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So, where is HERE? Our very need to affirm things, to have them explained and understood, betrays an inherent doubt built into the human psyche. It indicates that we are driven by a fundamental uncertainty. We tend to appease it with various self-assuring schemes and simplifications.
We rarely really wonder what underlies all that which we face, what unknown context surrounds the world we know. We do not reflect much on how widely divergent may be the significance of our aims, efforts, and accomplishments in light of those unknown and external factors.
One thing is certain: reality stretches out further than our knowledge. The portion of Reality which is accessible to us signifies what it does because of a particular relationship it happens to share with that portion of Reality which remains unknown.
The Ultimate Reality is that the nature of Ultimate Reality will remain unknown to us for now. Given this, only such pursuits should be undertaken which we are prepared to give up at any instant. Having no objective knowledge, one is free to use his subjective criteria to choose or to not to choose at will. We don't know where HERE really is!
I postulate Unity with my background. I am of the Universe, not removed from it. I am thus fundamentally compatible with it. Whatever its primary Nature, I too must reflect it. I am a constituent of everything. Therefore, to ascertain meaning, I seek the broadest spectrum of connectedness with all that which surrounds me, with the vast UNIVERSE UNKNOWN!
The self is a part of all existence. Whatever characterizes ALL EXISTENCE also characterizes the SELF.
We tend to equate what follows from the sum total of our individual life experience with THE COMPLETE EXISTENCE. To many of us it is all there is. With that we construct our mental representations of reality and go on about the business of living unperturbed by any further need to question or probe.
And yet, at any given time, we are in contact with only a small portion of THE TOTAL REALITY. Even to the most learned (or blessed) amongst us, its glimpse is ever transient, changing and fragmentary. A Mind may either align with THE ENTIRETY, or focus selectively on any of its parts. No matter how broad or narrow its focus, the Mind will ordinarily assume the level of reality within its grasp to be all-inclusive – despite its incompleteness. It must be trained not to do so!
As THE WORLD KNOWN fades from view, THE WORLD UNKNOWN stretches beyond. THE COMPLETE REALITY is defined by a relationship between the two. Value of the Ultimate Reality can be given by a ratio of all that which is known to all that which is not known. This ratio, of course, can not be ascertained.
That which constitutes our immediate and discernible surroundings exists embedded within that which is distant and removed. The local plane is what it is, because of the nature of the realms unknown that extend beyond it.
The WORLD KNOWN is a bubble suspended in the WORLD UNKNOWN. As we accumulate more and more empirical knowledge, the bubble grows and the boundary between the two worlds expands, but THE UNKNOWN never really diminishes - in fact it only reveals its vastness, as it is pushed further back. In the end it remains a constant.
No matter how advanced our knowledge, we can never know whether THE WORLD KNOWN constitutes 1% of THE ENTIRETY, or 99%.
The knowledge of person (A) may be 10 or 20 times that of person (B). However, no matter how limited or extensive either person's knowledge, it will eventually run into THE UNKNOWN.
Comparing to THE UNKNOWN is like comparing to infinity, or dividing by zero. It will not yield a definite value. Thus, both (A) and (B) have an equal claim to ABSOLUTE KNOWLEDGE. It is really our common ignorance with respect to things ultimate that renders us equal.
Descriptions of the concrete reality, based on science and examination of parts, are ever changing, ever outdating and ever subject to revisions, depending on the momentary state of our empirical knowledge. They fail to provide for any formulations with respect to all that, which is not accessible to direct scrutiny. In so failing, they implicitly negate factors which surely exist, and exert a potentially unlimited impact on the very reality that such descriptions purport to reflect. At the most, they describe a fragment without placing it in any context.
No matter how well we manage to explore the empirical world, no matter how far we advance our knowledge and control of the immediate physical reality, we shall never know what larger, underlying conditions precede it and make it possible.
