Space is the dark invisible emptiness, yet it is the source of the visible. A tall tree that is visible from miles away has its source of life in the invisible root deep underground. Every visible object has its invisible counterpart, the theory of yin and yang at play.
Ancient wisdom traditions say that the fundamental property of universe is motion and the place where motion takes place is defined as space. Space is where thunder happens and light shines. Modern science say space is filled with quantum particles like quarks and leptons. These subatomic particles evolve into atoms, atoms into molecules, molecules into cells, cells into tissues, tissues into organs, and organs into a body.
Space is the medium and the underlying structure on which forms and shapes arises just like waves arise in the medium of ocean water. In fact, we are encouraged to imagine space as akin to water with waves of energy moving in unfathomable speeds that our senses cannot detect. But we can detect space with our mental sense, the sixth sense, by inferences. Space is empty and difficult to measure. We can only define something that is immeasurable through inferences and that’s exactly what the modern scientists do, they measure the existence of particles in space by inferential mathematical calculations.
Space is a place where information is stored
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Consciousness is the point where information is realized.
Therefore, realization of information or cognition or knowing (gnosis) of information is space. The act of knowing creates space. The value of information is in the meaning. Information is abstract but meaning is extracted out of this abstractness. In the same way space is abstract but carry meaning and information.
Consciousness is a point of awareness and a creative potency, a pristine awareness unclouded by any thoughts. It is an open dimension, an empty space that has intelligence and information. Many philosophers have said that thought carries creative power, that the mind is the organ of creation and thought is the force of creation. That’s true but what they didn’t tell you is that thoughts are only the vehicle by which creation happens, the real creator is the consciousness. Thoughts are messengers that carry information from consciousness to be presented to the lower frequency domains of creation viz: pressure (gas), heat (plasma), condensation (liquid), and crystallization (solid). Mind translates non-physical energy of consciousness into physical tangible electrical currents in the brain. These electrical currents are experienced as thoughts by a person. The electrical current is then translated into chemical messengers and hormones which excites the gene codes in the DNA to create proteins and cells to carry out various functions of the body. Thought is simply an electrical current that controls functions of body just as electrical currents control functions of a computer. Thought is not the original creative force, consciousness is. In other words, a thought is a worker while consciousness is the boss.
Consciousness creates reality by giving meaning to an otherwise neutral electromagnetic energy ready to be molded into anything one wishes. The power of consciousness lies in intention and decision, when you consciously decide on something, that is how it turns out to be. If you don’t decide consciously, then your default unconscious memory takes over and decides for you, at that point you have become a machine run by an operating system of unconscious memories like a computer.
Consciousness is pure and total presence, the primordial innate intelligence that is spontaneous and synchronous, unlike thoughts which are cumulative and repetitive. Consciousness is the original desire to know, to know the self. Animals are lesser in consciousness because they don’t have the desire to know themselves, they are instead focused on others.
Tibetans define consciousness with three words;
- Ngowo (essence)
- Rangzin (nature)
- Thugje (energy)
The essence of consciousness is empty like space, the nature of consciousness is clear and luminous like light, and energy of consciousness is the union of polarities between positive and negative energies.
Modern science defines consciousness as an emergent phenomenon, i.e. different subsystems of neurons in the brain firing together produce an altogether new phenomenon of consciousness. Ancient science, on the other hand, says brain is a receiver that taps into the reservoir information in the space.
Space is abstract and dark but space is also endowed with light of intelligence which gives meaning to things e.g. space between these letters and words you are reading gives meaning and provide identity to a group of letters as words and group of words as sentences. Without space between letters and words, everything becomes an unintelligent jumbled mess. Intelligence is consciousness, a rock is not intelligent because there is no space for consciousness there.
