"God", Physics, and the Grand Illusion

Recently I watched a documentary on YouTube entitled, “What We Still Don’t Know:  Are We Real?”.  It’s a piece on Physics and Cosmology…and quite fascinating.  It relays the discovery of the Cosmological Constant, a concept in Physics (a Law of Nature) that suggested to theoretical physicists the distinct probability of the existence of a “Creator”.  [Google Cosmological Constant for details.]

This did not sit well with some physicists, so eventually they came up with the hypothesis known as the Multiverse.  That allowed them to hypothesize a Super-Intelligence in another Universe which possibly could create a silicon Simulation of our Universe…thus eliminating the need for a “Creator”.  As crazy as it sounds, that hypothesis is somewhat plausible.

I left a Comment (modified a bit here) proposing another option, as follows.  [This is not my usual Blog fare, but hey, a little variety in thought never hurt anyone… neither did a little stretching of the mind.]

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Instead of an all-powerful "God" (the Creator) or a Super-Intelligence in another Universe that created a Simulation, perhaps the following is true. [This idea, or something very much similar, has been around for thousands of years in the philosophy of Buddhism.]

It could be that there is a Universal Mind (the word "God" has too much baggage attached to it to be used in this scenario) which has always existed, is NOT all-powerful...and is the ONLY thing that does exist. What we perceive as the Universe merely is Universal Mind's imagination, or dream (of some sort), or something else unknown but similar to those two possibilities. In other words, what we perceive as "real" really is the ultimate Grand Illusion.

We easily can imagine that such a thing is possible simply by considering our own experience with our own dreams. When we are dreaming, everything in the dream seems real; only when we awaken do we find out the truth of the matter. Buddhists say that until you awaken to the true nature of existence and the Universe, you essentially will be frustrated, unhappy, and suffering. A Zen Master long ago said, "Once you realize the true nature of the Universe, the only thing left to do is to have a good belly laugh.":)

Such a scenario or possibility as described above includes or encompasses all religions, philosophies, and beliefs.  Nothing is slighted or excluded… and none of it is "real".  In such a case, perhaps we humans finally can cease squabbling with and killing each other.  Instead, we all can have a good belly laugh and enjoy “life”.

One reasonably might ask:  what would be the point of "life" in such a case?  In my estimation, the point would be that Universal Mind wants to experience everything:  the good, the bad, the wonderful, the ugly, and all else in between.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well