matter & energy

Most of us live in a very material society, and this means we are not just chasing after material things, but we are seeing the world in a material way. We are seeing everything in terms of objects, as matter. But there is another view of the universe – one closer to perspective of physicists – and that is seeing the universe as energy.

Ordinarily, our mind, our thinking mind, finds it easier to think in terms of matter and of objects. This way, the mind can easily divide up the world into neat little parcels. We can form opinions, have judgements, value judgements, about the objects, each one somehow felt as being separate from the others. With this material view, we cannot progress far on the spiritual path, and at some point it is normal for us to swing to the other perspective; that of energy: feeling everything as energy, flowing, interconnected, not separate.

As energy, we cannot divide up the world so neatly, and without those divisions, judgements about one part become rather meaningless. So from the energy perspective, our value judgements tend to decrease. But this distinction between matter and energy is also of the mind: two different perspectives, laid on top of reality. And our journey is to take us to reality, to the direct perception of reality, to feeling every moment as real, directly. And this does not need the thinking mind. It does not need the perspective of matter or of energy.

So we can go beyond these ways of seeing the world through the mind. When we are living in the moment from our deepest being, we are part of existence, and it needs no labels. This is life – in us, around us, everywhere – felt directly, lived directly, without these labels, and without the distorting perspectives of the mind seeing things as matter or as energy.