Dialectic Two-Step – The World In A Grain Of Sand?

Dialectic Two-Step  is an ongoing series of my thoughts on questions that come my way.

Wisdom lies neither in fixity nor in change, but in the dialectic between the two. - Octavio Paz  

Can You See The World In A Grain Of Sand?

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

– from Augeries of Innocence by William  Blake

It’s a nice metaphor; the world somehow being uniform in its function.  Electrons and galaxies both contain the  calculus of everything and the ability to inspire us towards great wisdom and peace. The Blake reference is analogous to the Vedic notion of Indra’s net.  This is a web spanning all of space with a perfect jewel at each junction. The jewel reflects perfectly all the other jewels. The analogy can apply to people or to a piece of dirt.  Recognizing that the components of a grain of sand operate with the same set of rules as the stars and galaxies is a seemingly obvious but often disregarded truism.

There is also some boundaries established with this insight.  How might we set up a proposition that somehow, on given day, that we would expect to see an electron or a galaxy act in contradiction to normal function.  The human imagination somehow holds the power to do just that – invoke worlds where magic and the impossible are commonplace.  This is incredibly wonderful.  Out of this gift has come great works of fiction, abstract algebra, and string theory.  Science itself is deeply dependent on human imagination. For every hypothesis created, there is a certain magic that is invoked to see beyond what we currently know.

But this imagination is bounded by rules. Experience shows us when we’ve stepped out of bounds. Just remember the many tragic stories of people who were exposed to PHP and tried to fly with  tragic results.  How often do we have fantasies about improbable or impossible futures?  I do all the time.  How often do we accept too good to be true stories from politicians and marketers?  How often do we accept claims from religious and political authorities that are contradictory to how we know the universe operates?

The world is beautiful as it is. Wishing or insisting that it were otherwise, detracts from our ability to find joy and deal with tragedy in the real world.

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