Each of us is drawn in our own unique way to the spiritual life. Perhaps a personal crisis suddenly forced you to ask deeper questions about existence. Maybe your longing for more meaning in life gradually increased to the point where you could no longer ignore it. Or you might have simply exhausted all other options.
It may seem paradoxical at first, but science can also lead one to the spiritual life. The ancient Greeks called the study of the nature of things physics. Like ancient physics, modern physics is the search for an understanding of the universal principles and laws that govern the world. It looks beneath the surface of things to discover their true nature, or what the Greeks called their physis. Since the desire to know the true nature of things is fundamentally a spiritual longing to know Reality, at the root of physics is the seed of the spiritual life.
Modern physics, however, is not the physics of Reality, but the physics of the material world. Although it has answers to questions about the nature of matter and energy, it can not answer questions about the nature of your own awareness, the nature of God or Reality. There is more to the nature of things than what is contained in the laws of modern physics.
True nature, thus, has a double meaning. On the one hand, it refers to the true laws of the natural world, i.e., modern physics. On the other hand, it refers to your own true nature, or the true nature of God or Reality. So, in its most general sense, the true nature of things is at once both physical and metaphysical, scientific and spiritual. And, more profoundly, this hints at the possibility that, ultimately, your own true nature has some hidden identity with the true nature of the world.
Sumana
15 October 2010
Modern physics, however, is not the physics of Reality, but the physics of the material world – Not true. Why? Here’s why.
The material world is full of innovations, which are based on some form of energy. Energy as we know it, is indestructible and can only change its form. And what about Ultimate Reality? Reality again is a Superpower and when we talk of power we are talking of energy. Like energy, He is indestructible. So in a way, the physics of Reality and the physics of the material world are no different from each other. Because both are based on a form of energy. In fact, the material world is a manifestation of the powers of Reality. And modern physics is a tool by which to unravel His powers and the proof lies in the material world before us. What powers one may ask. In mythology, for instance, Gods flew in chariots (like pushpak Viman in Ramayana). Now we know the flying chariots to be airplanes. Likewise, celestial beings would suddenly appear before devotees. Today, human beings can do the same by the click of a mouse (video chat). So we see that with each invention we are uncovering some truth about His powers, a truth that lay hidden beneath the surface of ignorance several centuries ago – which has been unfolded by scientists over the years. The role of science is to fill the gap that separates the seeker (devotee) from the knower (Reality). Each time a discovery/invention is made, a small of portion of the gap is covered or rather some truth is unfolded.
The gap or ocean of ignorance between the seeker and knower may be huge and how huge it is nobody can conjecture or imagine. It is as unimaginable as our own potential to discover the truth. We may never finally uncover all that is there to know about Him. And we may never succeed in filling the gap completely to form a neat road that leads to the Supreme. The role of science, therefore, is to unfold the truth about the Supreme Reality and is not a means to disprove His existence as most people would like us to believe.
So to sum up, modern physics does answer questions about the nature of God (or Reality). But then the gap (of ignorance)is so huge that so many questions remain unanswered and therefore the quest for truth by way of scientific inventions continues. And what about questions about the nature of our own awareness? Does modern physics answer these? May be not alone. But modern physics in combination with a biologically inspired approach might, since awareness has to do with consciousness – our thought-process etc.
sumana
2 March 2011
Also your statement that “Modern physics, however, is not the physics of Reality, but the physics of the material world” contradicts one of your earlier posts,
“A Genuine Integration of Science and Spirit” where you have stated the foll:
“Another misconception of partial integrations of science and religion is that they maintain the false dichotomy that science deals with the outer, material world, while religion deals with the inner, spiritual world… It is thus a distortion of the true nature of both religion and science to maintain that one deals with the internal world of insights and the other with the external world of sensory phenomena….. At the deepest level of reality, both outer and inner, fact and value, are a single whole…”
Don’t you think so?