A complex web of invisible forces shapes our lives, though often it’s not readily perceivable to us. So how does one conceptualize the “unseeable”, and harness its power for a more fulfilling and meaningful life?
Science is adept at understanding phenomena by reducing them to their basic elements and analysing their properties. But how do we, as humans, interact with the overwhelmingly complex forces and systems that influence much of our existence? In this article, I explore one way in which we can make use of spirituality to interface with the infinitely subtle.
The limits of science
In modern society, we have a vast array of tools and instruments to extend our awareness beyond the five senses, allowing us to identify phenomena far beyond normal human recognition. This enables us to understand and create novel applications of all sorts, from nuclear power to life-saving vaccines. But there are practical limits to this line of inquiry. Although such instruments augment our eyes and ears, they do not necessarily expand our capacity to behold and comprehend, especially when it comes to complex, messy or multi-faceted systems—which is why science often favours the reductionist method.
What, then, of unpredictable ecosystems, or chaotic weather patterns, or stock markets? What of emergent phenomena like consciousness or human culture, or all the other cascading forces that place a guiding hand onto our lives? Sometimes events in our lives are so interconnected and entangled they may appear to us as random, even though we know, deep down, that somewhere there lies a cause behind the effect.
Such phenomena cannot be easily studied in a lab. Many are non-physical, perhaps dealing with language, ideas, subtle relationships or fluid information. Some are so elusive and transient that they appear one moment and vanish the next—impossible to reproduce or study in any scientific way. Yet they have significant impacts on our lives—some in material ways; others on an emotional or mental level.
Faced with such subtle phenomena, we turn to philosophy and spirituality to integrate them into our lives in a meaningful way. Only then can we incorporate such phenomena into a workable framework of belief. Let’s start off with a story I came across recently (apparently true), in Shinto (Way of the Gods) by W.G. Aston, regarding an old farmer, and the profound chain of cause and effect that his actions created.
The quick-thinking farmer
A long time ago, in rural Japan, there was a quick-thinking farmer. One morning, something caused him to look up from his work in the fields, toward the horizon. From his vantage point on the hillside, he saw a great tidal wave approaching the coastal village below. Horrified, he watched the oncoming force of destruction and grasped about for an idea. He wasn’t a young man any more, and he knew that even if he ran down toward the village, he could never reach it in time, let alone knock on all the doors to raise the alarm.
And then, in a flash, an idea came to him. With quick thinking, he ran back to his home, grabbed a bundle of kindling sticks and plunged them into his fire. Running back out onto the hillside, he threw the sticks asunder, setting fire to his field of rice. Then he took off his shirt and used it to fan the flames. The tidal wave was getting ever closer, and desperately, he waded into the field, putting himself at risk until the fire was so fierce, that the column of smoke was too large to miss.
Down in the village, the smoke was soon spotted and the alarm raised. People were sent up the hill to help the farmer. As soon as they were high enough, they too could see the approaching tidal wave, and quickly enticed the rest of the village up to the safety of the hill.
The farmer’s swift, ingenious action had saved the village. He had sacrificed his own crop, as well as risking his life in the process. In gratitude, the villagers offered their thanks and appreciation. They celebrated his bravery, and in time, they even built a shrine in his honour, worshipping his spirit as a Shinto deity.
And here we get to the crux of the story—because at this point, the farmer was still alive. Even while living up on the hill in a thatched cottage and continuing to farm, the grateful community paid homage at his shrine down in the village, knowing him to be alive. So what were they worshipping? This story illustrates a profound aspect of Shinto belief: that one can worship a spirit, borne of someone and yet separate from them—in this case, the manifestation of a singular, impactful action.
How Shintoism deals with emergent entities
In Shintoism, it’s not necessarily the individual who is worshipped, but rather the essence of their actions—their spirit—that has a lasting, ripple effect across society and the world at large. The farmer’s inspired action on that fateful day transcended time and space, becoming a potent force that shaped the lives of the villagers and their descendants. Every person saved, their subsequent actions, thoughts, and influences on the world, can in part be attributed to this one act. Even their descendants, and their actions, and so on. The essence of this momentous action is seen as a dynamic, growing, living entity—difficult to visualize yet undeniably present. Not supernatural, just very difficult to define and conceptualize.
