Living in the Awe and Mystery

Frosted Branches

Several years ago, on a chilly winter evening, the air crisp and bracing, I wandered through the neighborhood where I live. It was a refreshing walk. The quiet streets were a canvas of bare trees, although most of the leaves had fallen, the rough trunks of the trees still made me feel they were the masterpieces of Mother Nature, and the reminders of nature’s resilience.

As I stood beside an ancient tree, I touched the broken bark, feeling a sense of connection. Then, my eyes were drawn to something unexpected — a tiny green bud seemed to be sprouting from a needle-sized hole. The size of that bud, was still as small as half a sesame seed. It felt so insignificant at that moment.

During the following days and nights, I continued to check on this tiny bud whenever I passed that tree. Unexpectedly and surprisingly, it kept growing and eventually developed into a tender leaf…

The tree bark is the tough protective outer sheath of the branches. How could such a tiny, soft and fragile thing emerge against the backdrop of winter? Scientists will have answers to explain this entire process, but for me, I’m simply amazed by the fact that this tiny bud is a life. No matter how tough the branches are, the growth of the bud is inevitable.

This, is the miracle of life.

The contrast between the tough branch and the tiny soft bud, mirrors the relationship between the world and ourselves.

The system is always rigid. Sometimes it limits our growth instead of empowering us due to the essence of control. Artificial intelligence and algorithm merely enhance and amplify this control in a ubiquitous way.

In James Rickards’ book Money GPT — AI and the Threat to the Global Economy, he considers the potential dangers threatening our economy and, ultimately, us — the everyday human beings. Apart from the money panic that may occur in both capital markets and the banking system, due to possibilities like “an AI panic forcing all capital markets to settle almost at once” or “bank runs happening all at once instead of in stages”, he also analyzes real problems such as bias and confabulation stemming from the absence of ethics and values in the current AI sector. Rickards specifies an AI capability known as Prompt Injection, which creates a distorted information landscape through manipulation.

While the future is not easy to predict, the dystopia imagery in this book presents a challenge for most of us living in such an everyday world. Society is like a machine that evolves with its own direction and speed, often irrelevant to us.

On the other hand, while being restrained in such a stiff, mundane matrix, we can still honor what Einstein said, “There are only two ways to live your life: one is as though nothing is a miracle, the other is as though everything is a miracle.”

Einstein’s concept of “cosmic religion” introduces a view that we can root our lives in connection with the laws of Mother Nature and the universe.

His perspective suggests that, as human beings, even while living in a mundane world, we can have a faith in life, embracing the awe of existence — and this can translate into something like that “we can learn to appreciate how the mystic divine power affects us human beings, and how we can align with that force.” I believe that force is about growth and expansion.

Here are my reflections on the power of hierarchy:

· We are part of Mother Nature and the Universe. Divine power goes beyond mundane power.

· Human beings create the mundane system, including Artificial Intelligence. But, compared to divine power, all of our man-made civilization is artificial.

· Authentic power is superior to artificial power.

What does it mean to grow in a world that often feels rigid and unforgiving?

For me, that tiny soft bud is a manifestation of a miracle. It fills me with awe. Each time I recall this scene, I can’t help but wonder about the silent strength of Mother Nature amid life’s challenges.

Let’s have a faith in life. 

Live in the awe and mystery.

Believe in ourselves, and trust the process.