The Value of Pi
Pi or π is the symbol used to quantify the ratio between the circumference and diameter of a circle.
It has ‘bothered’ philosophers, especially those concerned with mathematics, or number, for a very long time, and caused Pythagoras much grief because he was unable to ‘define’ it in terms of rational numbers. But it cannot be ‘defined’.
Pi is 3.141592 followed by an infinite number of digits which show no repeating pattern, and this poses two philosophical problems.
First it has no ‘end’ – it is in-finite; not finite, we cannot ‘see’ all of it or see it all and second it has no pattern by which we can describe it or understand it. As humans we have great difficulty in understanding, or even grasping the concept of, anything that is not finite or is not a pattern.
If it doesn’t have a beginning and an end, or if it doesn’t have a repeating pattern it causes us ‘problems’ when dealing with it.
We can cope with infinitely repeating patters because the repetitions, although infinite, are all ‘the same’ so we can isolate one ‘copy’ of the pattern to achieve our understanding of it.
We get anxious when we don’t know when something is ‘going to end’, we get anxious when we can’t ‘see the pattern’ of something which is happening.
Pi is known as an ‘irrational number’ and things ‘irrational’ don’t sit well with us.
People ask, ‘how big is the Universe?’ or ‘when will the Universe end?’
The Universe is not ‘big’, it’s infinite – everywhere – there is no ‘outside’, there are no ‘other universes’ – other galaxies yes, but all the same Universe.
The Universe does not ‘end’ – at least, not until it ‘begins’ again – and it ‘began’ when it ended. Or if you like the Universe was created out of the Universe – and so it goes on.
There is no ‘time’ – but there is sequence.
Like the digits in the calculation of Pi, the Universe is a ‘never-ending’ sequence of events.
People ask, ‘what is the opposite of infinity?’ There is no ‘opposite’ but the answer coming back most often is ‘unique’ – which gives rise to further misunderstanding.
Every single ‘thing’, every single entity, whatever it might be, is ‘unique’. There is only one of each thing, whatever it is, however it is made up.
The Universe contains an infinite number of unique entities.
Every molecule of water is ‘the same’ consisting of two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen combined on the same way.
On this planet there are trillions of billions of water molecules – a finite number – they may be ‘the same’ but they are all unique.
Why, because they are occupying different ‘spaces’ (or positions) in the Universe, a different place in the glass of water in your hand.
The atoms and molecules that make up the water, and the glass, are made up of just two things, energy and space, although neither of these are, as we would understand, ‘things’, as they are both infinite.
They, and only they, are ‘unique’. There is only one instance of energy and only one ‘space’.
They are the counterparts causing the Universe to exist and they are the Universe – which is simply energy vibrating in space in infinite patters in a spectrum of infinite frequencies and wavelengths.
A specific vibrational pattern causes energy to manifest as a water molecule, or the colour ‘red’ or the wave that carries your phone signal.
Everything is infinite, everything is unique and the patterns that define them, like Pi, are the relationships between one ‘thing’, or one concept, and another.
So what’s the point of all this? How can it help us?
You and I are infinite beings inhabiting a finite environment – a living being on a life supporting planet.
As infinite beings we are unique, and the combination of our being (our Soul or Spirit) and our finite human body is also unique.
As an infinite being, an infinite Soul we are an integral part of the infinite Universe – as Neale Donal Walsch puts it an ‘individuation’ of the Universe and as such, because there is only one Universe, there is only one of ‘us’ – only one Soul (the Universe) individuated into an infinite number of unique Souls.
What makes you and I different is our personal relationship with the body we inhabit which is finite.
There are a finite number of humans on the planet at any time and they (not the ‘one’ of ‘us’) have a finite sequential lifespan.
They are born, we inhabit them; and when we decide to leave, they die – an as is believed by most of the planet’s religions and faiths the Soul does not die but goes on to pastures new.
The Soul cannot die because, apart from the fact that it is not ‘living’ in the human sense, it is the Universe, and the Universe cannot ‘die’.
It can only ‘end’ which would simply result in it ‘beginning’ again.
But why are we here, why are we (as Souls) doing this?
Next ‘time’ . . . .
