Where did everything come from? This is perhaps the question of questions, and the greatest mystery ever to be pondered. By means of what process did nothing burst into something? We will refer to this event as the Big Bang - not because the scientific theory of the same name is to be considered superior to all other views, but because the term has made itself popular enough to serve as a generic label for any account of how the Cosmic Egg hatched. Let us continue. If the Big Bang caused the universe, what caused the Big Bang? Where, and at what precise location, did the nothingness that existed before the Big Bang occurred become something? Can this question, for that matter, even be answered? How does one explain the existence of 'everything'? Why does 'something', rather than 'nothing', exist? Are we, furthermore, meant to be here?

What is the ultimate Truth? The ultimate Truth is the answer to the question of where everything came from. The ultimate Truth succeeds in explaining where everything came from, as you will see, by redefining existence itself: time, as both a term and a concept, will be approached from a new angle that succeeds in solving the paradoxes, some of which were described above, commonly associated with the Big Bang. As part of the first step in understanding the ultimate Truth, we are to envision in our minds a model. This model consists of a ball resting on top of a post. This is portrayed in the top illustration to the right. Next, picture the ball jumping up and down upon this stationary post. This is portrayed in the bottom illustration to the right. The ball follows a straight path upward as it rises, as displayed in the illustration, and follows a straight path downward as it returns to the post. Let us take this a step further.

Next, imagine the post in our model to begin to engage in motion into the empty space to its right. The ball, at rest on the post, moves along with the post. This state of motion is expressed in the top illustration to the left. The next mental challenge requires of us to consider the possibility that while the post is in motion, the ball jumps up and down as it did before. This process is worked out in detail in the bottom illustration to the left. What happens now? The ball would travel along a curved arc, as is portrayed in the illustration. The presence of this curved arc is of importance here in the sense that it is the element that will bring us closer to the ultimate Truth.

The post represents the universe. The rise and fall of the ball, furthermore, represents the occurrence of an event within the universe. On the other hand, we could view this event as the universe itself, and see the rise and fall of the ball as the universe's entire evolution from beginning to end. The post's state of motion, finally, represents the passage of time. To understand the rise and fall of the ball we must be made aware of the true nature of time. This, perhaps, may require of us to think in ways that we never have before. So be it. Take note, firstly, that for every instant in time, or 'frame', in the rise and fall of the ball, a complete copy of the universe (the post) lies below it. Each copy of the universe acts as a 'frame' for that given moment in the ball's rise and fall.

What is unique about this approach to time? The classic approach to time says that objects within the universe undergo what we call "aging", and that we experience this aging as "change". Time is a "phantom force" that acts upon those objects. This is the standard view of what time is, and is by all means a valid way of thinking of time. Thinking in terms of 'frames', however, provides us with an entirely new means of reasoning. Thinking in terms of 'frames', take note, allows us to bypass the limitations put upon us by the classic view of time. The classic approach to time limits us, you see, in the sense that it relies upon a concept that we are all very familiar with: a passing present moment.

Let us give the situation further meaning. Because the post is in physical motion, there exists for each instant in time of the ball's rise and fall a unique physical location - 'frame' - of the post that corresponds to that moment in time. This allows us to view time in a new way: as a spatial entity. The next step in understanding the ultimate Truth requires of us to perform yet another elaborate mental challenge. The challenge is to imagine all possible frames within the ball-and-post sequence to be simultaneously given physical substance. The outcome of this feat is displayed in the illustration to the right. What can we learn by observing this illustration? As you can see, all moments in the ball's rise and fall now exist simultaneously! As you can further see, this also applies to the copies of the universe (the post) that lie below the curved arc. The ball, instead of being something that appears to rise and fall as time passes (undergoing what we call "change"), rather becomes a solid, physical structure (an "unchanging physical object") that exists outside of time - an entity that never changes. Fathom this by examining the solidity of the curved arc shown in the illustration.

What came before the Big Bang? The first step in addressing the solution to this problem requires of us to confront the root cause of what brings about this question. This root cause can be summarized in a very direct, straightforward concept that we're all very familiar with: the concept that time is motion. Time, like the post in the model described earlier, has a direction, and it is in that direction that it moves. Having been reminded of this, we can now begin to address the solution as to what came before the Big Bang.

