Humility and Greatness

It is a tendency in the modern times we live in now for us humans to think of ourselves as the “the centre of the universe”. We think of ourselves as the biggest and most intelligent life form on this planet. We certainly do not appreciate the scale of the universe, even as it is presented in our own solar system, let alone its infinite nature beyond our solar system. Most of us cannot grasp the idea of there being something bigger than us, especially on a cosmic and spiritual scale.

I think this is a factor of the “seeing is believing”, empirical nature of human cognition.

So let’s go there – to the “seeing is believing” tendency. The photograph I posted for this article is of the entrance or gateway – the Propylaea – to the Acropolis complex in Athens, Greece. This photograph cannot do justice to the true scale of the structure. As I came around the corner from the south of the structure I remember being awe-struck by the towering height of the gateway, and how the walls and columns seemed to hold up the sky. Then upon climbing the steps, I realised how large they were. The entire structure made me feel tiny (and I’m no small-fry at 6 foot 3 inches tall and weighing a lean 250 pounds); it was a humbling experience. What made it even more awe-inspiring was the age of the structure – it has been standing since at least 430 BCE. The site on which it is built may be dated to 6000 BCE.

Our ancestors seemed to appreciate the grand nature of the universe around them. Even if they were polytheistic, they also seemed to grasp the notion of a God who is bigger than all of us; they understood that we come from something bigger than ourselves and that we need to show humility. What better way to remind ourselves of our own humility than constructing structures around us to emphasize our smallness?

Those of us who have soul consciousness, and who are on the journey of spiritual enlightenment, have no trouble accepting our smallness in God’s infinite universe. Our smallness is of no consequence; what is of importance is our one-ness with the universe, and with God. In fact, we are not small at all, we are infinite. Our smallness only has importance in that it demonstrates how integral we are to the whole – like grains of sand on a beach, or better yet, like the atoms and sub-atomic particles that make the grain of sand, that makes the beach, that makes the earth, etc. To understand and appreciate what I have just said readers should explore the “Mandelbrot Set”, especially by zooming into the visual images presented by the phenomenon.

We humans are creations of the fallen race of angels who thought they could rival the ONE true God. Our inflated sense of grandiosity seems to be in our DNA. Our salvation comes from the fact that God instilled within us the Holy Spirit of God so that we could become aware of our connection to God. Unfortunately, most of us were made ignorant of this by our creators, and very few of us make any effort to find the Spirit and re-connect with it.

In closing, I bring to mind the following from the biblical book if Isaiah (14: 12-14):

“How did you come to fall from the heavens, Daystar, son of Dawn? How did you come to be thrown to the ground, you who enslaved the nations? You who used to think to yourself, ‘I will climb up to the heavens; and higher than the stars of God I will set my throne. I will sit on the Mount of Assembly in the recesses of the north. I will climb to the top of thunder clouds, I will rival the Most High’.”

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Image: Gateway, The Acropolis Complex, Athens, Greece. Copyright - Michael Beaton