More and more "hard scientists" are saying what Buddhism, Hinduism, and many other spiritual traditions have told us for millennia: the universe is illusory.
Ed Viswanathan added:
Thanks for a thought provoking blog.
In the Hindu Bhagavad Gita 9:7,8, Lord Krishna tells his friend Arjuna
“ Through my MAYA [ illusion], in the beginning of time, I create everything and at the end of time KALPA, the whole creation merge in me. By my will the whole universe is created & annihilated again and again “
God alone exists and everything else is Maya or illusion.
Stressing the cyclical nature of creation and Destruction, Lord Krishna said in the Bhagavad Gita:
“I AM LIFE, CAUSE OF ALL LIFE AND I AM DEATH, DEVOURER OF ALL."
This whole process is known as LEELA or CHILD PLAY OF GOD in Hinduism.
Just like the ON and OFF switches on a digital computer makes thousands of forms of "illusion" for all of us, through Maya, God is creating all the illusion again and again.
That is the reason why Hindu salvation is known as SELF REALIZATION. That means REALIZING one is the immortal soul or Atman within and not the perishable material body which is MAYA.
www.amiahindu.com
Heh, a few weeks ago I posted that very statement in a comment to some other post here. In a reply someone declared that I had lost my mind. So, from that we can now reliably conclude that those 'hard scientists' you refer to are out of their minds. :-)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, physical reality is illusory. But we as spiritual beings are very real.
By the way, Richard Bach's wonderful book Illusions is a fictive story about this subject.
ReplyDeleteI know, I've just spent an hour reading up on Bach. I read Illusions and Jonathan Livingston Seagull in the early eighties. I don't think I got him well back then. Of course I was very young.
ReplyDeleteAgain I recommend The Disappearance Of The Universe. It is close to the only non-fiction book I've read three times.
ReplyDeleteHerr TTL,
ReplyDeleteYou hadn't lost your mind: yopu BELIEVED that you had lost your mind. It's all in your imagination, meine freund.
As for these scientists, it is a well known fact that to be a genius you have to be at least slightly insane. Great discoveries are not made by those who carefully follow the norm.
Of course, insanity could also make one a criminal, so proceed mit caution, ya?
YIKES!!! THE UNIVERSE HAS DISAPPEARED???
ReplyDeleteDang, why didn't anybody tell me? Not even a blasted (disintegrated?) word on CNN. ):-P
I was in the illusion that I still existed, which got me to waste all my time since my imaginary birth.
:-( Nobody ever tells me anything, sniff!
"I read Illusions and Jonathan Livingston Seagull in the early eighties."
Me three. :-)
A bit too fictional to take litterally, but hugely inspiring. As an allegory, it instantly becomes completely believable.
Just remember: there's always a truth at the root of the legend, and a reality behind an illusion. The Universe exists, it is just very different in reality from the way our (amazing but) hugely limited senses perceive it.
Illusions are a hobby of mine. Still, I can assure you that the Archduchess' shirts and socks ARE perfectly dry by now. ;-)
No dice. The universe is an illusion? Poppycock. And the moon is made of cheese. These scientists are on illegal drugs and or drunk with the booze they abuse.
ReplyDeleteRidiculous. It takes an idiot to believe such retarded beliefs.
Gee, I'm glad that illusion that rises in the morning AKA the sun still gives off light and heat. Not bad for something that doesn't exist.
I think I'm delusional, but I could be imagining it
ReplyDeleteThose foolish scientists probably believe your statement.
So, from that we can now reliably conclude that those 'hard scientists' you refer to are out of their minds.
ReplyDeleteThat is correct. Madness comes from every angle.
Scientists including Einstein balked at the randomness idea—“God does not play dice,” he famously fumed—and the consequent collapse of cherished assumptions.
ReplyDeleteEven Einstein concluded this was crazy. So much for your lame geeks in the ivory coats and horn-rimmed glasses lol.
I've come to believe it's not entirely accurate to say this is illusion. Rather, for all intents and purposes, as we define the concept, illusion is the closest thing to what it actually is to us. The term points to what it is like, not what it actually is.
ReplyDeleteThis is always true to some degree because there's no such thing as pure objectivity. By merely existing you provide an observer. As an observer you have biases, you have beliefs, you have a whole variety of filters through which external data enters the mind and is thus interpreted. To assume that our perceptions are 100% accurate in what they convey would be just as ridiculous as saying we know more than God. (Though if you've followed my posts up until this point, you understand I actually think we can know as much because we are not separate from the divine and can thus draw information and understanding from it. This is why faith and imagination are just as essential to human progress as reason.)
We will not evolve unless we are willing to question every assumption we have made about the universe we live in. To solve a problem you often have to open yourself to a new line of inquiry completely different from the way you're used to doing things. "A problem can never be solved at the same level of consciousness that created it." (Another Einstein quote, or paraphrase, as I'm reciting it off the top of my head.) I would dare to say that factual certainty isn't half as important as a willingness to expand your mind to grasp new concepts and experiences. Factual certainty will come when we stop seeking it out of a sense of desperation and instead welcome it as fully realized children of the divine.
