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India, Science & Yoga

Last night, I went to a Nanaimo Metaphysical Network meeting, where they had Professor Deborah Hearn from the VIU Physics Department speak about Quantum Physics and Consciousness. It was a great talk, and it brought up some things for me I wanted to talk about here in an article while it’s fresh in my mind.

Fundamentally, my main issue with the way that this science is presented in general, I will go into specifics later, is the startling lack of grasp of what REAL scientists, philosophers and so on have always known: India is the mother of all science, religion, myth, mysticism and mathematics. Here are many many pages of quotes from the most esteemed of these:



Ignorance Explained
To start with, I’d like to restate an obvious point: the main problem in human life is ignorance. Ignorance is a result of the presence of tamas in the mind. Tamas is heavy, dark and results in one-half of the psychological phenomenon known as The Shadow. Keeping aside a more correct explanation of tamas than is provided by Wikipedia, I’d like to say that tamas, as a guna, creates as a side effect, ignorance.


A Different View of Intelligence
John Dosbon, the inspiration behind this post, said it like this:
“For any cosmological model in which the Universe is considered to be "actual", the problem of the origin of sentiency and intelligence is insoluble. But if the Universe is apparitional, sentiency is in it from the word "go". Even the atoms are "sentient". We have senses for the perception of gravity, kinetic energy, radiation, electricity and magnetism, because the individual protoplasmic cells can respond to these same five kinds of energy. And the cells can respond to them because the atoms respond to them. The atoms themselves respond to gravity, kinetic energy, radiation, electricity and magnetism. The plumb bob "knows" where the Earth is, and the electron "knows" where the proton is. Sentiency is in this from the word "go", because the underlying existence is "involved" in what we see and must show through. It is hopeless to expect that something like sentiency or intelligence, or anything, for that matter, could arise by "evolution" (as a rose evolves from a bud), unless it was first put in by "involution". The reason the oak tree can "evolve" from the acorn is because it was first put in the acorn through "involution" by the parent trees. But in the case of the tree and the acorn, the involution is by transformational causation, parinama. Whereas, in the case of the underlying existence and the Universe, the involution is by apparitional causation, or vivarta. What underlies the Universe is involved by apparition in us and what we see. And since what underlies all this is infinite, there is no knowing what may evolve. (1)

The expectation that sentiency and intelligence might arise from "inert matter" is contrary to all the experience of our race. But matter is not inert. It is "ert", (it moves by itself) because what underlies the apparition shows through. And the notion that what is more might evolve from what is less is beyond the domain of reason.”


The implication of this is that being ignorant goes against nature. I happen to agree. We live in a time and culture that raises ignorance in every form up to something which is somehow desireable!

Plotinus
Before The Greeks
It seems that ALL science books I read refer back to the Greek civilization as a beginning point, the seed of all modern knowledge, exclusive of ANY other cultural influences. There are many articles (and indeed whole books) which talk fairly explicitly about what cultures did what BEFORE the Greeks. This new trend of so-called “superstar” scientists on their own holy war regarding science-as-religion (Richard Dawkins and his proteges)- they are the worst offenders in a long line of eurocentric scientists who sound more like ego-centric, rather than euro-centric scientists in the end.
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Eurocentrism Defined Is Deconstructionism
At some point, this focus on the Greeks forgot all about one of the most prominent of Greek philosophy: Plotinus. One may debate whether Plotinus was a non-dualist or a monist as this man does, but I am in line with Ken Wilber on this one- he was a non-dualist, or at the very least was taught and influenced by non-dual thought from the East, as many philosophers were during his time.

In general, however, an ego-centric view is seen to be had by many deconstructionist scientists and this Mr. Hines is the least offender- if you want to be really offended, try debating (or just listening to) so-called comedian (and Dawkins protege&rsquoWinking Bill Maher. Bill Maher is essentially a television bully- interrupting, name calling and so on. Because Bill Maher agrees with gay marriage and holds some other humanistic opinions doesn’t give him a free pass to ignore all science and philosophy that came before the Greeks just because he believes in a currently successful materialistic philosophy. He’s a slave to his left brain as much as any other bully egotist.

Quoting from Mr. Hines, the author of the monist view of Plotinus in the last link above:
“obviously I don't know what ultimate reality is like. Nobody does, Ken Wilber included. All we can do is look at evidence and come to the best conclusions we can. I've got a strong scientific bent. It seems to me that understanding the observable universe is the best first step (and maybe the last step) toward grasping unseen mysteries.”

So, the conclusion that ONLY science holds the answers seems to be come to by MANY scientists- and I’ll point out that Deborah Hearn was NOT saying these things in an intentional way like Bill Maher or Richard Dawkins, nor was she on some holy war like they are- but rather she was brought up and her perspective is largely informed by a culture devoted to (and enslaved by) the left brain.

The left brain has a tendency, along with how we’ve been taught (that is key) in a Cartesian method of thinking that essentially says everything is separate. The subsequent success of this divided approach is apparent in modern technology. Still, we’re slow, as a culture to catch up to the implications of Quantum Mechanics. Looking back, it takes between 50-100 years to begin to grasp the implications societally of what our highest minds are achieving in science and pre-eminent thought. We lack the cultural precedent that Indians have to learn from their vast heritage, and our is almost entirely borrowed.

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Check Your Assumptions
The conclusion is the NO ONE CAN KNOW these mysteries, and concurrent with that, another thought also is there almost automatically: NO ONE EVER HAS KNOWN.

The left brain is a seductive and logical taskmaster, especially when one’s perspective becomes too reliant upon it. Lacking a schooling system and a culture of thought that informs the individual about the right brain’s function, I can see how this ignorance arises, especially in science.

Everyone I’ve talked about here MAKES ENORMOUS ASSUMPTIONS regarding all this, and we (the public) buy it hook line and sinker, every time, as we’re surrounded by it constantly. It’s not any LESS ignorant than the idea that there is a vengeful God awaiting us after death, and maybe we’ll go to Hell.

Now, I do believe a great deal of science is good. It’s brought a tremendous amount of both good and bad things to the human race, according to the level of ignorance had by it’s users (see sign above). However, assuming that ONLY science can help us is a fallacy. A facile thought.

Why? Because eventually things taken apart begin to reveal their interconnectedness at very small levels and this is EXACTLY what was found by the founding fathers of quantum mechanics.



If you read Quantum Questions by Ken Wilber, you’ll see that EVERY ONE of these major scientists in the field of quantum mechanics was ALSO writing and had deeply held beliefs similar to Eastern mysticism, then you start to realize the impact of working at this level of understanding even in science. In other words, consciousness catches up to you.

An example: Two sorts of truth: trivialities, where opposites are obviously absurd, and profound truths, recognised by the fact that the opposite is also a profound truth. -Neils Bohr

What you also see is that most of these scientists has little understanding of how to relate directly through experience what they were running into. I believe that this is because they has little training that would assist them in understanding it.

Why Does The Particle Have To Be There?
Another amazing ego-centric assumption I was reminded of last night was brought home by a famous double-slit experiment in quantum physics that has (in the minds of scientists anyway) an amazing conclusion about their lack of control in experimentation and measurement.


Why I was so amazed at the level of assumption here was that in yoga and Vedanta philosophy, the main aim is to remember at every moment that you are not separate from anyone or anything. All yoga practice is, in some way or another, supporting this experience. It can be logically argued for, as the great Vedantic teachers have shown, or experienced directly through meditation or devotional practices. There are MANY MANY examples in Indian culture that support this, and the largest scriptural bodies of work (which are a tiny fraction of the actual teachings of these great Masters) on earth support this conclusion also.

East Meet West
sivananda-laughing
Hello. We’re yogis and we’ve been resolving paradoxes for thousands of years. Nice to meet you.

I am just astounded at how cultural assumptions forgot over time how Greek myth and methods were derived. Yes, the Egyptians were there, but ultimately it’s all come from India. As you learn just a little Sanskrit, it’s amazing how the etymology of words in English come from Sanskrit. In Greek myth, Dionysus is remarkably similar to Lord Shiva in the Indian tradition and so on. Scientists who reference Greek thought as the end-all-be-all should look to the root of Greek myth and logic. In the end, knowledge has come from the Vedas. Yes, it’s been expanded, but let’s not forget who your mother is. The Mother of Modern Civilization was NOT Greece, it was India. Indian astrologers understood that the Earth went around the sun 5000 years ago. We forget this because people in Europe had a flat-land mentality at some point.
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In the above picture, there appears to be only one direction to head in. Only ONE POSSIBLE CONCLUSION. Welcome To Flatland
Ken Wilber uses this term to describe a theory which lacks the cohesive and cross-discipline connections Art, Morals and Science had before they were split up into their pieces by Modernists:

“Modernity, on the other hand, did manage to differentiate the Big Three of art, morals and science, on a large scale, so that each began to make phenomenal discoveries. But as the Big Three dissociated, and scientific colonialism began its aggressive career, all ‘Is’ and all ‘we’s’ were reduced to patterns of objective ‘its’, and thus all the interior stages of consciousness – reaching from body to mind to soul to spirit – were summarily dismissed as so much superstitious nonsense. The Great Nest collapsed into scientific materialism – into what we will be calling “flatland” – and there the modern world, by and large, still remains.
 
Our job, it thus appears, is to take the strengths of both premodernity and modernity, and jettison their weaknesses.”
Integral Psychology Pp 64-65

We’re SO Shocked
What I wondered was: Why do we assume that the particle CANNOT be influencing another particle across great distances? Why do we assume that the particle must be acting like a particle and not a wave- like in the above experiment? Why do we make all these assumptions about what a particle does or does not do? Ignorance. The particle itself knows it’s own self more than we do, it seems! Why is it that it’s on the particle to demonstrate consistent behavior?

Why do we assume separation between each of us as people or us from animals or us from the environment (and everything else, while we’re at it)? Why would science? Why do scientists? This is why I started off this article talking about ignorance.

Most startling (to scientists) was the assertion that the two slit experiment shocked so many people. She even put up a famous quote from Niels Bohr, of which there are many, that said:
bohr-lg
“Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it.” - Niels Bohr

What is so shocking? What makes anything so shocking? Well, any fact that contradicts your cultural conditioning. Think about it. Truth has a way of doing that. What is nice is that Niels Bohr himself kindly provides some eloquent quotes that show he has in fact understood the implications of his theories:
“How wonderful that we have met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of making progress.”

“There is no quantum world. There is only an abstract physical description. It is wrong to think that the task of physics is to find out how nature is. Physics concerns what we can say about nature...”

Paradox IS Philosophy and Self-Realization
In both, he demonstrates a mystics understanding of the place where metaphysics begins, and philosophy also. These men were clearly great men, and really approached their field with an utmost seriousness and rigor to be so profoundly affected by their own understanding of their discoveries. In our current science-oriented culture where charlatans who claim to know merely propagate the ignorance they hypocritically deride society for having- or worse, don’t understand their own ignorance of how to “make progress” according to Bohr himself, one who really DID understand.

Ultimately, technical or intellectual understanding is far inferior to practical understanding. Here I speak of the practical understanding of ourselves such that we can easily grasp how paradoxes work, as a result of having deeply considered them within ourselves. The yogi or mystic who has considered these things within themselves could easily grasp without being “shocked” the apparent paradoxes of quantum mechanics, even if on a relatively superficial intellectual level.

Grasping how to move in the world, free of paradox ENTIRELY is something else besides. Freeing one’s self of dualities in totem is the ultimate desire of all spiritual aspiration, if indeed it is sincere.

Yogis ARE Scientists
Given that “an ounce of practice is worth tons of theory” (- Swami Sivananda) then, the practical inner work that would enable one to live in harmony with what the limited mind or intellect can grasp AND what is beyond that mind lay the superior practice of Yoga. The ancient method of Yoga says that ALL your concerns should rather be of that which is practical. Yoga is non-theistic and rather points to a systematic resolution of intellectual, emotional, physical, and metaphysical paradoxes.

In this way, yogis have been approaching, scientifically (in both a left-brained and right-brained manner) for thousands of years (that we know of) the practice of Yoga. Nothing is left out in Yoga and Vedanta. Indeed Vedanta is translated as the “end of knowledge”. Yet, Vedanta is a balanced viewpoint. Even Jnana yogis who study scriptures in an almost anti-social modern university sort of way are understood to be inferior to those who reform their personality in a more complete fashion using all four paths.

Summary
I hope I have shown the fallacy of ignorance based in science. I see it in so many places. The ignorance of the origins of knowledge (inside us) the ignorance of the great realizations and experiences of saints and sages of the past, especially in the East, the ignorance of the MASSIVE body of work produced by thousands of years of yogic scientists, both left and right brain oriented, and lastly the responsibility we have to really pay attention to the information we’re being given and the assumptions behind it. I hope I’ve been clear and thorough.
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