This complex cascade of cause and effect started with a single action, and as every day passes, more and more people’s lives become entangled with it, influenced by it, part of it—and now, as you read this, even you interface with it. It is a definite, undeniable entity—this living, ever-changing string of events. But it isn’t a distinct object. We can’t point to it, or hold it in our hands. Impossible to apply anything but the vaguest scientific study. It resides above the level of the material. So to go back to the original question: how do we conceptualize the unseeable?
When Shintoism emphasizes the spirituality of actions and natural phenomena, it often personifies them in order to make their complex, dynamic nature more accessible to human understanding. This concept can be challenging to express: something non-physical, yet having physical constituents. For Shintoism, it recognized as a spiritual entity with a life of its own. This entity, if adopted by enough people, can emerge from a collective consciousness and begin manifesting in the physical world through the actions of its believers. So personification can help to give such entities a potent form and make it relatable.
Using personification as a means to perceive
Personification, if approached knowingly and carefully, can be a useful tool for interfacing with the unseeable. Second-order entities such as these are more than the sum of their parts. They are like the person that emerges from the individual cells of the body. To what extent the metaphor goes is uncertain.
In the story of the good farmer, the villagers recognized that his inspired action came from a place beyond the ordinary. The idea to set fire to his field could have stemmed from various sources: a practical quick-thinking taught to him by his parents, or perhaps borne out of his experiences as a farmer, or even form a random conversation that planted the seed of the idea. Or perhaps it was a moment of divine inspiration, a flash of genius under stress. Regardless of its origin, the action itself took on a life of its own, becoming an entity worthy of reverence and worship.
This separation of the individual from their actions allows us to appreciate the unique spirit of significant deeds. The spirit of the farmer’s action is still worshipped long after the farmer himself has died. Villagers pray to the kind good old farmer kami for good luck and help in times of need, recognizing the enduring, dynamic impact of his action. This entity, while interwoven with countless other events over time, has left an indelible mark on the world—a living, ever-changing presence.
Recognizing entities that are not simply material but the expression of something dynamic and unseen is a core aspect of Shinto spirituality. Take a river, for example. We recognize that all its constituents are merely passing through, but as they do so, they form part of a second-order form. A river isn’t merely the water, or the riverbed, or the surrounding life on the banks, or the fish in its currents, or the sound, or the nature or the ripples. The river is more than its physical constituents; it remains, even as the water and pebbles and organisms come and go. It is an entity in of itself, a dynamic system that embodies a spirit beyond the sum of its parts.
Thus, in Shinto spirituality, the recognition and reverence of these dynamic, unseen entities help us understand the interconnectedness of all things. They remind us that every action, every moment, has the potential to transcend the physical and touch the spiritual, leaving a lasting, living impact on the world.
But what can we do with this idea, now that we have identified it? Surely, such emergent, second-order entities are not alive in their own right? Surely they are not conscious? In which case, why the need to interface with them at all? That is the question we each ask ourselves when it comes to choosing what cognitive framework to believe.
We must ask ourselves: will doing this improve our understanding of existence? Will it help to make sense of the chaos that sometimes presides over events? Will it allow us to recognise patterns, in nature, in human society, in the memes and prevailing opinions that go viral and take on a life of their own? Ultimately, where we meet the extent to which science can inform our thinking, and cross over into the metaphysical or spiritual, we must ask ourselves: will it bring us more meaning to our lives? That is a question we can only answer, as individuals, having considered and tried the practices described.
How I employ these ideas in day-to-day living
On a personal level, I like to try and quieten my thoughts and open up my awareness in order to sense the “spirit” of a place—its real and living essence. I try not to stray past the line into the supernatural. The real is awesome as it is. As well as being informative, I find this approach to be a deeply mindful and spiritual process, helping me to flesh out my internal picture of the world without straying away from my belief in science.
