ALEXIS KARPOUZOS
NON - DUALITY
THE PARTICIPATORY UNIVERSE
EDITIONS
COSMIC SPIRIT
''The universe is not a world of separate things and events but is a cosmos that is
connected, coherent, and bears a profound resemblance to the visions held in the
earliest spiritual traditions in which the physical world and spiritual experience were
both aspects of the same reality and man and the universe were one. The findings
that justify this new vision of the underlying logic of the universe come from almost all
of the empirical sciences: physics, cosmology, the life sciences, and consciousness
research. They explain how interactions lead to interconnections that produce
instantaneous and multifaceted coherence–what happens to one part also happens
to the other parts, and hence to the system as a whole. The sense of sacred oneness
experienced by our ancestors that was displaced by the unyielding material
presumptions of modern science can be restored, and humanity can once again feel
at home in the universe''.
Alexis Karpouzos
Contents
Chapter 1
A new cosmic shift
Chapter 2
The End of Certainty Chaos, Complexity And Self-Organized Systems………………4
Chapter 3
Beyond the separation: the new cosomological paradigm…………………………….1
HISTORICAL RECURSIOΝ
THE AWAKENING OF THE HOLISTIC SPIRIT WEST
The roots of physics, as of all Western science, are to be found in the first period of
Greek philosophy in the sixth century BC, in a culture where science, philosophy and
religion were not separated. The sages of the Milesian school in Ionia were not
concerned with such distinctions. Their aim was to discover the essential nature, or
real constitution, of things which they called 'physis'. The term 'physics' is derived
from this Greek word and meant therefore, originally, the endeavour of seeing the
essential nature of all things. This, of course, is also the central aim of all mystics,
and the philosophy of the Milesian school did indeed have a strong mystical flavour.
The Milesians were called 'hylozoists', or 'those who think matter is alive', by the later
Greeks, because they saw no distinction between animate and inanimate, spirit end
matter. In fact, they did not even have a word for matter,since they saw all forms of
existence as manifestations of the 'physis', endowed with life and spirituality.
Thus Thales declared all things to be full of gods and Anaximander saw the universe
as a kind of organism which was supported by 'pneuma', the cosmic breath, in the
same way as the human body is supported by air. Pythagora’s cosmotheory
supported that spirit is the matter of the world and it is subject to a mental set that
expresses the Universal Divinity. The “Universal Mind” (or the global consciousness
as it is differently called nowadays), namely the totality of all the actions and
thoughts, is what creates reality around us in the same way quantum physics
teaches us that the observer chooses his reality among an ocean of probabilities the
moment of the observation, i. e. at the act of thought.
The monistic view of the Milesians was very close to that of ancient Indian and
Chinese philosophy, and the parallels to Eastern thought are even stronger in the
philosophy of Heraclitus of Ephesus. Heraclitus believed in a world of perpetual
change, of eternal 'Becoming'. For him, all static Being was based on deception and
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his universal principle was fire, a symbol for the continuous flow and change of all
things.
Heraclitus taught that all changes in the world arise from the dynamic and cyclic
interplay of opposites and he saw any pair of opposites as a unity. This unity, which
contains and transcends all opposing forces, he called the Logos .
THE AWAKENING OF THE UNIVERSAL SPIRIT EASTERN
In the same period of Greek philosophy in the sixth century BC, in a Eastern culture
where philosophical thinking and religion were not separated. Although the various
schools of Eastern thought differ in many details, they all emphasize the basic unity
of the universe which is the central feature of their teachings. The highest aim for
their followers-whether they are Hindus, Buddhists or Taoists-is to become aware of
the unity and mutual interrelation of all things, to transcend the notion of an isolated
individual self and to identify themselves with the ultimate reality. The emergence of
this awareness-known as 'enlightenment'-is not only an intellectual act but is an
experience which involves the whole person and is religious in its ultimate nature. For
this reason, most Eastern philosophies are essentially religious philosophies. In the
Eastern view, then, the division of nature into separate objects is not fundamental
and any such objects have a fluid and ever-changing character.
The Eastern world view is therefore intrinsically dynamic and contains time and
change as essential features. The cosmos is seen as one inseparable reality-for ever
in motion, alive, organic; spiritual and material at the same time. Since motion and
change are essential properties of things, the forces causing the motion are not
outside the objects, as in the classical Greek view, but are an intrinsic property of
matter. Correspondingly, the Eastern image of the Divine is not that of a ruler who
directs the world from above, but of a principle that controls everything from within.
Μore specifical y: The Chinese Tao is the symbol that characterizes the dialectic
unity of opposites. The Tao is the rhythm which connects the opposites. The Hindu
tradition of the Upanishads faces the personal ego as an illusion (Maya). Maya
separates the personal Ego from the transcendent Being (Brahman).
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When the illusion of the personal Ego is spoiled, then the compound with the
Transcendent Being is achieved. The Transcendent Being is located deep inside the
human’s soul (Αtman). The human’s soul (Αtman) and the Transcendent Being
(Brahman) are the Same, boundlessly and timelessly. You are this one (tat tvam asi)
“The one who lives inside al beings, but is something else compared to them. He,
who is being ignored by the beings, but his body is all the beings. He, who controls
all the beings from inside.
He is your Soul, the internal Auditor, the Immortal”. The Vedas teach that we are
more than physical bodies operating according to the laws of physics and chemistry.
We, the eternal conscious self ( Atma ), are inherently connected to the greater
whole ( ParamAtma ), and this eternal inherent connection is totally transcendental to
matter. All living entities ( Atmas), having free will, are able to ignore this connection
or recognize it. The Vedas teach us how to do both.
When we act as scientists and look for facts and accept them and then go on to use
and ac
t according to our new realizations we can make great progress. Similarly, as
living entities, we must scientifically study the great work of the evidential books of
the Vedas in order to help us realize the facts of this universe and beyond, and our
natural position in it.
A Buddhist text gives us a vision of the time: “Buddha taught the past, the future, the
natural world and each one of us is nothing but names, forms of thought, public
words, simply superficial realities.” A Buddhist sutra says: “the form is the vacuum,
the vacuum is the form”. For the Japanese Buddhist zen there is no other space,
there is no other time. This moment is everything. In this moment the whole being is
being summarized. In this moment everything is available, into this moment eternity
penetrates the existence and existence penetrates eternity.
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EARLY SIGNS OF SEPARATION IN WESTERN PHILOSOPHY
Anaxagoras is the first thinker in the history of world that separated matter from spirit,
the souled from the soul ess and supported that the cosmic “Mind” includes al the
laws that express the activity of God. For Anaxagoras the word Cosmos means
“order in the cosmic system”. The spirit of God is the creator of the order. The above
applies to the entire Universe. The “deamon” of Socrates is the voice of God that
works inside us, it is an echo of the voice that governs the Universe and defines the
operation of everything in the world. This way, Socrates unites in a mutual substance
the man, the Universe and the God! Socrates cogitates the sky, detects the stars,
envisions the entire world and within him there is the profound conviction that through
the “cosmic creation” and the “human fate”, a superior Intel ect, which is an imprint of
our own Intellect, dominates.
The split of this unity began with the Eleatic school, which assumed a Divine
Principle standing above all gods and men. This principle was first identified with the
unity of the universe, but was later seen as an intelligent and personal God who
stands above the world and directs it. Thus began a trend of thought which led,
ultimately, to the separation of spirit and matter. and to a dualism which became
characteristic of Western philosophy.
A drastic step in this direction was taken by Parmenides of Elea who was in strong
opposition to Heraclitus. He called his basic principle the Being and held that it was
unique and invariable. He considered change to be impossible and regarded the
changes we seem to perceive in the world as mere illusions of the senses. The
concept of an indestructible substance as the subject of varying properties grew out
of this philosophy and became one of the fundamental concepts of Western thought.
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SYSTEMATIZATION OF SEPARATION
In the fifth century BC, the Greek philosophers tried to overcome the sharp contrast
between the views of Parmenides and Heraclitus. In order to reconcile the idea of
unchangeable Being (Of Parmenides) with that of eternal Becoming (of Heraclitus),
they assumed that the Being is manifest in certain invariable substances, the mixture
and separation of which gives rise to the changes in the world. This led to the
concept of the' atom, the smallest indivisible unit of matter, which found its clearest
expression in the philosophy of Leucippus and Democritus. The Greek atomists drew
a clear line between spirit and matter, picturing matter as being made of several '
basic building blocks '. These were purely passive and intrinsically dead particles
moving in the void. The cause of their motion was not explained, 'but was often
associated with external forces which were assumed to be of spiritual origin and
fundamentally different from matter. In subsequent centuries, this image became an
essential element of Western thought, of the dualism between mind and matter,
between body and soul.
