The Infinite Supply Co. A bean, planted in the ground, sits still, and what it needs is given to it. Without “planning” to, it gives itself over to a succession of roots, leaves, blossoms and fruitful pods. Itself passively transformed by energy, it is thereby an instrument of energy; this energy is intelligence: and this intelligence is the cause of life and the cause of death. Intelligence trans-forms. Chuang tzu: “The destruction of life does not mean death; nor the prolongation of life an addition to the ‘duration’ of one’s existence.” Every particle, however minuscule (and every wave, however insignificant) knows precisely what to do, at every instant and point in time or space. There is a word for this: omniscience. If all particles are infinitely intelligent, and every thing is composed of particles, then all things are intelligent (or, intelligence is all things). And it would not be proper to say that this is intelligence operating “within” Intelligence: there is but one intelligence. Intelligence is not separate from a single molecule; and this intelligence is undivided from each and every other molecule. No molecule is more the cause or the effect of this intelligence. We seem conditioned to conceive of order only from without, not order from within—spontaneous, “unordered” order, the order of bubbles in sea foam. We cannot compose an equation which embodies chaos and intelligence and order. We cannot envision something that autonomously originates without preference and automatically perpetuates
220
