Tantra Volume Two is Coming!

Western Tantra: The Red Path of Meditation is nearing completion. A group of readers is reviewing the manuscript and suggesting changes. It should be ready to send to publishers starting in July.

The new volume focuses on tantric practices in the Spirit realm using meditation to effect transformation from the person we are to the being we wish to become. Chapters include Renunciation, Reincarnation, Mind Training, and several other topics. Twenty-three meditations are provided in the twelve chapters to accomplish selected spiritual goals. The book finishes with tantric instructions for navigating the dying process and a Western Tantric mind protection mantra.

Meditation–Reincarnation

This a hybrid meditation containing both analytical and stillness elements. The purpose of this meditation is to gain control over your focus of attention and be able to move that focus as skillfully, gracefully, and calmly as you now move your body. Currently your human body anchors your mind where your body is located. An untrained mind without the body to keep it in place can fly anywhere in the universe. With no restraint, the untrained mind can quickly become lost in unfamiliar places. The Spirit body has no mass and follows the mind’s focus of attention. To be able to choose one’s next rebirth or incarnation wisely, requires the ability to focus on the desired choice, not flit one’s attention around the universe or panic and choose rashly. This meditation helps develop control over the focus of your attention and the direction of your mind.

Find a time and place free from distractions. Look around the place you have chosen and mindfully examine all the objects in the room or area so you have a clear idea what they look like and where they are placed. Find a comfortable chair or cushion, place yourself there, and relax. Do some deep breaths as needed, focusing on the breaths. Choose an object within your field of vision. Pick a point on that object and stare at it until you can rest your attention steadily on that point. Now close your eyes while maintaining a mental image of the object and keeping you focus on the point you chose. Realize that this is your focus of attention. Continue until you can rest your attention peacefully on a point.

Keeping your eyes closed, move your focus of attention to a different object in the room or area where you are sitting. Imagine examining it and see in your mind’s eye what it looks like. Move your attention to other objects in the room. Notice that your mind can move your focus of attention independently of your eyes, even to objects behind you. Practice this until you are adept at moving your attention. Try this with your eyes open while staring at these words or straight ahead while your attention focuses on other objects around you. With eyes open or closed, imagine picking up various objects and examining them from different angles. If this is difficult, return to focusing on a point of a single object, and try this again in a different session.

If you are comfortable with moving your focus of attention and while still sitting, imagine getting up and walking outdoors. Walk around your dwelling, looking at it from different places. Then imagine walking to nearby places, looking at and touching things along the way. If this is difficult, try actually walking to nearby places while looking mindfully at things along the way. Then try to replicate that experience in your mind in your next meditation session.

If you are able to visualize walking to nearby places and examining objects in your path, try visualizing a great leap to a favorite spot farther away and enjoy being there as you normally would, doing what you normally do there. Try to spend some time in that spot, enjoying being there. Try this for other favorite spots until you are comfortable doing this and can rest in these places in your mind’s eye for an entire meditation session.

Visualize looking at the sky. Locate the moon. This can be either in daytime or the sky at night. Study its surface from your vantage point on earth. Examine its craters and surface features. Now gather yourself for a mighty leap and imagine yourself flying to the moon. It gets larger as you approach, You land feet first on the surface of the moon in a great puff of dust. Walk around examining rocks and the stars above. Turn to look at the earth, noting its beauty. Pause to enjoy the sight of the earth for a while. Notice that the lack of air has no effect on your point of focus. Take a few deep breaths of empty space. Now gather yourself for another mighty leap, focus on your point where you left, and imagine flying back to earth, its image getting larger as you approach. Land where you started and look back at the moon. If this is difficult, watch some images and videos of the Apollo missions and try again during another session.

Visualize walking back to your meditation location. Realize that if you can calmly move your focus of attention independently of your body, then you really do not need your body to travel where your Spirit wills it to go. You can go where your heart or trusted guides lead you to you next life without fear dictating your destination.

Meditation–Deep Dive

The following Deep Dive Meditation is designed to provide an understanding of the three levels of reality and how it feels to work in each realm. Repeat as needed until you understand the difference between the Material, Spiritual, and Divine realms and the power of the creative wish. Either record the meditation so you can do it with eyes closed, or imagine that your eyes are closed as you read the meditation. Here is the meditation:

Imagine yourself in the Material world as you are, sitting comfortably in your own dwelling or a quiet place you have selected. Start with your eyes open, then close them and visualize what you just saw, yourself sitting where you are.

Visualize yourself getting up and walking around this location where you are, as you sit with your eyes closed. Pick up some things in your imagination, and feel how firm and real they feel. Think, “These things are physical and real.” Wonder at how they came to exist. Visualize returning to where you are sitting.

You wish to know how physical things came to be, and feel a slight jerk. The place where you are sitting begins to move down like an elevator to another level under the physical world. Here with your mind’s eye you see crafts people designing and building all the things in the room where you were sitting. Architects drew the plans for the room. Carpenters constructed the walls, floors, and ceilings. Artists planned the floor coverings, and weavers wove them on looms. Designers sent plans to shops to build the furnishings. Painters and photographers created the room decorations. Movers on elevators took all these things from below and installed them in the room above where you were meditating. See all this in your mind’s eye.