Our KNOWABLE EXISTENCE is incomplete and conditional. Depending on what is contained within THE UNKNOWN, infinitely divergent rules may apply, and not knowing which ones really do, we are forever without an objective basis for upholding any rational adaptive posture, and ultimately, without means of discernment.
The fundamental conditions underlying subatomic particles determine the nature of all subsequent, more complex creations. If these conditions were to change, the world as we know it would be profoundly altered and reorganized. All complex structures would surely disintegrate. How stable and enduring are these most "micro" of conditions?
Likewise on the "macro" level. How can we be sure of anything at all, given a potentially infinite number of possibilities with respect to a larger, external environment, one within which our KNOWABLE EXISTENCE is embedded? If it were to change, incalculable corrections and restructurings would inevitably ensue on all known levels of existence.
No matter how much we learn, we can never know what underlies the smallest constituents, currently defined as the most basic building blocks for all secondary structures.
Similarly, we can never know what larger context surrounds our very latest and all-inclusive, most rigorously scientific or most spectacularly imaginative model of ALL THINGS.
Thus, the eternal doubt is always with us as to the primary conditions that underlie and precede both the micro and the macro extremes.
We are not in Communion with GOD. We are separate from THE COMPLETE KNOWLEDGE. Only a small fraction of THE UNKNOWN may in fact be composed of THINGS CONCEIVABLE. The significance of THE UNKNOWN remains AN ABSOLUTE. We continue to be without answers concerning things most basic.
What really underlies reality can never be ascertained in the course of a human life. We remain totally subject to the power of the primary conditions, with no possibility of appreciably affecting the Universe in return.
We want to flee from this realization, so we advance various postulates about the "Natural Order" or "Divine Order" and then carry on accordingly, as though we knew the FINAL TRUTH. Any proposition is allowable, but it must remain at the mercy of time - conditional for its entire duration and ready to be stricken.
It is ever possible to maintain that a formulation presumed to be final depends for its continual validity on the unknown factors that lie beyond the scope of our current knowledge. Any formulation as to the final nature of THE WHOLE may be advanced as readily as its exact opposite. Both will be equally conditional, and both will ultimately rest on FAITH. Therefore FREEDOM.
Thus we know nothing - and that is something! THE UNKNOWN is a variable of potentially infinite relevance, capable of most profoundly altering the significance of THE WORLD WE KNOW.
Although totally unsure of our final condition, nevertheless, we can be certain of the momentary value of our subjective experience. An urgent question arises:
to what degree does our immediate reality reflect the ULTIMATE NATURE OF THINGS? is the small sample that we sense directly sufficient to warrant generalizing about the fundamental aspects of the whole Universe?
The question becomes an important one, if we seek survival in the most permanent sense.
By definition, there can not be any means of verifying THE UNKNOWN. The only pronouncements concerning THE ENTIRE REALITY that may be justifiably deemed adequate are those which recognize the presence of THE UNKNOWN as a constant factor.
Only such general formulations can be considered truly enlightened that are imbued with an appreciation of how inexhaustibly vast the pool of possibilities with respect to THE UNKNOWN really is, and how absolutely arbitrary must be any given selection that we make from within it. With these provisions, we may guess.
We may then reasonably assume that THE WORLD BEYOND OUR POWERS TO DISCERN constitutes a harmonious whole with THE WORLD KNOWN, and that both share certain fundamental properties and are subject to the same general laws. They really are ONE REALITY. It is just that our human means of discovery are limited, temporary and local. What will therefore ultimately prevail in our island of THINGS KNOWN must be consistent with the laws that govern ALL EXISTENCE!
Thus, in a properly dualistic fashion, THE UNKNOWN signifies a perfect constancy embedded in an infinite richness of possibilities. Although from our standpoint it MAY be anything at all, it really IS a specific something!
We cannot look God in the face, because God is THE UNKNOWN. This realization can serve as a starting point for all survival strategies. Acknowledging THE UNKNOWN as a permanent presence produces the necessity of forming a relationship with IT.
