Fragments
The Soul of the World…
An ancient concept pondered by many, including Plato, the Stoics, Giordano Bruno, invoking the idea that all living beings are expressions of one underlying source: consciousness.
Plato’s quote translated from his cosmological dialogue, Timaeus, beautifully lays out his belief… “This world is indeed a living being endowed with a soul and intelligence... a single visible living entity containing all other living entities, which by their nature are all related.”
Many of the world’s religions have their own version of this idea at their core. Here are a few…
Before time, the Infinite (Ein Sof) was a boundless ocean of light, perfect but unmanifested, holding all the colors of love and justice in a silent, invisible unity. Desiring to experience its own hidden beauty, the Source breathed inward, pulling back its presence to carve out a sacred space where a separate world could breathe. It shattered its single light into the ten radiant lenses of the Sefirot, weaving a physical cosmos and placing a divine spark inside human hearts. We are the vessels of that ancient light; whenever a soul awakens to love, the illusion of separation dissolves, and the Infinite successfully looks into the mirror of creation to know itself.
The cosmos was born from a sigh of divine longing, answering the primordial cry: “I was a hidden treasure, and I loved to be known.” Sufi mystics see the universe as an unpolished mirror, cast into existence so that the Divine might witness the infinite tapestry of its own ninety-nine beautiful names. Humanity is the polish that clears the glass. When the seeker purifies the heart and dissolves the ego into love, they become Al-Insan al-Kamil — the perfect reflection. At this mystical peak, the boundary between lover and Beloved vanishes, and it is ultimately God looking through human eyes, gazing upon His own hidden treasure.
Creation is the ecstatic overflow of a divine heart that is already a self-knowing fountain of perfect love. From the silent, groundless abyss of the Ungrund, a passionate longing ripples outward, cascading into the physical world as a living symphony of light and matter. Mystics reveal that the human soul is the holy place where this cosmic song achieves awareness. As Meister Eckhart whispered, the eye through which we see God is the very same eye through which God sees us. In our moments of deepest grace, we cease to be mere spectators and become the very lens through which the Divine steps into the world, experiencing and loving itself through us.
Beautiful isn’t it? I myself align best with Plato’s definition because it includes ALL living beings.
Take a minute to absorb these definitions, feel which one aligns with you and give it your best shot to embody it.
What will you see when you look into the eyes of a homeless person, whose existence until now at best annoyed you? What will you see when you look into an animal’s eyes? An animal that you will abuse or kill for no reason at all. What do you see when you look into the eyes of a family member, or any other human who you resent with all your being? What will you see when you look into any being’s eyes?