Higgs
DAVID’S DESK # 72
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One of the fundamental mystical insights is that the Sacred touches and interacts with everything in creation, thereby bringing all things into being. In 1964 a team of physicists led by Dr. Peter Higgs came up with a similar idea in the physical realm to explain one of the fundamental mysteries of the universe: how do subatomic particles gain mass and why do they have the mass they have? This was a fundamental question concerning how the universe as we know it came into being. To answer it, they postulated that there existed an unknown field that touched and interacted with all the particles in the universe, giving them their mass. This field would manifest through its own special particle which was named the Higgs particle after the team leader. Because of the similarity of this idea to how mystics described the action of the Sacred in giving substance to creation, this Higgs particle was dubbed the “God Particle” by the popular press, much to the discomfort of most physicists.
If this particle could be found, thereby proving the existence of this universal field, it would be monumental in furthering our understanding of how the universe comes into being at a physical level. So for fifty years, physicists set up experiments to attempt to observe the Higgs particle in action without success. Then two months ago, scientists at the Large Hadron Collider in Cern, Switzerland, announced that they finally had found and confirmed the existence of the Higgs particle, thereby proving that the Higgs Field truly exists.
This is the kind of news that excites sciences geeks like me, but as I thought about it, it began to excite the mystic in me as well. From my inner perspective we each generate a spiritual field of interaction and co-creativity with the world around us; I call this our “Self-Light.” It is a field of presence that each of us possesses that can bless the world around us. How strong or weak, bright or dim, effective or ineffective this field is depends on the quality and intensity of our inner life. Metaphorically speaking, it is a product of our “metaphysical mass,” which is a way of talking about how coherent, integrated, and mindful our spiritual presence is and how openly and intentionally we allow this presence to act in our lives.
Developing this “metaphysical mass” is something I discuss frequently in my classes. Using the notion of “mass” here is a metaphor of course, but one that I’ve found helpful in giving insights into the spiritual life. Thinking about the Higgs field that gives mass to the physical universe led me to thinking about what in us can give rise to this metaphysical or inner mass that supports our spiritual presence and enhances our Self-Light. This train of thought led me into word-play around the idea of the Higgs field itself. This is what I came up with:
H: Hospitality
I: Innocence
G: Generosity
G: Grace
S: Sovereignty
The more I thought about it, the more I realized just how powerful our own inner “HIGGS” field could be. Let’s look into this more fully.
Hospitality: Every being seeks conditions in which it feels safe, valued, affirmed, upheld, empowered, and loved. I call this condition “Home.” It can take many forms; it can be an actual place, it can be a relationship, it can be a state of mind. When I think of the Sacred, I think of that Presence within which any being can feel Home. All of us seek this condition in one way or another, and we are blessed indeed when we find it. Hospitality is the ability to give or share the quality of Home with another. It can be actual hospitality in which we open our physical home to another; it can be an inner hospitality in which we open our loving and compassionate heart and mind to another. Whatever form it takes, hospitality happens when we draw on who we are to create the spirit of Home for another, thereby expanding the presence and experience of Home as a blessing in our world.
Innocence: Innocence is a state of openness to the world. It can be a wise and discerning openness; innocence and naiveté are not at all the same thing. Innocence approaches the world with wonderment, allowing things to be what they are without immediately imposing a definition or set of conditions. Innocence is a capacity to see with fresh eyes, a loving heart, and beginner’s mind without rushing to define who or what the other is. It creates an open space for the world to reveal itself; it is a state of perception without preconception, without fear, and without accusation or judgment. Innocence opens the door to allow hospitality to emerge.
Generosity: Generosity is a largeness of spirit that in turn enlarges whatever it touches. It is a fearless spaciousness in action. When it sets boundaries, it is out of a sense of appropriateness and balance rather than one of lack. It is a spirit of replenishment. Juliet captures this when she says to Romeo,
“My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.”
Generosity is the inner knowledge that the “more I give, the more I have” for we are truly infinite beings. It is the knowledge that we possess a spaciousness of self that can in a profound innocence of acceptance and openness to another fearlessly offer hospitality and the spirit of Home.
Grace: Grace began life as a Latin word meaning pleasing, which later evolved into meaning a kindness or a favor, which in turn came to mean elegance in form and motion. I think of it as the spirit within creation that creates wholeness, for what better way to think about wholeness than as a state of connection and interaction that is pleasing, elegant and graceful? It is a state that reveals a beauty and fullness transcending its parts while at the same time uplifting and honoring them. Surely when we think of the Grace of God, we are thinking of a favor, an act, a connection that restores us to wholeness with the Sacred? Likewise, when we are forgiving, generous, and hospitable with an innocence of spirit that bears no ill will, we are instruments of grace. To practice grace is to find in all that we do and all the relationships in which we engage an inner connection that reveals and enhances wholeness.
Sovereignty: Sovereignty is the inner spine around which our identity develops. It’s our power to express ourselves as unique persons and gives what we do a specificity that grounds our actions in accountability and authority. It’s what enables the qualities of hospitality, innocence, generosity and grace to become “metaphysical mass” in the specificity of our own lives and beings. Sovereignty turns abstraction into particularity. Thus when I stand in my sovereign self, I am expressing hospitality and innocence, generosity and grace in my unique way, and I’m tailoring these qualities to the sovereignty and uniqueness of others. It’s one thing to be generous, for instance, in a way that appeals to me and makes me feel good; it’s something else to be generous or hospitable in ways that may be unfamiliar or difficult to me but appropriate to the sovereignty and uniqueness of someone else. The practice of sovereignty is one of mindfulness of and respect for the differences between us. It’s what grounds our spiritual energies in the blood and bone, muscle and sweat, structures and forms of everyday incarnate life. It is the honoring of individuality.
If we practice these five qualities, we cannot help but generate a field that manifests love and wholeness, adding the blessing of spiritual “mass” to our world. It is our own personal HIGGS field. But unlike the physical Higgs field, let’s not take fifty years to prove it exists!
