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Zen Physics
p139 The basic oneness of the universe as revealed by quantum mechanics is also the central characteristic of the mystical experience. And so, after more than two thousand years, we Westerners have come back full circle to a unified vision of the world that a holistic Greek thinker such as Heraclitus would have recognized immediately. More to the point, twentieth-century physics has finally caught up with the philosophy of the Far East -- a fact not lost on some of the founding fathers of modern subatomic theory, including Bohr, Schrödinger, and the German physicist Werner Heisenberg....
p140 And the mystical roots of contemporary subatomic theory may extend even further back. In his book The Emperor’s New Mind, Oxford mathematician Roger Penrose points to the eccentric, sixteenth-century mathematician Gerolamo Cardano, who discovered, almost without any help from others, the basic laws of probability and complex numbers that now underpins quantum mechanics. “Perhaps,” writes Penrose, “Cardano’s curious combination of a mystical and a scientifically rational personality allowed him to catch these first glimmerings of what developed to be one of the most powerful of mathematical conceptions.”
In a sense, quantum mechanics has brought the conscious observer -- ourselves -- back into the universe with an important and potentially decisive role to play. This has profound philosophical implications. At the same time, the goings-on of the subatomic world seem very far removed from everyday life. We don’t feel personally touched by them. And so, in practice, the revelations of the new physics of the ultrasmall, strange and wonderful though they may be, have had little effect on the common psyche....
[A discussion of how Western languages require a subject-predicate-object form but languages like Japanese do not. And other aspects of language and culture in Japan.]
p144 [In Japan] Death is regarded with none of the fear or despair that it often invokes in the west. Instead, the Japanese see it as a natural, integral part of life and are raised to approach death in a manner of calm, resigned dignity.... [Discussion of hara-kiri.]
[Lao-tzu and the Tao Te Ching.]
p147 Lao-tzu contrasts the contentment and effortlessness of moving with the flow of events in nature, with the tension of always acting on the world. He proposes an attitude toward life that is full of warmth, amusement, awe, and acceptance, and not a reaction against nature that continually strives to control, improve, and make the self the focus of attention, His philosophy, in fact, is the diametric opposite of that to which most Westerners adhere.
p148 ... In the Western sense, being and non-being are mutually exclusive and opposed, whereas in the Chinese view they are mutually inclusive and complementary. As far as Taoism is concerned, the universe was not created or ordered by some external power. There is nothing external or apart from Tao. All exists together, at once, and the universe is considered to be inherently self-generating.
[I'm skipping Taoism expressed in Chinese art.]
p149 Chinese religion and philosophy, if these terms are not too misleading, reflect a “one-in-all” appreciation of the nature of reality and self. In Taoism this view reached its most developed form before migrating further East, to the islands of Japan. And in Japan we find at last our true antithesis to Western analytical thought -- that extraordinary thing which is not a philosophy or a religion, and which is known as Zen.
To taste
My ideas on cosmogony, quantum physics, string theory (and probably other subjects) are based on what I like... on what happens to feel right to me. There’s no objective standard that could prove my views are any better than the most narrow minded Islamic fanatic who believes women are chattel, that homosexuals should be tossed out of towers, and that co-coreligionists who diverge at all in their beliefs should be killed in their mosques.
I prefer chocolate while they prefer butterscotch.
Today I found a wonderful Joseph Campbell quote (from Myths of Light) on Facebook, "Eternity is not a long time; rather, it is another dimension. It is that dimension to which time-thinking shuts us. And so there never was a creation. Rather, there is a continuous creating going on. This energy is pouring into every cell of our being right now, every board and brick of the buildings we sit in, every grain of sand and wisp of wind."
Because it suits me, I interpret this in a way consistent with the Hindu “Devi” creation myth. But, regardless, as true as this may be, it doesn’t devalue the kind of narrow minded world views I mentioned above. Any more than the qualities of The Lord of the Rings devalues Dune. Or opera devalues Pop music.
This is a short post but the next two will be longer.
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