By Carl Sagan
Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, Everyone you know, Everyone you ever heard of, Every human being who ever was, Lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, Thousands of confident religions, Ideologies, and economic doctrines, Every hunter and forager, Every hero and coward, Every creator and destroyer of civilization, Every king and peasant, Every young couple in love, Every mother and father, Hopeful child, inventor and explorer, Every teacher of morals, Every corrupt politician, Every 'superstar', Every 'supreme leader', Every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – On a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
Sagan’s beautiful statement was occasioned by seeing the photograph of the earth in space as a pale blue dot. I read it recently and affected me as only beautiful poetry can. It also reminded me of what Harold Ramis, American actor, comedian, director, and writer, said about carrying two notes to remind you of who you are. The first note reads, “The universe was created for my delight.” The second note says, “I am a meaningless speck of dust in the vastness of the universe.”
Ramis’s point was that life occurs in the rhythmic oscillation between these opposite poles, of meaningfulness and meaninglessness. The rhythmic oscillation of this dance occurs outside and within your conscious awareness, but in either case, you are a participant.
Nisargadatta Maharaj, an Indian guru, offered a similar sentiment when he said, “Between looking inside and recognizing that I am nothing and seeing outside and recognizing that I am everything–my life turns.”
You, me, the earth and everyone else born in this speck of dust are both nothing and everything.