This is very old writing of mine. I thought it might be time to put it up here....
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| At Hogsback in VT, photo by R. Nethercott |
The story of MANY and ONE
3 states of being, 2 properties of the cosmos
Old but mischievous children had gathered to hear this old one’s tale. They whispered to each other. Each had a different hat and a different face and different way of speaking. They laughed and drew pictures in the dirt with sticks because they were merry children though they were not young. Each had traveled many years to hear the particular words of this tale.
The ancient sat cross-legged on a log. The fire light lit the grey eyes and translucent skin and the white hair. A faint smile flickered also.
“Many and One, whose other name is ALL greets you and is you,” the old one began. The whispers stopped. The fire hissed and danced. Her voice was neither young nor old, neither sharp nor soft.
“Before the path of ALL was ONE,” she said.
“And ONE was at peace, without dimension or division or dissension or delusion. And that is the first state and the best. The undifferentiated state of one..”
One. One. ONE. The name of ONE burst in whispers down rows of attentive children. Some sat forward on logs or stones, some crouched, some leaned against trees. A few reclined in the grass.
“And after ONE sat silent, being and containing Unity, containing the matrix of the ONE endless formless self for many millennia, the ONE became curious. And that is the second state and is also the best: The state of curiosity.”
Curious. Curious. Curious. The word rippled among the children like wind through meadow grasses.
“And what the ONE was curious about was what might happen if the ONE mind concentrated all its thought on only one intersection at the center of the matrix of the One formless self. And it was so.
“And from the thought of the One, matter sprang into being, expanding into the formless, endless self of the ONE> And it was entirely the thought of the One, and it was also the energy of the One and it was, itself, the One.
“Yet is was various -- so the One became Many and One, whose other name is ALL.
ALL. ALL. ALL. The children set to whispering again.
“And from that first property of All - Unity, came the second simultaneous property of All - which is Variety. And from those two great properties of Many and one, come our unity and variety.
And even so, we ourselves are many and one and all life and all that is and is not: all is many and one - Unity and Variety
And all that is, and all that is not - All is the thought of the One, and energy of the one, and is, itself, One - Many and One whose other name is All.
And after Many and One became and sent matter and energy spinning and expanding into the undulation of time; the one mind marveled at the Variety, and at the Unity, and at the expanding bubble. And Many and One, All was filled with Wonder and delight. And that is the third state, which is also the best: the state of Wonder.”
