What is the Divine?

In truth, I have no idea what the Divine is—but I think it’s helpful to talk about what I understand the word Divine to point towards. And for me, that word could be understood as interconnectedness.

The inexplicable mystery

I am awake, looking out from behind these eyes. I think we all have moments in life where we have a sense of the inexplicability, the unexplainableness of this experience.

I’ve been here for as long as I can remember, looking out of these eyes.

Each night we sleep and disappear, but somehow this has no effect on our sense of uninterrupted conscious experience that feels as if it has gone on forever.

I’m here. My body is down there. You’re over there. Everything is separate from me.

We experience ourselves as separate from our body, as being awake in our head and our body dangling down.

I am not this computer. I’m not the table, not the chair. Not the apartment I am sat in. We experience ourselves as fundamentally separate from everything else.

Sadly, it is upon this felt-experience of separation that our toxic society is built. Individualism, competition, materialism, private property, exploitation, dominion over nature—the fundamental principles of capitalism arise from this assumption. The epidemic in mental illness—underpinned by ideas such as ‘I’m alone’, ‘not good enough’, ‘a failure’—depends on this idea.

The illusion of separation

If I looked at myself under a microscope, I would see atoms, cells, particles hovering in space.

I would see that I am made of exactly the same material as this computer, the chair I am sat on. It would be almost impossible to tell where I end and the floor under my feet begins.

Get small enough and even atoms disappear, everything is simultaneously a wave and a particle, pure energy.

It is a simple fact that on a physical, material level, clear lines of separation dissolve when closely looked at.

Socially, the same is true.

Think of the countless hands, the myriad of interconnected systems, involved in building, shipping, and selling this computer I’m using.

Think of the farmers, the supply chains, the cultural transmission that enabled me to cook tonight’s dinner and write to you in English.

Nothing exists in isolation. We are woven into vast networks of relationship, interaction and interdependence.

The truth is that reality is non-dualistic. We are both separate and part of everything simultaneously.

The intelligence of everything

Women birth more male babies when many men are killed by war.

Weather systems ensure enough rain and sun for plants to grow.

Organs work together to enable our body to navigate our environment.

Simple cells work together to create a heart, a liver, an arm.

We are born from, and are nested within, intelligent systems that are aware of their environment. If they were not, they would not be able to be successful, to reproduce and thrive.

Those who have watched the experiments of microbiologist Michael Levin, who have a grasp of quantum mechanics, or who are versed in Eastern and Shamanic traditions and have had psychedelic experiences, are likely to understand: reality is non-dualistic, awake, aware and intelligent.

And this is what we point to when we speak of the Divine.

This vast interconnected knowing that we both awake from and are nested within.