Fifth Day of the Icon

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.      - John 1:1 

The English word universe, meaning the whole world, the cosmos, the totality of all existing things, was likely coined in the 1580s from the Old French univers, which in turn derives from the Latin unum (one) and versus (converted, transformed, translated, changed). It may not be a stretch to say a literal translation of universe is "the one transformed."

If we consider for a moment what existed before creation of the universe, we are asking in the literal sense what it was that had been transformed. What has existed, has always existed, and will always exist, from before the existence of the universe through and beyond the end of all other existence?

One could argue that the answer is mathematics. One plus one equals two in China, in the United States, on the moon, on Mars, in orbit around Alpha Centauri, inside of a black hole, even in the deepest recesses of the space-time continuum where light from the Big Bang hasn't yet reached. One plus one will always equal two, even when there isn't one of anything in existence. And if one plus one always equals two, then two plus two always equals four, four squared will always be 16, and all other forms of mathematics, including trig, geometry, calculus, logic, imaginary numbers, fractals, Fibonacci sequences, and so on and so forth to the most abstract forms of higher mathematical thought also always existed.

Mathematics was the Word that existed in the beginning, and by St. John's logic, then, mathematics is God, but I don't think he meant it that way and certainly modern Christians don't interpret it that way. 

One and one will always be two, even if there isn't "one" of anything, because a potential one plus another potential one will always be a potential two. So side-by-side with mathematics, potential also always existed. Before the universe was created, whether by Big Bang or by the Word of God, there was always potential. The potential for a Big Bang explosion, or for the utterance of the Word. 

Potential can be expressed mathematically in many ways, such as the formula for potential energy, U = -∫Fdx.  That may seem like a leap of logic, but if 1 + 1 = 2, it can be demonstrated through many more steps than is necessary to go into here that therefore U = -∫Fdx. My point is that potential is a mathematical as well as a logical expression, so there is no contradiction in it's existence before creation. 

A general working definition of potential is some quantity which, when differentiated in a certain way, yields some other quantity. Therefore, potential is a force of change, of transformation. This leads us back to the original, literal definition of universe as the one (uni-) converted, transformed, changed (-versus).  The universe is potential realized, the emergent form of the original potential. The universe, including the stars and planets, the Earth and its mountains and rivers, and all living beings, including me and you, are all emergent expressions of potential.

Consider, for a minute, Animal Crackers. Some are shaped like tigers, some are shaped like camels, some are shaped like bears. But fundamentally, they're all cookie dough. The dough is expressed in different ways, but it's all fundamentally just cookie dough. Cookie dough is the potential of the Animal Cracker universe. In this universe, all things, tigers, camels, and bears, mountains and rivers, you and I, are all potential. Potential is the cookie dough of this universe. 

Zen Buddhists call this busshō, or Buddha-nature, the concrete substrate of all things, both sentient and not.  Some call it busshō, some call it Buddha-nature, Barnum's calls it cookie dough. I call it potential.  

Sun Ra once explained creation as "At first there was nothing, and then nothing turned itself inside out and became something" (Discipline 27-ii). I'd be the last to contradict him, but I'm modifying his expression to "At first there was potential, and then potential manifested itself as the universe."

In the beginning there was potential, and potential is all there is, ever was, and ever shall be, without end, Amen.