We have quite a geo-centric view of the universe. We are also caught in the time and space we live in. Otherwise, when the universe is so vast that even light takes 25,000 years to travel to the nearest galaxy, the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy. Light travels at the speed of nearly 3 lakh kilometres per second. The speed of an aeroplane is about 700-800 Km per hour. It has no match in speed, and even light takes 25,000 years to travel. That means when we look at that galaxy today through a telescope, we can at best look at it as it existed 25,000 years ago. Actually, that may not even exist today. There is no way to see the universe as it exists today. The width of the observable universe is approximately 93 billion light-years, meaning that light will take approximately 93 billion years to travel, and it continues to expand. Imagine there are billions of stars in each galaxy, and there are billions of such galaxies. We know too little and yet we are so sure of the purpose of life.
But we can't handle reality, and we want to be certain. That's why we make some Geo-centric view of the universe and live our lives ignoring the larger reality. That's convenient for us. We remain conveniently oblivious to the larger reality of our universe. Even civilisation does the same. It makes a story about its purpose. Some civilisations have thrived around the idea of dominance, and they have attacked other civilisations to dominate them. Some civilisations had a strong desire to grow culturally, and they produced the best of the poets, literature, architecture, and sculptures. Some civilisations try to survive. Some civilisations, like ancient India, ventured into the inner world and tried to unravel the deep secrets of reality, peeping inside our own bodies.
When we undertake exploration into the nature of self, we realise that we have a geo-centric view of reality there as well. Our awareness is mostly dominated by our brain. We are hardly ever aware of what's happening inside our bodies. What happens to food after we eat? Scientists have no-doubt discovered to a large extent about the digestion process and assimilation of the food into the blood and how the nutrients are taken to different cells inside our bodies. However, we are not aware of the same way we are aware of our thoughts. We are at best aware of the taste of the food we take. Once the food reaches our tummy, we are largely unconscious of the processes taking place inside our bodies. The food supplies energy to the whole body, the way the Sun provides energy to the whole solar system. But we are so obsessed with our thoughts that we are hardly ever aware of what's happening inside our bodies.
We have trillions of cells in our bodies, and each cell may have billions of atoms, but we hardly know anything about what's happening out there, as we are not aware of the activities inside different galaxies. The process of meditation is the process of gaining awareness of this inner universe. As we can't see an atom with the light rays because an atom is much smaller. We need to have electronic microscopes to see that level of reality. Similarly, generally, our attention is quite dull, and that's why we can observe the gross details only. Taste is gross, pain is gross. We can observe and feel them. However, when we sit in meditation, our attention becomes sharper and in that state of sharpness, we can observe the deeper secrets of our bodies. When our attention is absolutely sharp, we become aware of each part of our body. We observe what's going on in each and every part of the body. There are moments when we experience as if this entire dance of matter is taking place inside something bigger that we call "consciousness" or "field", and our attention becomes sharp enough to have a first-hand experience of that field, and that makes us realise the width and depth of the inner universe. The brain-centric view no longer carries much value.
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