So far scientists don't know what gravity is. Rather, they only can describe what it does. Images of the mystery of gravity assist in the beginning of my meditation today. Isaac Newton sits by a tree, beholds a falling apple, and, voila, a light bulb goes off in his head. It took a couple of hundred thousand years of evolution, but humans now had, through Newton's inquiry, a beginning theory of gravity.
Somewhere I read about a problem with this Newtonian image. For one thing historians doubt if it happened, "it" being the falling apple and Newton. For another to say that an apple falls to the ground misses the complex nature of the event. The prevailing common sense view says gravity pulls the apple to the ground. This view suggests an underlying mechanism, something like a super magnet, somewhere under the Earth's crust that reaches up and pulls the apple down. Science now tells us that notion has little or no basis in reality.
Why? I ponder. Something is missing in the traditional falling apple image. But what? To say the Earth pulls the apple in its direction fails to capture the mutual presence of the universe in each of its parts. Scientist Brian Swimme assists us in our meditation by pointing out the bonding relationship between apple and ground.
This bonding provides the focus of our meditation for today. Intuitively, I sense that gravity relates in a profound way to what we call falling in love.
Said bonding provides us with an event that strongly suggests a welling up of what Swimme calls the inescapable togetherness of things.(p. 25) This interaction between certain elements in the Universe he further calls "allurement." Allurement clicks for me as more accurate in my experience of this mutual attraction than the term gravity. If for no other reason, "allurement" as a description of the experience is fresh and requires my attention. Scientists agree, then, that there is a long-range attraction between all aspects of the universe, an attraction so strong that I am urged to call it a force, a powerful allurement.
What of the tree that produced the apple? It provides us with a third point in the triangular picture. The tree struggles with the ground, and then lets go, releases the apple. The tree, the apple, and the ground all are part of a region of influence, a field of mutual allurement but also resistance.
The tree holds on? Yes.
The ground pulls? Yes.
The apple falls. Yes.
But all three are set in a matrix, a region of influence, a swirling vortex, a force, and an allurement. These circumstances of attraction aren't what they seem as I look deeper.
What of the sky above the tree? More accurately put, what of the allurement of the Sun with the tree? The Sun sends its photons to the tree, which in turn synthesizes the light into food in a process we call photosynthesis. As the tree eats the light of the Sun, it grows toward the Sun. The tree, then, is being pulled upward through a complex flow of forces. As the tree moves up and away from the ground, the fruit hangs between ground and sky until a pregnant moment of the tree's letting go.
My head spins, as does my heart with these images. I focus on the bond, the attraction, and the complexity of pulling, pushing, and letting go. Is this not like the birthing love between mother and child? The apple floats between heaven and Earth. In my relationships I know the floating, the pulling, the pushing, the alluring.
I too float between allurements.
I pause and consider how this contemplation impacts me. I ponder the bonding I have with all things, every aspect of the universe. What comes forward, though, is the bonding I have with people who mean something important to me. Earlier I spoke of both attraction and recoil, or varying forms of attraction.
Sometimes, I feel pulled toward someone in a positive way. It seems so familiar, like a father and a daughter or a mother and a son. At times this bonding feels wonderful like a dessert. Positive, you might say. At other times, this bonding comes across as eating a fruit I don't like, say a sour apple. Negative, you might say.
At other times I experience a mutual attraction that transcends the parent/child bond. Hesitantly, I reveal myself to the important other. The other discloses deeper vulnerabilities. The bond grows to the extent that I am willing to explore elements of myself that I have hidden from myself and project on the other person.
I bring to the surface my hidden self. The other tenderly unveils a hidden self. Incredible energy passes between us. What was blocked flows. The apple falls. Together, we are exquisite. Intimate, you might say. This intimacy forms the most powerful bond I know of with humans and all aspects of the Universe.
What are these bonds? Are they part of what I have called gravity all these years? If not entirely, does gravity figure in? The experience of our intimacy forms a mini-field, a small region of influence. People who come into contact with this field feel drawn to share in it. Before long we have a circle.
If we work through the negative bonds and the positive bonds, this intimate connection calls out to forms of energy passing by, humans and non-human creatures. Years pass. We build ceremonies and joyful practices that encourage the connections.
This powerful allurement calls out to other beings. It is not unlike the tree, the apple, and the ground. We dance in a matrix. Is this not gravity at work? Probably not, but close. You can't reduce intimacy to gravity. That would flatten out the experience, take away its juice. Still, the forces themselves seem to resonate. Intimacy(love in relationships) is far more than gravity. But gravity may be a powerful lens through which we can look at love.
It is not so much that gravity acts on us. It is that we ourselves are gravity in action. As we expand our intimacy, we become the allurement, the attractive force that holds the universe in togetherness. As we elevate within the Sacred, evolutionary process, we become part of the bond that holds all aspects together.
I don't know what gravity is. I don't know who I am fully. As I meditate I DO know that I am gravity.
Do you feel my alluring you? Hello over there my gravitational friend.