Add, Subtract, Multiply and Divide

The world of numbers governs the orchestration of our lives, the mathematics, the music. It sets the tempo, the duration, the crashing chords, the recurring choruses, the solo notes, the rests. Yet all this manifestation rests on the invisible background of silence, like the chalk figures on the blackboard in the photo. Numbers appear to govern what is discernible, but not what is free of identity or specificity…in other words, what is universal, without boundary or limit – the Ground of All Being.

That Ground is not only silent, it is non-visible – without vision. That doesn’t mean it is dark, it simply means that it is beyond the visual stimulation of both light and dark, prior to the emergence of either. It is whole, a wholeness that is without contrasts. No contrast means no separation. It is also still, without motion, whether that be motion of thought, of feeling, or of physical movement. Yet it is not rigid. One might say it is pure consciousness without an object, everywhere present.

The Sufis have a saying attributed to the Divine in the form of a thought: “I am a Hidden Treasure; and I longed to know who I am, so I created the world that I might know Myself.” Consciousness producing an objective reality to discover the full panoply of potential Self becomes the impetus for Creation of the perceptible world. It structures that world with numbers and clothes it with garments woven of particles, atoms, molecules, living cells and mobile life forms. Yet that pure consciousness – now with infinite objects to observe, both within and without – remains silent, still, and whole, undivided and unblemished by the colliding interactions of its own previously-hidden nature.

We now know that Hidden Nature is governed with mathematical precision when it manifests. Its music governs the harmonies of all universes and all the accompanying dynamics. It is revealed as unified despite appearances of fragmentation and disorder.

So why do I start here today with this reflective return to the Source? Because as I look out into my visible world, the world I can perceive with both my consciousness and my senses, I am troubled. Today my world presents contrasts that are in sharp focus, that are animated with animosity. As an artist, I know that there is no perception of beauty without contrasts – nor of ugliness, as well. The contrasts in our human collective experience right now are stark, antagonistic, fueled by righteousness and intolerance by all concerned for whatever is different. The composition is discordant. We are fractured, fragmented, and deeply frightened by the abyss that looms between the opposing poles.

Each side adds up its numbers of like-minded for reassurance, as if the sum total somehow leads to safety, security. Each constituency subtracts from its calculations the profoundly felt and deeply embraced concerns of those who see things differently.

The positives and negatives are multiplied by each reiteration, growing exponentially – and becoming increasingly magnified - in the hyper-anxious environment. Paradoxically, each side proclaims love, peace, prosperity, truth, integrity and unity as guiding principles.

And yet, the search for the “right” solutions to our existential problems only leads to embittering division. It seems our strategies for arriving at a unifying wholeness are having the opposite effect of dividing us further. This calls for a shift of focus, of intention and personal consciousness – from the hyper-stimulation of what we are manifesting back to the Ground of All Being.

I invite myself and everyone to return to the Ground – to the silence, to the stillness, to the undivided wholeness from which all this world drama first emerged. Refresh your soul, rest your mind, relax your grip on how it all has to be for you to be okay. Only from this state, can we begin to forge peaceful and open-minded communications, express authentic love that doesn’t judge or reject, and find the answers to our collective confusion and chaos. When we are silent, we can hear what’s true. When we are still, we can move with grace. When we return to wholeness, separation and division disappear and we know peace.

Rumi wrote: “There is a field beyond right and wrong. I will meet you there.” As will I.