sureness

A friend of mine (who in his own terms is somewhere between a skeptic and an absurdist) is concerned about my sureness. Of what am I so sure? Whatever words one uses to answer this question are immediately subject to attack. For example, I am sure I am here. Volumes can be and have been written on what "I" and "I am" and "here" mean. "I" have read and reflected upon many of them. I do not wish to replicate their arguments and counter-arguments here. In fact, the wisest course for me to take would be to say nothing at all, to keep silence and just be. But I write books and blogs. I am foolish. I speak up. I speak of what I am so sure.

I understand the game of science -- of hypotheses derived from theories, of hypothesis testing via experimentation, of statistical probabilities in weighing one's results, of open disclosure of one's findings to one's professional peers, of peer review and critique, of subsequent theory modification with newly formed hypotheses, and so on. I have played that game. Successfully. It is a good game with a major object being not to fool oneself. It promotes a certain kind of sureness. But this is not the sureness of which I speak.

"Science" means "knowing." The science I trust and follow is experiential. My life is my experiment. I have made it a point to place myself in many situations with many types of people. My experience is my data. The results are coming in all the time. I come to certain conclusions and publish them for peer review in my blogs and books (and in conversations with a few close friends).

This is what I know so far. Of this I am sure.

• I am born out of a great mystery.
• Western science says this mystery birthed this universe about 13 1/2 billion years ago.
• I am part of that birthing. I can trace my ancestry back to that birthing and before that to the mystery that gave birth.
• This birthing continues, called by some scientists an unfolding. Hence my statement: I am the cosmos unfolding.
• I feel at home in the universe, a cosmic citizen.
• This unfolding feels like a loving act, a graciousness.
• The great mystery, the source is birthing me (and all that is).
  
• I am the energy of the source, embodying.
• I identify with that energy and as that energy more than I do this current embodying and its societal manifestation.
  
• When my physical being gives way, as it surely will, the energy that I am will return to the source.
• I am happy.

These statements are not a theory, not a religion, not a philosophy, though they could easily be made into any of those. I could get a preacher suit, some backup singers, and hop on TV and get some good times rolling with a jazzed up crowd. But that is not my calling.

My sureness is based upon experience. I could recount my specific experiences but they would still be my experiences and would be unconvincing to the unsure. Nor do I wish to convince anyone. Everyone must find (and be found by) their own convincing.

Lao Tzu ("Old Dude") sums it up quite well:
Those who flow as life flows know they need no other force.
They feel no wear, feel no tear, need no mending, no repair.

He was and is surely correct.