Science & Spirituality a Hidden Love Story

Do you prefer your mum or your dad? Isn’t it a weird question?

Why choosing between science or spirituality? Both concepts have been presented to us as opposed.

Why? How come?

History seems to have a selective memory. Or one shaped history according to certain believes. Who is the “one” who created history and especially who wrote history which seems to be partial (in both senses: 1-limited 2-skewed)? The same “one” that we can find “oneness”? One never knows!

I need to do a short aside to precise what I will include in the concept of “spirituality” because it will be an enlarged vision of the invisible to a certain extent that we could normally divide as follows:

• Religion: the dogma, society rules, hygiene…
• Esoteric dimension: the occult part of the religions, the mother essence of the primer messages of the religions
• Spirituality: a personal approach linked to feeling and to the teachings: mix, the inspiration of the existing ideas adapted to one’s personal sensitivity
• Mysticism: a symbolic and operational approach at the borders of the different worlds (rituals, magic…)
• The different subliminal worlds: spirits, entities, angels, egregores, Aliens…
• The principle of energies

I could explain more precisely the difference between these subsets but it is not the point here. Just maybe a precision as Deepak Chopra said “Religion is a belief in someone else’s experience. Spirituality is having your own experience. Atheism is no experience only measurement.”

Well, let’s come back to the fact history has a selective memory. We have been presented with the opposition to these two concepts.

However, if we analyze the Ancient Greece (pillar of western societies) all the greatest genius were philosophes and mathematicians and beyond of that mystic. Pythagoras created the mystery school based on ancient Egyptian mysteries. Plato developed a lot the sacred geometry with “his” platonic solids. They all balanced and embraced harmoniously science and spirituality from a holistic perspective.

So why doesn’t one remember this part of history? What happened?

The Christian Inquisition stands for a cataclysm and a real schism between Science & Spirituality (which lasted almost 5 centuries during the Middle Age). It created such a fear in the scientific realm that science wanted to keep a distance with a kind of spirituality to preserve its autonomy and integrity. Just 3 examples Copernic, Galileo, Kepler have obliged to deny the discoveries but they were believers. The unique problem was that their discoveries questioned the Holy Scriptures. The Holy Scriptures have been changed (and this is official history) at the 4^th century by the Roman Empire Constantine (Council of Nicea) by this moment the reincarnation disappeared, only 4 gospels among 40 have been maintained, some passages have been deleted…

Kepler expresses his approach in these terms: “Great God, great is his power, and his wisdom is infinite, heavens, sun, moon, and stars, praise Him in the language given to you, my Lord and my Creator! The splendor of your works, I would like to announce it to men as far as my limited mind can understand it. “

Nevertheless, history kept in mind a mistaken vision of science: Manichean and purely Cartesian. Even these concepts are wrong. “Manichean” is supposed to mean “dualist” broadly black or white. Mani was an amazing Persian prophet from the 3^rd century AC who tried to combine Christianity, Buddhism, and Zoroastrianism. In a certain way, he applied a holistic (“holos” global) vision of the spirituality of his era but history kept in mind a wrong idea toward his philosophy. This is the same for Descartes, Rene Descartes was closed to Rosicrucian and talked about the pineal gland (third eye) as “the seat of the soul”: this is not Cartesian at all! J Rosicrucian philosophy is based on the principle that life is a science combining the natural forces and law with the spiritual ones. That’s why their motto is “the feet on the ground and the head in the sky”. Descartes just tried to apply a structured analysis of everything, including the notion of God. But Descartes was spiritual, as one of the father of the mother science Newton. Isaac Newton was one of the greatest alchemists. As a fresh reminder, Alchemy is transmuting the matter: having a resonance between the mind of the practitioner and the soul of elements. It is close to magic. Not really rational! Isn’t it?

Science and spirituality are like two faces of the same medal that we win by understanding as a whole, as complementarity and not an opposition. In addition, they do not have the same way of conveying messages: science is based on demonstrations and measurable facts and spirituality more on faith and metaphors (symbols).

Einstein said wisely “Well, I do not think it’s absolutely necessary for science and religion to be antithetical, in fact, I think there’s a very close connection between the two, and I think science without religion is mutilated and, conversely, that religion without science is blind. They are both important and should work hand in hand. It seems that anyone does not question the question of the truth about religion and science might as well be dead. ”

Actually, it is just a question of perspective, science relates physics and spirituality the metaphysics (“meta” in Greek meaning “beyond”, implying beyond of our reality, our eyes). Spirituality cannot be proved, as it is based on faith otherwise it would be imposed. Science is a human approach implying human limits. As the great philosopher, Spinoza said, “a finite being cannot figure out infinite”.

