The Zen of Advaita - Stephen H. Wolinsky Ph. D.

fundamental particles—in a one-ofa-kindevent called the Big Bang.Paul J. Steinhardt and Neil Turokasked, “What was the universe likebefore the Big Bang?”They propose a “cyclic universe”model, in which our Big Bang isjust one act in an eternal cycleof expansion and contraction.A trillion years from now, bytheir calculations, space, time,and matter will crunch down intoanother fireball and re-emerge asanother Big Bang. For eternity,the universe will swing betweenBig Bang and Big Crunch, a cosmicpendulum clock that never windsdown. Instead of the universeaccelerating into oblivion ascurrent cosmological thinkingpredicts, their model regardsexpansion as just a passing phase.Appreciating this as anabstraction, “one” realizes thatall cosmology is a creation myth.148