CHAPTER 6 God is Everything? We jumped into the Chapter, and plunged into the ocean. Bo did a triple somersault, but I belly-flopped in face first. I held my breath as I sank down. I tried to struggle to the surface, but then I noticed I was floating. Actually, I was sailing along a wave. Well, to be precise, I was a wave roaring on the ocean. How did it feel to be a wave? Cold, wet and full of energy and excitement. It felt kind of good. "Jack, is that you?" the wave next to me gasped. "I think so. Is that you, Bo?" "Yeah. What's going on? I think we turned into water." And then I remembered reading in college about the wave and the ocean. "It's the old 'I'm a wave, I'm a wave' trick," I informed him. "The what trick? Look, Jack, hurry up and prove this thing so we can get out of here, would you. I didn't mind being conjured up in your dream as a human. It's kind of fun. There's all sorts of things to do. But a wave? It's not exactly the most swinging thing to be." "We're just waves to illustrate that God is Everything, and we are a part of God. You see, a wave rushes along saying, 'I am a wave, I am a wave,' and then it crashes on the shore and becomes a part of the ocean once again. Its identity as a wave disappears, but it becomes One with the ocean. Get it?" "Not really. All I see is the shore there, and we're about to become ONE!" We gasped as we crashed against the sandy beach. When I opened my eyes, we were lying face down in the sand, completely drenched to the bone. Bo was gasping for air, and I struggled to my feet. "Can't say as I like your dream that much, so far, Jack," Bo said, trying to catch his breath. And then some dancing girls jumped out of the bushes in front of us wearing nothing but grass skirts. Bo was suddenly quite happy to be in my dream. They danced past us one at a time, and each was carrying a placard which they flashed in front of us like flash cards. "GOD IS EVERYTHING," the first one said. "EVERYTHING THAT EVER WAS AND EVER WILL BE," the next one declared. "AN ULTIMATE REALITY" "A UNIVERSAL CONSCIOUSNESS" "THAT WAS UNABLE TO PERCEIVE ITSELF" "BECAUSE, BEING EVERYTHING, IT WAS ONE," "WITH NOTHING OUTSIDE OF IT," "AND NO WAY TO OBSERVE ITSELF." I felt like I was watching a foreign film. Bo, happily drooling beside me, wasn't paying any attention to the placards. "THAT ULTIMATE REALITY CREATED THE UNIVERSE" "OUT OF ITSELF," "AND SET IT IN MOTION," "AND IT CREATED LIVING CREATURES," "WHICH DEVELOPED THROUGH AN EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS," "INTO CREATURES WITH HIGHER AND HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESSES," "SO THAT THE ULTIMATE REALITY COULD PERCEIVE ITSELF." "THESE CREATURES WERE ITS SENSORY ORGANS" "AND IT LOOKED OUT THROUGH THEIR EYES" "AND EXPERIENCED ITSELF." The last of the girls dashed by. Now they dashed back with pom poms. "And so," they said in unison, lining up to form a pyramid as they climbed on top of each other. "God is not good." "God is not evil." "God is everything!" "YEAH!" they screamed, and tumbled to the ground. Then they turned into half-women, half-butterflies, and they fluttered around our heads for a moment before they flew up to the sun. "Come on, Jack," Bo giggled, and he grabbed my arm. "Let's follow them!" "You know, Bo," I scoffed, and I pulled away from him. "Sometimes you're a real pervert!" Bo looked hurt. "Hey, just remember, pal, I'm only what YOU made me!" I shrugged. "Anyway," Bo sighed. "The Chapter's floating over there. Go sign it, or whatever, and I'll be back in a second. I promise." I shrugged again, and watched Bo fly up into the air after the buxom beauties. I walked toward the pages, but I didn't really feel like I'd seen enough to make a decision, yet. This Eastern stuff always sounded so interesting in college, but I never totally understood what it was really all about. And anyway, before I got there, I passed a movie theater, and you'll never guess what movie was playing. "GOD IS EVERYTHING." I'd never seen it either, but of course, it didn't sound like one I should wait to rent on video. There wasn't anyone selling tickets out in front, but I found a pass on the ground, and walked inside. The place was deserted. But all the lights were on, and when I looked up at the Time Schedule I saw that it said, "JUST ABOUT TO START!" in blinking neon letters. I hurried in through the doors and squinted in the darkness. I couldn't see a thing, but I stumbled along until I was just far enough away from the screen. Then I sat down, hoping I wasn't sitting in anyone's lap. The movie had started. It was just a regular old love story about some guy and some lady. But as I sat there in the darkness, I forgot I was there, and I felt myself vicariously living through the characters on the screen. Then I blinked, and I was just me sitting in the chair, watching. Every time I blinked it was like turning a switch on and off. I'd be somewhere far away, living vicariously through someone else, and I'd blink and become me in the theater, with a vague feeling that I'd just been somewhere else. I started to laugh, and blinked it on and off and off and on. The projector speeded up and I was living through more and more "stories" -- hundreds, thousands, millions, billions... And then I noticed that something was watching through me... "OK, OK. I get it," I gasped, shaking my head wildly to try and clear the fog in my brain, and I jumped out of my chair and turned to face the stream of light that came out of the projector. "So, God's this ultimate consciousness that looks out through our lives and experiences everything through us. I get it, sort of." To be honest, I didn't totally understand. But then, I'm only human, right? The lights went out. I was alone. Really alone. Completely alone. There was only ME. Nothing else. Just ME. I WAS EVERYTHING. I would have felt billions and billions and trillions of living things stirring in me. Except I wasn't physical. I didn't have a brain, and neurons and synapses and sense organs. I just WAS. So, I didn't feel anything for forever. Or, I don't know how long. Anyway, eventually I noticed there were these little threads of light -- of course I couldn't see them -- but they stretched from each of the consciousnesses of each of the living things into me -- this ultimate consciousness that was EVERYTHING. And I flowed through those threads and suddenly I was experiencing life through somebody's eyes. It felt wonderful. It FELT wonderful. I could feel. Then the person became submerged in what he was doing -- his body was on automatic pilot -- and we didn't "feel" anything, until he paused a second, and a flash of self-reflective consciousness burst like a pulse, and we felt what he had just been doing. At the same time this was happening, I was floating down a billion, billion other threads, living through all those other consciousnesses. I was people, and trees, and fish, and animals, and then I felt something shaking me violently, and I opened my eyes. "Gee whiz, Jack. You were like in a trance, or something," Bo was saying. I stared blankly up at him. "Huh?" "What are you doing here in this theater?" Bo asked. I scratched my head, only half-remembering a tiny part of the wonders I had experienced. "I guess I was feeling what it would be like to be EVERYTHING." "Oh, yeah. How did it feel?" "I'm not sure. I only felt it when I was looking at it all through someone's eyes." Bo rolled his eyes at me. "That Eastern mumbo-jumbo again. I am a wave, and all that crap." "Yeah." "So, what's your conclusion, professor?" "Huh? Oh. I'm not sure. Sounds possible, I guess. It sort of explains what consciousness is. I think." "You think. You guess. Jack, what are you going to write?" "I guess I'll put 'Possible,' for now. But there is one thing that's bothering me. If there is a god, even just an ultimate consciousness that is EVERYTHING, then it is a purposeful universe. That is, this ultimate consciousness created matter with the purpose of experiencing itself." "Uh, huh...so the theory goes..." Bo shrugged. "Well..." I began, scratching my head as I thought this through. "Why would it have created this universe where matter and energy follow these particular rules -- you know, where the basis of life is competition and not cooperation. I mean if it wanted to experience itself, why do things have to kill each other to survive. I mean consciousness has to cease in an organism, for other organisms to remain conscious. It seems contradictory..." "Well," Bo offered. "What if this were just one of an infinite number of universes that exist within this Ultimate Consciousness of yours. All based on different rules and structures. All with various degrees of success in experiencing the Oneness of Everything. Not that I'm a believer in this Everythingness and All is One stuff, you understand, of course..." "Hmm...well, since it does offer an explanation of consciousness, I suppose I can't rule it out. Not until I can examine the scientific view of consciousness a little closer. I guess I'd better just put 'POSSIBLE' down for now." "All right, well let's get going." We walked out of the theater towards the Chapter. "Why are you in such a hurry?" I asked as we were almost there. "And what happened with you and those girls?" "I don't know. They called me a Bodisatva, or something like that, and said I wasn't doing a very good job, and they turned their noses up at me and flew away. You got yourself one crazy dream, here, bub." I had to agree. "So, what's this Bodisatva crap. Should I be offended?" We reached the Chapter, and the pencil was waiting for me. "A Bodisatva is a spirit guide that is supposed to help steer a person toward enlightenment," I mumbled absently while I wrote 'POSSIBLE' in the blank. "Oh," Bo sighed. "How am I doing?" I gave him a wry smile. "What do you think?" He grumbled. "Well, it's your fault. It's your dumb dream!" "Don't worry about it!" I laughed as Chapter 6 floated up towards Chapter 3. We looked up. They made such a lovely couple. I put my arm around Bo. "Come on, old pal. Cheer up. I like you just fine." Bo sighed and looked ahead. "Look, we must have finished the first section." Another Page floated up to greet us. "PART TWO: WHO ARE WE? AND IS IT OVER WHEN IT'S OVER?" We turned the page to Chapter 7. Chapters 3 and 6 were right behind us. Table of Contents | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter