Talking with the Cosmos
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Talking with the Cosmos by Nigel Glassborow April 2019
thestoa@hotmail.co.uk
During my early years I had experiences that taught me of the desirability of taming and
being in control of my emotions, of the reality of person to person ‘telepathy’, and of the
ability to tap into a wider spectrum of ‘knowledge’ than is available to an individual through
their normal senses and learnings. These experiences led to my interest in trying to find a
‘physics’ that would explain these ‘lessons’ that were being placed in front of me.
At about the age of eighteen I moved away from the faith I had been brought up in, namely
Christianity - albeit that my family’s involvement in the Church of England was more to do
with the idea that attending Church was ‘the thing to do’, rather than because of any view
that Christianity was ‘the one and only true faith’. Christianity had no hold over me.
From about the age of twenty-seven my investigations were put on hold while I performed
my roles as householder and bread-winner. But by the age of thirty-nine I was able to have
time to return to my investigations. This initiated a move to Glastonbury – not the festival
which is perversely held in Pilton some short distance from Glastonbury. In Glastonbury, just
as there had been in Athens all those years ago, there was the opportunity to investigate all
manner of religious and spiritual ideas while also pursuing a layman’s interest in the modern
sciences and ethology, especially the commonality of human and animal behaviours.
It was during this time that I had my clear experience of ‘Another’ involving itself in my life
whereby I was used to answer the spiritual questions of another individual (as outlined in my
essay “Socrates’ ‘Divine Something’ considered against the rationale of Zeno’s
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Metaphysics”). I was also ‘introduced’ to the concept of how the Cosmos is manifested
through my ‘divine something’ speaking the words ‘What do you mean by four dimensions?
There are only three – Space, Movement and Consciousness’.
And when I had figured out as best I could as to what this meant (as per “The Manifestation
of All That Is – a rationalisation” which is part of my essay “In Support of Zeno’s
Metaphysics”), in answer to a question I put to the Cosmos – “What next?” – I was led to
Professor Gilbert Murray’s 1915 essay on Stoicism.
Here I found that what I had worked out for myself had already been formulated into that
complete spiritual and life philosophy that is Stoicism. All that was needed was to consider
the effects of the advances in knowledge, especially the physics of life, regards some of the
ancient Stoic theorising and explanations over such matters as the supposed regular
‘conflagrations’ and the like.
None of this is to say that I have managed to live up to what I have now learnt and, despite
having been being taught ‘lessons’ from an early age, there are some of my past actions that
I am not proud of. I now know that my bad choices as much as my good choices are part of
the Past and so are not to be fretted over in that there is nothing to be done to change
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them. However I would not have had things to be other than they were, otherwise I would
not be where I am today.
Hopefully, with age and experience, I have started to manage to better live up to my now
Stoic beliefs, but I am certainly nowhere near to being a ‘saint’.
Having learnt from my lessons and my experiences of ‘Another’ I am sure that my path will
be truer if I continue to seek to live a life ‘in accord with Nature’ or, as Epictetus puts it, if I
seek to align my will with the will of God. So I not only try to learn what the ‘play of life’ is all
about and how I ought to play my part in it by observing the progress of the play so far, but I
also consult God as and when such seems appropriate.
I talk to the Cosmos and sometimes the Cosmos answers.
So, how does the Stoic approach the idea of talking with the Cosmos – and hence God?
From the Stoic perspective it makes perfect sense to recognise that we can commune with
the Cosmos in that we share in its Logos – its mind faculty. Through the ‘active principle’ we
are individuals while also being one with the Cosmos and all that is manifested within it.
This aspect of our metaphysics offers a place for such matters as Socrates’ daimonion,
whereby we can be guided by a ‘divine something’.
Stoicism tells us that we can, in part, learn what God’s purpose for us is and how we can best
live by looking to the nature of the world that God manifests about us and to the roles we
are given in the play of life and by looking to the ‘common perceptions’ of humankind.
However, Stoicism of old has also told us that there are processes whereby we can consult
God for specific guidance through such things as the Oracle – something that they studied
and where they found there to be a statistical ‘proof’ that sound guidance was being
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given.
