01/29/2026
༻The Only Dance There Is༺
In Hindu Cosmology, the Dance of Shiva describes our Universe as having 5 stages or expressions. These Cosmic phases correspond to each individual's own spiritual journey from alienation and separation back to unity with Source, to truth, awakening to the sacred interdependence that materialistic cultures try to keep us from seeing.
These phases also correspond to scientific understandings of our Universe as evolving and changing via endless cycles of creation, regeneration and destruction. And of humans experiencing instability, suffering and chaos because of ignorance, with happiness and peace arising as love and wisdom heal what had been broken.
First of the 5 phases in our Universe is CREATION, the emergence of thoughts, creatures, structures and systems (from atoms to galaxies, solar systems, children, friendships and songs), all forms of new existence coming into being again and again across space and time.
Second is regeneration, the CONNECTIONS, attractions, forces and cycles of life, relationships, community, communications that bring individual parts together, maintaining balance, connecting everything that exists in Nature together, as harmonious and unified wholes.
Third is degeneration or destruction, how all structures in the Universe eventually dissolve and come apart. From a materialist view, destruction can be very chaotic, as towers and empires fall to the ground. But from a spiritual perspective this is the art of transformation::: the wisdom of LETTING GO of fixed structures, flowing like water, being fluid and moving around obstacles, like a river or the air.
This "de-structive" transformational process of also corresponds to the last two phases of Shiva's Dance, often called "Maya" (Illusion & Ignorance) and "Grace" (Wisdom & Awakening).
Shiva (pictured here as "Nataraja") is the Divine Cosmic Dancer, standing over spiritual ignorance and illusion, helping to transform our hearts and minds, awakening each of us to our true nature (as expressions of Source), by dissolving dream-like delusions of separation, awakening us to the truth of our deepest inseparable connection to (and identity as) All That Is.
IGNORANCE is the condition most of humanity has been struggling with over the past few thousand years, with dualistic religions that tell us we are not part of God, not part of Nature or the Universe, not sisters and brothers with all humanity and the great family of life.
Ignorance is rooted in compartmentalized and dualistic thinking, the illusion of separation. In truth, we are all creative living expressions of Nature, the Universe and Source.
Even science shows us this now. Every atom of your body is billions of years old, first created and then recycled by the Universe. Within those atoms spins energy that was unleashed by the Big Bang. The Universe is not far away, she lives within you. We are the Universe, in human form.
For those who believe in God, the nondual view could be that every atom is in truth the Consciousness of God, Source, Tao, Brahman. Corresponding to what physics calls the Quantum Field.
This is a return to WISDOM, to the magic of the real. Letting go of illusions of separateness, realizing that in truth we are all part of ONE Creative Cosmic Process.
This is what the paths of Taoism, Zen, Advaita Vedanta, Sufi mysticism and Kabbalah all point to, what Van Gogh tried to express in his paintings, what Einstein described with physics and Alan Watts with philosophy.
This is the realization of unity, oneness that rose up with the Sixties counterculture, the truth of Inter-Being Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh shared, that psychologist Richard Alpert (Ram Dass) referred to as "The Only Dance there Is."
It is a kind of New Cosmology, a world view that is dawning now in modern human cultures and consciousness, a fusion of wisdom both ancient and new. A return to deeper understanding and realization of what has always been true.
~Christopher Chase
Fukuoka, Japan
