FROG EGGS, VERSION #2

On July 31, 2002, a late-afternoon storm's rainwater filled a dishpan I used as a hermit in the woods near Natchez, Mississippi. At dusk, frogs deposited eggs in the dishpan, which before long became home to so many tadpoles that only a tiny fraction could ever survive. Sometime later another heavy rain caused the dishpan to overflow, washing many tadpoles onto the ground, where they died. All this set me on a train of thought outlined in the essay "Tadpoles Over the Edge," still online at http://www.backyardnature.net/n/p/020901.htm

This week, in another dishpan full of water on the concrete table of the outside-kitchen of the rock hut I'm living in now, during the night once again frogs left far too many eggs that will produce seething masses of tadpoles, of which only a tiny fraction, if any, will survive to become frogs. Remembering my 2002 experience, I realized that this time my reaction to the situation was different.

Back then, the situation caused me to wonder why the Creator -- as I called the Universal Creative Impulse in those days -- to "... build a frog whose vast majority of offspring must die before reaching adulthood, and why build humans programmed for the arrogance and aggression that's screwing up our world right now?"

This time, that question didn't even occur to me, and I know why. It's because this year, 16 years later, finally I attained a monist view of the Universe, monism being a philosophy known for many centuries by certain thinkers and mystics. Monism has many interpretations, but mine is that all things of the Universe, including matter, thought, and feelings, are manifestations of the One Thing, in the manner described in my essay "One Thing, a Rock, A Tree, and Me."

In general, the Western mind is dualist, not monist. "God" is in one place, and creates us creations in another. If we humans are "good," we get to go where God resides. In my brand of monism, the Creator and the created are all One Thing, all the time, if time exists at all.

The implications of the monist view are profound. For example, when everything is One Thing, nothing "judges" or punishes other parts of the Creation for "bad deeds." Judgment simply isn't a consideration. However, there's still guidance for ethical living, for the seeking of harmony with the general flow and feeling of the Universe offers direction to the Universe's evolving, thinking, feeling beings.

But, back to this week's dishpan of frog eggs. During my 2002 frog egg encounter, I wondered why the Creator allows so much to go on that is hurtful, degrading, unfair, lethal... to innocent beings.

In my new monist mode, there continues to be hurtfulness and lethality, but degradation and unfairness are not considerations. That's because everything everyplace all the time retains dignity as a manifestation of the One Thing.

In fact, it seems to me that the monist view offers thinking, feeling beings entry into a domain that's unfathomably dangerous and utterly impersonal from the human perspective but, still, something like a river of never ending music/poetry/enchantment. The music/poetry/enchantment is the flowing, evolving Universe and all its manifestations, including matter, energy, thought and feeling. Consciousness within this domain diffuses through everything, everywhere, but shines most intensely where thinking and feeling ignite the brightest.

Frog eggs in the dishpan are like sparkling embers thrown into the night, and when I am dazzled by those flaring-then-fading sparkles, and remember them and tell you about them, the sparkles/me/you become a lovely current in the flowing, evolving Universe. You and I ourselves are like sparkles in a dishpan, our fire reflecting stars swirling overhead. Stars in the sky, all of our own galaxy, which is just one among billions of galaxies, are sparkles beyond the scope of sparkles in a dishpan, yet the same thing. All sparkles of all dimensions, always music/poetry/enchantment round and round swirling in the dishpan.