Before The Beginning

[Guest guest]

How did all begin? Was there a time

when no thing existed, not even empty

space, not even time? Was there only

nothingness, before the beginning?

 

The metaphor of the dance of Shiva maybe will

illustrate this better. Imagine and invisible Shiva,

invisible to itself, of course. The only way Shiva

can perceive itself is by dancing. The dance is

the way shiva manifest itself to itself. His gestures are

aspects of that manifestation. Time is the gesture

of rythm, music ; space the gesture of movement;

matter/ energy are the costume; consciousness is

the mirror and the intoxication of the dance.

 

Obviously, you see that the difficulty here, is in

thinking that space, time, and matter/energy

can exist as separate entities. They are

aspects of the same unknown, they appeared

together, in co-dependent origination.

 

To ask was there a time when 'this unknown'

did not manifest those aspects of itself? To

pose that question is a language problem.

 

Consciousness is also an aspect of the unknown.

It is 'a special case' of co-dependent origination,

in that it needs special circumstances. It

needs a brain to manifest. So there is a tricking

circularity here: No consciousness, no knowledge

of manifestation, no time, no space. Does this means,

the manifesting unknown equals consciousness?

Not at all.

 

Did the dancer exist before the dance? You bet! But not

even he, knew it. So what does that mean? Time

and eternity, consciousness and questions are

gestures in the dance.