Primary Connections

The Gnostic does not pretend to know what the nature of reality might be. It is not within the human being's understanding to know the exact nature of reality. By reality, I mean the ultimate truth about the nature of the universe we live in; a reality that includes ourselves as human beings. We can conjecture, and by so doing reach conclusions that must await proof before they become a description of reality. Neither our scientists nor our priests and ministers can tell us how reality is constituted. Everything that we know is limited by what we do not know. The difference between the Gnostic and the rest of the community, both religious and secular, is that the Gnostic utilizes metaphor to reach an understanding of reality; by so doing, he or she does not pretend to espouse the literal truth. The best metaphor that I know to describe reality is the number "one." Three Dog Night had a beautiful number called "One." They claimed that one is the loneliest number in the world. I suggest otherwise. One, in the Gnostic's world encompasses everything. No matter what form of matter you can describe, either plant, animal, or inanimate, it is all composed of atoms. Atoms combining with each other make up all matter, both alive and inanimate. A star and an angle worm, however different they may be, are all composed of atoms. In quantum physics, atoms are able to adjust to one another, and this adjustment can take place between atoms light years apart. If it were not for this adjustment, we as human beings would not exist. Thus, our ultimate component, the atom, is not alone in the universe. We, in turn, being composed of atoms are not alone either. We are all connected. While we live, the atoms in our body are constantly changing. We are not composed of the same atoms that made us up at the time of our birth, or for that matter, the ones that we were composed of during the Clinton administration; yet we are the same persons. What does this all mean metaphorically? Since our atoms are interchangeable with each other, it means that we are all connected in a fundamental way. We are all one, just as our atoms are all one. As a Gnostic it is a short step to say that the One is also the entity that we call God. That said, we are one with God as surely as we are one with each other. The implications are staggering. When you find yourself angry or upset at your neighbor, you are being angry and upset with yourself as well; notwithstanding that you are also being angry and upset with God. We are all one.