The understanding of modern physics and mathematics does not arise from their "language"
or their equations but from the importance expressed through this language. This means a
shift the effort to interpret the phenomena using the horizontal mathematical formalism of
epistemology to the vertical mathematical structuralism of ontology. In other words, a shift
from scientism to the philosophical science.
NEW CONCEPTS OF MATTER, LIFE AND MIND
The concept of matter
Advances in the new sciences suggest a further modification of this assumption about the
nature of reality. In light of what scientists are beginning to glimpse regarding the nature of
the quantum vacuum, the energy ‘’sea’’ that underlies all of spacetime, it is no longer
warranted to view matter as primary and space as secondary. It is to space or rather, to the
cosmically extended 'Dirac-sea' of the vacuum that we should grant primary reality. The
things we know as matter (and that scientists know as mass, with its associated properties of
inertia and gravitation) appear as the consequence of interactions in the depth of this
universal field. In the emerging concept there is no 'absolute matter,' only an absolute
matter generating energy field.
The concept of life
The subtle relationship between the material things we meet with in our experience and the
energy field that underlies them in the depth of the universe also transforms our view of life.
Interactions with the quantum vacuum may not be limited to micro-particles: they may also
involve macroscale entities, such as living systems. Life appears to be a manifestation of the
constant if subtle interaction of the wave-packets classically known as 'matter' with the
underlying vacuum field. These assumptions change our most fundamental notions of life.
The living world is not the harsh domain of classical Darwinism, where each struggles against
all, with every species, every organism and every gene competing for advantage against
every other.
Organisms are not skin-enclosed selfish entities, and competition is never unfettered. Life
evolves, as does the universe itself, in a 'sacred dance' with an underlying field. This makes
living beings into elements in a vast network of intimate relations that embraces the entire
biosphere itself an interconnected element within the wider connections that reach into the
cosmos.
The concept of mind
In the on going co-evolution of matter with the vacuum's zero-point field, life, and mind and
consciousness emerge out of the higher domains of life. This evolutionary concept does not
'reduce' reality either to non-living matter (as materialism), or assimilate it to a nonmaterial
mind (as idealism). Both are real but (unlike in dualism), neither is the original element in
reality. Matter as well as mind evolved out of a common cosmic womb: the energy-field of
the quantum vacuum. The interaction of our mind and consciousness with the quantum
vacuum links us with other minds around us, as well as with the biosphere of the planet. It
'opens' our mind to society, nature, and the universe. This openness has been known to
mystics and sensitives, prophets and meta-physicians through the ages. But it has been
denied by modern scientists and by those who took modern science to be the only way of
comprehending reality.
Now, however, the recognition of openness is returning to the natural sciences. Traffic
between our consciousness and the rest of the world may be constant and flowing in both
directions. Everything that goes on in our mind could leave its wave traces in the quantum
vacuum, and everything could be received by those who know how to 'tune in' to the subtle
patterns that propagate there.
SCIENCE NOT SCIENTISM – BEYOND MATERIALISM AND IDEALISM: CONSIOUSNESS IS THE
CONNECTION OF BEINGS AND THE WORLD
Our culture's materialistic worldview is rooted in scientism , which is not the same as science
itself. Science in its purest sense is not a worldview but a method for systematically
investigating and organizing aspects of reality that we access through our senses. Simply put,
science is a way of knowing reality. Scientism takes this one step further and claims that
science is the only way of knowing reality. Whereas science is silent regarding the aspects of
reality beyond its scope, scientism asserts that there is no reality beyond its scope.
According to scientism, if something is not rational, or not verifiable through the physical
senses, then it is not real.
The first thing to notice about scientism is that it makes a fundamental assertion about
reality. Scientism says, "science is the only way of obtaining true knowledge of reality." This
statement, however, cannot itself be verified by the methods of science.
Our materialistic worldview thus rests upon two assumptions: (1) science reveals a material
world, and (2) scientism is true. The first assumption has been seriously challenged by the
discovery of quantum theory. 2 As for the second assumption, we have already seen that
scientism is no more than an unjustified assumption about reality. And we must be careful
to remember that scientism can just as easily fool us into taking a quantum worldview as
reality. No matter what worldview science might offer, if we mistake it for all of reality, we
have bought into scientism.
