YOU ARE THE UNIVERSE

Ecological Consciousness
There are about 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
​(7 octillion) atoms in your body...

The heaviest element within us is oxygen, which accounts for about 65% of our body mass. Oxygen atoms exist mostly as water molecules, in combination with the lighter (and more ancient) element hydrogen, whose origins stretch back to the Big Bang.
About 50-70% of our biology is made up of water. Every time you eat, drink or breathe in air you are absorbing atoms that will become "you."

We also release atoms daily, in fact about 98% of the atoms in our body are replaced each year. That means that "you" are quite literally a completely different person every New Year.

We exchange our atoms with the air, with the clouds, rivers, trees, flowers, insects and animals. We also take in energy every day, photons captured by plant leaves (through photosynthesis) as they stream to the Earth from the sun. We are 100% solar powered.

What Van Gogh expressed in his paintings was profoundly close to the vision of our bodies and Universe as discovered by modern science. Nature is an interconnected evolving mosaic, an ever-changing work of cosmic living art where atoms and energy circulate in new patterns endlessly.

Paradoxically, while our bodies renew themselves constantly, at the deepest level we are ancient cosmic beings. Every atom of "you" is billions of years old, formed either in the Big Bang (over 13 billion years ago) or in stars that burst as supernovas approximately 5 to 12 billion years back, before our planet and solar system formed.

While oxygen (created in super nova explosions billions of years ago) accounts for most of our body mass it is actually hydrogen atoms (from the Big Bang) that are most plentiful, accounting for over half of the number of atoms in your body.

In a very deep sense we are the Universe, in human form. This is the cosmic YOU that exists beneath your social and cultural identity. We are all children of the galaxies and the stars. ~Christopher Chase

"You are not IN the universe, you ARE the universe, an intrinsic part of it. Ultimately you are not a person, but a focal point where the universe is becoming conscious of itself. What an amazing miracle.” ~Eckhart Tolle

"We do not "come into" this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree... Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of Nature, a unique action of the total Universe." ~Alan Watts

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BIO-PHOTONS

CONSCIOUSNESS IS VIBRATION

CODA FLUTES

Sometimes it's nice to forget being the universe,
and just have fun - like playing a pocket-sized flute.
I had interest in ocarinas years ago, and just got the CODA
​email today... and love the humor and approach of its founder.

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The Universe is You
by Gary Smith

This prose was written for Myriad, the literary magazine of FCHS
(Fort Collins High School) in 1971.

​A gentle voice comes to me, saying:

“You are leaving your home,
Becoming human so that you may
Experience & learn & advance.
The memory of the paradise you
have dwelt in
will be removed; otherwise you
could not bear the pain and sorrow
of life on earth.
You will forget your true identity,
believing yourself to be
a physical being.

The parents you have chosen
will feed you, clothe you, protect you
and give you love.
Be not deceived by those who will
try to convince you that life on
earth is the important, the only,
or that you must secure yourself
to their beliefs in order to be 'saved.'
They have been misled.
Open your mind to all things:
experience the many paths,
always do your best,

and you may one day
be granted Enlightenment
and realize that you
have the life of Buddha,
the life of Krishna,
the life of Baha ‘u’ llah,
the life of Christ within you.
Then you will be freed from the
bonds of the flesh, the bonds of
rebirth, of space and time.”

The way is before me,
i will my molecules to slow
their vibration, and
hover above my mother-to-be.
She is sitting in a chair,
knitting.
i slip inside her and enter
her womb,
the unborn fetus,
now my body.

The woman feels a movement
of life
within her,
and she smiles.

* * * * * * * *

The night is lonely, the
air chilled and silent. i
walk the sidewalks slowly.

Wondering, what is real?
studying my hand:
is this body mine?

Probing the bark of a tree
with my fingers
becoming the tree
sprouting buds
soaking up warm sunshine
drawing moist earth up through
my roots.
How am i different from this tree,
from the blades of grass on the lawn,
the stars in the heaven above?
Why do i have a border
why do my molecules not
blend with the air
Why is there always me and it? -
my essence apart from all other existence
where do my thoughts come from?

The shadows on the ground
the reflection in the window say
i am.
Traveling along the myriad roads
so many lead to nowhere
the happiness they bring
is there and gone
after reaching the highest point

they allow
one may go no further.
But the Joy of being
One with the Universe
knows no limits,
for the Universe is without limit.
Absorbing the teachings
of the inspired
brings an understanding:
'true inspiration comes from within
all else is there to reflect my truth.'

* * * * * * * *

Making good causes
brings good effects:
“Love thy neighbor as thyself,”

“Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.”
“Be still and know the I within.”

What would it be like to be
an air bubble,
drifting upward
from the lake bottom
through the deep waters,
and rising above the surface to
burst
then become one with the air
and mingle with the atmosphere
and course through the veins
of the winds?

A great voice speaks:
You have walked your path
with a sincere heart
and an open mind,
you have surrendered your will
to find your inmost truth,

never turning from 'what is'
no matter the obstacles
that lay before you.

Be at peace now,
for you have found yourself
you are fulfilled
the Universe is You.

* * * * * * * *

​UNIVERSE on Whole Human

Reflections was inspired by doing photography along the emerald river Lech
in Füssen, Bavaria and later discovering on a forest walk near the Baltic
​a stone labyrinth in a sheep pasture. 2008.

REFLECTIONS​

From water rose the fog one day and formed into a cloud,
then light broke through the vapor mist and lifted off the shroud.

As mist went swirling in the light, and by the air was blown
I heard it say in haunting tones, “Your life is what you own.”

The fog upon the river bank gave way to winter snow
and whispered softly in my ear, "Your life is who you know."

Another day the winter sun turned ice into a pond,
and formed into a perfect mirror for gazing the beyond.

The image in the glassy pool was a leaf upon a tree
and then between the worlds appeared an image that was me.

The surface was reflective, the water pure to drink,
it spoke to me so clearly, "Your life is what you think."

My eyes went in the water, to know more deeply still
and there I heard the message, "Your life is what you will."

And then the entrance opened to the inner outer space
and revealed the one I am, we met there face-to-face.

Once again the vision spoke. “Your heart will know what’s true.”
“Now walk into the labyrinth. The Universe is you.”

REFLECTIONS by Gary on Hubpages
​