How to Live by the Sun of God: Why We Eat
Laws of nature govern our physical reality. They vary in how readily apparent their existence and effect are, but they do exist and are in effect at all times. Gravity is probably the most obvious. It is also the best at making the point that we should live in accordance with the laws of nature in order to maximize our experience here. You better know there’s a trampoline below or be wearing one of those flying suits if you plan on walking off any cliffs.
It is clear that our physical movements are bound by the laws of nature, but what about our behavior? Do the physical laws also have something to say about morality? I have pondered on this with regard to Iridium Alchemist’s piece on the meaning of life derived from the third law of thermodynamics, and here are some of my (admittedly still evolving) conclusions thus far.
Firstly – yes, the laws that govern our physical reality also indicate right moral action. The universe would not have fostered increasing complexity and intelligence, culminating (to our limited knowledge) with the human mind if it intended for us to devolve into chaos, the end result of the absence of moral law.
The problem is that it is very difficult to get people to agree on what right moral action is. One impediment is that we look to man-made constructs to advise us on the issue – religious doctrine or laws concocted by government. We need to start with proven laws of nature and determine what they dictate for our behaviors, toward the world and one another.
Let’s look at the third law. From last week’s piece, we know that life exists as an efficient means of dissipating the sun’s “wasted” energy. We, therefore, should act in a way to best support this dissipation. Since the Sun, born of the creative force of this Universe (God), gave us this life in the first place, it’s the least we can do in thanks.
Consume, Rest (the Feminine principle)
As Newton’s laws of gravity and action-reaction dictate that you will flatten yourself by stepping off that cliff, the third law helps to explain why we die if we don’t eat or drink anything. If we don’t help to dissipate the sun’s energy, we won’t be allowed to remain in this incarnation of life.
We must consume to live. As Mark Passio points out, we consume information – vibratory energy that originates in one way or another from the sun. The information humans consume takes the form of food, natural resources, and media. Our consumption has two main purposes with respect to dissipation: 1) it releases the sun’s energy contained in information that would not occur without our usage of it, and 2) it allows us to live and do work, which furthers the process of dissipation. The second has an interesting correspondence to fusion within the sun. The sun consumes the energy of fusion to sustain its life and the excess energy goes toward creating and sustaining ours; we consume the energy contained in information to sustain our lives and the excess goes toward shaping the world around us.
But what of the quantity and quality of the information we consume? Food provides the clearest answer to this question. We become sick if we eat up the whole cookie jar; or if we eat the wrong types of foods – processed foods laced with artificial sweeteners, colors, flavors, pesticides, and other non-food substances. Low quantity and high purity are paramount for our health, and also for dissipation.
A look at the processes involved helps to clarify why this is. The sun does not store energy – it uses it to fuel reactions which sustain its life and projects everything else out into space. If we over-consume, thus storing the energy in excess of what we use for life and work, we act in contradiction to efficient dissipation, and the universe restores balance by dissipating that energy through illness. The sun’s fuel is hydrogen – arguably the purest element in existence, consisting of a single proton and electron – and from this purest, simplest element, comes the power to create the entire world as we know it. If we consume foods containing unnatural substances, the inclusion of which reduces the amount of effort needed to create the food (just consider organic vs non-organic produce), we again go against the process of dissipation. And again the universe intervenes.
We can extrapolate this analysis to all of the information sources we take in to fuel our life and work. In quantity we should use exactly that which we need for survival and work – if we choose to work more, and thus further aid in the sun’s dissipation, we can consume more without negative consequence. In quality we should strive for the purest form of information possible. These are topics for other articles, but I will leave it at this for now: in food, the purest form is plants; in energy it is fusion; in media, it is the truth.
The other side of the consumption coin is rest. We must rest to live, and in fact will die sooner from lack of rest than lack of food. Why would this be? Call it the luck of living on a planet that receives energy to dissipate for only half the day. When the sun’s light and warmth is pouring on the earth, we are meant to consume that energy or pay it forward through our work. When the earth quiets and enters energy conservation mode through the night, we are meant to do likewise.
But shouldn’t the universe reward us if we choose to work through the night, one may rationally ask. This is at least partially so, as sleeping more than 9 hours or so will eventually result in sickness. But so will sleeping less than 6 hours or so. A reasonable answer in accordance with dissipation is that the full breakdown of the information contained in our bodies and minds requires both to lay dormant for a time.
Consumption and rest make up the Feminine component of our existence – the passive, that which receives, takes in. It encompasses the internal processes by which we dissipate the energy of the sun, which are essential for life and every bit as important as the external processes. Next time we will delve into the external, Masculine component – our Work in the world.
For now I’d like to hear from you. What have I missed in this analysis of an admittedly huge topic? Am I inventing a metaphor to suit the blue belt life preferences? Or have I just stated the obvious? Let us know in the comments section. Productive week ahead!