We are also told that the Stoics of old saw themselves as being on a par with ‘the gods’ while
also seeing themselves as being a part of ‘the one God’, the God that manifests the Cosmos
in a manner whereby the Cosmos is the body of God. By experience and by logic, Stoics see
that at some level we can commune with God or some aspect of God (a daimonion or ‘divine
something’ as described by Socrates) in that we share in the mind of God through the ‘spark’
of the ‘active principle’ that permeates our individual bodies.
Someone once asked me, why the God I commune with did not talk to them. I pointed out
that as the person was an atheist it was not that God was not talking to him, but rather that
the person’s beliefs were making him deaf and blind to God because of his determination to
ignore anything that ran counter to his intellectualised rebuttal of all things that smack of
religion.
To talk to God it seems sensible that one needs to believe in God. After all, if you did not
believe that you had a sibling, why would you try phoning that sibling? The same goes for
communing with God, although God will ‘talk’ to a person even if they are not believers.
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Stoicism does a very good job of awakening a belief in God through the Stoic rationale that
stems from the Stoic metaphysics that tells us that the Cosmos is being manifested moment
by moment out of a ‘prime material’ that is permeated by the ‘active principle’ where the
‘active principle’ is akin to ‘the Consciousness’ of the modern sciences, and that is possessed
of the same qualities that Stoicism attributes to God in that it is ‘the universal governor and
organiser of all things’.
When it comes to considering the nature of God directly, Stoicism offers ‘the wisdom of the
ages’ seen as the ‘common perceptions of humankind’ that presents us with a common
belief in a singular ‘Something’ that is responsible for the Cosmos being as it is, in that the
‘Something’ (the one God in Stoic terms) is ‘the universal governor and organiser of all
things’.
And just looking at the general populous it is to be seen, even if they claim not to be
‘religious’, that the vast majority of people have a passing belief in some form of God, in part
as a result of a belief that our loved ones are always with us ‘in spirit’ - through re-merging
with God, through passing on to some other ‘domain’, through reincarnation, etcetera.
(What happens to an individual after death is not an issue that was fully settled by the Stoics
of old in that there is no ‘common perception’ within all cultures as to what happens – even
though there is a common belief that what one has done in one’s life is in some way and to
some degree important when it comes to ‘moving on’.)
In fact, most people have an innate belief in ‘a friend beyond phenomena’ and it is this belief
that makes it easier to talk to the Cosmos. All we have to do to open the conversation is to
talk to God as a friend, and then to be ready to
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hear an answer regardless of how the answer
comes. That is if an answer is necessary. Like any good friend, the Cosmos is always willing
to just listen while we work out any answers for ourselves.
So how, today, does one approach the idea of talking with the Cosmos – and hence God?
Personally when I talk to the Cosmos I address it as ‘Mother-Father’ for I see it as our
spiritual ‘parent’.
Over the years I have found various techniques that are akin to the ancient Oracle (that is
reported to have said that there were ‘none wiser than Socrates’) and other such ideas of
old whereby we can receive guidance in a manner that bypasses the critical nature of our
thought processes that might otherwise deafen us to direct communication. But an
openness to communing directly with God is preferable to such ‘party tricks’.
I will at times ask for help, guidance and/or encouragement, as appropriate, to see through
some matter in life. And when some situation has come to fruition, I will ask what the
Cosmos wants of me next by way of service to others and the common good.
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Of course in such communing a good state of mind does help. While I have not been free of
‘the slings and arrows’ of life I have always been content with life in that I believe that the
whole of life’s events have purpose – even if sometimes the purpose is to be seen only in
hindsight, if the purpose is to be seen at all. I accept that whatever happens, happens as it
does because it is part of a bigger picture.
However I also do not just rest on my laurels. I strive to try to play my part in hopefully
determining for the better how things will happen as the flow of change that is Existence
progresses. We Stoics are not just expected to ‘accept’ but also to strive to cooperate with
the Cosmos in determining how things will pan out.
To do this Stoicism tells us that we need ‘to make our will one with the will of God’. And we
can better do this if we consciously consult with the Cosmos on what it wants of us?
The Stoic training involves contemplation on the nature of things and situations, especially
by way of a daily self-applied ‘de-briefing’ regards how well one has stuck to one’s Stoic life
during the day. During such contemplation a sought for answer may present itself to an
‘open mind’. But we also need to be open to receiving advice, guidance and even help from
‘outside’ of our own individualised state of being.
