Truths of Existence – The Second Universal Law
There is Nothing That We Can Create Anew
The Second law: This is the second law of existence. We may become aware of the information which is present or hidden in the universe and recreate it, but we do not create it anew. What we consider creativity is simply becoming aware of something which we do not know or which did not manifest in our minds or in our world until then.
Is there anything which we can create which does not already exist? Do we create any truths or laws which are not already present in the information soup of the universe as ideas or possibilities? What we consider new is what is new to us or to a large number of people or to the whole humanity. However, it does not mean that the idea did not exist until then in the universe in some form.
What we consider creativity is what our minds have not conceived before. When a new thought or invention or idea crosses our minds, we may presume that we created it, but it is not true. We may credit the first person who thought about it or was lucky enough to find it, but the truth is he or she connected to a truth which was already present.
No doubt, she must have struggled and worked hard to find it, for which society amply rewards her, but all her efforts go into exploring the truths and mysteries of the universe. In other words, all creation whether it flows from supreme consciousness or the universe or Nature or a Buddha or a human being is a just an unraveling of the preexisting knowledge hidden in the universe as an existential truth or possibility or potentiality. Did the Buddha create or invent the Four Noble Truths or the Eightfold Path? No, he just found it or discovered it in an enlightened state or supreme awareness as existential truths.
This is the truth. We can only express what is inherent. If we can somehow tune into the universal mind, we may find innumerable new ideas. Perhaps, the label, “universal mind” may not be correct to describe the information which is stored in the universal storehouse of knowledge in numerous forms. Further, our senses and minds may not be the only means by which it can be known. There may be several other methods to extract it about which we do not have adequate knowledge at this level of our development and technological progress.
Perhaps someday human beings or their evolved forms may possess enough knowledge and ability to extract all the information contained in a black hole or a galaxy. It may become possible if we manage to survive for at least for a few thousand years more or may be a hundred thousand years. In the universal calendar, our civilization is not even a day old. Hence, our progress is too insignificant even to fathom that idea.
The mind is an instrument of Nature. It is bound to its laws. It cannot operate other than what Nature intends it to do. In other words, however free we may think, we are not truly free. We are bound to the laws of Nature, and so is all the knowledge that we know, yet to know and may never know. Both existence and nonexistence of anything exists within the bounds of the universe only. Therefore, both are bound to it, just as we all are.
Nonexistence may simply be the absence of something, the ignorance of the existence of something or something that has not yet manifested in a definitive form in the known universe. Therefore, creation may be just a process of bringing into existence something which we believe was nonexistent but which in reality is nonexistent to our minds and in our individual or collective awareness only. If the nonexistence of something can be conceived or imagined, then it may not even qualify as nonexistence, but a possibility.
All creation arises from Nature (or the universe), depends upon Nature and subsides in Nature, just as a wave that rises and falls on the surface of an ocean. It may be a mere transformative process or a projection of one thing upon another or an admixture of multiple realities or phenomena or a superimposition of one thing upon another. In other words, we have been presented with the illusion of being in control, with the ability to make a difference to our lives and existence, whereas in truth we can only facilitate natural processes that are inherent to the working of the universe.
The idea that we are caught in the web of the universe and can never be free from it, as long as we are conscious and alive in it and serve whatever purpose it may have, is depressing enough. The more you think about it, the more depressed you will feel. Fortunately, the universe is large enough to give us the illusion of having the free- will and the freedom to make choices and pursue our goals. That illusion keeps us life oriented and helps us navigate through life, without feeling miserable, even though we are but bound to the universe and exist in it just as the fish in the ocean.
Knowledge is eternal and indestructible, or (if you are uncomfortable with the idea of eternity) exists at least as long as existence exists. It is known through intelligence. Hence, in some traditions and philosophical schools intelligence is considered superior to knowledge and equated with the Supreme Reality which pervades the whole universe and its innumerable formations as pure intelligence.
In truth knowledge and intelligence are the two faces of the same supreme and eternal reality, just as Prakriti and Purusha in Hinduism are. Knowledge is Prakriti which abides in forms, and intelligence (buddhi) is Purusha which makes sense of them through knowing and grasping. Together, in Hinduism they constitute the supreme reality of Brahman or existence itself. In Jainism it is represented by the all knowing pure soul (nitya suddha) with infinite knowledge, perception and power. In Buddhism. it is comparable to the supremely intelligent Buddha mind. Yet, these comparisons may not be adequate to convey the universal truth which is being explained here.
Knowledge and intelligence are always present in the universe in innumerable forms and dimensions. We are either conscious or unconscious of them, or we may have a wide range of ideas, notions and theories about them according to our own knowledge and intelligence. However, whether we know them or not, we do not make any difference to the sum of the knowledge or intelligence which exists in the universe. They are mutable in the limited context of a person or a group of people, but immutable in the larger context of the universe.
We can neither add to the sum of the oceanic knowledge and intelligence of the universe in its multiple dimensions and formations nor can we subtract from it. We cannot also alter it or destroy it. At the most we may create little ripples in it which are but illusory just as the whirl that appears in water when we stir it. We can only draw from that perennial source of knowledge and benefit from it. Even ignorance and imperfect knowledge are types of knowledge only. They also exist eternally as possibilities.
Therefore, neither our knowledge nor our ignorance and neither our intelligence nor the lack of it can make any difference to the knowledge and intelligence that is already inherent in the universe. However, they can make a difference to our lives. We too do not add anything new to the universe through our lives and actions. We also do not truly know what purpose we serve in the universe or why do we even exist. We are probably a part of the process which was set in motion as a sum of possibilities when the universe came into existence, and became a materialized reality through innumerable causes and effects and random events.
We have thus ample reasons to believe that all creation is a manifestation or materialization into various forms and states of the of knowledge and intelligence which are hidden or preexisting in the universe. All the diversity in existence arises from the presence or absence of particular types of knowledge and intelligence only. A stone does not know that it is packed with information hidden in the structure and configuration of its atoms, in the energy component of its quantum particles and the qualities and properties which manifest from them. It may not possess the same intelligence as ours, but it may have an intelligence of its own, which is vastly different and which ensures its integrity, continuity, natural properties and functionality.
Yet, despite its apparent lack of life and intelligence, it is an integral part of the universe, and the information which is contained in it is an essential part of the information which is stored in the universe in various forms and states. Knowledge of the objective reality arises from observation. Knowledge of the subjective reality arises from experience. Both are already present in the universe and by knowing them we just become aware but do not create anything new.
May God bless and protect you and…
May you always be
Healthy, Happy
Safe and Comfortable
Seth Kelly Curtis