The classical philosophical thought and the theory of knowledge of Western culture -
from Plato and Aristotle (philosophy of Being), continuing with Descartes and the first
epistemology (philosophy of Noesis – ‘’I am thinking, therefore I exist’ ), and ending
the linguistic turn of Wittgenstein of the Vienna Circle and other positivists language
(analytic(al) philosophy – linguistic analysis) - was founded on the separation Is and
Not Is, Plenum and Vacuum, Cosmos and Thought, One and Multiple, Anything and
Everything, namely on the separation Subject - Object. Of these ontological
divisions were created epistemological separations as idealism - materialism and
anthropological separation as Soul-Body e.t Philosophy, epistemology and theory of
knowledge, consider that knowledge is acquired when a subject, as an external-
uninvolved observer, represents in the mind of the subject, the '' Nature ' . But the
‘’Nature’ It is a metaphysical abstraction of the wholeness of the world, is a logical
construct and has named "Nature".
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COMPLETE OF SEPARATION
In the late fifteenth century, the study of nature was approached, for the first time, in
a truly scientific spirit and experiments were undertaken to test speculative ideas. As
this development was paralleled by a growing interest in mathematics, it finally led to
the formulation of proper scientific theories, based on experiment and expressed in
mathematical language. Galileo was the first to combine empirical knowledge with
mathematics and is therefore seen as the father of modern science.
The birth of modern science was preceded and accompanied by a development of
philosophical thought which led to an extreme formulation of the spirit/matter dualism.
This formulation appeared in the seventeenth century in the philosophy of René
Descartes who based his view of nature on a fundamental division into two separate
and independent realms; that of mind (res cogitans), and that of matter (res extensa).
The 'Cartesian' division allowed scientists to treat matter as dead and completely
separate from themselves, and to see the material world as a multitude of different
objects assembled into a huge machine. Such a mechanistic world view was held by
Isaac Newton who constructed his mechanics on its basis and made it the foundation
of classical physics. From the second half of the seventeenth to the end of the
nineteenth century, the mechanistic Newtonian model .of the universe dominated all
scientific thought It was paralleled by the image of a monarchical God who ruled the
world from above by imposing his divine law on it. The fundamental laws of nature
searched for by the scientists were thus seen as the laws of God, invariable and
eternal, to which the world was subjected.
The philosophy of Descartes was not only important for the development of classical
physics, but also had a tremendous influence on the general Western way of thinking
up to the present day. Descartes' famous sentence 'Cogito ergo sum'-'I think,
therefore I exist'-has led Western man to equate his identity with his mind, instead of
with his whole organism. As a consequence of the Cartesian division , most
individuals are aware of themselves as isolated egos existing inside' their bodies.
The mind has been separated from the body and given the futile task of control
ling it,
thus causing an apparent conflict between the conscious will and the involuntary
instincts .
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Each individual has been split up further into a large number of separate
compartments, according to his or her activities, talents, feelings, beliefs, etc, which
are engaged in endless conflicts generating continuous metaphysical confusion and
frustration.
This inner fragmentation of man mirrors his view of the world 'outside' which is seen
as a multitude of separate objects and events. The natural environment is treated as
if it consisted of separate parts to be exploited by different interest groups. The
fragmented view is further extended to society which is split, into different nations,
races, religious and political groups . The belief that all these fragments-in ourselves,
in our environment and in our society-are really separate can be seen as the
essential reason for the present series of social, ecological and cultural crises. It has
alienated us from nature and from our fellow human beings. It has brought a grossly
unjust distribution of natural resources creating economic and political disorder; an
ever rising wave of violence, both spontaneous and institutionalized,and an ugly,
polluted environment in which life has often become physically and mentally
unhealthy.
The Cartesian division and the mechanistic world view have thus been beneficial and
detrimental at the same time. They were extremely successful in the development of
classical physics and technology, but had many adverse consequences for our
civilization. It is fascinating to see that twentieth-century science, which originated in
the Cartesian split and in the mechanistic world view, and which indeed only became
possible because of such a view, now overcomes this fragmentation and leads back
to the idea of unity expressed in the early Greek and Eastern philosophies.
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