The Holistic Ontology of Jesus Christ: Part 2 - The Natural Flow

Cradled by the arms of amorphous darkness lies not a quiet abyss, but the collective noise of infinite possibilities. Like the quantum vacuum*, which is void of tangible form - inherent within the principle of nothingness is the potential for everything. As a whole, it’s conceptually inexpressible - yet it’s a cacophony in which the discerning ear extracts and structures the tones that comprise our human story. Each of these notes emerge with a differing swell of emotion, yet all resound from the same vibrational source. As these disparate melodies interact, they form the harmonies and discord embedded within the dynamic time signature that reverberates across our collective mind. In fact, there is a sense of that which is both preeminent and perennial residing within the very structure of this rhythm. Precipitating the song of physicality is the interior meaning which informs it, and to listen intently is to unveil the natural flow which guides it.

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*In quantum field theory, the quantum vacuum state (also called the quantum vacuum or vacuum state) is the quantum state with the lowest possible energy. Generally, it contains no physical particles. (wikipedia.com)

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“And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”

Genesis 1: 2-3 (KJV)

As each day begins, it does so through the luminous prism of sunrise. While such is a universal phenomenon, it is one which unfolds in a multitude of perspectives based upon one’s localized circumstances. In fact, the ubiquitous reality of the sunrise may not always seem so to the observer hiding behind the diffusion of cloud cover. Still, there’s an inherent majesty in the warm greeting our sun extends as it peers just over the horizon. As the spectra of light diffracts delicately across the landscape of our psyche, it confides in us a moment of stillness and serenity - a moment which is undeniably beautiful but indescribably so. Certainly, empiricism can explore why the sun’s position allows it to emanate so brazenly; or how atmospheric contents can aid in either splitting or obfuscating a gamut of color; however, such does not divulge the entire story. While insightful, the wholly rational approach inevitably fails to capture that which is felt in the heart of the observer. Therein lies deeper experiential meaning through which the fullness of a reality exists behind a narrow window of expression. As the sun rears its head, the illumination serves as our consciousness revealing the measured form of reality in a moment that beckons the observer to dwell fully within. The movement of this source also transforms the perspective from which we observe the familiar in a delicate ballet of shadow and light. This dance unveils a greater drama in the story of each form it caresses and it does so with an unapologetic boldness that not only discloses physicality in a new light, but one which divides its own essence into varying expressions of color. In fact, while one may perceive a carefully orchestrated palette of amber and magenta, what they are gazing upon is nothing more than the undivided singularity of light itself.

The moment of twilight is a potent expression of natural order. Such is the visible stroke of God’s hand upon the cyclical functioning of the earth. His morning aurora bears the promise of a new day as it initiates a sequence of moments in which boundless potential is waiting to be collapsed into the measurable intricacies of expression. As the sun charts this story, it finds itself impregnated with a tenderness of light and warmth which vows to nourish the living systems of our biosphere. Its appearance establishes a dialogue between us and our environment, and as it does so it punctuates one of our reality’s most forefront and inescapable symbols - that of time itself. 

It could be said that time is life’s greatest commodity, yet it’s a construct that’s neither fundamental nor one which contains permanence. Such is dynamic and symbolic - opposite of one’s associations with the deterministic functioning of a clock. Rather, time unfolds with an ebb and flow - quickening with physical maturity and collapsing through mindful discipline. Through the lens of modern physics, space-time itself ceases to contain operational value when measured at thirty three orders of magnitude smaller than one centimeter and forty three orders of magnitude smaller than one second. This suggests that space-time is an emergent property of a more fundamental reality; and in a top-down framework, we can posit that such is a projection of consciousness itself. In fact, the study of quantum physics only serves to reinforce this portrait. Such renders the tale of a dynamic, probabilistic, and entangled cosmos whose very structure is a holographic representation of fractal patterns. Given this reality of iterative and self similar complexity, time plays an integral role in the evolution of the information contained within. Time exists as a catalyst for process and order, facilitating transformation in the form of growth and deterioration which are themselves two divergent expressions of the same process fractal. In essence, time is an icon of ordered meaning itself - through which repetitions are instrumental to conditioning behavioral patterns. Within this actionable litany, we can perceive the system of values and meaning a living body chooses to nurture and thereby proliferate. In fact, it is through time and with time that one is forced to prioritize transformative processes and the fruits which they yield.

