Wee Little Drops

Wee Little Drops

Consciousness is all there is, say the sages. As an analogy, let us think of consciousness as the ocean. Then a wave, as a manifestation of the ocean, is merely an extension of that consciousness. As the wave crests, and droplets of water are spewed, the droplets of water are simply an extension of the wave. These droplets of water are particles of the ocean of consciousness. Suzuki Roshi utilized the occasion of a visit to a waterfall to extend the analogy. Extrapolating from his presentation, let us consider as “consciousness” the body of water which rushes toward the precipice; it strikes a rock along the topmost rim of the waterfall and splashes into droplets which plummet parallel to the cliffside. As consciousness, let us say that a droplet is suddenly conscious of its individuation or separation from the source, having suddenly been born into its condition of freefall. It looks to its left at another drop of water (a “different,” slightly larger drop), mutually created at about the same moment and accompanying it on the same downward course.

“Hey, look at me!” shouts the drop, above the din of the roaring cataract. “I’m independent—an individual!” “Me too!” exults the other drop. Each now has, for the time being, an identification: Big Drop as an object of consciousness of Little Drop; and Little Drop, objectified through the consciousness of the Big Drop.

Had the primary source of consciousness—the body of water—not broken apart or manifested as particles, it could be conscious of nothing apart from itself: a closed loop. My awareness of being “me” (the Little Drop) is a reflection of my awareness of “you” (the Big Drop), and vice versa. Another particle of water-source is falling alongside of them—composed of algae. “What’s that?” says the Little Drop. “I dunno,” says the Big Drop; “but it ain’t us. It appears to be apart from consciousness!” Their journey downward continues, as time passes. Had they not been individuated from the body of water, there would be no “time” as an object of their consciousness; moving indivisibly throughout a unitary body, there would be no special or separate “events” (such as birth) by which to benchmark a measure for time.

So, too, for the separation of distance or “space”; perspectives which are relative to their apparent individuation would be unapparent, indivisible within the body of water. Their journey suddenly ends, as their individuation dies on the mossy rocks at the foot of the waterfall, and they resume their corporeal identity with their source. When sages of centuries past said that consciousness is all there is, they were merely presaging what science is discovering today. A drop of water, a scientist would say, is a cohesion of molecules of hydrogen and oxygen; a slightly different cohesion of these molecules, with nitrogen added, would be described as air.

Molecules are an aggregation of atoms, and atoms are composed of subatomic particles. Each particle, such as an electron, is entirely interchangeable with any other electron in the universe; in this way, they are indistinguishable. It has been said, for example, that there is one electron manifesting in numerous locations throughout the cosmos. Likewise is true for the other subatomic particles. The Little Drop, even though there are fewer particles in it, is no different than the Big Drop; they are essentially one and the same thing. Such particles are the substance, the nature, of matter. Everything that exists is composed of one arrangement or another of these universally-present particles. These particles are not in isolation from each other; if isolated, they are without function, moribund; we could say ‘virtual’. What we call “empty space” is anything but empty. And what appears to be algae, rock, sky, sun, water, etc., are an interconnected network of mutually-interpenetrating subatomic particles. The appearance of all these separate forms is a manifestation of the underlying substrate which is the originating source. These manifestations, their decay and reabsorption—what we call the “life and death” of things—follow a cohesive, intelligent regimen. However chaotic, it has unfailingly persisted. This intelligence is not apart from the things which exist, any more than a process could be apart from its product, or a product isolated from its process. This intelligence is no different in essence than that which it manifests as. Like a single intelligent electron which

operates consistently, in its intelligent electron-fashion wherever it is individually observed in the universe, this intelligence breaks itself apart and reassimilates itself in all parts of the universe at all times, simultaneously. This phenomenal scale of super-human, inexplicable and mysterious intelligence is what we have traditionally come to call “God.” It is what the sages refer to as Consciousness; “Consciousness is all there is.”

Examine, consequently, your “relationship” (or the relationship of anything) to God, to that which is Absolute. When the proposal of the sages is clearly understood, it is “God” who is writing this monograph, and it is also “God” who is at this moment reading it. Put another way, consciousness is writing this, consciousness is reading this; both expressions of the intelligence which “creates,” or governs, anything that exists. An interesting consequence of this understanding unfolds. Any activity which an electron engages in is a manifestation of the “Supreme Being” —it is doing what it is doing because, in the overall development of things, that is what it ought to be doing; some other things will, somehow, be dependent upon what it is doing. I am compelled to write this monograph (I considered doing other things). You are compelled to read it (you considered doing other things). This monograph did not rely on my intention to write it, on this beautiful day to be out for a walk. My writing it is, fundamentally, consciousness (the Absolute) doing what it does. And if I did not write it, that would be consciousness doing what it does, too.

If you have read this and you reflect on the Absolute (consciousness), that is the Absolute doing what it does. If you do otherwise—no matter what you do—that is also the Absolute doing what it does. If you understand your “relationship” with the Absolute, that is what the Absolute (or “Consciousness”) does. If you don’t perceive your identity in the Absolute, that, too, is what the Absolute does.

When the sages simply say, “Consciousness is all there is,” they do not qualify it with “right consciousness” or “wrong consciousness.”