I find it incredibly amazing that, and how, the universe works.
ReplyDeleteBecause our minds are intertwined with the universe (evolution), it's so difficult to get a neutral view from outside.
Xiao Beep.
Peaceful Blade said...
ReplyDelete"illusion is the closest thing to what it actually is to us."
Exactly what I meant.
“God does not play dice” - Einstein
To which Louis de Broglie replied: “And who are YOU to tell God what He can do?”
The quantum uncertainty principle is just as much a fundamental fact of Science as the light spectrum of atomic Elements.
Basically, it states that if God doesn't play dice, only He can ever know it.
Or, more matter-of-factly, that if you imagine quantum particles in the Universe as ants in a colony, there is nothing smaller than an ant that you can send in to gather information, but your added robot-ant will disturb the information by its presence. "Oi! Move on, buddy, I've got corn grains to carry here! Make yourself useful, go guard the Queen's Chamber with those big choppers of yours. And watch where you put your feet, will ya? Sheesh..."
Here's a simple example of the uncertainty principle:
A spectral line represents a given wavelength of light (or other energy emission). But a spectral line always has a certain width, amounting to a frequency range. Why is that? Because the laws of physics show this: if there was only one, mathematical photon wavelength, one exact frequency instead of a narrow range at best, its energy would be infinite. It would amount to dividing a given intensity by a width of zero. Even with one single photon, this still applies. There's no escaping it, just like death and taxes. ;-)
As soon as you get a little far above a beach, it appears as a continuous surface. But at a small scale it'll always be made of grains, and its physical properties will differ from those of a true fluid or a normal solid. Which will be noticeable even at a scale far bigger than grains.
Inversely, under a moderately powerful microscope, sand will appear as a heap of tiny rough rocks. It may appear in very different fashions, none of which is truly representative of what we can only understand with mathematical tools, namely "the big picture". Sand is a peculiar solid (a "grainy matter") that sometimes behaves like a liquid. When you stroll on a beach, you have the illusion that this can't happen... until a sandstorm rises, Allah forbid!
Mud is even more complicated in behaviour, because it's grains closely mixed with liquid, at a scale where tiny surface forces have a tremendous cumulated effect.
Did you know that tar is actually a liquid? Hit it with a hammer, and it shatters. Leave it in a pierced barrel, and it'll run. Veeeeerrrrry slooooowwwwwly. It is viscosity at a very unusual scale. Glass is similar, in reality. It is an incredibly viscous amorphous solid. A window could theoretically become a puddle on the floor at ordinary temperature. The thing is, it would take millions of years, provided erosion doesen't get it first! Its stability is purely an illusion created by our own time scale. Compared to minerals, we live very fast dog years...
Our senses are sophisticated measure instruments, which give us a reprepsentation of the world, in a certain fashion which is USUALLY the most efficient. For who and what we are. But they have their limits, all of them put together still have their limits. Only with our intelligence can we get past that illusion... one slow step at a time.
Given enough speed and kinetic energy, a water-filled balloon can go right through the armor of a battle tank like a red-hot knife through butter. Unless the air friction evaporates it first in a cloud of steam. A feather in the void of space could possibly kill an astronaut, because no air slows it down. We're just not used to such things happening. We live in the illusion of our habits.
An infant could move an aircraft carrier with one hand. In the wieghtlessness of space, or even in a very calm water harbour. All it takes is the patience to overcome the inertia of a great mass and wait till you see a visible result, so keep pushing!
The fragile silk sheet of a parachute can hold a man in the air. A spider's silk is way tronger than steel or Kevlar, and would make great (and lightweight) bullet-proof vests. It would seem that an unarmed frail cleric could halt the Scourge of God with mere words.
So, always beware of what you take for absolutely and universally certain. Keep an open mind. We only know as much as we have already learned or discovered, and yet not always.
"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." — Mark Twain
What cleric?
ReplyDeleteThe pope, Leo I. It's in the Attila article in (on?) Wikipedia.
ReplyDeleteI figured, but a quick scanning of it did not reveal it. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThanks for a thought provoking blog.
ReplyDeleteIn the Hindu Bhagavad Gita 9:7,8, Lord Krishna tells his friend Arjuna
“ Through my MAYA [ illusion], in the beginning of time, I create everything and at the end of time KALPA, the whole creation merge in me. By my will the whole universe is created & annihilated again and again “
God alone exists and everything else is Maya or illusion.
Stressing the cyclical nature of creation and Destruction, Lord Krishna said in the Bhagavad Gita:
“I AM LIFE, CAUSE OF ALL LIFE AND I AM DEATH, DEVOURER OF ALL."
This whole process is known as LEELA or CHILD PLAY OF GOD in Hinduism.
Just like the ON and OFF switches on a digital computer makes thousands of forms of "illusion" for all of us, through Maya, God is creating all the illusion again and again.
That is the reason why Hindu salvation is known as SELF REALIZATION. That means REALIZING one is the immortal soul or Atman within and not the perishable material body which is MAYA.
www.amiahindu.com
Thanks kindly.
ReplyDelete