The Macro and Micro Perspectives of the Universe
Consider the Parable of the Rock.
Once there was a Rock, filled with countless atoms, protons, neutrons, and subatomic particles of matter. These particles were racing around continually, in a pattern, each particle going from “here” to “there,” and taking “time” to do so, yet going so fast that the Rock itself seemed to move not at all. It just was. There it lay, drinking in the sun, soaking up the rain, and moving not at all.
“What is this, inside of me, that is moving?” the Rock asked. “It is You,” said a Voice from Afar. “Me?” replied the Rock. “Why, that is impossible. I am not moving at all. Anyone can see that.” “Yes, from a distance,” the Voice agreed. “From way over here you do look as if you are solid, still, not moving. But when I come closer—when I look very closely at what is actually happening—I see that everything that comprises What You Are is moving. It is moving at incredible speed through time and space in a particular pattern which creates You as the thing called ‘Rock.’ And so, you are like magic! You are moving and not moving at the same time.”
“But,” asked the Rock, “which, then, is the illusion? The oneness, the stillness, of the Rock, or the separateness and the movement of Its parts?” To which the Voice replied, “Which, then, is the illusion? The oneness, the stillness, of God? Or the separateness and movement of Its parts?”
And I tell you this: Upon this Rock, I will build My church. For this is the Rock of Ages. This is the eternal truth that leaves no stone unturned. I have explained it all for you here, in this little story. This is The Cosmology.
Life is a series of minute, incredibly rapid movements. These movements do not affect at all the immobility and the Beingness of Everything That Is. Yet, just as with the atoms of the rock, it is the movement which is creating the stillness, right before your eyes.
From this distance, there is no separateness. There cannot be, for All That Is is All There Is, and there is nothing else. I am the Unmoved Mover. From the limited perspective with which you view All That Is, you see yourself as separate and apart, not one unmovable being, but many, many beings, constantly in motion.
Both observations are accurate. Both realities are “real.”
- Conversations with God, Book 3
Neale Donald Walsch: “From a macro perspective, there is no separateness, and from “way back there” all the particles of everything merely look like the Whole.
As you look at the rock at your feet, you see the rock, right then and there, as whole, complete, and perfect. Yet even in the fraction of a moment that you hold that rock in your awareness, there is a lot going on within that rock—there is incredible movement, at incredible speed, of the particles of that rock. And what are those particles doing? They are making that rock what it is.
As you look at this rock, you do not see this process. Even if you are conceptually aware of it, to you it is all happening “now.” The rock isn’t becoming a rock; it is a rock, right here— right now.
Yet if you were the consciousness of one of the submolecular particles inside that rock, you would experience yourself moving at insane speed, first “here,” then “there.” And if some voice outside the rock said to you, “It is all happening at once,” you would call it a liar or a charlatan.
Still, from the perspective of a distance from the rock, the idea that any part of the rock is separate from any other part, and, further, is moving around at insane speed, would appear to be the lie. From that distance could be seen what could not be seen up close—that all is One, and that all the movement hasn’t moved anything.”
God: “You have it. You have a grasp of it. What you are saying—and you are correct—is that life is all a matter of perspective. If you continue to see this truth, you will begin to understand the macro reality of God. And you will have unlocked a secret of the whole universe: All of it is the same thing.”
- Conversations with God, Book 3
