A final word on profound sameness

Throughout time, we—and perhaps all life—have intuitively sensed a universal connection underlying the diversity of the world we experience. Granted, this sense of universal connection may actually originate in our innate empathy and egalitarian instincts. However, who is to say these instincts, in turn, don’t arise from a fundamental universal connection—a unitary reality, for lack of a better word?

Either way, I assume humanity began to perceive this unitary reality in an increasingly polarized way when the brain’s imagination began to dominate our sense of the world. From then on we began experiencing an acute duality—an ‘in here’ versus an ‘out there’—as opposed to the unitary awareness experienced by other animals ⁽¹⁾.

We then further sharpened this duality—via an increasing array of names—to describe the things we were aware of. These names, set in an imagined past, present and future, divided our unitary awareness into contradistinctive sides of the same coin. As chapter 2 begins… All under heaven realizing beauty as beauty, wickedness already. All realizing goodness as goodness, no goodness already.

Accordingly, we now “know” a good vs. a bad, a life vs. a death, a known vs. an unknown, and so on. (See Tools of Taoist Thought: Correlations, p.565) This polarized awareness, born of imagination, divorces us from the ‘timeless whole’, making an even starker contrast between our intuitive sense of universal connection and the temporal and diverse lives we live.

Uncomfortable with the ‘nameless unknown’, early humans dreamed up spiritual ideals to convert their faint intuition of a universal connection into strong tangible ‘knowables’, e.g., beliefs, arts, and rituals. Indeed, this ‘nameless unknown’ drives most every human pursuit—science included—to know at least some thing! Interestingly, the mystifying non-local entanglement aspect of quantum mechanics now offers us some tangible, albeit subtle, evidence of a genuine universal connection ⁽²⁾.

Quantum entanglement

Einstein, frowning on the idea of quantum entanglement, described it as “spooky actions at a distance” and said “God does not play dice with the universe.” Now that experiments prove quantum entanglement is real, some physicists today frown on “flaky” spiritual interpretations of this phenomenon. This is understandable, just as Einstein’s discomfort was. After all, our polarized mindset can’t resist funneling perception into a sweeping ‘good’ versus ‘bad’, ‘right’ versus ‘wrong’, and of course, ‘flaky’ versus ‘cogent’.

All the same, quantum entanglement is mystifying enough to imagine it as being the source from which our sense of universal connection—“Oneness”—arises. The last lines of chapter 1 portray this quantum entanglement prospect nicely,

These two are the same coming out, yet differ in name.
The same, meaning dark and mysterious.
Dark and dark again, the multitude of wondrous entrance.

Chapter 56’s This is called profound sameness is another way to describe quantum entanglement.

The nonsense of “common sense”

An existential problem arises from our “common sense” perception of differences we experience in life in contrast to our sense of the underlying unity—that dark and mysterious entanglement. It is notable that the Tao Te Ching alluded to entanglement millenniums before physicists hypothesized it. The only way anyone back then could reconcile the clash between their innate-sense of universal connection and the common-sense diversity of the world would be by dreaming up singular spiritual narratives. And, chapter 56’s profound sameness hits the entangled nail on the head perfectly. Of course, the closer to the entangled truth the narrative becomes, the harder it is to overcome our “common sense” perception of differences. Thus, it is not surprising that all of the easily understood and relatable spiritual narratives have become widely popular… particularly compared to the terse and often enigmatic Tao Te Ching.

Quantum entanglement and the hidden foundation

Entanglement takes place outside of time, beyond common sense. Perhaps it helps to think of entanglement as similar to the foundation of a building (the universe). The foundation influences and makes possible the building, yet the building is unaware of (blind to) its foundation. It intuits the foundation there and yet it doesn’t know the foundation is there. Similarly, we intuitively sense a foundation, but since the birth of imagination, we emotionally need to know it’s there, and so we give it a name, like ‘god’, to substantiate the fact. In fact, all words allow us to avoid feeling the ‘nameless unknown’ by verifying the authenticity of anything that we feel certain we know. And we do this to a fault! As chapter 71 cautions, Realizing I don’t know is better; not knowing this knowing is disease.

