Inside infinity

[Excerpt Be and Become, © ProCreative, Sydney 2000]

To begin the journey into a truer understanding of reality requires that we begin on common ground. We need a starting point which is unquestionably universal to everyone.

As was covered in the first chapter, the one and only mainstay of personal experience, above and beyond all else is our own individual awareness. That awareness is composed of all that is consciously known to us, and all else (whatever “that” is) which is unknown to us.

So, let’s begin by considering what we know1

Our view of the world is a complex assortment of what we have been taught (from both religious and scientific sources) and what we have deduced for ourselves, usually by making our own observations of life. We can categorize our personal experience as being a duality of that which is KNOWN and UNKNOWN. Once again, this is the most fundamental principle which could be expected to be common to all. (Refer Table 3.1)

Table 3.1

Unknown

->

Known

Now, we can observe that life is a process of converting the unknown into the known. Or that life is the process of expanding the Known by encroaching upon the previously Unknown. Lets encapsulate this as shown in Table 3.2.

Table 3.2

Uknown	-> Known
Undefined	-> Defined

 The arrow reflects this continual process of conversion from the unknown into the known. For example we learn to walk, talk and live life. At first much is unknown, and through learning we come to know that which was previously unknown.

Learning is another name for the process of defining that which has not previously been defined. When we define something we make it definite, which is to say, finite. Anything which is known is finite. Dictionaries define the word “definite” as meaning something which is precise and bounded. Something which is bounded is limited—if it wasn’t we would not be able to place bounds around it, define it, or Know it. Before something becomes known it is vague, nonspecific, general and undifferentiated. Accordingly, some of the qualities of the Unknown are that it is “general, vague, non-specific and undifferentiated.”

Refer Table 3.3 below.

Table 3.3. Learning to Differentiate

Unknowable	->	Known
Infinite	->	Finite
Indefinite	->	Defined
Unlimited	->	Limited
Vague	->	Specific
General	->	Precise
Unbounded	->	Bounded
Open	->	Closed

Getting to know something is a process of differentiation and definition. In simplistic terms, our experience of life is a process of growing or expanding circles (of knowledge). If we talk in terms of boxes, instead of circles, then learning is the process of “thinking outside the box” (of the known). Inside the box (or circle) is the known. Outside is the unknown.

As will be covered more fully in the next section, what we don’t know, i.e the full extent of our Unknowing, is infinite in scope. So we might say that our personal experiences could be seen as being an island of knowing within an infinite sea of unknowing. Our personal existence then is a combination of the Known and the Infinite-Unknown (Unknowable)2.

We can express this more meaningfully by observing that our personal experience of existence is a duality of the known and the unknowable.

In view of the foregoing, learning is a process of establishing finite, bounded boxes of awareness within an unbounded, infinite “unknowableness.”

Learning is the process of categorizing, defining, labelling and limiting. Learning is, if you will allow the term, the paradoxical process of “finitisation” of an infinite-unknown. Once again, Table 3.3 helps illustrate this basic duality.

Now, a distinction needs to be made at this point between that which is unknown (but can become Known) and that which will forever remain unknown (i.e. the infinite) and is thus Unknowable. We could say that there are three levels to existence: the known, the knowable and the unknowable. In other words, there are two forms of Unknown: The finite-unknown, which is knowable and the infinite-unknown, which is Unknowable. Both the Known and the Knowable are finite. The Knowable is defined as being able to be Known (defined and differentiated). In other words, to be able to decide if something is knowable we first must decide or discern if it is finite. It might be helpful to think in terms of the bucket of sand, mentioned in the definition of Knowable in the glossary. We may not immediately know the quantity of grains of sand in the bucket, but we do know that it is possible to get to know their quantity, given sufficient time and determination. Accordingly, the Known and the Knowable are “lumped” together (at this point) as being finite and defined. They are both quantified or quantifiable, whereas that which is infinite is beyond knowing, measurement and differentiation.

Let’s summarize the last few paragraphs by saying that our entire existence can be seen to be an island of finite knowledge and dimension within an Infinite-Unknown (the Unknowable).

In addition, our perception of the measured and the physical is via time-delyed (speed-of-light) physical senses. Accordingly, all that is known, measured, real and physical is in the past (right-wing of Table 3.4 - see section Fluid futures, specific pasts, below)

Fluid futures, specific pasts

From our own experiences we can accept the correlation of the future with being Unknowable, while the past is Known. As well, while the past is known it is also certain, while the future is uncertain. We can therefore include the correlation of Uncertainty with the Unknowable, while Certainty is Known.

I suggest that the past is Known, because we perceive the past to be over and done and to be fixed in terms of what occurred. In other words, we perceive the past to be well-defined (known). Archeological teams, for example, excavate historical digs to determine what happened millions of years ago. While debate may continue over the precise interpretation of which dinosaur lived when and how, the assumption is invariably made that only one past occurred, in which certain definite, real events transpired.

The past is perceived to be “set in concrete.” The future on the other hand is perceived to be fluid with possibility, pliable, not yet solidified into solid fact and experience. If this were not true (that the future is fluid with possibility) we would have no freedom of choice. In fact, we’d have no awareness of choice. The future would be perfectly predictable and entirely unsurprising.

Now, despite the past appearing fixed (known), and the future fluid (unknowable and unpredictable), it is necessary to keep in mind that the associations of past with known and the future with unknown are correlations—the past is not perfectly Known, nor is the future perfectly unknowable.

At this point, I’ll also include the correlation of unpredictability with the future, and the past while appearing fixed, finite and known is deemed to be predictable, in the sense that it is predictably the same tomorrow as it is today.

Once again, these correlations are not meant to suggest that the future is perfectly unpredictable. I use the term predictable in its raw literal meaning, which is that to Predict is to “pre-say.”4 That is, a prediction means that we totally and precisely know what the future holds.

1. 1. The terms “Known” and “Knowable” have, within this book, a strict definition in that they pertain to only that which can be measured, defined and bounded
2. 2. The term “infinite-unknown” is used synonymously with the term “unknowable.” Both terms are meant to convey the idea that there are aspects to existence which cannot ever be known (defined, named, labelled, measured or proven)
3. 3. The term “spiritual” is, at this point, defined to mean that which is unknowable (immeasurable and beyond definition, i.e. infinite). See also the glossary.
4. 4. The origin of the word “predict” is the Latin word praedicere, fr. prae- pre- + dicere to say.