my home page                                                                                              © 1999 Christopher Calder

 The TES Hypothesis

It is a mind that is unprejudiced by religion, philosophy, and cultural conditioning.  It is going naked in the stars. 

     The TES hypothesis is inherently obvious, fundamental, and in harmony with a state of mind that values both science and superconsciousness.  It declares that the universe and all of its manifestations are created by time-energy-space, the TES.  Even the ethereal phenomena of compassion is a product of this singular universal entity.  There are forms of energy and dimensions of space that have not yet been quantified by science.  Those mysterious realities are also within the normal workings of TES.  Nothing in the universe is truly supernatural and beyond the laws of nature.  Everything that exists is created through cycles of the TES, both on the large physical scale involving the formation of stars, galaxies, and planets, and on the subtler inner dimensions involving the evolution of the human brain and consciousness.  

     The Hindu word 'Atman' means the soul of life and the essence of being.  The Atman is not the individual human mind, but is defined as the universal soul that exists everywhere.  For this discussion we will use the word Atman more strictly to designate that part of the TES that becomes conscious of itself on the grand and cosmic scale.  We thus define the Atman as the universal cosmic consciousness.

     The vast majority of the TES exists unconsciously, without feeling or life.  This portion is made up of empty space, stars, and the bulk of planets.  Primitive life forms that do exist on a minority of planets have a utilitarian consciousness which allows them to survive through interacting with their environment.  The fundamental awareness of physical objects, combined with the pleasure-pain mechanism and the ultimate survival of the fittest and the smartest, creates the evolutionary pathway through which the unconscious TES slowly evolves to greater levels of awareness.  The unconscious TES, raw matter and energy, gives birth to the partially conscious TES, the world of plants and animals.  With the evolution of higher animals, the intensely conscious TES, the Atman, arises.  This vast and oceanic consciousness is a normal product of the TES and is inherently immortal.  When human beings become enlightened their consciousness becomes one with the Atman, but they never achieve magical abilities outside of the natural laws and properties of the TES.  Enlightened beings remain physically mortal, but their consciousness becomes one with the primordial consciousness of nature itself.  This Atman has always existed, and will exist eternally into the future.

     No human being has ever known the unconscious part of the TES directly because all that we know is within the world of consciousness.  We become aware of the unconscious realm of the TES only through inference.  When you look at a tree, you are not seeing the tree directly, but rather a representation of the tree created by your own brain.  Our experience of colors, smells, tastes, and sounds, are all subjective creations of our mammalian neurological evolution.  Thus, the question: "If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there to hear it, is there any sound at all?"  

     As long as we feel we exist as individuals we suffer because that perception is based on a temporary neurological illusion.  This illusion of an individual 'I' is so vulnerable that even sleep destroys it.  Every time you go into deep sleep your consciousness temporarily dies and your subjective individual identity dies with it.  Get rid of the feeling *I exist,* and you get rid of attachments which create tension, suffering, and feelings of danger.  When you focus your consciousness on that which is limited, you become small and vulnerable.  When you open your consciousness to experience the whole universe, you become vast, limitless, and without mental anguish.  Thus, the art of meditation is the art of inner astronomy.

     The ultimate experience of the TES is so vast that there is nothing to compare it to.  With no comparison possible, the experience of everything feels like nothingness.  How can infinity have a size or a shape when by definition it has no boundaries?  The TES is so full of space that it feels like oblivion, and thus many enlightened teachers have called it the Void.  This feeling of the ultimate extinction of all things is cosmically erotic, and in a strange contradiction of terms it is a rich and positively charged experience.  Scientifically speaking, even this ultimate experience is also a subjective illusion, because matter-energy and time-space do exist, even if enlightened humans do not perceive them in the ordinary gross physical way.  

     If one looks deeply into the Eastern religions, the Hindu and Buddhist concept of an ultimate personal liberation, "nirvana" or "moksha," is impossible if you take the idea literally.  Ask yourself two fundamental questions.  Who is going to be liberated, and what is he going to going to be liberated from?  In truth the 'who' and the 'what' are one and the same thing.  Ask yourself what being was behind the eyes of the Buddha?  The answer is time-energy-space, the TES.  Then ask yourself what being was behind the eyes of Adolf Hitler?  The answer is still time-energy-space.  Individuals do exist and have reality, but they are just temporary products of the TES, which is our fundamental immortal identity.

