universal consciousness

by Alekos Karpouzos

  relativity theory-both force us to see the world very much in the way a Hindu, Buddhist or

  Taoist sees it, and how this similarity strengthens when we look at the recent attempts to

  combine these two theories in order to describe the phenomena of the submicroscopic

  world: the properties and interactions of the subatomic particles of which all matter is

  made. Here the parallels between modern physics and Eastern mysticism are most striking

  and we shall often encounter statements where it is almost impossible to say whether they

  have been made by physicists or by Eastern mystics. Niels Bohr ‘’The great scientific

  contribution in theoretical physics that has come from Japan since the last war may be an

  indication of a certain relationship between philosophical ideas in the tradition of the Far

  East and the philosophical substance of quantum theory. Robert Oppenheimer: ‘’For a parallel to the lesson of atomic ....... [we must turn] to those kinds of epistemological

  problems with which already thinkers like the Buddha and Lao Tzu have been confronted,

  when trying to harmonize our position as spectators and actors in the great drama of

  existence’’. Oppenheimer wrote in 1954: 'The general notions about human

  understanding…which are illustrated by the discoveries in atomic physics are not in the

  nature of things wholly unfamiliar, wholly unheard of, or even new. Even in our own culture

  they have a history, and in Buddhist and Hindu thought a more considerable and central

  place. What we shall find is an exemplification, an encouragement and a refinement of old

  wisdom.'

  Schrödinger, in speaking of a universe in which particles are represented by wave functions,

  said, “The unity and continuity of Vedanta are reflected in the unity and continuity of wave

  mechanics. This is entirely consistent with the Vedanta concept of All in One.” “The

  multiplicity is only apparent. This is the doctrine of the Upanishads. And not of the

  Upanishads only. The mystical experience of the union with God regularly leads to this view,

  unless strong prejudices stand in the West.”

  (Erwin Schrödinger, What is Life? , p. 129, Cambridge University Press) As Fritjof Capra

  suggests, '…Eastern thought, and more generally, mystical thought provide a consistent and

  relevant philosophical background to the theories of contemporary science,' both conveying

  'the unity and interrelation of all phenomena and the intrinsically dynamic nature of the

  universe.' Capra quotes the Tantric Buddhist Lama Anagarika Govinda: 'The Buddhist does

  not believe in an independent or separately existing external world…The external world and

  his inner world are for him only two sides of the same fabric, in which the threads of all

  forces and of all events, of all forms of consciousness and of their objects, are woven into an

  inseparable net of endless, mutually conditioned relations.' Likewise, said a Japanese Zen

  master upon attaining enlightenment: 'I came to realise clearly that Mind is not other than

  mountains and rivers and the great wide earth, the sun and the moon and the stars.'

  ΟNE THOUGHT, TWO FORMS Of UNIVERSAL SPIRITUAL (UNITY- DIVERSITY)

  (MYSTICISM AND RATIONALISM)

  Mysticism: All are One, the universe is a Unity

  All things in the universe are one. They are all made of the same basic matter/energy, and

  they interact with one another, constantly. All things on earth are one: plants, animals,

  rocks, oceans and atmosphere. All living creatures had a common origin, all depend on each

  other, and shape and are shaped by non-living things. Life has radically altered the earth's

  atmosphere, and molded many aspects of its geology. The Gaia system is an organic evolving

  whole embracing the biosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere and atmosphere.

  All humans on earth are one. We descend from the same family of common ancestors. We

  are, in a quite literal sense, siblings, and like siblings we depend on each other's love and

  care and responsibility. We are interdependent not just in our families and communities, but

  in nations, and increasingly on a global scale - just as we are also interdependent with nature

  and the earth.

  Rationalism: The universe are many and different beings

  Yet at the same time things are many. Matter-energy is embodied in many different particles

  and bodies. Life has evolved into many unique species - at least 1.5 million that we know of -

  and each individual of each species is unique. Diversity is essential to the beauty and interest

  of nature and the universe. Without it everything would be blank and monotonous.

  All these beings have their own separate existence. Existence as a separate individual is

  always more or less temporary, from the day's life of a mayfly to the billions of years of a

  star. Sooner or later, humans, cats, trees, planets, stars will end their temporary existence

  and be reabsorbed, recycled and recreated as part of new phenomena. Yet even if their

  existence is temporary, this does not mean that it is unreal or unimportant.

  Animals with nervous systems and senses have a greater degree of separation. Their

  consciousness make each one see themselves as separate. And in many respects they are

  separate: driven to seek survival, even at the expense of other individuals or other species.

  Recognizing unity and diversity

  We often think too rigidly in terms of either/or, black/white distinctions.

  Philosophical systems that talk about unity tend to deny or play down diversity, as if it were

  in some way not real, or not important. Yet this devalues individual things and creatures. It

  makes us look at them in a distant and abstract way, makes us ignore their particularity.

  Other systems focus too much on diversity and ignore the ways in which things are united

  and interdependent. This too carries the risk that we see ourselves only as isolated

  individuals, in competition with each other.

  Yet we do not have to make an all-or-nothing choice between unity and multiplicity. Both

  exist and for wholeness we must embrace both.

  Imagine you are standing on a rocky shore by the ocean, on a breezy day. The reach ahead

  of you is ultimately linked with every stretch of sea on the planet. It is a unity, a vast watery

  whole.

  But in front of you, where water interfaces with air, what you see is waves, hundreds of

  thousands of waves: some enormous, others smaller, others again tiny waves on the backs

  of waves. Each of these waves is a distinct entity, with its own characteristics. They are a

  multiplicity.

  The Multiplicity and the Unity are one and the same thing, a thing that is both many and one

  at the same time. The waves, and the currents underwater, make up the ocean. The ocean is

  the underlying basis for every wave. Neither the ocean, nor the waves, can be understood in

  isolation from each other.

  The One is the Many, the Many are the One

  We need a sense of the unity of life and of humans for the sake of human welfare and for

  the survival of the planet. We need a sense of unity with the cosmos so that we can connect

  with Reality. But we also need a sense of individuality, for the sake of our own dignity and

  independence and of the loving care for others. We need it to appreciate each natural form,

  each animal and plant, each human person in their uniqueness.

  We must preserve
the sense of unity and the sense of diversity and multiplicity. We must

  recognize that the One and the Many are the same thing viewed from different angles. The

  One is the Many. The One is manifested only in and through the Many. It has no separate

  existence apart from the Many. Equally the Many are the One. Even during their temporary

  separation, they are always part of the One, and always united with the One. Every one of us

  is always part of the One, and can unite with the One at any time we choose.

  DIFFERENCES IN WESTERN AND EASTERN THOUGHT

  The eastern and Asian philosophies and religions were led through introspection,

  meditation, intuition, insight and mystical experience to the understanding of the deep

  structure of the natural world. We could say that they do not constitute philosophies, with

  the west notion of the term, since they are not expressed by the rational intellect, the logical

  argument and the declarative language of science, but by parables, allegories, images and

  poetic language. The eastern philosophy points a path to the revelation of truth, namely the

  living experience that humans, plants, animals, the planet, the stars, everybody and

  everything is One. Everything is made of the same “universal matter”. The separations are

  metaphysical abstractions and mental constructions. The difference between the western

  and the eastern and Asian thought is the way that we will reach the ultimate knowledge, the

  knowledge of wholeness. There is no methodology on the western sense, a system of

  predefined rules that aim on a purpose. There is the path of the personal search. That is why

  we support that the “knowledge” is not mental, namely impersonal, but it is experiential,

  i.e., personal. The “knowledge” is ineffable and inexpressible, for it is not expressed in

  words, but shown with attitude, manner and style.

  The eastern and Asian thought is poetical thought and wisdom of life. The western

  philosophy is a rational thought seeking for the truth by the abstract mind and the natural or

  artificial symbolism of language and mathematics. The eastern philosophy denied the

  division into matter and spirit, on which the western philosophy and science was founded. It

  is talking about the unbreakable One. Namely, it is neither idealism, nor materialism. It does

  not accept this theoretical division on knowledge. The western thought founded its building

  on the division of matter and spirit and from this division emerged the two philosophical

  currents of materialism and idealism. The western science today ends up on the same

  conclusion with the eastern philosophy. We surpass this division between matter and spirit.

  The nature is united. We go over matter and spirit. Besides, at the contemporary physics,

  matter and energy is the same. The Universe is energy. The matter is nothing more than

  concentrated energy. What is more, the division into spirit that observes and matter that is

  being observed has been refuted by the double slit experiment of quantum physics. In this

  experiment the observer and the object being observed are one since they affect one

  another.

  The science of Chaos teaches us that everything is interconnected, but the contemporary

  developments in neuroscience, getting started with the brain neurons and their multiple

  connections, reveal the topology of the brain, a miniature of the universal geometry of

  everything.

  The wisdom of the Eastern ancient knowledge and the Western philosophy of the

  contemporary scientific knowledge converge and create open thought, the thought of open

  Wholeness. The core of the open thought is the cosmic consciousness. In every particle,

  atom, molecule, cell of matter the energy and the information of the cosmic spirit is

  concentrated. The history of the universal spirit and the spirit of the universal history of

  spirit unfold through time and in different places. They are history of transformation of our

  relationship with the world. The knowledge of the cosmic spirit is an unchanged structure,

  which is expressed in multiple forms in the evolutionary history of the universe. There is an

  harmony between the spirit of Eastern wisdom and Western science. It attempts to suggest

  that modern physics goes far beyond technology, that the of universal thought can be a path

  with a heart, a way to spiritual knowledge and self-realization.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Internet Resources

   www.centerforsacredsciences.org

   www.spaceandmotion.com

   www. ervinlaszlo.com

   www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc

   open-thought-blog.tumblr.com

   www.deepakchopra.com

   consciousness.arizona.edu

  Other Resources

  Books

   Cosmology: philosophy and physics by Alexis Karpouzos

   Questioning the Scientific Worldview by Thomas J. McFarlane

   The Consciousness Revolution by Ervin Laszlo,

   The New Science and Spirituality Reader by Ervin Laszlo,

   The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra

   Maps of Consciousness by Ralph Metzner,

   The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn

   A Study of History by Arnold Toynbee

   The Passion of the Western Mind by Richard Tarnas

   The Social Construction of Reality by Peter Berger

   Laws of Form by G. Spencer-Brown

   Monadology by Leibniz

   Albert Einstein - The Merging of Spirit and Science

   Aristotle , Metaphysics

   Immanuel Kant Quotes on Metaphysics

   Bertrand Russell's Theory of Knowledge

   Friedrich Nietzsche , The Greeks

   The Perennial Philosophy by Aldous Huxley

   The Need for a Sacred Science by Seyyed Hossein Nasr

   Collinson , Fifty Eastern Thinkers

   Schrödinger E, The Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics

   David Bohm , Wholeness and the Implicate Order