They were looking at a pineapple

“How unlikely it is” remarked one

“Yes,” responded the other, "but so is everything"

This is the experience of the mystic. Everything is felt as unlikely, as magical, as mysterious. Things are seen through innocent eyes, the eyes of a child, new in the world, where everything is rather unknown, to be explored. There is a curiosity, a longing to discover what is, in this magnificent world that surrounds us, the world outside and the world inside.

In case you think this naïve, this attitude to existence, that it is magical and mysterious, think again. For a moment, forget everything you know. For a moment, step outside the universe and ask yourself how likely is it that anything exists at all? It seems to me that nothingness is infinitely more likely than something existing, than anything existing. There is no reason for existence, there is no justification for the universe, there is no likeliness, no likelihood that anything should exist and yet manifestly it does. Therein lies the basic mystery, the mystery of existence itself, and the rational mind can never find the cause, a reason for existence.

There is more, for even given that something exists, then diversity is yet another mystery. For the uniformity of somethingness is again much more likely than the manifest diversity that we see around us, the diversity of warmth, of shape, of colour, the diversity of texture and taste and smell, the diversity of sounds. The diversity of all that we perceive is a miracle.

There is more again, for not only does diversity exist spatially, but in time too there is diversity which we call change, changeability. Everything is changing, everything is in a state of flux, sometimes smooth, flowing, sometimes chaotic and sudden. The change too is a part of the mysterious existence, the great mystery of the universe, of life. And these three aspects of existence – its somethingness and its diversity in time and space – no rational explanation of these will ever be possible. Of course, once these three aspects of existence have come into being, then the scientist can take over and show connections, patterns, explain one change in terms of another. But underneath it all is a mystery, the great mystery of existence. If we start to feel this we will feel it everywhere, we will feel it in the vastness of the cosmos and in the tiniest grain of sand. And one thing is for sure, we will feel this mystery in a pineapple.