Greater Whole

Greater whole: 

I'm not so sure it's really a hard problem, or maybe it is for philosopher and scientist asking the question in such a way that demands a specific answer in their language of understanding. Why is any physical state conscious at all? And is it unique to certain lifeforms alone? That's the hard problem, and of course philosophers and neuroscience hold many explanations, none definite, each holding a piece of an infinite puzzle of our existence. Perhaps like all puzzles when arranged properly, the pieces fit seamlessly within a greater whole, an entire picture emerges from their order. 

so why is some matter conscious? 

my own answer is only intuitive, arriving from deep meditation and self-exploration, as well as reading many varied sources. My own answer is - I really don't know. My thoughts are speculative and wouldn't be appreciated within the communities of science, philosophy, and most religions. I align intuitively with panpsychism, that consciousness is an inherent quality of the universe, a built in feature of existence. It seems clear that with just a few ingredients, only a handful of elements in specific order, consciousness emerges from the stuff of the universe. So it's physical, in a certain way at least. Yet why and how this comes to be possible is indeed perhaps a very hard problem. 

but only for scientist and philosophers. 

for me, I find myself mostly a mystic, content in mystery, sensing first the greater whole and only then finding pieces ready to assemble. It's not really a problem because however it came to be arranged, whatever circumstances brought awareness to this order - it works. I'm aware, conscious that's it so, and the universe itself somehow arranged these pieces to seamlessly for the greater whole. My intuition steers me to creativity, a cosmology of some infinite design, curious of its own wonder. 

awe.

the universe is in awe of itself, expanding through a continuous evolution of surprise, and we are a specific outcome that satisfies its curiosity. Science too often asks questions as if it's outside the scope of the answer itself, removed from the universe, and able to study it as an objective source. It doesn't always seem to work, or at least not in questions of their own creative design. In a greater whole there are no objects to be studied, everything can be broken down just a little further, pieces found to be intimately connected to the space of their surroundings, not a puzzle, but an endless mystery without a single answer.  There is just and only the universe, seamless, creative, and it's here that we belong. Not a piece of this puzzle at all, but the mystery itself...

the greater whole. 

~

Peace, Eric