“And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.”

Genesis 1: 31 (KJV)

The study of our living world continues to weave a narrative of endless complexity, fine-tuning, and interconnectedness. While this has been intuitively held by the wisdom traditions of our past, it remains a story which science is only beginning to scratch the surface of. As we peer deeper through the inseparable threads of the cosmos, we can find that both spiritual intuition and empirical observation reveal an embedded perfection within the natural flow of creation. While such is an ostensibly bold notion, the exploration of this order illustrates that all facets of a living body contain substantial and imperative purpose. Gone is the dogma that a person utilizes only ten percent of their brain or that most strands of DNA are merely “Junk DNA”. Scientific rigor has inevitably dispelled such reductionist falsehoods held by the narrow observations of our former Newtonian worldview. In fact, the purpose ingrained in reality is notable in more than just the perceptually positive. Such is evident in all our encompassing polarities which are themselves integral to the flow in their inseparability from each other. There is a transcendent unity through which we can see the purpose in death just as in life or in night just as in day. 

Regarding the natural flow of creation, it could be said that its perfection in purpose is derived from the A priori pattern of agape*. It is through this irreducible and divine love that living systems optimally function in a cooperative and harmonious manner. Such is the order that seeks balance amongst polarities while moving coherently according to the holism of all things. We could refer to this flow as a symbiotic evolution, which is a far cry from the competitive tenets of neo-darwinian thought. The latter emerge from a materialistic framework which is itself derivative of man misconstruing symbolic and binary expressions of the classical world for an ultimate depiction of reality. In fact, this is part of man’s unique condition which is that he’s not only a conscious being, but aware of his conscious nature. In this way he exists as a meta cognitive and individual expression of a greater whole of which he has the free will and capacity to reject. His failure to recognize the totality and indivisibility of being is both a consequence of and prerequisite to the patterns of a deviating reductionist order. This principle is rendered quite profoundly in the array of creation stories which document such a descent into self awareness. The book of Genesis illustrates this through a narrative that recounts a prideful and premature grasping for knowledge - one which facilitated man’s recognition and shame of his own nakedness. In a similar vein, the early Christian Apocryphon of John explores the birth of divergent materialism through “The Crisis that Became the World”. Within its poetic structure is the depiction of how a narrow expression of ego driven thought divulges chaos upon reality. Through differing linguistic traditions, these stories also emphasize an imbalance of the feminine and masculine polarities of consciousness, such that their disharmony precipitates expressions of incoherence and disarray.

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Agape (/ɑːˈɡɑːpeɪ, ˈɑːɡəˌpeɪ, ˈæɡə-/;[1] from Ancient Greek ἀγάπη (agápē)) is "the highest form of love, charity" and "the love of God for [human beings] and of [human beings] for God".[2] This is in contrast to philia, brotherly love, or philautia, self-love, as it embraces a profound sacrificial love that transcends and persists regardless of circumstance. (wikipedia.com)

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“Because she had unconquerable Power

Her thought was not unproductive.

Something imperfect came out of her

Different in appearance from her.

Because she had created it without her masculine counterpart

She gave rise to a misshapen being unlike herself.

Sophia saw what her desire produced.