In 1930 Einstein (the great scientist) and Tagore (the mystic Hindu) had an amazing discussion(read it) balancing science & spirituality that I evoked in the article: “ILLusion-Real Eyes, realize, real lies”

According to Hindu’s philosophy, it is Brahman, the Absolute Truth, which cannot be conceived by the isolation of the individual mind or described in words but cannot be realized by completely fusing the individual into his infinity. But such truth cannot belong to science. The nature of the truth we are talking about is one aspect – that is, what seems to be true to the human mind and therefore human, and may be called Maya or illusion.

This is exactly what the great Sufi Rumi said “ The truth was a mirror in the hands of God. It fell and broke into pieces. Everybody took a piece of it, and they looked at it and thought they had the truth.”

The crucial point is this: the fact that truth is not a fixed point, truth is fluctuating, evolving according to our referential (point of view, point of analysis).

Look at a stone: it seems to be stable, tangible. It is a matter of fact if I can afford J But at the microcosmic level, its subatomic particles change constantly, there is nothing solid, only energies, and fluctuating forces. Our reality is not simple, it is double, triple, multiple… This is what ancient wisdom evoked for ages.

We could set up an analogy with Quantum physics. Science would be a particle and spirituality would the wave (the unified field), the observer impacting the results… endless like the dog trying to eat its tail. Science impacts the result of what it analyzes, our tool to measure it, affects reality. We are co-creators according to the triptych: the object-the subject-the observation being perceived as one, as a whole. This is what new science discovered recently. We reached a new era for which modern science is converging to many esoteric ideas.

Rabelais wrote in 1532 “science without conscience is but the ruin of the soul” which could be applied also for spirituality. Once one adheres to an idea, one should understand the ins and the outs, not blindly and especially without doing proselytism. Einstein combine these 2 aspects “science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”

If we see the symbol of Vitruvian Man it evokes fully the marriage in between science and spirituality. The square refers to physics, science, the visible structure, the left brain, the Yang of the Yin&Yang from Taoism (masculinity) and the circle stands for metaphysics, the spirituality, the invisible dimensions, the right brain, the Ying: (feminity).

But actually, the symbol of Christianity means that slightly different: the alignment with horizontal perspective is the harmony with the materiality (down to earth life, good food, good entertainment, enjoying nature…). The vertical alignment means spiritual harmony. At the center is you, you are the center of this good balance. Let’s meditate on it (meditate coming from “medium” in Latin which means “center” literally coming back to the center)

We could establish different links between science and spirituality but it would not be exhaustive.

Einstein said “A human being is part of the whole, called by us ‘Universe’ ” which very similar to the Sufi Rumi quote who evoked “you are not a drop in the ocean, you are the entire ocean within a drop”.

The notion of detachment from the matter to be in a state of vibration is evoked by quantic mechanic and exactly what Asian philosophies (Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism…) teach for ages.

The astrophysicist Trinh Xuan Thuan who is also Buddhist said “Buddha, by the force of his mind, had the intuition that everything moves and evolves. But modern science abounds in this sense: the universe is expanding, everything is constantly changing.”

The scientists discovered recently that the vacuum which is made of 99.99% of emptiness is full of energy, what the Asian philosophies have been teaching for 5 and 2 millenniums.

The 0 point energy had been taught for a long time by these Asian Currents. They instruct to renounce by detachment to duality by combining immobility & movement which is purely the Singularity point in modern science.

The great scientist Lavoisier said, “nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed.” Which is a matter of fact J if I can afford. We could establish an analogy with death and why not reincarnation. The soul, the ideas are energies, once they have been emitted they never disappeared there are like ripples on the surface of the water.

If water was the soul of someone, the formula never changes H2O: from glass to the sponge or from the condensation. It is just a change of state or container. From the Source at the top of the mountain as snow to the river till the ocean to recreate the cycle of condensation… For the skeptic, here it is the Cosmic microwave background.

What’s that?! The picture of the past of our universe, it is still present somewhere and some probes were able to take pictures of them through the vibrations emitted in the past.

