From Hinduism to Taoism to Buddhism, these traditions are based on mystical experience – on a direct non-intellectual experience of reality. It is the awareness of the unity and mutual interrelation of all things and events, the experience of all phenomena in the world as manifestations of a basic oneness. In these traditions, all things are seen as interdependent and inseparable parts of this cosmic whole; as different manifestations of the same ultimate reality.
But in our lives, we lack awareness of this unity of all things and divide the world into separate objects and events. While helpful for our brains in many ways, it’s not an actual feature of reality. The principal aim of the Eastern mystical traditions is to readjust the mind by centering and quieting it through meditation. The Sanskrit term for meditation – samadhi – translates to ‘mental equilibrium’. It’s where the insight emerges that one is conscious of the absolute oneness of the universe. While I have not experienced absolute oneness in meditation, I have felt the tiniest glimpses of my ever-so-important Self melting away.
Modern physics shows that matter and the basic phenomena involving them are interconnected, interrelated, and interdependent; that they cannot be understood as isolated entities, but only as integrated parts of the whole.
In quantum theory, probability is a fundamental feature of the atomic reality which governs all processes, and even the existence of matter. Subatomic particles do not exist with certainty at definite places, but rather show ‘tendencies to exist’, and atomic events do not occur with certainty at definite times and in definite ways, but rather show ‘tendencies to occur’. Quantum theory thus reveals an essential interconnectedness of the universe: it shows that we cannot decompose the world into independently existing smallest units.
David Bohm says, “inseparable quantum interconnectedness of the whole universe is the fundamental reality, and that relatively independently behaving parts are merely particular and contingent forms within this whole.”
Objects dissolve into patterns of probabilities, and these patterns represent probabilities of interconnections. The universe is a complicated web of relations between the various parts of a unified whole. Eastern mysticism harps on this universal interwovenness.
The crucial feature of atomic physics is that the human observer and his or her consciousness is always included. As John Wheeler says, “to describe what has happened, one has to cross out that old word ‘observer’ and put in its place the new word ‘participator’. In some strange sense the universe is a participatory universe.” We are not observing; we are participating.
Lama Anagarika Govinda says, “The Buddhist does not believe in an independent or separately existing external world, into whose dynamic forces he could insert himself. 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.”
While Eastern mystics tell us that all things and events are manifestations of a basic oneness, that does not mean they pronounce all things to be equal. They recognize the individuality of things, but they are aware that all of the differences and contrasts are relative within an all-embracing unity: The Unity of Opposites. Lao Tzu says, “When all in the world understand beauty to be beautiful, then ugliness exists; when all understand goodness to be good, then evil exists.” Mystics are aware of the relativity and polar relationship of all opposites. Good and bad, pleasure and pain, life and death, are not absolute experiences belonging to different categories, but merely two sides of the same reality; extreme parts of a single whole. There is always the interplay between the two sides. It is not to strive for the good and eliminate the bad, but maintain a dynamic balance between good and bad.
How do opposites in mysticism relate to modern physics? Particles are both destructible and indestructible; matter is both continuous and discontinuous, and force and matter are but different aspects of the same phenomenon. We can never say that an atomic particle exists at a certain place, nor can we say that it does not exist. Being a probability pattern (as we learned earlier), the particle has tendencies to exist in various places and thus manifests a strange kind of physical reality between existence and non-existence. We cannot, therefore, describe the state of the particle in terms of fixed opposite concepts. The particle is not present at a definite place, nor is it absent. What changes is the probability pattern.
The second theme recurring throughout physics and Eastern mysticism, the first being the unity of all things and events, is the awareness that space and time are intimately connected and interpenetrating.
Not only are all measurements involving space and time relative, depending on the state of motion of the observer, but the whole structure of space-time is inextricably linked to the distribution of matter. Space is curved to different degrees and time flows at different rates in different parts of the universe. Our notion of linear flowing time are limited to our ordinary experience of the physical world and have to be completely abandoned when we extend this experience. Eastern mystics emphasize they go beyond ordinary 3D space in meditation, and they also transcend time. They experience – so they say – an infinite, timeliness, and yet dynamic present.
“The absolute tranquility is the present moment. Though it is at this moment, there is no limit to this moment, and herein is eternal delight.” - Hui-neng
Space and time are fully equivalent; they are unified into a four-dimensional continuum in which the particle interactions can stretch in any direction. In fact, it’s been said that Eastern mysticism is a liberation from time. In a way, the same may be said of relativistic physics.
“It is believed by most that time passes; in actual fact, it stays where it is. This idea of passing may be called time, but it is an incorrect idea, for since one sees it only as passing, one cannot understand that it stays just where it is.” -Zen master Dogen
So far, Eastern mysticism and modern physics have shown us that all things are interconnected, that awareness goes beyond our three-dimensional world where time is relative. Next, we look at how the religious and philosophical texts of the Hindus, Buddhists and Taoists, show how the world is conceived in terms of movement, flow and change. This dynamic quality of Eastern philosophy seems to be one of the most important features: the universe is an inseparable web, whose interconnections are dynamic and not static. The cosmic web is alive; it moves, grows, and changes continually.
Modern physics, too, has come to conceive of the universe as such a web of relations and, like Eastern mysticism, has recognized that this web is intrinsically dynamic. The properties of subatomic particles can only be understood in a dynamic context; in terms of movement, interaction and transformation. The tendency of particles to react to confinement to a small region of space is by moving around and ‘jiggle’ in it. This implies a fundamental ‘restlessness’ of matter which is characteristic of the subatomic world. Matter is thus never quiescent, but always in a state of motion. The big boulder resting on the mountain is not restless, we just can’t see the subatomic particles moving around. It’s full of activity. It has been shown that the activity of matter is the very essence of its being. The existence of matter and its activity cannot be separated. The closer we look at it, the more alive it appears. All material objects next to you right now are made up of atoms which link up with each other in various ways to form an enormous variety of molecular structures which are not rigid and motionless, but oscillate according to their temperature and in harmony with the thermal vibrations of their environment. Neutrons and protons race about with unimaginable velocities. The universe as a whole is expanding and not static. Like modern physicists, Buddhists see all objects as processes in a universal flux and deny the existence of any material substance. Chinese thought developed a similar view of things as transitory stages in the ever-flowing Tao.
What are subatomic particles?
In classical physics, particles were solid and indestructible. Modern physics shows that material objects are not distinct entities at the macroscopic level, but inseparably linked to their environment; their properties can only be understood in terms of their interaction with the rest of the world. This interaction reaches out to the universe at large, to distant stars and galaxies. The basic unity of the cosmos manifests itself, therefore, not only in the world of the very small but also in the world of the very large.
Fred Hoyle says, “Our ideas of space and geometry would become entirely invalid if the distant parts of the Universe were taken away. Our everyday experiences even down to the smallest details seems to be so closely integrated to the grand-scale features of the Universe that it is well-nigh impossible to contemplate the two being separated.”
Particles are both emptiness and form. Particles can come into being spontaneously out of the void, and vanish again into the void. Particles form out of nothing and disappear into the vacuum. The vacuum is far from empty, it contains an unlimited number of particles which come into being and vanish without end. Like the Eastern Void, the ‘physical vacuum’ – as it’s called in field theory – is not a state of nothingness, but contains the potentiality for all forms of the particle world. As the sutra says, ‘Form is emptiness, and emptiness is indeed form.’ This emptiness is not devoid of life. On the contrary, it’s the source of all life. Buddhists express the same idea when they call the ultimate reality Sunyata– ‘Emptiness,’ or ‘the Void’ – and affirm that it is a living Void which gives birth to all forms in the world. The Taoists ascribe a similar infinite and endless creativity to the Tao, and again, call it empty. Lao Tzu compares the Tao to a hollow valley, a vessel which is forever empty and thus has the potential of containing an infinity of things. It is infinite creative potential, and gives birth to an infinite variety of forms which it sustains and reabsorbs. Modern physics says the field is a continuum which is present everywhere in space and yet in its particle aspect has a discontinuous ‘granular’ structure. The two apparently contradictory concepts are thus unified and seen as different aspects of the same reality.
So, we’ve learned particles emerge from the void – nothingness – and become form, only to be absorbed back into it. They also dance. Modern physics has shown that the rhythm of creation and destruction applies to all living creatures, and is also the very essence of inorganic matter. All material particles ‘self-interact’ by emitting and reabsorbing virtual particles – an energy dance, a pulsating process of creation and destruction. According to Hinduism, Shiva, the dancing god, represents the cosmic dance that all life is part of a great rhythmic process of creation and destruction, of death and rebirth, and this eternal life-death rhythm which goes on in endless cycles. Different particles develop different patterns in their dance, requiring different amounts of energy. They are also created and destroyed by the vacuum, the void, which participates in the cosmic dance, creating and destroying energy patterns without end.
The subatomic world is one of rhythm, movement, and continual change. It is not, however, arbitrary and chaotic, but follows very definite and clear patterns. Particles of a given kind are completely identical; they have exactly the same mass, electric charge, and other properties. His book goes into detail about the symmetries that exist in the particle world. The discovery of symmetric patterns in the particle world has led many physicists to believe that these patterns reflect the fundamental laws of nature. It seems that in the Far East traditions, symmetry is another feature of the mind, and not the reality of nature. Some physicists as part of the bootstrap theory believe that fundamental laws of nature do not exist, and this is a leftover need to have a divine lawgiver, deeply rooted in the Judaeo-Christian tradition. Even the concept of fundamental laws of nature may just be another feature of the human mind, rather than of reality itself. The Eastern sages are generally not interested in explaining things, but rather in obtaining a direct non-intellectual experience of the unity of all things. This shares in the Bootstrap theory of the mutual interrelation and self-consistency of all phenomena, but also the denial of fundamental constituents of matter. In a world where all forms are fluid and ever-changing, there is no room for any fixed fundamental entity.
New world view
In the new world view, the universe is seen as a dynamic web of interrelated events. They all follow from the properties of the other parts, and their overall consistency of their mutual interrelations determines the structure of the entire web. To explain all natural phenomena, which are ultimately interconnected, we would need to understand all the others. All of these laws are creations of the human mind; a conceptual map of reality, rather than of reality itself. Even quantum theory cannot be fully explained, with its own unexplained features.
Joseph Needham discusses how the Western concept of fundamental laws of nature, with its original implication of a divine lawgiver, has no counterpart in Chinese thought. In the ‘Chinese worldview’, he writes, the harmonious cooperation of all beings arose, not from the orders of a superior authority external to themselves, but from the fact that they were all parts in hierarchy of wholes forming a cosmic pattern, and what they obeyed were the internal dictates of their own natures.’‘ The Eastern sages are generally not interested in explaining things, but rather in obtaining a direct non-intellectual experience of the unity of all things. To free the human mind from words and explanations is one of the main aims of Eastern mysticism.
Quantum theory has made it clear that these phenomena can only be understood as links in a chain of processes, the end of which lies in the consciousness of the human observer. Physicists are not arguing that the explicit inclusion of human consciousness may be an essential aspect of future theories of matter, since our consciousness is at the end of the link of these process. Some day, the scientific framework will go beyond science, no longer able to express its results in word or rational concepts.
As Lao Tzu said, “He who knows does not speak, He who speaks does not know.”
Niels Bohr acknowledged the profound harmony between ancient Eastern wisdom and modern Western science. It will be interesting to watch modern Western science unfold and to see if and how that relationship grows stronger. Until then, I believe in both science and ancient texts and the mystery that lives between them. What about you?
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