Dew was beginning to fall on the field we were staged on. A collection of thirteen telescopes sat in formation. For me, it was as if that moment was the start of a life that would be filled with many more nights passionately looking through an eyepiece. With each object resolved in that telescope, my eyes grew wider, and my breath fell shorter. From that night on, I knew what was ahead of me.
I am an astronomer. After attending Governor’s Scholars Program at Morehead State University and majoring in astronomy I was absorbed into the subject. The unveiling of the once invisible intrigued my mind to work in a new way. Astronomical observing was simply a metaphor of how my mind loves to work.
The cosmos holds unfathomable life and truth, and most people are content with not bothering to learn about distant galaxies much like our own. For the most part, our lives are spent in a trap door, from sunrise to sunset. There is however, a time when the veil of our atmosphere is pulled from our eyes, displaying the cosmos. With a telescope, I allow the light from the distant galaxies to pierce my eye, move straight to my imagination, and blossom into thoughts carried and developed by my insight.
Earth in relation to the universe is much like any human being in existence living amongst truth and wisdom. Truth holds more than just answers, the truth I seek holds techniques to solve questions unasked; it holds thought, life, and reason. For the past year I have been searching for truth. I have learned through self-taught reasoning, personal meditation, and constant revelations that every aspect of truth is available for my understanding. Like magnifying the light from a distant galaxy, it just takes the proper tools.
Each galaxy, nebulae, open or globular cluster, and planet represents that truth in a metaphysical sense. Much of the celestial matter is invisible to the naked eye, even on a crystal clear night. This relates to how even with a clear conscious, many of these truths are intangible, that is, intangible to the naked mind. With the aid of a telescope, the light from a distant nebula can be ripped apart over the diameter of a mirror, refocused, and magnified into a breathtaking image. Meditation functions in a similar way, by focusing my telescopic insight on a particular truth, I can begin to resolve what was once intangible. With time, the mirror size of my metaphorical telescope of insight grows larger. Images of truth become sharpened, and I take another step towards wisdom.
There are days where the skies of my conscious are more clouded than others, and there were times when I had no telescope at all. However, through the development of insightful views, I have become more attuned to the celestial bodies of truth that remain in the cosmos of our lives.