It changed into the form of a dragon with a lion’s head”

Apocryphon of John, Early Christian/Apocryphal Gospel

   The emergence of ego as expressed through its pride, desire, and attachment functions as an integral component in the condition of suffering. The inflated self stands in stark contrast to the natural flow of God’s way and remains the impetus of separation between man and the garden. The bible’s expression of this primordial heaven exudes natural imagery and is itself representative of the quantum biological functioning of our very being. Man’s pride, however, precedes an unquenchable thirst for control through which he re-forms such functioning into his own fragmented image. The execution of this principle always focuses on the perceived improvement of a part without considering the whole, and this worldly precedent of reductionism informs an entire hierarchy of values manifest in one’s physical reality. Curiously enough, such is no more evident than it is in the very epicenter of our societal structure today - technology.

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

John 3: 6 (KJV)

Merriam-Webster defines technology as a practical application of knowledge especially in a particular area. This depiction alone draws immediate contrast with dynamic holism as it implies a reductionist execution of capability. Conversely, natural growth processes are multidisciplinary and take time to unfold - a story in which submission and patience are implicated as the patterns necessary to be the beneficiary of growth itself. Technology, however, carries an implicit disregard for the function of time as it exists to expedite the means to an end via a deviation from natural order. It could be stated that man’s investment in technology is itself an exercise of pride in knowledge as an exertion of control upon the natural world. In our top-down reality, the ideological pattern behind the invention of a technology is physically represented by the technology - which is manifest in its function as well as its structure. For instance, a machine is built from independent and separable parts which constitute the whole of the system when arranged properly. In this way, its physical structure is reductionist in nature. In the case of a computer, all of its processes are deterministic and can be distilled to binary bits of information toggled by individual voltages. Other technologies, such as pharmaceuticals, are created to address symptoms (or parts) of a larger body and such a design asserts a function that is reductionist in nature. In this way, there is no true separation of the interior and the exterior as they both express the same patterns. 

“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.”

1 John 2:15-17 (KJV)

The ministry of Jesus Christ is one which acted in aversion to man’s deflection while embodying submission to natural order through humility, compassion, and service. Throughout His ministry, Jesus spoke against worldly pursuits; but what those entail are far more than mere hedonism. In this framework, they are anything derived from the patterns of self servitude, preservation, and indulgence. (Otherwise known as Satanism) They are ways of being that narrow mindedly attend to parts while neglecting the whole. In this light, our technocentrism is itself a “pride of life”, even when intention doesn’t align with consequence. In a symbolic ontology informed by our quantum nature, the ideologies we harbor manifest themselves physically. Therefore, when reductionist practice is syncretised with the holistic structure of our biology, there is resulting chaos in our very functioning. The result of this pattern is illness, which carries a multitude of expressions in our lives, but none greater than the pinnacle of bodily incoherence itself - cancer.

"Matter [gave birth to] a passion that has no image because it comes from what's contrary to nature. Then confusion arises in the whole body. That's why I told you to be content at heart. If you're discontented, find contentment in the presence of the various images of nature. Anyone who has ears to hear should hear!" 

Mary, Early Christian/Apocryphal Gospel

There’s a hierarchical parallel between the concept of cancer and technology as expressed within the context of our culture and history. Biologically, cancer is represented as the uncontrollable growth of damaged or old cells within a body. In essence, it’s the fractal proliferation of a destructive pattern which no longer serves the whole of a complex system. In that same vein, technology has grown exponentially between every subsequent generation to the point that we can now perceive a total reshaping of societal structure within shorter and shorter timeframes. Through the agricultural, industrial, and information revolutions - our timeline divulges a growth that is not steady, but rather compounding. Such is evident in Moore’s Law (an observation by Gordon E. Moore in 1965), which found this growth in the biennial doubling of components on microprocessors. With this multiplication of computational power has come an inextricable linking to amplified resource mining and energy consumption as well. In fact, Moore’s observation remains true sixty years later and such a phenomenon is not only evident in computing technologies, but in our entire interrelated web of being. 