Nothing is lost, and also nothing has been created since the beginning of our universe. At the creation of the big bang, the universe was contracted on itself. The “matter” was not bigger than a pea: all was condensed. The iron you have in your blood and from the metal of your car is the same and it comes from this little pea of the big bang. By the way even this phenomenon of the big bang, we find it in the Genesis, with the “Tsim Tsoum”: God was rampant and prevalent, everywhere and to create the world He/She/It contracts on Himself/Herself/Itself exactly like our big bang. That’s why the great astrophysicist Carl Sagan said “We are a way for the universe to know itself. Some part of our self knows where we come from. We aspire to return. And we can do it because the cosmos is also within us. We are made of stardust. ”

 I could even go further but it would take more time, there is no opposition “Creationism vs Evolutionism” both are right in their perspective. The missing link is the key to understand… Maybe the notion of “consciousness” can be one of the ways.

However, there are essentially 3 aspects which can put together the 3 pieces of the puzzle game, the masterpiece of Life that embodies science and spirituality through 3 main concepts:

1-the quest of sense

2-the observation of nature

3-energy

1-the quest of sense: it is quite obvious, both try to explain the universe, life, the existential questions: where are we from? Why are we here? What is our reason of being?…

2-the observation of nature: it is more subtle, the term “cosmos” means “order” in ancient Greek. Why? Because all forces in the universe are balanced and perfectly structured, balanced from the macrocosmic to the microcosmic scale. In the Bible, it is written “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” The great Sufi Rumi said, “What you seek, is seeking you”.

It is true when you start to study biology, physics, astronomy… it is hard not to believe. The coincidence would be like putting on the floor all the components of a Boeing 747 that’s to say millions of little pieces and with a simple tornado by magic, a plane would be made. The notion of “chance” seems to be funny. Imagine that probability that life is possible on earth and the universe is balanced as it is, is 10^-60, it means we had one chance on 100,000,000,0000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Or for those who are bad at mathematics, it is like trying to reach a target of 1cmx1cm at a distance of 14 billion year light. In a certain, we have more chance to win to national lottery. J

That’s why Einstein said, “Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that some spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe, one that is vastly superior to that of man, with our modest faculties, we must feel humble.”

 3-the (subtle) energy:

The great scientist Tesla said, “If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration.”

 Einstein expressed “What we have called ‘matter’ is energy, the vibration of which has been greatly reduced in order to be perceptible to the senses. There is no matter.”

Max Planck the father of quantum physics (Nobel prime in 1918) declared “All matter comes from a force and exists only by it. We must assume the existence, under this force, of a conscious and intelligent Spirit. This Spirit is the matrix of all matter “.

 David Bohm an amazing scientist revealed: “Nature has a meaning and therefore consciousness, even at the level of the electron. This consciousness is everywhere and in all things”

 Actually this subtle energy (with a kind of consciousness) is what the Greek philosophers called “Ether”, or the Taoist masters “Qi” (Qi Gong or Tai Qi), or Ki (for Reiki) or Prana (for Hindus & Buddhists) and in a certain extent what science names “Dark energy”. Even in the Genesis (the Bible), the first word is in Hebrew “Bereshit” which means “weft” implying the notion of common thread interlocking and interconnecting all parts of the masterpiece which is Life. All these aspects are the same things, the content remains the same, just the form changes.

There is no conclusion to this article as it is an endless fascinating enigma to put together the missing links in order, but I would like to refer to 2 amazing human beings: Avicenna and Da Vinci. Avicenna is a Persian genius of the 1^st millennium in many fields but especially in medicine, Botanic… Even nowadays scientists do not understand how come he was so in advance. We can consider him as the Da Vinci of the Middle East (one millennium before). Da Vinci was a scientist, an artist, an advisor (for the King Francois the 1^st) and a great mystic.

See his draft with the flower of Life.

Both of them Avicenna and Da Vinci always said that their knowledge, their inspiration was coming from The Source and especially through their own angels. A not really rational approach for some pillars of our societies. Isn’t it?

Always keep in mind what Leonardo Da Vinci said wisely “Principles for the Development of a Complete Mind: Study the science of art. Study the art of science. Develop your senses- especially learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.”

In Shambali our teaching is based on a triptych combining science, art, and spirituality to enlarge your perspectives and your consciousness. The goal is to apply a holistic approach to appreciate the common subtle thread in order to integrate that all the roads lead to Rome (and to home).

Issa ~ AM