Cliffs above the ocean
Point Udall, St. Croix, US Virgin Island.
All three are different specks on the sphere of the globe. They are far apart but have something in common. All three are cliffs high above the ocean and provide a view of infinite vistas. From all three, I have looked at turquoise blue waters of the ocean below. Waters that blend into distant horizons.
If I let my eyes travel across the line on the surface of the ocean, it reaches the horizon. From there, it moves upward into an equally stunning blue sky, and then, continuing its onward journey it descends to travel back to where I stand.
Standing high above the ocean and looking at the sweeping vista, at all three places I have felt the vastness of space and time. Within that vastness, there is also the feeling of how insignificant I am compared to what is out there.
Standing in these places, one can feel the magic of two opposites merging into one. One is the unfathomable extent of the universe, and of the space and time within. The other is the realization of my insignificance.
These are places where I can feel larger than myself, and yet, also feel small.
The merging of two opposites — the expansiveness of space and time, and the sense of my own insignificance — also brings a sense of connectedness.
I may be a speck, but I am still part of the infinite.
If I close my eyes, I can see threads that emanate out from me and reach immeasurable distances in space and time and connect me with everything that is out there.
Standing on these cliffs high above the water, within me there is both a feeling of awe and a feeling of peace. Perhaps, both go together.
It is not often that we feel connected with everything that is out there. The feeling of connectedness is having the realization that being in here and now is a long progression of events that started from the moment of the creation.
Starting from that beginning, an infinite sequence of random events made it possible that I stand here, that I breathe the air I breathe, that when I am staring back at that distant point in the sky which might as well be in the point where it all started.
Standing on these cliffs makes me realize that in the larger scheme of things, how miniscule are the chances of us being here. And even more, how miniscule are the chances of you and me both being here.
Standing on these cliffs makes me comprehend that if I were to run time backwards then starting from the moments back in time, I relate to everything else that currently exists in now. In that movie, slowly the form I have will become the forms I had earlier. If I play the movie forward, many other forms will emerge from my present self.
It is like watching squirrels running down a branch on a tree, reaching the point of bifurcation and climbing back up on a different branch. The end point of two branches may be far apart, but somewhere in space they are connected.
Perhaps, that is the meaning of the word reincarnation and of universal connectedness. The forms we were and the forms we will become, and between them is me that provides the link.
The atoms that make me now were part of something else before and they will be part of something else tomorrow.
Standing on these cliffs, for a moment I question, why should I be afraid of my mortality?
I do not even know where my beginning has been and where my end would be. I emerged from a progression of events in the past, and I will be part of a similar progression of events in the future. In that continuum, there does not exist a point that defines my end.
In that realization, there is a sense of peace of having a self that lives, albeit in different forms.
One day, you and I can return to these cliffs for one more time and gaze at the infinite. But let us try not to go to Diamond Head. Our old knees can no longer bear the effort of climbing those steps. We can just drive to Point Udall and call ourselves the armchair seekers of the truth.
Ciao
