The wisdom of the universe has descended into form in each one of us, and I don’t mean in our mind. I mean in our body. The wisdom of the body is a true miracle, with each cell independent, yet interconnected to the others, connected systems of genius built one upon another.

Think About it.

How long would you last if you had to remember to breathe, digest your food or keep your heart beating? Every second of every day your body is making the most subtle and refined adjustments to what ever condition you happen to be in. Just think of how much we misuse our senses and abuse our body. We’re able to do this because the body is so wise. The body’s wisdom is universal wisdom. The universe has given us the most intelligent and loving vehicle through which to live our lives, so that our immature minds and hearts can grow.

As much as we typically look down on the body, as the “lower animal”, we must reframe this. It is no surprise that  every metaphysical tradition in one way or another leads us back to being “present”. Have you ever considered that when you are present, you are actually present “in the body”. The body is the only part of you that is always in the present moment.

But the genius of the body did not happen overnight.  It took 4.5 billion years for it to happen.

The Illusions of A Limited Being in Cosmic Time
The concept of maya is a very important one in Indian thinking. Translated loosely, “maya” means “illusion”. We typically think of these illusions as referring to individual states of being, where we are confused about who we are. But actually, there are deeper illusions than that – collective illusions, that pervade practically every second of our life on earth.

For example, this very second, the earth you are standing on is spinning on its axis at 1000 mph (at the equator) and bolting around the sun at about 70,000 mph. The illusion of standing on a flat, stationary earth is a collective illusion we all share.

Think about the divine genius it takes to pull this off – such speed happening with absolute silence – absolute stillness. As was said, this cosmic equilibrium did not happen overnight. The solar system and all of the planets have been around 4.5 billion years. It took almost 4 billion years before animals evolved – 9/10 of the age of our solar system had no animal life. Patient, universal genius was being developed during that time, the same genius built into every cell of our bodies.

Around 500 million years ago we had the Cambrian explosion, with animal and plant life suddenly populating the earth. But it has only been since the last 100,000 years or so that homo sapiens have inhabited Earth.

Overwhelmed by Numbers?

These numbers are staggering. They lose relevance – 4.5 billion, 100 thousand, they both sound like a long time, 100 thousand of anything seems like a lot. We usually think of years in terms of our lifetime. If we were to live 100 years, we would be very old.

To illustrate, consider this:
4,500,000,000 years is the age of our solar system.
100,000 years is how long there have been “humanoids” on earth.

If you stack 100, 450 page books one on top of the other, to represent the age of our solar system – The age of humanoids would be the last page in that stack!

The Earliest records of the ancient Vedic, Egyptian and Sumerian people (dated to perhaps 3000 BC) would be 1/20th of that last page, perhaps the last sentence or two. Our modern world, of the last hundred years or so, 1/50th of that, perhaps the last word on the page. Your lifetime, perhaps the “d” in the last phrase of the last book, “The End”.

We should see this timeline as analogous to how our body, mind and psyche were formed and how they operate. Our body/mind life on earth is embedded with the intelligence of the entire cosmos. This intelligence reaches back into the mists of time.

For 4 1/2 billion years the Sun, Moon, Earth and all of the planets patiently created a matrix of energy that would eventually lead to a sudden burst of life on a spec of dust floating in the vast cosmic expanse. In this place, some of the beings would develop the capacity to ponder the enormity of time and maybe even grasp how lucky they were to have the capacity to understand and appreciate it all.

To me this understanding must also underpin the science of astrology – the science of how and why spirit has taken form.

Here is a video of a class I taught last year at the International Vedic astrology conference in Grass Valley.