In talking to the Cosmos I find it helps to have good intent. There is no hiding our inner
thoughts and feelings from that which is actually, moment by moment, manifesting us as we
are.
When it comes to asking the Cosmos for help I have found that it helps not to overly desire a
particular outcome, but to consciously confirm that I am willing to accept the outcome that
actually happens - no matter what it is.
To accommodate this, sometimes I use simple
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methods such as suggesting to the Cosmos
what it is that I have decided is the wise course to proceed along while at the same time
asking the Cosmos to divert or block the course of actions I am going to initiate if such is
inappropriate. Basically I am asking the Cosmos for support to proceed with the particular
course of action or to block it. This way I am seeking to ensure that I am not going against
‘the will of God’.
Sometimes where action is called for but where my present course of actions are not
progressing as hoped and nothing has come along to suggest that what is being aimed for is
inappropriate, I have found that I will say to the Cosmos that as ‘Plan A’ appears to be stalled
I am going to divert my attention to a ‘Plan B’. However I will let the Cosmos know that I am
trying not to be impatient and will be content as to whichever plan comes to fruition – if
either. For some reason that I have not yet fathomed, in letting go of any preference for the
‘Plan A’ I will find that being open to alternatives seems to free up whatever was holding
back on the ‘Plan A’ and often the ‘Plan A’ will then move through to a successful
completion. Possibly it is the Cosmos testing my ability to be accepting and patient or to see
that I am not being overly attached to some hoped for outcome.
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Another ‘technique’ I have developed is to ‘make a deal’ with the Cosmos – or more
correctly, a commitment on my part. My part in such a ‘deal’ is to acknowledge and bring
about what I need to do to prepare myself for the hoped for outcome while setting myself a
time period within which to accomplish what I need to do. I then ask the Cosmos to help
nudge the necessary ‘external’ matters needed in the right direction as appropriate.
Sometimes when I am asking something of the Cosmos it may need time ‘to get all of the
ducks in a line’. At other times it is as if the Cosmos already had matters in hand and all that
was needed was for me to ask – in which case there is an almost immediate response. One
needs to be patient – God does not perform miracles, God only does what is possible. But
with a nudge here and a nudge there the flow of change can be guided to a position where
one’s prayers can be answered – if such is appropriate.
And of course it has to be remembered that one needs to be careful as to what one asks of
the Cosmos. The Cosmos may just give it to us in order to teach us a lesson. One also needs
to avoid constantly pestering the Cosmos. There are times and places to consult the
Cosmos, but generally the Cosmos has already given us all the answers we need, we just do
not necessarily know the right question to ask. We have been given our life to live as free
agents – not to be slaves to God.
As they say, ‘God helps those who help themselves.’ And that is not an invite to grab what
you can for yourself – it may be better stated that ‘God helps those who get on and do what
they, with forethought, think is right.’ That is, try to live life with good intent and in all
probability matters will go as is appropriate. Not necessarily as one would wish, but as they
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ought to in light of ‘the bigger picture’ – the extent of which we are unlikely to be fully aware
of. Hence, yet again, the need for acceptance.
So it is that while sometimes it may appear that the Cosmos is not answering our prayers,
the lack of an answer is an answer in itself. It may be that all we need is the confidence to
‘get on and do’ to the best of our ability or it may be that we, ourselves, need to reconsider
the course we are on as part of our own development.
Certainly, when it comes down to it, it is for each individual to approach the Cosmos as they
see fit - but respect for the deity one is talking to and self-honesty will always help.
There is however always one piece of advice that is to be found in the ‘common perceptions’
of humankind. Any guidance from God will always be to live a life of good. God never tells
us to live a life of evil in that we are always encouraged to do ‘none of those things which the
common law of mankind is in the habit of forbidding’ – especially unlawful killing. When we
believe that we have had answers from the Cosmos we need to be sure that such is not a
madness of a sick part of our own mind, as well as ensuring that we are not following the
sick mind of some charismatic character selling us some perverse doctrine that is greatly at
odds with the wisdom of the ages. God does not teach us hatred.
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