The Stardust That We Are
Posted: Friday, December 11, 2009
by e
Dhammabucha Rocksprings Meditation
On a clear, cold, winter's night, have you ever gazed up at the endless sky? Away from the frenzy of the city and its glare, alone, just you and your universe, have you felt that fleeting feeling in the pit of your stomach, that intimation that the constellations are calling you home? It has brought me to tears.
The immensity of our universe can overwhelm us at times like this, when we take that moment that, if we are at all sensitive, leaves us breathless and in awe of something so measureless. Our narrow projections, just for one passing moment, dissolve like so much stardust blowing in the wind.
This tiny planet earth that we call home is nestled in orbit around a medium sized star called the sun. In days past we worshiped our sun as a God. We do that with things we don't understand. That was when the earth was still the center of the universe, in our minds, because everything seemed to revolve around us.
The earth was flat then, because we could not comprehend anything that didn't have a beginning and an end, and surely if we walked far enough, we would fall off the edge.
But now we know that our sun is not a God, only a ball of nuclear fire that began as a clump of gaseous elements that condensed into a fiery reaction, spewing off arms of materials that eventually became our solar system, and our earth. And therefore our earth is of the sun, of a star, and we in turn are of the earth, the elements of the earth, that just yesterday was stardust.
Our sun and its planets find themselves situated on the outer fringes of its galaxy, a circular disk of billions of stars wandering through space and time. And in our visible universe, countless of these galaxies dot the skies, billions of them, each with their billions and trillions of stars.
The Milky Way, that silvery, foggy band that stretches across the night sky, is our galaxy as we look at it from our vantage point from an non-descript outpost far from its center. The glow of billions of suns.
The time and space involved is mind-numbing. Distances between individual stars is measured in light years, the distance light travels in one year. Light travels at 186,000 miles per second, so a light year works out be 5,865,696,000,000 miles. The distance between galaxies is about 20,000 light years. You do the math.
Modern theories include multiple universes, unlimited universes, endless, beginning less, eternal universes all expanding with an initial "Big Bang" from super condensed matter no larger than a pea, into what we see in the night sky, before the "Big Crunch," as the universe condenses back into its pea-sized super mass, only to expand again in eternal cycles.
We have difficulty dealing with no beginnings and no endings because we cannot relate to them, given our current state of awareness in time and space with its physical laws that we are not equipped to see past. And even if we could glimpse something so enormous that had no beginnings or endings, what could we say about it? What could a bug crawling across a page of Shakespeare say about Shakespeare's insights?
That which we do not understand we must deify, otherwise we would go insane. What else can we do in the presence of such enormity? Without a God, we would have to admit that we are but stardust, and as such, our stardust legacy would eternally create and destroy, evolve and putrefy, change and remain the same for eons upon eons. Who could not be humbled in the presence of such endlessness? What could truly matter anymore?
There is a good possibility that what we have concocted, about everything, is unreal. A delusion; a dream, a fairy tale. But to admit something like this would pull the rug out so fast from beneath our illusions that we would surely go mad.
But then again, for the few with inordinate courage; to know that he or she is lost can be a new beginning. As long as we have the courage to remain lost and not fall for the first weak finality because we feel so frightened and alone; as long as we can dwell courageously in that unknowing that is our stardust legacy, then within that unknowing may be revealed the secrets of the universe.
Do you dare go there?
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Top-level comments on this article: (9 total)You know e, a science teacher told us once as a class. "you could count every grain of sand on every beach in the world and not come out with the number of stars in the universe." and yes our sun is just an average size star.Hi David, Thanks for reading and commenting. Hope you have a very nice Christmas.
Best..............e
Hi e.This was beautifully written. I agree with Suzy in that it was poetic. It almost gave me that feeling that staring at the milky way gives me. What you wrote makes me think of the bit about the Tao you can talk about or explain is not the true Tao. And I think I might like to go there ... but not sure that I can.Hugs,DianneI completely agree with your last statement. And, yes it is a beautiful article. For me, somehow, acknowledging my own insignificence adds more meaning to my life. Can't say that I can explain that any furtherLove and blessingsHi Joyce, that is a great insight! It is within our own insignificance and the immensity of our unknowing that opens limitless worlds never conceived of.Thanks Dianne, Sure you can - (go there). You are already there!
Awesome insigh!!! Keep writing and I will keep reading.Lawrence. . . . . . . . Deal!
Another interesting thing about your article e, is many scientist believe we are composed of stardust. In fact during his campaign for president in 1972, Hubert Humphrey said this " John Kennedy when his star was shining brightest for him"The interesting thing is that scientists can't yet come up with a beginning. Perhaps there was no beginning, kind of like eternity in reverse.
Best as always............e
Very well done! We should remember ourselves as stardust more often, perhaps then we would see our rushing through life is pointless. We should enjoy it as we can and live to perhaps realize if we are alone, we are not lonely. Great job."Alone but not lonely" - - beautifully expressed. Enjoy each pleasure to the fullest, but don't try to repeat it, anticipate the next one, or attach to it. Ay?
Thanks Michael.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays..............e
A wonderful exposition of the interconnectedness of life. I have no problem believing that we possess within us the material of stardust.
I do believe in a Creator so it would not be out of the ordinary that the fingerprint of the Divine can be found all over creation and that we would possess within ourselves the elements of the cosmos; the material of the earth and the ingredients of the seas.Thank you so much e. You extract from me thoughts I am proud to own. Blessings to you and Happy Holidays.Merrry Christmas Ed!
Beautiful, beautiful! Yes, I've dared to go there, but never did I feel so calm and comfortable as when you just took me. I enjoyed this article more than I have any for a long while- Thank you so much. Ella
Well Ella! What a heartfelt comment. Thank you so much, and I wish you the best for this Christmas and holiday season.
Metta........e
I strive to learn to rock with the rhythm of the universe. I sense these secrets are found within ourselves.
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