Click here to go to the next issue
Highlights Home Page | Receive the Nondual Highlights each day
#2183 -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Nothing exists except
atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion."
Democritus of Abdera
[Who, about 2500 years ago, was the
first person known to have sumised the existance of the atom; the
smallest indivisible thing in creation.]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[above quote from the book: The God Particle
by Leon Lederman]
Dear Friends,
In this edition I will take a look at three
seemingly different books.
First, the one mentioned above: The God
Particle (If the Universe is the Answer, What is the Question?)
by Leon Lederman.
Second, I AM THAT I AM (A Tribute to Sri
Nisargadatta Maharaj) by Stephen Wolinsky, Ph.D.
Third, The Way of Zen by Alan W. Watts.
What, you may ask, do Zen, Advaita, and
particle physics have to do with each other? Let alone what do
they, if they do, have in common?
Let's see what we can see, shall we?
michael
NM = Nisargadatta
AW = Alan Watts
LL = Leon Lederman
These abreviations also stand for quotes
from the respective titles.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NM - "I know nothing. All
knowledge is in dream only and not valid."
AW - As butterflies come to the newly
planted flowers, Bodhidharma says, "I know not."
AW - Awakening almost necessarily involves a
sense of relief because it brings to an end the habitual
psychological cramp of trying to grasp the mind with the mind,
which in turn generates the ego with all its conflicts and
defenses. In time, the sense of relief wears off-but not the
awakening, unless one has confused it with the sense of relief
and has attempted to exploit it by indulging in ecstacy.
. . . But in itself it [awakening] is just
the ending of an artificial and absurd use of the mind.
NM - Trace every action to its selfish motive, and look at the
motive intently until it dissolves.
LL - . . . There is, we believe, a
wraithlike presence throughout the univers that is keeping us
from understanding the true nature of matter. It's as if
something, or someone, wants to prevent us from attaining the
ultimate knowledge.
NM - Even space and time are imagined.
AW - The Second Noble Truth relates to the
cause of frustration, wich is said to be trishna, clinging or
grasping, based on avidya,which is ignorance or unconsciousness.
Now avidya is the formal opposite of awakening. It is the stae of
the mind when hypnotized or spellbound by maya, so that it
mistakes the abstract world of things and events for the concrete
world of reality. At a still deeper level it is lack of
self-knowledge, lack of the realization that all grasping turns
out to be the futile efort to grasp oneself, or rather, to make
life catch hold of itself. For to one who has self-knowledge,
there is no duality between himself and the external world.
LL - Today, many particles later, we have
the standard model, which reduces all of reality to a dozen or so
particles and four forces.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NM - Beyond the witness there is an infinite
emptiness.
AW - The opening words of the oldest Zen
poem say that
The perfect Way [Tao] is without difficulty,
Save that it avoids picking and choosing.
Only when you stop liking and disliking
Will all be clearly understood.
A split hair's difference,
And heaven and earth are set apart!
If you want to to get to the plain truth,
Be not concerned with right and wrong.
The conflict between right and wrong
Is the sickness of the mind.
LL - . . . But metaphors are only metaphors.
They are crude maps. And to borrow and old expression: we must
never mistake the map for the territory. Physics is not religion.
If it were, we'd have a much easier time raising money.
NM - The primary concept is the knowledge of
"I Am." It is the mother of all other concepts. When
this concept is there, then so many other concepts also appear.
Now, whatever religions there are, they are only full of
concepts. Somebody likes a particular concept and passes it on to
his disciples, and he gets a following. But with that, they
cannot get eternal peace or satisfaction. In order to get that
satisfaction, you must find the source of this primary concept
"I Am." And once you know that, you can transcend it.
Then you do not have anything to tell the world, because the
world wants only fragmentary modifications. They want activities.
So this knowledge will remain only with you, and there will not
be very many customers for it.
AW - [from the Upanishads] Where knowledge
is without duality, without action, cause, or effect,
unspeakable, incomparable, beyond description, what is that? It
is impossible to say!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AW - Sitting meditation is not, as is often
supposed, a spiritual "exercise", a practice followed
for some ulterior motive.
NM - Later I understood the meaning of
spirituality and came to the conclusion that it is as discardable
as dishwater. Therefore, I am in no way concerned with
spirituality.
LL - . . . There has been a spate of books
over the past several years - The Tao of Physics is another
example - that attempt to explain modern physics in terms of
Eastern religion and mysticism. The authors are apt to conclude
rapturously that we are all part of the cosmos and the cosmos is
part of us. We are all one! (Though, inexplicably, American
Express bills us separately.) . . . The inspiration for
such books is usually quantum theory and its inherent spookiness.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Well, I think that's about enough of
that! One could spend days weeks years a lifetime, even,
comparing Zen to Advaita to Quantum Physics - and not accomplish
a darned thing thereby! As the hodge-podge I've thrown togther
here shows; I haven't done anything worthwhile at all!
So I'll close this with a little something
from Nisargadatta Maharaj:
Give up all this trash, whatever you
are studying in the name of religion, in the name of
spirituality. Understand only one thing: that Godly principle is
there, that I Amness or conciousness - that is the Godliest of
principles. It is there only so long as the vital breath or life
forces is there.