Dear Tom,
Thank you for your thoughtful reply. For our readers I have posted it on the website www.thehubbellpew.com.
I am convinced that when we come across darkness in our lives or in tragedy, we find God and meaning in the light that always comes immediately afterwards. During my sabbatical there was a period of time where I lived all day and all night in a locked closet, and when it was time for “lights out” there was complete darkness in my small confined space. They were not easy nights, but I knew that at some point, morning would come and light would return so I learned to wait for the light.
Difficult times test our hearts and souls, but if we too learn to look for the light, we will always see God and meaning. Tragedies are not God created, but God is present in the response, so are we. Humanity is at its best in response to the tragic. Our response is always thoughtful, compassionate, sensitive, and caring. We bring hope to any time of darkness and in the words of Emily Dickinson, “Hope inspires the good to reveal itself.”
So I suggest my dear friend in times of darkness, be patient and wait for the light. It always comes. Webb
Tom’s Response to Letters to Tom/ Part 1
Indeed those are dandy questions. Not sure these will cast any light, but the following examples came from a course one of our Sufi teachers taught – he’s brilliant, has I think a PhD in physics and he teaches a course called Time Sex and Money. Here’s what he says about each:
• Time is the construct created so we could experience form. The being you are that experiences space to have the experience of form has a conversation with the forces of entropy (what creates the impression that things change or time). Death is the moving through form having the experience of time with entropy being the force of dissipation.• In this now moment, if you choose a particular future not reflecting your past, but transcending your past, your past will literally have to change in order to align in this now moment with your new future. You are literally on a different line of time. You become a new person with a new future, the law of self-consistency says you will pick all possible pasts and pick a past consistent with the new you… literally. Physics says that has to be true to explain the present; and that is an act of sex… your consciousness deciding on what information to send your life force into to create a new future that creates a new past. Again, the wave from the future is at least 10 times more powerful than the past. The seed moment for any present moment is much more likely to have come from the future.
• • Sex – the exchange of information and life force. There is absolutely nothing in life that is not sex for that reason. • Research shows how we organize our sense of past, present and future, the archetypical categories for psychological orientation are past positive, past negative, present negative (powerless) present hedonistic, present holistic, future positive, future negative, future transcendent. Our sense of time influences how we experience past present and future, our conversations, goals, etc. You always have a choice and ability and tools to decide if that’s working and if not, to change it.
• Money – Money is condensed life force and is what make life possible. Time is created by consciousness not the clock. Money was give to spiritual persuasions so there would be more time to pray.
So, what does all that mean? We got pretty deep into quantum physics, for me time comes down to my trying (often unsuccessfully) to not let it run my life. I continually discover that when I rush to get a timeline met, the timeline had no meaning anyway, but the rushing created a somewhat wasteful flow of energy in the form of stress. The adage “don’t sweat the small stuff” could probably be updated to “don’t sweat it, period.” Time “speeds up” when we will it to speed up
As to the meaning of suffering and tragedy, first, the timing for the question is fabulous. The tragedies of this past week were horrific… the downing of the airliner, the ground invasion of Gaza after weeks of rockets fired on Israel. When I’m able to get outside of the awfulness and my empathic reaction to it. I try to remember that our lives are only temporary on this planet, that we are all imperfect, and that perfection is waiting for us (The Sufis consider God’s gift that awaits us as Love, Harmony, and Beauty… Love where we individually experience grace with each other, harmony resulting from the grace, and beauty being the full manifestation of love and harmony. The tragedies are a reminder of our imperfection and how far removed for love, harmony and beauty we are, and a powerful message for each of us to seek peace through love and harmony.
Thanks for the thoughtful questions… they are very challenging and just the kind I need to consider more frequently than I have lately.
Love you, Webb.
Tom