We see, then, that scientism blinds us to everything in reality that is beyond the scope of the
scientific method, no matter what that method may reveal to us. So, how much of reality is
left out? Almost all of it! Einstein, for example, tells us
All our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike. 3
And Heisenberg echoes his words:
The existing scientific concepts cover always only a very limited part of reality, and the other
part that has not yet been understood is infinite. 4
In the process of deepening our inquiry into the nature of reality, we are limited only by
assumptions we cling to, whether they be assumptions about the object of our seeking or
about the method we're using. We can only continue to deepen our knowledge by
acknowledging that our worldviews, theories, and methods of investigation are, at best, only
provisional, and eventually must be surrendered. As Heisenberg tells us,
Whenever we proceed from the known into the unknown we may hope to understand, but
we may have to learn at the same time a new meaning of the word "understanding." 6
So if we wish to become ever more intimate with reality, we must continually go beyond our
current way of understanding, our current mode of inquiry, and our current notions of
reality. In an unlimited inquiry, the very method of science itself must finally be surrendered,
leaving us simply with science , which literally means knowledge . This suggests that science
in its most radical sense is not limited to any particular method of science, any assumption
about reality, or even any idea of what "knowledge" means. Only when we surrender
everything and open ourselves to the unknown without any fixed method or framework or
preconception, can Reality then perfectly reveal itself as the Knowingness that is inherent to
Consciousness Itself
Modern Physics Contradicts Materialism
The first reason is that the a
dvent of quantum physics in the first quarter of the twentieth
century has rendered the materialist worldview scientifically untenable. A fundamental
assumption of the materialist worldview is that physical objects exist independently of
consciousness, which is considered to be a mere epiphenomenon of physical processes
taking place in the brain. According to quantum physics, however, this is not true. Material
objects do not exist in any definite way apart from the consciousness which observes them.
These two aspects of reality—consciousness and its objects—are inseparable. Thus, the
evidence of science itself contradicts a purely materialistic account of the universe.
Consequently, science has had to abandon its materialist worldview and is currently in
search of some other explanation for its findings.
This does not mean that science presently provides evidence for a spiritual worldview, as
some modern thinkers have prematurely concluded. What it does mean, however, is that
materialism can never again provide a sound basis for science. Thus, a major obstacle to any
rapprochement between science and religion has been effectively removed.
PARALLEL METHODOLOGIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MYSTICISM
AND SCIENCE
There are, in fact, two connections between science and mysticism. The first has to do with
similarities in their methodology. Just as scientists maintain that the truth of their theories
can be verified by anyone who conducts the proper observations and experiments, mystics
maintain that the Truth of their teachings can be verified by anyone who is willing to
undertake the appropriate spiritual disciplines and practices. Thus, the difference between
science and religion is not (as many people have supposed) that one relies on empirical
investigation and the other on blind faith. Rather, the difference lies in the domains to be
investigated and the kinds of truth to be verified.
While scientists focus their investigations on the behavior of objects in consciousness,
mystics concentrate on the subject to consciousness—that 'self' or 'I' to whom the objects
appear. And while scientists seek to develop ever more refined and comprehensive theories
about how reality works, mystics seek to Realize a Truth about its fundamental nature that
lies beyond the grasp of any theory whatsoever. It should be noted that, far from placing
science and mysticism in conflict, these differences between their respective domains and
functions are actually what make their compatibility possible.
Not only do science and mysticism possess parallel methodologies, but mysticism can
actually provide a coherent spiritual/philosophical understanding of how science works. One
of the key teachings agreed upon by mystics of all traditions concerns the relationship
between consciousness and its objects—the very relationship which (as we have already
seen) lies at the heart of the philosophical crisis in modern physics. What the mystics claim is
that the distinction between the subject to consciousness and objects arising in
consciousness is imaginary. In reality, Consciousness (God, Brahman, Buddha-Mind, or Tao)
constitutes the Formless Ground out of which all forms arise as inseparably as waves arising
from a single ocean.
Thus, mystical teachings pick up precisely where modern scientific theories leave off. And so
it is here, at this juncture between their two domains, that an actual continuity between
science and mysticism begins to reveal itself.
Once this is grasped, the problem of constructing a new worldview boils down essentially to
a question of formulation: Can the continuity between mystical teachings and scientific
theories be expressed in a single, rigorous language comprehensible to both?
DIFFERENCES
The truths which science yields are conceptual truths, arrived at through a combination of
thinking and experiencing. As such, they are also and inevitably relative truths, subject to
revision and change as our thoughts and experiences change.
