The Mystery Formerly Known as God

The Universe provided me with this great house. I’ll trust the Universe to help me decide. I’m looking for signs from the Universe to let me know which job I should take.

It seems our current vernacular has substituted Universe for God, since God has become persona-non-grate for all the damage he’s done to our fragile psyches – condemning us to hell and damnation, commanding us to do this that and the other, and generally offering only conditional love. The Universe is much more benign than that judging old white guy who sits oh so high above us.


According to B. Alan Wallace*, science is now comprehending that there is not a single uni-verse which we can map and within which we all fit – no matter how unfit we may seem to that other old bearded man in the sky. The math is showing that without the observer, “I”, there is no time. One might say that before “I” there is only Tao – the still unbornness that is before the beginning. From the primordial timeless no-thing we each come into being, a universe unto ourselves, joining other universes and entangling with them.

I’ve been leaning into this idea that we can ask, pray, intend, and even command the great mystery to oblige our will. I come across many quotes pointing to this. From Goethe’s, “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.” To Joe Dispenza, “… when you as a personality embrace new thoughts, actions, and feelings, you will inevitably create a new personal reality in your future.” From prosperity pundits like Napoleon Hill in his 1937 book, Think and Grow Rich, “You are the master of your destiny. You can influence, direct and control your own environment. You can make your life what you want it to be.” To St. Matthew, “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

So how does that actually work? Am I appealing to a benevolent entity who will grant my wish if I’m faithful enough or true enough or focused enough? I have an image from a science exhibit I once saw attempting to explain Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. There was a large circular fabric printed with a grid and stretched tight like a drum. The docent placed a weighted metal ball on the fabric which pressed down on it, modulating the grid, demonstrating how Earth bends the universe toward its gravitational pull.

So if each of us is a universe then each of us has that capacity to pull the tapestry of our universe toward our gravitational weight. And what is that weight? Well, in the beginning is the word, the logos, the thought. Ah, there’s the rub. Have you ever noticed your thoughts? They go all over the place.

So if the mystery readily bends to the weight of our thoughts, and our thoughts are randomly bouncing this way and that, like a pinball affected by anything it happens to bump up against – a surly comment from a passerby, a triggered reactionary emotion, and myriad other obstacles that the mind runs into – what’s the mystery to do? Like that fabric at the science exhibit, it is pliable and responds to the weight, the gravitational pull of thought. You get it? The universes, which are made up of each of our beings respond to every one of those pinball collisions accordingly, ding, ding, ding.

Here is another quote from Goethe: “We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe.”

Here is the real reason to become mindful, focused and equanimous. To bring our mind to the center of that fabric where there is only one metal ball, bearing down and bending the grid to its weight. So that the mystery formerly known as God can manifest us as a true and singular glorious expression of life.

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyA6zTc6W5I

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