Explaining Gravity & Time

All this advancement, all this sophistication - and yet we still know nothing. Concepts such as time and gravity are still so elusive. Consider one possible explanation.

Hindu mythology says Brahman is Infinity - all that ever could be, as one - and Brahman manifests itself as Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva - The Creator, The Sustainer, and The Destroyer. Spinoza remarked, "The order and connection of ideas is the same as the order and connection of things." Similarly, for every objectivistic way of seeing the world, there is an equal and opposite poetic way of seeing it. One side of the equation is sheer wonder and magic - the gods and goddesses themselves. Another side is pure, cut and dry, plain and simple, as mathematics.

Consider "Brahma" is simply the universe's tendency to create something from nothing. Quantum physics wouldn't disagree that "matter" arises from an infinite field of apparent nothingness. So perhaps "Brahma," understood objectively, is "Brahman's" power to create anything from nothing. We see this tendency manifest itself in phenomena such as spontaneous healing. Newton's First Law should be trimmed by Occam's Razor. The most fundamental law, it may seem, is that of Creation. Something arises from nothing. Then what?

Then, it exists.

It doesn't immediately go away. It remains. It sustains. Something holds it together. Something keeps it bound as a discrete unit within the universe. Perhaps, then, "Vishnu," understood objectively, is that which keeps things intact. "Time" and "gravity" are just different labels for this second most fundamental law, that is the universe's propensity to sustain, continue, remain.

Finally, things don't last forever. Buddhism's tenet of impermanence is undeniable. Things eventually break apart, wither away, decompose - die. The Second Law of Thermodynamics and "Shiva" - just as time, gravity, and Vishnu - are one and the same. Shiva, then, is a third fundamental force of nature - nature's tendency to destroy and be destroyed - the polar opposite of time/gravity/Vishnu.

These three forces are ultimately the same force that animates everything - the paint marking that blank canvas that is pure consciousness, nothingness, emptiness.