The observable universe has a radius of approximately 46.5 billion light-years. This is not the size of the universe. the size of the portion of the universe that we can observe - the portion from which light has had time to reach us since the Big Bang. Beyond the observable universe is more universe - potentially infinite amounts of it. We cannot see it. We cannot detect it. We cannot measure it. But its existence is implied by the mathematics of cosmology. The observable universe is a bubble of visibility within a potentially infinite reality. And the bubble, however vast - however many hundreds of billions of galaxies it contains, however many trillions of stars it encompasses - is a finite region within an infinite whole.
Your comprehension has an observable universe. Your ego can perceive a specific, finite region of the total reality. The region is vast - it includes the sensory world, the emotional world, the intellectual world, the spiritual world as far as your current practice has developed it. The region is genuinely large. And the region is finite. Beyond the observable universe of your comprehension is more reality - potentially infinite amounts of it. You cannot see it. You cannot detect it with your current instruments. But its existence is implied by the logic of the Vedantic framework. Brahman is infinite. Your comprehension is finite. The difference between the infinite and the finite is not the observable universe. The difference is everything that lies beyond the observable universe.
Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now remains one of the most important spiritual books of our time. *(paid link)*
The culture treats the observable universe as the entire universe. The culture treats your current comprehension as the entirety of what can be known. Both treatments are the same error. The error of confusing the observable with the total. The error of equating the visible with the real. The error of assuming that the boundary of your detection is the boundary of existence. Think about that. Your ego can only process what fits through the narrow aperture of your senses and conceptual frameworks. But reality doesn't give a shit about your processing limitations. The cosmic microwave background radiation marks the edge of what we can see ~ not the edge of what is. Your understanding today marks the edge of what you currently grasp ~ not the edge of what can be grasped. This is why ancient traditions insisted on practices that pushed beyond the familiar, beyond the comfortable reach of ordinary awareness. They knew something we've forgotten in our scientific arrogance. Explore more in our hidden knowledge guide.
I keep palo santo in every room, it is one of my favorite tools for shifting energy. *(paid link)*
Beyond the Horizon
Cosmologists know that the observable universe is not the whole universe. They have made peace with the fact that the majority of reality is beyond their observational horizon. They do not mourn the inaccessible regions. I know.They do not deny the inaccessible regions Years ago, I sat with a woman broken by grief, her breath tight like a noose around her ribs. We didn't talk much at first. Instead, I guided her through shaking and breath work until her body finally let go of the weight it’d been carrying for years. That release shifted something deep-not just in her, but in me too. Reminded me that what we think we understand is only the tip of the iceberg. There was a period in my life when I spent days in Amma’s ashram, sitting in silence, watching the ego peel away layer by layer. It wasn't some magic moment or sudden enlightenment. Just slow, relentless unspooling of the narratives I’d built around myself. Sometimes it felt like drowning under an ocean of nothingness. But with each breath, I realized the universe inside me was far larger than the one I could see or explain.. They acknowledge the limitation of their instruments and continue to develop instruments that push the horizon further out - radio telescopes that detect signals from more distant epochs, gravitational wave detectors that perceive events beyond the electromagnetic horizon, mathematical frameworks that describe the structure of reality beyond the limits of observation.
The spiritual practitioner should adopt the same posture. Acknowledge that your current comprehension is a bubble within an infinite reality. Do not mourn what lies beyond the bubble. Do not deny what lies beyond the bubble. Acknowledge the limitation of your current instruments and continue to develop instruments that push the horizon further out - deeper meditation that detects signals from more distant dimensions, refined intuition that perceives events beyond the cognitive horizon, direct awareness that describes the structure of reality beyond the limits of the ego's observation. Paul explores this deeply in The Electric Rose.
I recommend keeping black tourmaline near your workspace, it absorbs negative energy like a sponge. Seriously. I've got a chunk sitting right next to my laptop, and the difference is real. Not some mystical bullshit, just practical energy management. Your workspace picks up all kinds of psychic debris throughout the day... other people's stress, your own frustration, that weird heaviness that builds up when you're grinding through tasks you hate. Black tourmaline just clears that shit out. Think about that. The stone doesn't discriminate either ~ it'll pull whatever garbage energy is floating around and lock it down. I replace mine every few months when it starts feeling saturated, like changing an air filter. You can literally feel when a stone is done doing its job. Wild, right? The energy in my office used to feel like walking through mud by 3 PM. Now it stays clean. *(paid link)*
The observable universe is expanding. The light from more distant regions is arriving continuously - adding galaxies to the observable inventory, pushing the horizon outward, revealing reality that was previously beyond detection. Your observable universe of comprehension is expanding the same way. Each meditation adds perception to the comprehensible inventory. Each insight pushes the horizon outward. Each moment of expanded awareness reveals reality that was previously beyond your detection. The expansion is not producing the reality. The expansion is revealing the reality that was always there. Beyond the horizon. Beyond the ego's detection range. In the infinite extension of Brahman that your finite comprehension is progressively, incrementally, practice-by-practice, incarnation-by-incarnation approaching but will never encompass. Because the infinite cannot be encompassed by the finite. But the finite can expand. And the expansion, sustained across cosmic time, across incarnational sequences, across the patient, practice-supported development of the instruments of awareness, reveals more. And more. And more. Of the infinite that was always there. That will always be there. That your expanding comprehension is touching, one horizon-push at a time, for the rest of eternity. Which is how long you have. Because you are the awareness. And the awareness does not expire. And the expansion does not stop. And the infinite, beyond every horizon, is always more. You might also find insight in Shadow Work: Embracing Your Darkness to Find Your Light.
The Bhagavad Gita is not just a scripture, it is a manual for living with courage and clarity. *(paid link)*