For example, take the zeitgeist of society. Like the conscious mind that emerges from the constituent neurons of our brain, I sometimes find it useful to picture the collective emergent mind of a society in a personified form.
As a second-order entity, it can be helpful in dealing with the social influences I experience in everyday life. I may or may not believe that this entity is a living, thinking, conscious being—that is a question for another time. But we can agree that such entities are real, in that each of our thoughts and opinions and ideas do not exist within a vacuum, but are all interconnected, not unlike neurons. I find this way of thinking helpful in understanding things like popular opinion, or stock phrases that get adopted and repeated, or the general personality and mood of whole nations. And as a member of society, this collective consciousnesses partly resides in me, too. So reflecting on such things might help me inform my own actions.
Just experiencing the qualia of such phenomena and being aware of them in the real world can be an immensely meaningful process. If we so wish, we can recognise them by giving thanks to them, or being grateful for the providence that allowed us to be here now, in this moment. The subtle forces, for example, that allowed our great grandparents to meet, or that saved an ancestor from a tidal wave. We might not believe that such unseeables are literal beings, but a greater awareness of life is almost never a bad thing. Trying to better understand the complex environment in which we reside can help bring more meaning to our lives. So next time you are out and about, try to reach our your awareness and identify interconnected confluence of forces that rule our world. Try to see if you can discern any unseeables.
Exercise: Opening Your Awareness to Complex Entities
Introduction
This exercise is designed to help you become more aware of the complex, unseen forces that shape your life. By following these steps, you’ll learn to perceive and appreciate these subtle entities, integrating them into your understanding of the world in a meaningful and spiritual way.
Step 1: Find a Quiet Space
Choose a location where you won’t be disturbed, ideally somewhere you feel a connection with—whether it’s a peaceful corner of your home, a garden, or a quiet park.
Step 2: Ground Yourself
Sit comfortably with your back straight and close your eyes. Take a few deep breaths, inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth. Feel your body relax with each breath.
Step 3: Set Your Intention
Quietly set an intention for this exercise. You might say to yourself, “I am open to perceiving the unseen forces that shape my life. I welcome insight and understanding.”
Step 4: Focus on a Natural Element
Open your eyes and focus on a natural element around you—a tree, a river, a rock, or even the sky. Observe it closely, noticing its details, movements, and how it interacts with its surroundings.
Step 5: Reflect on Its Complexities
Consider the element’s existence beyond its physical form. Think about the unseen forces that contribute to its presence:
- The tree: Imagine the nutrients from the soil, the water cycle, and the sunlight.
- The river: Contemplate the flow of water, the life within it, and the path it carves.
- The sky: Reflect on the air currents, weather patterns, and the vastness of space.
Step 6: Personify the Element
Personify this natural element as a dynamic, living entity. Give it a name and imagine its “spirit” or essence. How does it interact with the world around it? What stories might it tell? What wisdom might it offer?
Step 7: Connect with Its Essence
Close your eyes again and visualize the essence of the element. Feel its presence and imagine a connection forming between you and this entity. Open your mind to any thoughts, images, or feelings that arise during this connection.
Step 8: Express Gratitude
Silently express gratitude for the insights and connection you’ve experienced. Acknowledge the unseen forces and the deeper understanding they bring to your life.
Step 9: Reflect and Journal
After the exercise, take a few moments to reflect on your experience. Write down any thoughts, feelings, or insights you had during the exercise. How did personifying the element change your perception of it? Did you feel a connection to the unseen forces at work?
Step 10: Practice Regularly
Incorporate this exercise into your routine, practising it regularly to deepen your awareness and understanding of the complex, unseen forces in your life. Each time, choose a different element or aspect of your environment to focus on.
By engaging in this exercise, you’ll begin to cultivate a greater sensitivity to the subtle, interconnected forces that shape your world, enhancing your spiritual and philosophical appreciation of existence.
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