DW's Blog

The Universe Within

by DW Green — June 4, 2025

“So the next time you walk outside, remember: you’re not you’re not separate from any of it.”

“You’re not in the Universe, the universe is in you… Ultimately you are not a person, but a focal point where the universe is becoming conscious of itself. What an amazing miracle.” – Eckhart Tolle

I’ve carried this knowing in my bones for as long as I can remember – that I am not separate from the rocks beneath my feet, the dirt between my fingers, the trees swaying overhead, or even the smallest bug crawling across my path. We are all expressions of the same cosmic story, temporary arrangements of the same fundamental elements that have been dancing together since the beginning of time.

The Miracle of Stardust

The iron in your blood was forged in the nuclear furnace of a dying star billions of years ago. The calcium in your bones was created in stellar explosions that scattered the building blocks of life across the cosmos. The water in your body has been rain, ocean, cloud, and river – flowing through countless forms before becoming part of you. You are quite literally made of stardust, and when you touch a rock or hold soil in your hands, you’re reuniting with family.

The Paradox of Scale

Here’s what blows my mind: we exist in this incredible paradox where we’re both infinitesimally small and cosmically significant at the same time. In terms of physical scale, we’re microscopic specks in an incomprehensibly vast universe. Yet we’re also the universe’s way of knowing itself – the cosmos evolved for 13.8 billion years just to create beings capable of wonder, love, and understanding.

When you stand in a forest and feel that deep sense of connection, that’s not just poetic sentiment – that’s recognition. The trees around you are distant cousins, sharing the same carbon that cycles through all living things. The soil teems with microorganisms that are part of the same web of life that includes you. Every breath you take connects you to every plant that has ever lived.

The Democracy of Elements

What strikes me as beautifully simple is that all this incredible complexity – from galaxies to galaxies to human consciousness to the intricate ecosystem in a handful of dirt – comes down to just 118 elements on the periodic table. The same hydrogen that fuels stars flows through your veins. The same carbon that forms diamonds also builds the proteins in your body. We’re all just different arrangements of the same cosmic Lego blocks.

Living Philosophy

This isn’t just abstract philosophy – it’s a lived reality that can transform how we move through the world. When I remember that I’m not separate from the landscape around me, everything changes. That spider I might instinctively want to kill? We’re made of the same stuff, part of the same unfolding story. The rock I kick down the trail? It’s been on a billion-year journey that somehow led to this moment of connection.

This understanding is both humbling and incredibly empowering. Humbling because it puts our human dramas in cosmic perspective – we’re brief flickers in an ancient story much larger than ourselves. Empowering because it means every moment of consciousness, every act of love, every creative impulse is the universe expressing itself through us.

The Focal Point

Tolle calls us “focal points where the universe is becoming conscious of itself,” and I find that breathtaking. Every time you appreciate beauty, contemplate mystery, or feel love, that’s literally the cosmos experiencing these things through the temporary arrangement of elements that calls itself by your name. You’re not just in the universe – you ARE the universe, awakened to itself.

So the next time you walk outside, remember: you’re not separate from any of it. The ground beneath your feet, the air you breathe, the light touching your skin – it’s all one seamless whole, and you’re not just part of it. You’re how it knows itself, how it loves itself, how it becomes conscious of its own magnificent complexity.

What an amazing miracle indeed.