The essence of space is information and intelligence. The word “information” is derived from Latin informare which means to provide form or to provide shape to things. Space provide information and blueprints to construct forms and shapes.Ancient science says space is like a string, a subtle and elastic string that vibrates. Ancient Indians say space contain three Gunas, translated variously as strings, virtue, quality, attribute etc. Modern physics has string theory that claims to explain the universe. Another way to put it is; space contain strings of information like DNA particles that can be translated into proteins and shapes. Space has electromagnetic (EM) energy and EM frequencies carry information, lower frequencies are used for radio communication and higher frequencies for x-rays. Some scientists call this morphogenetic field where morpho– means form and genesis– means to give birth. Space is a field which gives birth to forms just as a real field gives birth to crops.
Space is the most important element for health. Health needs space just as an artist needs blank spaces to make her art beautiful or a musician needs space in between each musical note to make harmonic music. The best way to increase space is to practice attention and awareness. Start by paying attention to the mind itself rather than thoughts. Thoughts are like objects that appear and disappear like virtual particles that appear and disappear or like clouds that appear and disappear in empty sky. Consciousness is like the sky and thoughts are like clouds. Thoughts are things and therefore the more you think the more you crowd out the space and consciousness. When you look at your mind, you find nothing, just emptiness. To increase space, one must look at the emptiness of mind itself.
When space is lacking, bad things happen. People start fighting when quarantined in a limited space. Lack of space cause friction and distress. Distress occurs when there is change in the flow and rhythm of life; a sudden change in life situations such as illness, loss of job, loss of desired object or a person, change in daily routine, and even traffic congestion or running late for a meeting etc. Traumatic stress is experienced in extreme situations like life threatening accidents, natural disasters, wars, etc. Too much of anything becomes stressful such as information overload. Internet becomes a source of distress if you do not know how to manage information. Facing danger and obstacles on the path of life is stressful. Thinking about something bad happening and worrying about it is stressful. We can blame on circumstances and situations, but we must also admit that most stress is created by our own thoughts running out of control, thinking about things that never happens or making myriad plans in our minds that never come to fruition. All these distressful situations happens due to lack of space.
Distress is felt as a negative emotion, a feeling of pressure, tension, or friction, a feeling of limitation and lack of space. Stress hormone cortisol has been linked to emotions of fear and depression. Hormone adrenaline is linked to emotions of fear and anger. Stress is a response to the emotion of fear which brings forth feelings of disapproval and rejection. Most stressors are mental in origin, mostly in the form of negative thoughts. One negative thought begets another, and a snowball effect leads to huge unsurmountable problematic thoughts. Negative thoughts come from negative beliefs or negative definition of circumstances. Prolonged stress response shuts down the immune system making one susceptible to all kinds of infections and attacks from foreign organisms and objects, even a pinprick will not heal easily. Stress shuts down the healing mechanism of the body. Therefore, learning how to deal with stress intelligently and sensibly is important for health.
Keep in mind that not all stress is bad. There are two kinds of stresses, one is a good kind called eustress, the other is the bad kind called distress. Eustress happens when you feel little pressure in full consciousness; for example, when you are pushing the limit of endurance during exercise, even though your body is feeling the pressure, you know you can handle it and push through, that’s eustress. Because you are conscious, you are able to increase space and take in more energy. Distress is the opposite which cause resistance and breakage. When a drunkard falls, he doesn’t get hurt because he is oblivious and falls without resistance. But, when a sober person falls, he tries to resist the fall and break his bone in the process. Distress is handled by not resisting and fighting with it, instead to give it more space and let it flow through.
A little stress in life is good, it keeps one tuned to the beat of existence like a tightened and tuned musical cord that makes harmonious sound. If the cord is too lax or too tight, the sound comes out distorted and distressful. A little bit of stress hormone, norepinephrine, is needed for active awareness otherwise we may fall asleep or get depressed. Balance is the key. It takes a little stress, a little straightening to pay attention and be aware. Being in the moment and being aware of everything that is going on around is being with your consciousness and space. Be mindful of the awareness factor, that’s the key.