Cosmic sums

When we get to the realization that all things are one (this is perhaps best expressed by Vedanta and Zen), we are suddenly confronted with the realization, too, that we are complicitous with everything humans do. It is a sobering, even discouraging, thought, but it also means that everything good that we do is also shared, in that cosmic sense. This is why we pursue simplicity and attempt to practice what is wise. In affecting our daily lives we affect that oneness. The existentialist objects: “The divine mathematics doesn’t add up.” But it doesn’t have to add up because we don’t know what the “numbers” are anyway. Making cosmic sums is a contrived pastime. All we really need to know is what we are doing right now.