I have spent more than 30 years trying to understand things mainly from the viewpoint of the Gnostic, Sufi and Mahayana Buddhist traditions.
The only things I know for sure are:
- This is a big universe and none of us is very significant in it.
- The best motive for doing anything is service without seeking any recognition.
- In order to serve effectively you need to develop your intellectual side so you can focus your thinking and see clearly into complex situations, your emotional side so you can be compassionate and resilient and develop non-attachment, and your physical side to develop common sense and the ability to work hard physically, steadily and skillfully. Most of us are weak in at least one or two of these areas, whether we see it or not.
Stephen Hawking has estimated that if the rate of the universe’s expansion one second after the Big Bang had been smaller by even one part in 1017 the universe would have re-collapsed and no intelligent life could have evolved. [The Physics Book - Pickover].
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