----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2003
11:23 AM
Subject: [Futurework] Re: [Futurework]
Re: [Futurework] Re: [Futurework] "Spiritualität macht frei" ? (was Re: NYT
Article: Is Buddhism Good for Your Health?)
Ed wrote:
>
>
> I don't know what a "linear
thinker" is.
The following are quotes from a book entitled
*The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos* by Brian
Swimme
Swimme is a mathematical cosmologist. I would be
interested to know how members of this list would be able to explain the
following phenomena within the context of causality and Newtonian
physics which is the base of materialistic, reductionist thinking and
depends on linear thinking for its logic.
p.88
"To be in the universe is to be at its
center"
He discusses the fact that every place in the
universe is an origin point for the universe. pp 87,88,89
That the universe is expanding
every which way and has no center is not in doubt.
pp 92,93
He talks about what would happen if
every conceivable particle of every kind is removed from a
space
"Even when there are no atoms, and no
elementary particles, and no protons, and no photons, suddenly
elementary particles will emerge.. The particles
simply foam into existence."
Something I
recall reading on string theory suggested that even space consists of the
most elementary of particles, though they are not as dense and
things we consider having substance.
p.93 He comments on the fact that they
do not come from anywhere
"These elementary particles crop up out of the
vacuum itself-that is the simple and awesome discovery"
From the previous comment, if
the most elementary of particles are already there, it's a relatively small
step to have them combine into larger and more evident
particles.
The title of Ch. 13 in this book is "The
All-Nourishing Abyss" which is all there is, i.e., there is no place outside
of this 'all-nourishing abyss'.
p.101 Everywhere, "even in the gaps between
the synapses of the neurons in the brain, there occurs an incessant foaming,
a flashing flame, a shining-forth-from and a dissolving-back-into. The
importance of the cosmological tradition is its power to awaken those deep
convictions necessary for wisdom."
God I hope so!! Still, I
would think that wisdom is not only dependent on flashes within the
brain. It must also depend on taking things in from the outside.
The full scope and combination of what one takes in and what one has and
keeps inside is probably the essence of mind. I seem to recall that
some German philosopher used the concept of "dasein" or being within a
physical and conceptual space as being "mind". The greater the scope
of this dasein, the greater the mind. Offhand, I can't recall who the
philosopher was. (Brad, help. Do I have it anywhere near
right?)
p.104
"From our own fresh
empirical-mathematical-observational contemplation of the univers we have
identified a nonmaterial realm suffusing not only the great macrocosm of the
universe but suffusing just as thoroughly the microcosm of the human and of
every being of the Earth and universe. That which gave birth to the universe
is giving birth at this moment as well. Although our understnding is
very young, and thus inadequate in many ways, what we have discovered is
already profoundly stirring."
"Each child is situated in that very place and is
rooted in that very power that brought forth all the matter and energy of
the universe."
A very very long time ago I
recall reading that the stuff we are made of, the heavier elements essential
to life, could only have been produced under conditions of extreme heat and
pressure, like the conditions that prevail when star become a super
novae. Being very young at the time, I wondered if there were people
or sentient beings living around the stars that exploded.* Did the
particles that form me come from a creature that felt, laughed, danced and
played. Or perhaps they came from some frog like being that could only
say "Gorp!" I guess we'll never really know, but thinking about it is
rather fun.
* Obviously, unless they were
completely spiritual and non-material, their being would have to have
depended on previous stellar explosions.
I look forward to your responses.
Selma