Humans are a part of Reality as much as anything else; their nature can be expected to be fundamentally compatible with that of the rest of EXISTENCE, either KNOWN or UNKNOWN. If we are of this Universe, we must have a place in the EXTENDED, COMPLETE REALITY. However, this may not always be plainly evident from its small fragment - THE WORLD KNOWN. Therefore FAITH.
A true atheist refuses to acknowledge THE UNKNOWN. He mistrusts it, and negates its potential significance. For all purposes, he fixes it at zero - at a definite, if arbitrary value. He is not entirely within his right to do so.
This simplifies his world, however, so he can limit his concerns strictly to operations within THE WORLD KNOWN. He then gives himself a free hand in all endeavor in the IMMEDIATE WORLD.
A person subscribing to one of the conventional religions acknowledges that THE WORLD KNOWN is not a complete Reality. In this realization he is already ahead of the atheist by far. He is moved by a desire to know the nature of the Ultimate Reality, the very one he is barred from knowing by definition. Within the framework of his religious dogma, he then attempts to create a comprehensive rendition of ONE and TRUE REALITY; a Reality with a place and meaning for a human subject - THE BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS.
He recognizes the value of forming a positive expectation with respect to THE UNKNOWN, one that would be meaningful from the standpoint of basic human longings and desires. Since anybody's guess is as good as any, he usually adopts the commonly prevailing religious dogma and then seeks to find it confirmed.
Thus, having acknowledged the existence of the Ultimate Reality as self-evident, he fails to acknowledge THE EVER-PRESENT UNCERTAINTY with respect to our UNDERSTANDING of IT. In other words, he too ascribes a definite if arbitrary value to THE UNKNOWN. In doing so, he too is not entirely within his right.
The irony of existence lies in the fact, that for any Human Being it is exclusively confined to his individual experience, and yet, its sum total inescapably leads to the realization of PRESENCE outside of it.
An evolved consciousness will contain a sense of its own incompleteness and will intuit that ALL THINGS KNOWN are conditional on ALL THINGS UNKNOWN.
If we refrain from soothing simplifications, with which we presume to explain away all phenomena of THE GREATER REALITY, we are forced to acknowledge that all things which either ARE KNOWN, or can reasonably be expected to BE KNOWN, do not add up to a complete, self-contained and final rendition of Existence. Elementary questions remain without answers; guessing and doubts abound - our knowledge is simply ever finite.
Of significance is the fact, that by means of various ideologies, religions, philosophies or empirically supported constructs, humans have always endeavored to uncover a single, integrally consistent interpretation of ONE, ALL-INCLUSIVE REALITY. We all seek the key, or the formula which would explain it all.
There is then an implicit idea, deeply embedded in the Human psyche, that the Reality has an ULTIMATE NATURE, and that this Nature can be known. It is significant, because this idea, as Universal as it is, does not, and cannot, find any support, or even the possibility of verification in the OBJECTIVE WORLD that surrounds us.
We sense our incompleteness and feel compelled to find our place in the surrounding context. A misguided way of going about it is to ascribe A SPECIFIC CONTENT OF CONCRETE IMAGES with respect to all that, which by definition can not be ascertained.
It leads to the worship of idols and sets the stage for endless conflicts among adherents of a potentially infinite number of possible systems of belief.
A better way might involve resisting the temptations to assign form to THE UNKNOWN. We may better chart our relationship with THAT, which extends beyond our powers to sense, perceive and grasp intellectually, by addressing IT as THE HIGHEST PRINCIPLE - purely abstract and yet commanding and primary for all subsequent things, either known or unknown.
If we find it within ourselves to place all our hope and trust in that unique concept - concept devoid of all form and concrete imagery, but symbolically representative of the primary and ever-lasting essence, we will liberate our captive minds from the tyranny of false self-identification. We will then shed the self-defeating assumption of supremacy of matter over the spirit. We will no longer hold a material form to be a necessary precondition and a vehicle for all subjective phenomena of consciousness.