But the Truth to which mystics bear witness is an Absolute Truth—one which, as the Hindu
sage, Shankara, says, "is beyond the grasp of the senses," 14 and which, Ibn Àrabi writes,
"cannot be arrived at by the intellect by means of any rational thought process." This
Absolute Truth can only be known through a third mode of cognition—called variously
Enlightenment, Realization , or Gnosis —which transcends both thinking and experiencing. In
fact, it is precisely our ordinary ways of thinking and experiencing that veil this Truth from
us, for as Buddhist master, Huang Po, writes: Blinded by their own sight, hearing, feeling and
knowing, they do not perceive the spiritual brilliance of the source substance. If they would
only eliminate all conceptual thought in a flash, that source-substance would manifest itself
like the sun ascending through the void and illuminating the whole universe without
hindrance or bounds.
Dionysius the Areopagite says of the Christian mystic's Enlightenment: Renouncing all that
the mind may conceive, wrapped entirely in the intangible and the invisible, he belongs
completely to him who is beyond everything. Here, being neither oneself nor someone else,
one is supremely united by a completely unknowing inactivity of all knowledge, and knows
beyond the mind by knowing nothing. In other words, the Truth to which all Mystics testify
is of an entirely different order than the truths formulated by science. When Jesus said,
"Know the Truth and it shall make you free," 18 he wasn't talking about the theory of
relativity. And when the Buddha said, "The gift of truth is the highest gift," he wasn't
referring to quantum physics.
There are quite a few seekers out there today who think that discovering mystical Truth is
simply a matter of "shifting your paradigm," or learning a "new worldview." And while it is
certainly valuable to examine your worldview and to investigate new paradigms, it is also
crucial to remember that, no matter how revolutionary a worldview may seem, or how
compatible with mysticism a paradigm may be, worldviews and paradigms always remain
conceptual constructs. But the Absolute Truth revealed by Gnosis lies beyond all concepts,
all paradigms, and all worldviews, whatsoever, into that Ocean of Silence at the Heart of the
World.
DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE EASTERN THOUGHT AND MODERN WESTERN SCIENCE
The spiritual experience of oneness conduces to the same insight as reasoning through
science. Both convey the insight of fundamental interconnection between ourselves, other
people, other forms of life, the biosphere and, ultimately, the universe. Science and
spirituality, far from being mutually exclusive and conflicting elements, are complementary
partners in the search for the path that can enable humanity to recover its oneness with the
world. Science demonstrates the urgent and objective need for it; and spirituality testifies to
its inherent value and supreme desirability.
The Progress to new physics - quantum mechanics, relativity, the universe of the
microparticles, theories for complex and non-linear dynamic systems, invisible worlds, chaos
leads to order, give a different dimension to the way of thinking of individuals, scientists,
and philosophers. The basic elements of the Eastern world view are also those
of the world
view emerging from modern physics. The Eastern thought and, more generally, mystical
thought provide a consistent and relevant philosophical background to the theories of
contemporary science; a conception of the world in which man's scientific discoveries can be
in harmony with his spiritual aims and religious beliefs. The two basic themes of this
conception are the unity and interrelation of all phenomena and the intrinsically dynamic
nature of the universe. The further we penetrate into the submicroscopic world, the more
we shall realize how the modern physicist, like the Eastern mystic, has come to see the
world as a system of inseparable, interacting and ever-moving components with man being
an integral part of this system.
Quantum theory thus reveals an essential interconnectedness of the universe. It shows that
we cannot decompose the world into independently existing smallest units. As we penetrate
into matter, we find that it is made of particles, but these are not the 'basic building blocks'
in the sense of Democritus and Newton. They are merely idealizations which are useful from
practical point of view, but have no fundamental significance.In the words of Niels Bohr,
'Isolated material particles are abstractions, their properties being definable and observable
only through their interaction with other systems
The structural similarities of Eastern thought and Western natural science pointed out the
great scientists of our time. Bohr’s quantum principle of complementarity supports that
everything in the Universe consists of opposed sections. The Chinese Tao is the symbol that
characterizes the dialectic unity of opposites. The Tao is the rhythm which connects the
opposites. Other physicists who noted this similarity include Heisenberg, Niels Bohr and
Julius Oppenheimer, as well as a host of contemporary scientists and biologists .
Heisenberg: ‘’The two foundations of twentieth-century physics-quantum theory and
universal consciousness Page 3