As we terraform our cultural landscape through innovation, such becomes a mirror of the ideology behind the innovation itself. One need only look at inventions such as the light bulb, the automobile, or the cell phone - all of which have become self perpetuating facets of our growth today. Each initiated as no more than mere novelty, but once embraced, embedded themselves within societal structure. As an idea becomes ingrained within a larger system, it informs all proceeding patterns of that system itself. In other words, our society as a whole is constructed around that which we orient ourselves toward. Orientation toward a specific technology in turn signifies an orientation toward the values behind its creation. Such precipitates a hierarchical chain of patterns based on those values themselves. In the modern day, productivity is predicated on the existence of artificial light, municipalities are wholly arranged around automobile access, and daily commerce centers on cellular transactions. Furthermore, such are not mutually exclusive and become entwined with each other in every facet of civilization. The day to day functioning of society holds these technologies in the highest regard and thus necessitates their use. All succeeding economic, agricultural, political, social, and even religious systems are then informed by these same ideological patterns and in turn propagate them further. Such is a shining example of a fractal growth process that branches across all scales of our reality. For the individual, willing or not, these innovations become an inescapable imperative to living itself. 

“The eye is the lamp of the body; so then, if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

Matthew 6: 23-24 (NASB)

The technology of our day is an emblem of man’s self crowning. Rather than succumbing to the natural flow, it desires to impose a deviating will. Born of a self aggrandizing doctrine, it’s a reductionist expression of reductionist thought which self perpetuates unsustainably. Such has directly influenced the metastization of illness within our collective body, and in a symbolic framework, there is no principled distinction between the biological cancer of an individual and the technological cancer of a society. They are interrelated in a manner where each informs the other and both exist as expressions of the same interior value hierarchy. On a macro level, technological cancer has broad effects on the integrity of our soil, water, and air. Through transforming our environment, such becomes causal to the development of biological cancer on the micro level. In recognition of the problem at this scale, society reacts by turning back to human innovation as a method of treatment. Through its narrow focus such can be remarkably effective at alleviating a symptom, but as a whole it perpetuates the destructive feedback loop at large. In this light, it remains a fractal proliferation of the fall of man. 

There's an embedded irony in the application of knowledge to simply and commodify aspects of our life. For every part that’s made simpler, the whole becomes infinitely more complicated. We live in a world where clear, authentic, and human connection has been rendered exceedingly difficult - and such is not despite the ease of communication, but rather because of it. It’s no wonder that modern society is enveloped by a pervasive sense of anxiety and nostalgia. It could not be more evident than in the very cultural fabrications permeating our landscape. Such is an inherent recognition of the overarching chaos derived from a deviation of the natural. In turn we’ve developed an innate desire to revert to a perceptual simplicity. In this way we cling to the idea of our former patterns prior to their uncontrollable branching. We hold to the past and the constructs which preceded our overwhelming anxieties, despair, and physical ailments. In the end, however, there is a continued and exponential degradation of our culture since our recursive conditioning fails to deviate from the ideological precedent.

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.”

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (KJV)

As the cyclical sun wakes in the morning and takes refuge in the evening, it demonstrates the duality of expression evident within a singular phenomenon. There is a symphony of light and dark which balances the major and minor - a dichotomy of starkly divergent chords born of the same instrument and process. The warm saturation of day contrasts with the cool expanse of night, though natural order does not distinguish between such as they are part of its perpetual transformative flow. In a chaotic world, the preeminence of this order will ultimately restore balance to the cosmos; though, the further we stray, the greater the perceptual flood that will follow. There’s a reason Jesus taught that in all things we must act in love and service to each other; as He knew that for man to return to the garden it is the only viable path forward. 

Through the impermanence of our reality, we must realize there truly is only the here and now. For us to embrace the natural flow, we must humbly, mindfully, and curiously live in each moment that’s given. It is within each instant that we ought to aspire for the integration of our voice into a more perfect harmony - a sound which mirrors the emanation of Christ Himself. As we dissolve into this greater melody, we find that our voice is not lost in the fray, but rather lifted into a much fuller identity. In the process, we may just find ourselves reconnecting with the universal silence which underscores the song itself - and in doing so, we may also find ourselves just a little bit closer to home.

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Romans 12:2 (NASB)