Unus Mundus : Universe - A Giant Web of Connections

The James Webb Space Telescope just sent its first photos of our ever-unfolding universe and they are a sight to behold! If you haven’t seen them, you must be living under a rock.

This image shows the Galaxy cluster SMACS 0723. The first deep field photo captured by Webb. What’s absolutely mind-bending is that this photo shows a galaxy cluster 4.2 billion years old. This is just at the time earth was in the process of  being cooked!!! If you look closely, every spark of light is a galaxy far away (4.2 billion light-year away to be exact). Every galaxy is a universe on its own with its stars and planetary systems. This photo is at such a giant scale, yet very small at the same time. It’s just one window through which we are looking at the universe. It’s similar to if you hold up a grain of sand at an arm’s length on earth. 

This massive dust mountain is the Carina Nebula. Think of it as a nursery for stars. The tiny sparks you see are actually new stars being born, this very moment! The tallest peaks in this image are about seven light years high. To give you a perspective, Mount Everest is the highest peak on earth. The peaks are equivalent to 7000 Mount Eversts!!
Then, What about our planet earth?

Can you imagine how tiny our earth is? How about a fraction of nothing.
What about our place in the universe? We humans are nothing but the sizes of elementary particles as compared to the universe.

The vastness of the universe keeps reminding us of how small we actually are, but we don’t like the fact. It’s because even though we are tiny, we have massive egos. Our ego wants to be significant, it wants to be important. That’s how it survives. Nevertheless, We can’t deny the microcosmic state we live in.
But does that mean,
Nothing that we ever do or will do matters? and
If the universe is a greater force than us, What part do we have in it?
Let’s explore this question for a while.
In history, from the Greek period, we find a concept that explains the relationship between the microcosm (humans, generally) and macrocosm (the universe). It puts forth the argument that the entire universe is built upon a pattern. We humans are a part of that pattern and vice versa. What this means is that, the entire macrocosmic pattern is encoded into us on a microcosmic level.
We see these patterns repeated in nature. The whole universe itself forms a pattern identical to the one made by neurons in the brain. 

If you look at a human eye up close and then this photo of the Helix Nebula. You’ll be amazed

If the universe is built on the same elementary particles (atoms, quarks, tetrahedrons) and there are mathematical rules which come together to form matter, there are. We are nowhere close to uncovering all of them, but we know quite a few. You can think of this as if the whole universe is built on the same programming principles (A Matrix) and it’s interconnected. Take a look at the photo of the Carina Nebula again. Let me tell you something amazing. The very atoms that form your body and mine. That’s where they were made. In those dust mountains. As Carl Sagan put it, “We are all made of star stuff:” That gives us a basic understanding that we aren’t separate beings. We are a part of the whole. We are a part of the universe. We are the universe, in and of itself.
Carl Jung and his quantum physicist buddy, Wolfgang Pauli believed in the idea of Unus Mundus (One World). Even though this philosophy dives deeper into non-dualistic teachings. For simplicity's sake. We can understand that everything in the universe is part of one. It’s Unus Mundus.
But then, The universe is such a vast phenomena. Can our actions affect it, if at all?
Ever heard of The Butterfly effect?
First put forth by meteorologist and mathematician Edward Lorenz in Chaos theory. The Butterfly effect is a phenomenon which explains that small things can have large effects in a complex system. If a butterfly flaps its wings, it can set off a series of events which can in turn cause a typhoon. Even though we humans seem small as compared to the universe, this doesn’t necessarily mean our actions have no meaning. Every small thing we do can be imagined as a ripple in the fabric of time and space. Just like a wave, it spreads and affects everything around it. How? Since it’s all Unus Mundus, It’s a complex system, interconnected and one. 

“If you think you are too small to make a difference, You haven’t spend the night with a mosquito” - Dalai Lama

Sure, we don’t practically know the workings of the butterfly effect but we can grasp the idea that small things can make huge differences. Small changes cause huge results over time. Every revolution or change is nothing but a series of small events tied together, causing a ripple effect and creating big changes.

“It used to be thought that the events that changed the world were things like big bombs, maniac politicians, huge earthquakes, or vast population movements, but it has now been realized that this is a very old-fashioned view held by people totally out of touch with modern thought. The things that change the world, according to Chaos theory, are the tiny things. A butterfly flaps its wings in the Amazonian jungle, and subsequently a storm ravages half of Europe.”

— from Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman