Open to the Infinite 9 October 2006
Posted by integralscience in Philosophy, Spiritual Practice.add a comment
(An invited contribution to The Vision Project)
Underneath our everyday problems and their usual solutions are the profound questions of life. These questions call us to look deeper into the nature of ourselves and reality. This is not a call to turn away from the normal challenges we face, but rather to see them in a larger context so we can respond to them more effectively. Because the limits of our vision limit the effectiveness of our action, a deeper vision is vitally important and essential to any effective action. And it is even more essential if we are to resolve the enduring existential questions of life.
The scope of our vision is determined by our view of the world. To expand our worldview requires an intention to see its limits and hidden assumptions and then to look beyond them. Once we have this intention, our lives become full of opportunities to grow. Our relationships with each other—especially the difficult ones—help us become aware of our own perspectives. Exposure to different cultures and new experiences help broaden our understanding and appreciation. Cultivation of more subtle capacities of observation and attention unveil aspects of our present experience that were previously ignored. Like the scientist, our discoveries come not from confirmation of what we already know, but from challenging our current understanding with new anomalies and paradoxes. The unknown and inexplicable are our guides, calling us to open our minds to new possibilities and perspectives, new patterns and paradigms.
This openness is a capacity to embrace opposites, a willingness to experience all aspects of life, and to give balanced and unprejudiced consideration to alternatives. It is a capacity to act with freedom from personal attachments and aversions. Radical openness is profound and powerful enough to embrace not only our family, friends and nature, but also our enemies, our fears and our suffering. It is a willingness to face the uncomfortable, the threatening, and the painful; it is a love that has the courage to open completely without reservation or resistance to the greatest of horrors and mysteries. A profoundly open mind is not merely interested in what it would like to know; it wants to know the truth, no matter how pleasant or unpleasant. It is open to all viewpoints and perspectives, and not just those that are comfortable. It embraces paradox and contradiction, takes joy in the unexplained and unknown. So let us listen and be attentive to ourselves, each other, and the world. Let us be willing to honestly examine ourselves, and confess to the limitations of our current capacity to see. This willingness naturally leads to an expansion of vision. And the more expanded our vision becomes, the more wise, compassionate, and effective our response will be to the challenges we face.
Any viewpoint or perspective, however, is a finite framework for understanding. Although an expansive worldview is better than a narrow one, we must not merely be open to more expanded viewpoints and perspectives. We must be open to the infinite. An openness to the infinite requires a willingness to see and surrender every limitation of our vision. This goes far beyond merely exchanging one worldview for a more comprehensive one. It demands we examine and ultimately let go of every preconception and presupposition about ourselves and the world. We can imagine what we might like to become, how we might like things to be. But our greatest potential is not imaginable, and our true destiny is inconceivable. Our greatest vision is beyond what we can currently envision. Let us therefore aspire to what is beyond our imagination and thought, and let go of all limits. Let us open our vision to the infinite.
A Mystical Philosophy of Science 1 October 2006
Posted by integralscience in Philosophy, Science.add a comment
Science grows out of the observation of coherence and order in our shared experience. Regardless of whether or not we attribute “objectivity” to this order, it still seems to be an aspect of experience. It is this apparent order that science attempts to isolate and express in the form of natural laws. There is a passage from Pathways Through To Space by Franklin Merrell-Wolff that relates to this topic:
If, now, we substitute for the term “relative unconsciousness” another term which is fundamentally equivalent, i.e., “ponderable matter and form,” we may give the foregoing philosophy a transformation that fits more closely the terminology of modern science. This leads to the judgment that ponderable matter and form constitute a state of relative vacuity or nothingness in the essential sense. …Actually he [the physicist] is studying a relative nothingness. This fact does not detract in the least from the practical values of his studies, but simply means that he is dealing with the obverse of metaphysical actuality. Further, once it is realized that he is unfolding the laws governing the obverse of the Real, his knowledge can be employed as a Way to the Recognition of that Reality. I can see how our present physical science is unfolding a peculiarly beautiful Path to Yoga. So I certainly have no quarrel with physical science as such. In fact, I feel quite otherwise. (Pathways, Ch. 61, “The Nature of Ponderable Matter”)
To put it in Wolff’s terms, our experience of the world is a kind of relative unconsciousness, and this apparently is not a random or chaotic process of “blanking out” but has some kind of pattern or order to it. One possible way to view this universal order would be to make an analogy with our personal conditioning. As individuals we learn ways to view and interpret experience, and these are somewhat flexible. The laws of science appear to be deeper and less flexible forms of conditioning. This is perhaps what helps create the illusion that the aspects of experience correlated with the physical world seem to have an objective existence. Now one can view science as a kind of deep form of self-inquiry that unveils or brings to consciousness these deeper levels of conditioning that govern the “blanking out” process which creates the universe.
This view of science, I think, would go a long way to helping make sense of science (and, generally, the appearance of an objective order in experience) in a way that is compatible with mystical philosophy. This would be valuable because, currently, one of the primary perceived strengths of materialism is its ability to make sense of the objectivity and order of the world. Scientists are very reluctant to adopt any other worldview that does not also give some coherent account of science. As long as materialism is seen as the only viable option, it will continue to dominate the scientific community and, as a result, our culture at large. That, in turn, promotes unnecessary suffering for many people. Thus, it would help promote happiness to have a worldview which is both compatible with both mystical realization and science. Wolff, it seems, provides a foundation for the development of a mystical philosophy of science that can be part of such a worldview.
