WHAT DOES REALITY LOOK LIKE? A micro and macrocosmic perspective that is critical to spiritual thinking.

I approach this topic of “What does reality look like?” with some hesitation because I am venturing out of my wheelhouse and comfort zone. I have, for the past three or four years, ventured into realms of thinking that are not normal to my particular life experiences. My hesitation comes from the conclusions towards which I am being inexorably pulled, ones that, in my case, don’t make sense with my current understanding of reality. Scary as that is, it is also exhilarating to be living with such profound thoughts that lead to some conclusions that are beyond what my mind alone can present to me. Watch http://www.organism.earth for a sample of the macro perspective.

I continue to hold that each person has a view of reality that is different from one another yet all tied together with two opposing forces, those of the macro existence and its counterpoint, micro existence. As a disciple of Lay Cistercian practices and charisms, they have allowed me to delve into the mystery of silence and solitude with ancient wisdom that comes from The Christ Principle. I can read primary source commentaries from the Early Fathers of the Church and those practiced by such commentators of the Gospels as St. Anthony of the Desert, St. Benedict and his Rule (https://christdesert.org/rule-of-st-benedict/), St. Bernard of Clairvaux, St. Dominic, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Bruno, and other followers of the contemplative way of living and thinking. What I have today is the result of my heritage handed on directly from Christ and passed through the Apostles down through the centuries. All I have to do is access it.

I use the Map of Reality (unattributed) of Teilhard de Chardin against which I can not only think deeper about reality (micro thinking) but also, look at a higher more expansive view of reality (macro thinking).

TYPES OF MACRO AND MICRO PERSPECTIVES

A perspective, as I use it, is a way to look at the scope of reality plus also factor into it milestones or markers that delineate its movement and complexity (see Teilhard’s map above). Perspective is all about how humans look at reality from various assumptions that each individual holds. When groups of individuals agree on these assumptions, they are a way of thinking, such as scientific inquiry, religious teachings, and principles of what makes up a society, as in the United States Constitution. These assumptions are not absolute (immutable and admitting to no change) but can be either objective, subjective or both. All reality for me is subjective but I look at it with objective tools and perspectives to gain a way to organize this reality and meld it together with the other lifetime experiences that make up my reality. When looking at what makes up for reality, I am the only one who looks at the horizon of matter and time and can ask questions (who, what, why, where, when, and so what) and use this reasoning to formulate a way to begin to make sense out of all that I experience.

In a recent blog, I wrote about the various ways in which I assume knowledge, love, and service into my worldview and try to make sense of it. Here is an overview of the various ways I assimilate what I see into who I am and wish to become.

THE MICRO AND MACRO PERSPECTIVE

Both you and I are micro perspectives of reality that we take in around us. I am the lowest common denominator when it comes to assimilating reality and then processing what my reason and free choice tell me is good for me. Even though I might disregard what I consider to be bad for me (sinful). I still retain a record of my choice, what led me to make it, and the results and consequences of that which I have chosen. They are all what is a part of me. Accumulated over the years, these choices amount to a living book of who I am.

Whatever spirituality I have is subject to the changes in my perspective. I can have Faith with its corresponding belief, or suspect my life, depending on what I judge truth to be for me at the time. This micro reasoning and concomitant choices are for me only. You have your own choices and they form who you are. I am not you, you are not me; God is not us, and we, most certainly, are not God. All of our micro perspectives are critical because in that macro perspective of the Teilhard map, more accurately the macro perspective of the physical, mental, and evolution of the spiritual universe, my micro perspective must align correctly with its counterpart.

This Teilhard map indicates to me that everything is in flux, as Zeno of Elia remarked. I am reminded that the map is just a mental construct against which I posit ideas about what it means for me to grow ever deeper in the awareness of my purpose in life. Because of the moment of matter, time, space, and the corruptibility of all matter, there is a beginning and an end to everything. Since I am part of that physical universe and my species evolved into the mental universe, I have a beginning and an end to my particular life. The assumptions and choices I make along my life span inform who I am as a person, unique among all humans.

Divine nature (pure thought, pure love, and pure service but only one reality) is beyond a human macro or a micro perspective because it is its cause for existence and has its DNA embedded in all matter and in chromosomes to guide it to a destiny that is beyond physical and mental existence.

Christ assumed human nature into His Divine Nature when he became a ransom for many. This is the macro perspective of the way, the truth, and the life. I enter into that same way of thinking when I submit my will, willingly, to conform to what God has intended for my species. In this sense, I am a micro perspective with my unique micro perspective. I am able to access God’s presence because of my adoption as the son (daughter) of the Father. I can only do this by consciously and deliberatively saying “Be it done unto me according to your world.” My unique micro perspective (my reason and free choice) chooses the macro perspective of Christ as energized by the Holy Spirit. This ability to be lifted up by Christ from my individual micro perspective of what it means to be human enables me to be in the presence of the Christ Principle and the energy on this earth to help me plan for my living in the kingdom of heaven in heaven after I die. This is spirituality. This is the ultimate purpose for which humans were singled out to be gifted with the adoption of the Father and heirs of the kingdom of heaven in heaven. What I must do, in, with, and through Christ, is to recognize that kingdom of heaven on earth each day and learn how to love to be able to enjoy in heaven that which I recognize on earth. Heaven (and Hell) begin with knowledge (as St. Thomas Aquinas states) and proceed to love, with the product of good works (Chapter 4 of the RB) for all to see and give glory to the Father.

Observations

• If the kingdom of heaven on earth is the micro context of spirituality, then the kingdom of heaven in heaven is the macro dimension, one that is not limited to boundaries or corruptibility of matter and time.
• My personal assent of Faith each new day is the micro choice I make to submit my will to the Father in return for the macro entry into the presence of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.
• My individual prayer times each day with Lectio Divina, Rosary, Liturgy of the Hours, Eucharist, Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, and spiritual reading are those micro times when I join others to form a macro gathering of “praise and glory to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and forever. The God who is, who was, and who will be at the end of the ages.” –Cistercian doxologyy
• Contemplation is my retiring to the upper room of my inner self frequently to pray by waiting in the presence of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit and growing in capacitas dei through conversion of my false self to my true self in Christ Jesus.
• The complexities and depths of the knowledge, love, and service I receive from God (macro energy) I must translate with the totality of my human life experiences to be of service to others by doing God’s will as I perceive it.
• I receive the macro body and blood of Christ into my heart (the micro tabernacle within my temple of the Holy Spirit) to share it with others each day.

I am micro. Christ is macro. Christ and I are macro and a prayer of gratitude to the Father for being adopted.

UIODG