The questions brought upon by the ideas that time is motion, and that we live life according to a passing present moment, can be considered to be answered in full, take note, once we come to the realization that the universe, like the solid structure in the illustration above on the right, is itself an unchanging physical object. When we approach the universe as an unchanging physical object, the concept of time loses meaning, quite simply, because nothing is moving. Nothing needs to move, you see, when all moments in time exist simultaneously! We can reason without doubt, finally, that when we view the universe as an unchanging physical object, "time" as we know it ceases to exist.

This puts us before a concept that is, by its own nature, both elegant and sublime. Because nothing is moving, there exists no past to move away from, nor any future to move toward. No logic remains, quite simply, in assigning a 'before' or an 'after' to any event within the universe. The grueling concepts we call the 'beginning' and 'ending' of the universe, given this reasoning, therefore lose meaning! This solves the problem of what came before the Big Bang. It also solves the problem of the impending doom of a universe that will cease to exist some time in the future. In fact, our own life could be seen as an unchanging physical object: because our life never begins nor ends, we never actually "die". No single instant in time can be considered to be any more "present" than any other. Before us, therefore, would lie a universe that can neither begin nor end: the universe would be a solid, physical structure in which "aging" and "change" play no role - we would have before us a universe that would simply BE. This is the ultimate Truth.

Is this a newly-discovered, unknown Truth? By no means! Things begin to make more sense once we realize that, as we've come to learn, the universe is a Story. Like all stories, this Story possesses both a meaning and a goal: a Cosmic Purpose. The timeless universe we have come to call an unchanging physical object, you see, represents what we call GOD. It is what Christians call heaven, what Buddhists call nirvana, and what Hindus call Brahman. It has been called the Tao, the One, the All, and the Unborn. It is the supreme, divine, omnipresent Self. Complete understanding of it is the goal of the path of yoga. It is the common principle around which all religion is centered, and is the mystery that fuels the field of science. It is, indeed, the reality that every individual should strive to grasp.

How, then, does one apply this knowledge, in response to being made familiar with it? We are to make the decision to allow the ultimate Truth to have a substantial impact on our daily thoughts and life. This would involve becoming aware that we can directly experience this Truth. What, then, does it mean to exist "outside of time" in the manner discussed here? How does one fathom a universe that can neither begin nor end? How can everything that ever is and ever was be expressed in but a single blink of the eye? This direct experience of the ultimate Truth can be best conveyed by the material within the following vivid excerpt:

"I am smaller than the minutest atom, likewise greater than the greatest. I am the whole, the diversified-multicolored-lovely-strange universe. I am the Ancient One, the Lord. I am the Being-of-Gold. I am the very state of divine beatitude."

To reach the state of mind just described is the goal of goals. Reaching this goal, in turn, is more difficult than you might think: it is a goal that can be achieved only through the very greatest level of work and effort. It is an accomplishment that can be attained only by the most devoted individual. Why, you may ask? Because of the distraction that we call time! Time is an element of our own creation that prevents us from seeing the universe for what it truly is - an unchanging physical object. Our minds "chop up" this unchanging physical object into slices, you see - slices that our minds move through in sequential order. This motion - a product of the mind - possesses no reality apart from the mind that produces it. Also a product of the mind is the false belief that reality is a meaningless sequence of random events (rather than, as we've learned, "an unchanging Book whose pages are already written").

What we must pursue, then, is not the endless distractions produced by this motion - but rather the stillness of eternity itself. "Eternity", you see, is not an "infinite" extension of the passage of time (in which the universe continues to exist "forever") as we may have come to believe, but is rather the absence of the motion we associate with time. To experience the ultimate Truth, one must quiet the mind - quiet it so that it no longer produces the motion that fuels time. What can be said of one who has successfully quieted the mind? Consider these words of the Buddha:

"This condition I call neither arising nor passing away, neither dying nor being born. It is without form and without change. It is the eternal, which never originates and never passes away. To find it is the end of sorrow."

To learn how the ultimate Truth applies to the field of science (as well as religion), click on the link below.

Understanding the ultimate Truth