     The TES is always creating new life and new personalities out of its own being.  The individual is always in danger of being destroyed, but the cosmic presence that animates us is eternal.  Unless the entire TES is destroyed, liberation from cycles of life and death is impossible.  The TES creates a human being and that individual experiences joy and suffering, but it is the TES having these experiences in a dream drama that the TES itself creates.  The TES is within each cell of our body and is our true personal identity, not the temporary mortal personality that carries a picture ID in his wallet.  Therefore, the goal of religion should not be an impossible liberation from the inevitable cycles of life, but rather how to make the unstoppable fact of life more ecstatic.    

     The word 'TES' is a temporary creation, as are all the holy words of ancient scripture.  Those words are names used to designate that which is beyond any language.  It is an effort to express that which cannot be expressed by a mountain of scholarly scriptures.  No name can stick, and no philosophy can ring perfectly true, because you cannot paste a bumper sticker on a tidal wave.  You cannot condense a supernova into a library.

     In time, all evidence that human animals existed on this earth will be washed away, and new civilizations will be born on other worlds to take our place.  Those new conscious beings will discover the unity of the TES, which they will call by another name in a language never spoken by any human being.  The meaning, however, will be exactly the same.

A 21st century nonreligion?

Here are ten basic precepts for a Tesian nonreligion.

1)  The Tesian basically agrees with The TES Hypothesis, which is a soft, lovingly atheistic and science respecting form of pantheism, a minimalist path of open-mindedness and tolerance.

2)  The Tesian believes in maximum meditation with minimum philosophy.  When it comes to philosophy, less is more.  When it comes to meditation, more is usually better.

3)  The TES nonreligion has no popes, no hierarchy, no theocracy, no institutions, and no fat-cat gurus riding in Rolls-Royces.  For Tesians, even those who become enlightened remain ordinary human beings in all other respects.

4)  Tesians do not use drugs, alcohol, mantras, chanting, or so-called "visualization meditations."  A Tesian must do nothing to cloud his consciousness.

5)  Tesians believe that we should help others physically in the real world and not just talk about compassion.  Tesians understand that one can only help others from a position of strength and wealth.  Asceticism helps no one.

6)  A normal healthy sex life is encouraged.  Creating traditional families with one mother and one father is appreciated as essential for the survival of the human race.  Tesians do not fall for destructive societal fads and trendy political correctness.

7)  The cardinal sin of the Tesian way is to turn meditation into a business.  No spiritual prostitutes are allowed in this nonreligion, because the profit motive kills the soft and sensuous heart of meditation.

8)  A Tesian does not steal, cheat, lie, or use violence except in self-defense.  All the obvious traditional principles of good behavior are respected by Tesians, and no pseudo-spiritual excuses are ever used to cover up bad behavior.  A lie is not "Tantra," it is just a lie.  A theft is not a "spiritual device," it is just stealing.  A Tesian must do unto others as he would have others do unto him.

9)  A Tesian does not judge life by branding it either a suffering or a blessing.  Judgment comes from thought and memory, both of which are limited and cannot contain the entire universe.  If you say that life is a suffering, then you are only remembering the painful moments.  If you say that life is a blessing, then you are only remembering the wonderful moments.  The aim of the Tesian is to become a silent witness to the vastness of life, without the limiting distortions of thought, memory, and judgment.  

10)  The Tesian nonreligion is disposable.  These ten precepts are designed to be read once and then forgotten.  Words are no substitute for meditation.

A concise Tesian prayer

All the stars are inside me, because I am the space.

There is no history.  There is no biography.

I only exist here and now.

Christopher Calder        email = calderhouse at yahoo.com        my home page   

Copyright notice:  Please feel free to copy, repost, or publish The TES Hypothesis (© 1999 Christopher Calder).  You may repost or publish any of my essays without cost, but you must clearly state that the essays were written by Christopher Calder, and you must not change any of my words or their meanings.  I prefer that those who repost my essays install a web link to my home page, but that request is not a demand.  This is a 100% free website, published only for the benefit of other students of meditation.

Suggested Reading

The "God" Part of the Brain, by Matthew Alper.  Alper details the logical scientific argument that spirituality is the product of genetics and biochemistry, and that God, soul, and reincarnation are inventions of the human brain, used as a device to relieve the tremendous stress of death awareness.

Note  Opinions expressed on this page must be viewed as the ideas of an ordinary student of meditation.  While I truly believe everything I say, you should not believe anything unless you see it, feel it, and know it for yourself.  I make no claims of infallibility.  In fact I absolutely claim fallibility.