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How did all begin? Was there a time
when no thing existed, not even empty
space, not even time? Was there only
nothingness, before the beginning?

The metaphor of the dance of Shiva maybe will
illustrate this better. Imagine and invisible Shiva,
invisible to itself, of course. The only way Shiva
can perceive itself is by dancing. The dance is
the way shiva manifest itself to itself. His gestures are
aspects of that manifestation. Time is the gesture
of rythm, music ; space the gesture of movement;
matter/ energy are the costume; consciousness is
the mirror and the intoxication of the dance.

Obviously, you see that the difficulty here, is in
thinking that space, time, and matter/energy
can exist as separate entities. They are
aspects of the same unknown, they appeared
together, in co-dependent origination.

To ask was there a time when ‘this unknown’
did not manifest those aspects of itself? To
pose that question is a language problem.

Consciousness is also an aspect of the unknown.
It is ‘a special case’ of co-dependent origination,
in that it needs special circumstances. It
needs a brain to manifest. So there is a tricking
circularity here: No consciousness, no knowledge
of manifestation, no time, no space. Does this means,
the manifesting unknown equals consciousness?
Not at all.

Did the dancer exist before the dance? You bet! But not
even he, knew it. So what does that mean? Time
and eternity, consciousness and questions are
gestures in the dance.

Author: Pete