Clearly, the human mind is locked into a contradistinctive view of reality. This mindset is like that building which is unaware of (blind to) its actual foundation… as chapter 40 hints, In the opposite direction, of the way moves. Nonetheless, I imagine nature permits us to sense—however dimly—the shadowy outlines of its subtlest process precisely because our being is a manifestation rooted in its ‘timeless whole’, and so we innately feel the foundation—the connection. This faculty should also extend to all existence, which likewise has entanglement underlying its beingness. As chapter 56, concludes, For this reason all under heaven value it.

Returning to the ‘timeless whole’

Unsurprisingly, other animals on Earth have a smoother passage through life. After all, they live without our polarizing mindset, and the existential tension this causes. The only thing the imagination can do is make up stories or create practices that promise to reconcile the incongruity we feel. Of course, imagination is also the source of our consternation because whatever story imagination cooks up eventually fades, i.e., aren’t all stories and practices metaphorical in the end? This means that even the quantum entanglement story’s “answer” is destined to fade.

Nevertheless, it helps greatly to acknowledge there are at least two sides to Nature’s coin, even though we pay most attention to one side—the differences. The profound sameness side lies hidden behind its curtain of similarity. Unsurprisingly, all living things evolve to notice differences much more acutely, which serves survival well. A problem arises for humans because this enhanced perception of differences also dominates our imagination. Fortunately, one way to mitigate this imbalance is by striving to detect the similarity concealed beneath the illusion of differences we perceive. Such a search for profound sameness—diligently pursued—is part of a realistic path back toward the ‘timeless whole’… or at least a way to ease the existential tension we feel.

Finally, I imagine quantum entanglement to be the cradle of the consciousness-of-being for all things, from atoms on up. Naturally, our dipolar imagination can’t immerse its head fully into such profound sameness. All it can do is dream up stories to express its sense of the world… just as I’m doing here.

You can actually test all this out for yourself!

Another way to get your head around this issue of universal connection—the “Oneness”—is to ponder ‘now’. Yes, I mean right now, the constant flowing moment you are experiencing as you read this. Throughout life, we normally focus on the changes in energy and matter, i.e., our emotional connection via needs and fears to the material world. This gives us the impression, reinforced by imagination and memory, that time moves, flows, changes. You can easily prove this impression is somewhat of an illusion by simply reflecting on your deep consciousness at this moment—yes, right now! Now, deeply ponder some earlier experiences and notice how the essential ‘light’ of your consciousness is just as it was ‘back then’. You will see that you are carrying the moment with you, so to speak. The material world changes, pleasures give way to pains give way to pleasures and so on. But your now is always simply now. Giving full faith and trust in your ‘now’ may be the most direct way to begin beholding profound sameness. (See You are Immortal!, p.391)

And now, finally, the bottom line

Being particularly attentive to your moment—the eternal constant moment—softens and stills the mind’s dipolar chatter. We all experience this throughout life, yet not as deeply or constant as we wish. Need and fear (attraction and aversion) are almost insurmountable biological forces driving our mind hither and thither. Only a stronger need for a serene unity of purpose can nudge the mind’s eye back toward the constant moment. This brings us back to the ‘disclaimer’ at the beginning of the Tao Te Ching…

The way possible to think, runs counter to the constant way.
The name possible to express runs counter to the constant name.

⁽¹⁾ Unitary reality has neither ‘in here’ or ‘out there’… nor beauty or wickedness. Profound sameness is simply seeing the world direct, unfiltered, and undefined which makes the awareness experienced by other animals singular. Our ability to get our heads around such singularity is naturally extremely difficult. In effect, doing so takes real courage. It may be the most difficult thing a human mind can do because our survival instinct impels us to notice difference much more keenly. Our sense of security depends on it.

⁽²⁾ For background, google [quantum entanglement] and [quantum nonlocality]. Also, YouTube [nonlocal, entangled, quantum], [Menas Kafatos] and [Donald Hoffman] and [Entangling Conscious Agents] [The Mystery of Free Will: Donald Hoffman].