You decide to explore this Spirit realm of mental forms where ideas are turned into real things. Here you see many beautiful works of art, functional objects, and amazing tools and machines, all with people creating them. You wonder where they get the ideas for these amazing things. You notice each of the makers has a well next to them. They often lower a bucket into their well and bring it up brimming with bright ideas, which they apply to what they are creating.

You pick one of the work stations and ask the worker if she will lower you down her well to see what is there. She agrees. You sit with your feet in her bucket and grip its rope tightly as she lowers you down her well. It is dark in the tunnel of the well, but there is bright light at the bottom which grows brighter as you are lowered. You emerge into formless light and are surrounded by it, immersing you in indescribable joy.

The light is too bright for your eyes, so you keep them closed and feel ideas bumping against you. You reach into the light with one hand. Ideas are elusive and hard to grasp. You find you must concentrate. Still your mind and focus without thought on your outstretched hand. Pause and focus for a while on your hand. Stay focused until your attention rests gently on your hand.

Finally, with a quiet mind, you manage to grasp one of the ideas with your free hand. Imagine closing you hand gently on the idea. You shout, “Bring me up!” to the owner of the well and she hauls you up the dark tunnel to the workshop of visualized forms. You both gaze at the bright idea you brought back, and she helps you craft it into a Real thing.

You thank her for your help, and she wishes you well on your return trip. You walk to the elevator that brought you to this level, and sit again in meditation. Now you wish to return to the Real world of Material form, and the elevator lifts you back to the room where you started. You realize you just made a trip from the Material world of everyday physical form down to the Spirit realm of imagination where mental ideas take form and are transformed into Real things. From there, you plumbed the well of the formless Divine realm where ideas are born, and you brought one back with you. Open your eyes and look at what you created from the bright idea you captured. What did you bring back?

Meditation–Renunciation

Imagine you are standing at the crossroads of eternity holding two flags in your hand. Behind you is the past, stretching fourteen billion years to the Big Bang. In front of you is the future, stretching at least 150 billion years, possibly forever to infinity. From where you stand in the present, pace out the duration of your life so far, on the path you are on. Use one meter or one yard to represent each year of your past life. Plant a flag representing when you were born to this life. Go back to the crossroad and pace out the distance into the future that you think you will live, again at one meter or yard for each year. Place the second flag where you think your present physical body will die.

Go back to the crossroad representing your present. This crossroad is perpendicular to your timeline. Walk along the crossroad to gain perspective on your timeline until you can see both flags, the birth flag and the death flag, without turning your head. If you are optimistic about the duration of your life, note that the distance between the flags is about the length of a football field.

Back up on the crossroad until both flags can be covered by your outstretched thumb. Try to see the Big Bang which is fourteen billion meters or yards to your left. It is so far away you cannot see it. Then try to see the future end of the universe, at least 150 billion meters or yards to your right. You cannot see that far. Compare the length of your lifetime, the distance between the two flags, to the span of time for the universe. It is insignificant.

Reflect on the percentage of time you devote to making that tiny duration between the two flags pleasant versus the time you spend preparing for eternity, the span of time to the right which may be infinite. You now see the disparity in your level of effort. You resolve to worry less about that tiny interval between the flags, your material life, and spend more time on your spiritual practice preparing for eternity. Does this make sense?

Meditation–Diversity

This is an analytical meditation to help embrace diversity. Close your eyes, take a few calming breaths, and visualize a large box of crayons with many colors (or chalks, colored pencils, or palette of paints of you prefer). Imagine pulling out the black, white, red, and yellow crayons and placing them next to your skin. Is your skin black or white or red or yellow? Certainly not!

Imagine placing each crayon in the large box against your skin until you find a match. See that it is some shade or tint of beige or brown. Set this crayon aside and visualize taking out a large blank sheet of white paper. Reflect that this is true white which is made up of all the colors combined, and if you split the colors with a prism, it forms a rainbow.

Now take the crayon that matches your skin color. Hold it up and think to yourself that this is the best color, and put all the other crayons away. With this crayon, draw a person on the blank paper. Imagine that you can draw well, and draw more people with the same crayon. Think to yourself, “I will draw the best drawing using the best crayon!” Draw the foreground and background of the picture using only the best crayon, making it the best picture.

You take this picture using only the best crayon to an art exhibit to see how others like it. Some viewers say it is a fine landscape or still life, others see animals, but most viewers say, ”It is only one uniform color. What is it supposed to be? A blank wall? What does it say?”

You decide it says there is no value in uniformity, and return to your studio to reconsider. You realize that there is no best crayon. Each crayon serves a purpose, and skillfully combining the colors creates a harmony that tells a story. You see that light falling on objects lightens colors and shadows darken colors. You see that different colors and shapes create variety that delights the eye and the heart.

You make more pictures using all the colors in the box and take your art to the gallery again. A few viewers say your art is too colorful, too primitive, discordant. But most now say they understand what you are expressing with your art. The contrast and interplay of colors speak to them. Notice that they stare at your work and understand. They see the unity in diversity. Do you?