The question is,
"What created the Universe? What started everything?"
Perhaps, you have asked this question too, and I am not sure if you have found the answer. If you did, please do share your thoughts. Or maybe, you are already contented of not knowing it at all and accepted the fact that the beginning of everything is and will always be a mystery. However, with how my thought process works, I am still not contented with not being able to find the answer.
Though I have already written my insights about the origin through the Alternative Story of Creation blog, it is still difficult for me to grasp the idea of a beginning-less time, until I had to sit down and meditate on 'existence' during our Introduction to Buddhism course at Tushita. Perhaps it was an epiphany for me but it is still not easy to explain it in words on how I was able to find "peace" in the answer. Nevertheless, I will try to explain.
In order for me to understand the concept of a beginning-less time, I have to learn first the reason why things exist. Things are created or will begin to exist because of what Buddhists call Pratītyasamutpāda, commonly translated as 'Dependent Arising'. This means that all things arise in dependence upon multiple causes and conditions. There are three levels of dependent arising:
a) Dependence on causes and conditions: For example, a tropical storm begins to form because of the area's condition – low pressure area.
b) Dependence on parts: A car becomes a car because of the parts the comprise it. If you dismantle all its components, will you still call it a car?
c) Dependence on conceptual designation/imputation. A t-shirt on its own side is not a t-shirt. It's just a piece of textile. It only becomes a t-shirt when we apply the label and the concept of the t-shirt of which to clothe ones body.
Knowing these allows me to realize that nothing exists that is not dependent of anything. Therefore, things exist because of interdependence. Dependent arising allows creation to happen. Without dependent arising, nothing is created, nothing will exist.
Even in our thoughts we create illusions which usually lead us to suffering. Imagine a Lamborghini car. We build our concept/projection around it that having a Lamborghini makes us a better individual. It bloats our ego. We feel we are above the rest when we are owning it. And if we are not able to have it, or somehow lost it, we tend to "suffer". These are mental projections that are not real. That are not intrinsic properties of the car. However, the car remains a car used to move people and things around. The car exists because of a) the combination of parts that make up the car; b) by the conditions that allow it to exist; c) by the imputation or designation of purpose. Yet, if we take the dependents that arise, the car will no longer exist.
However, before dependents arise, there is that "pureness" that "suchness" that is there, that which is clear and knowing. This is very tricky now since even the words "clear" and "knowing" may become words "created" that which describes that "pureness" that is beyond dependent arising. Let us put it an analogy. This might not be a perfect analogy, but I think it might be a close one.
Imagine a canvass. Once you begin painting on the canvass, you are actually starting to create. The colors, the shades, then begin to "exist". Yet, the canvass is always there. That is the "pureness" that "suchness" before any existence.
You can also visualize a blue sky. It is there. It is pure. No labels. But imagine clouds forming out from that blue sky when we start using labels. We'll try to label a cloud "Happiness". Yet "Happiness" will only exist if there is "Sadness", so there should be another cloud labelled "Sadness". Just like a perceiver, it only exists when there is something perceived. "Happiness" only exists when there is "Sadness". They exist because they are interdependent. Yet, these clouds are not the blue sky. Yet we know that there is that "suchness" which is not the "feeling", the "emotions", the "happiness", the "sadness". It is the blue sky. It is that canvass. That "suchness" is what Buddhists call the "emptiness" – this is the "formless", the "pureness", empty of existence. And because that "emptiness" does not exist, then it has not been created, therefore it is beginning – less.
I am not really sure if I have explained this well, but I am able to find peace and contentment in this answer. I just hope that you'll find your answer too.
"Whatever beliefs you have for yourself, if it works for you, then choose it."
Namaste.
