How to Be in Tune with the Universe

To say our human spirit is in tune with this wide, never-ending universe is a statement that may cause derision—or acknowledgment.

The derision may come when someone asks: “How can a person be in tune with such a vast organization of planets, suns and moons, even meteors and comets, and all the creatures, even bacteria that exist upon them?”

Yet many thousands and millions of people believe we are in tune with the universe, and have been so for eons.

Watching my five-year-old granddaughter for a recent babysitting day taught me that she is, even though to outward seeming it was apparent that she was in her own playful world of imagination. That’s just it—if we can imagine a thing, that thing has the possibility of becoming real. At one time, for example, my granddaughter thought she was a My Little Pony, with hooves for hands and feet, complete with a different pony name that she insisted she be called.

So why can’t we believe we are one with the universe?

We can identify ourselves with so many things that we run the risk of becoming lost in them. We can label ourselves positively, like “mother, father, son, daughter,” or “a good provider for our family,” or “an excellent teacher, scientist, coder, student, video game player, carpenter” and so on, endlessly. All are labels we can ascribe to ourselves. So why not focus on our biggest and most accurate label—human—a being with a spirit and soul, a natural force or energy, intelligence and power, and all the virtues we ascribe to God?

I like this quotation from Katy Tackes, written in her book Each Time She Wakes: “… once you express your will, the Universe will conspire with each and every atom to help you reach your destiny.”

Albert Einstein wrote this:

Albert Einstein

A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

We are one: one human family, one solar system, one galaxy, one universe. What we know is circumscribed by the limits of human thought and experience, and we all realize the endless nature of knowledge. Yet in this time and age, based in part on the pictures taken from outer space of our own planet in all its glory and beauty, we have viewed our basic reality: we all inhabit one planet.

Abdu’l-Baha wrote in May of 1912:

Creation is the expression of motion. Motion is life. A moving object is a living object, whereas that which is motionless and inert is as dead. All created forms are progressive in their planes, or kingdoms of existence, under the stimulus of the power or spirit of life. The universal energy is dynamic. Nothing is stationary in the material world of outer phenomena or in the inner world of intellect and consciousness. – The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 140.

We humans—every one of us living, moving, breathing creatures—have thoughts, goals, aspirations, and hopes that we express in words and deeds. Surely if we decide to live with each other in harmony, we have the power to make it happen.

Just as scientists in recent years have discovered that dark energy and dark matter hold the universe together, on Earth what holds us together is the power and promise of true religion to effect changes in human hearts and minds. History has shown over and again the good forces (and sometimes misplaced forces) of religion. Yet the word of God from every religion reiterates that we are one family, one race, one people.

So there can be a universal mind if we put our heads together and agree in unity to function as one, the way God intended. Meditation is one way to merge our finite minds with the Infinite, and let our souls educate our beings. Good words and good deeds are another.

Baha’u’llah wrote in The Hidden Words:

Guidance hath ever been given by words, and now it is given by deeds. Every one must show forth deeds that are pure and holy, for words are the property of all alike, whereas such deeds as these belong only to Our loved ones. Strive then with heart and soul to distinguish yourselves by your deeds. In this wise We counsel you in this holy and resplendent tablet. – pp. 48-49.

We may have unity of thought in world undertakings, even written plans to achieve them, but without action they will not see fruition.

But if we tune in our minds, hearts, spirits and actions to one universal cause, even one universal faith as the Baha’i Faith claims to be, all our hopes and dreams for a peaceful world can become reality.

I hope for that sooner, for my granddaughter’s sake, rather than later.