Post
by kovil » Sun Dec 31, 2006 11:53 pm
Harry, we must be on the same wavelength, I've been doing a rewrite of one of Dobson's papers all morning. Editing, expanding, clarifying, and rewriting. The bulk of it is his, but he often writes in an obscure and confusing way of speaking, and doesn't expand enough to make the points very clear. So I added my nickel's worth !
Physics and Vedanta
by, John L. Dobson , copyright 2002
edited, expanded, clarified and rewritten by Tagaard , 2006
"The constitution of the Universe may be put in first place among all natural things that can be known." Galileo Galilei
That of course is the task of the physicist, to see if he can figure out the constitution of the Universe. I went to the University of California at Berkley in 1934 to study biochemistry in the hopes of keeping Einstein alive beyond his normal lifespan; so that he could figure it out. I now believe that it is impossible to figure it out without the help of the Vedantins as well.
What we call the philosophy of Vedanta (and I don't mean the practice, but the philosophy behind the practice of what we call Advaita Vedanta) was apparently invented by some very sharp physicists in India a long time ago. A great deal of that old physics, including the identity of mass and energy (the understanding of which, in modern times, went through Swami Vivekananda to Nicola Tesla and Mileva Einstein) is built into the Sanskrit language, and the Sanskrit language is very old indeed. Those physicists discovered some very interesting and important physics, which we desperately need to know now if we're going to figure this thing out; being, What are the constitutional constituents of this Universe?
The Sanskrit word for this Universe is Jagat, the changing. Those old physicists were smart enough to see that since change is seen against a background of something that is not changing, there must be, underlying this changing visible universe, a fundamental existence which is Changeless ! This underlying universe, to the universe which we do see, in addition to being ‘not changing’, they reasoned it must also be ‘not finite’ and ‘not divided’. This would place the underlying existence of the universe, ‘not in space’ and ‘not in time’; which would therefore make the underlying existence Changeless, Infinite, and Undivided !
And that, they called Brahman.
The problem then arose, "How then, do we see change? If what exists is changeless, how do we see a Universe of change?" and they said, "It can only be by mistake." And so they studied mistakes; if they hadn't studied mistakes, they might have missed the successful path to revelation.
For example, they pointed out that in order to mistake a piece of rope for a snake, (on the roadside at dusk in India) there are three mistakes that one must make. First, one must fail to see that it's a rope. (This they called the veiling power of the mistake, Avarana Shakti.) Next, one must jump to the wrong conclusion that it is a snake. (This they called the projecting power of the mistake, Vikshepa Shakti.) But finally, one must have actually seen the length and diameter of the rope, as the shape of a snake. (This they called the revealing power of the mistake, Prakasha Shakti.) This third part is what is so very important to our physics. It is because of the revealing power; that the changeless, the infinite, the undivided, must show through into our physics. Because if one did not notice the ‘rope’ at all, it never would have been mistaken for a ‘snake’.
Those old physicists sometimes referred to these three aspects of a misperception as black, red and white. Black refers to the veiling power by the darkness of evening twilight; red to the fact that the misperception was colored by the projecting power of imagination; and white to the partially revealing power of the light of twilight (if you hadn't seen the rope in the first place, you never would have mistaken it for a snake!).
They also referred to these three aspects, as the three Gunas (Tamas, Raja, and Sattva).
The mistake of seeing the underlying existence as being in time and space, when it really isn’t in space and time, they called Maya or Prakriti; the first cause, and it is said to be made of the three Gunas; Tamas, Raja, Sattva. Tamas is said to have the veiling power. Rajas is said to have the projecting power. Sattva is said to have the revealing power. The veiling and projecting powers are presumably native to the human genetic programming, of which we are all subjected to, but the revealing power, which is the most important to our physics, is native to sentiency itself.
To quote the Panchamahabhuta Sutras,
"As if being hidden, through the veiling power of Tamas,
the nature of Brahman, through the revealing power of Sattva, shone in the otherness,
for which through the projecting power of Rajas, it is, as it were, mistaken."
What we see as energy, (the Vedantins call the Infinite) is a result of our mistake, because the underlying existence (the Changeless, the Infinite, the Undivided) must show through into the Universe which we do see. But we see the Infinite as being finite, small electrical particles we call electrons, protons and photons. Yet energy is neither created nor destroyed , it is Infinite ! constantly morphing into different incarnations.
The concept of energy did not arise in European physics until 1845 with Thomas Young. The old physicists of India saw that the whole Universe is made of energy, which they called Shakti. Shakti is a part of the underlying existence called Brahman.
According to the Vedantins, the first cause of our physics is Vivarta, apparitional causation. The creator breathed and the Universe came into being. After that, things proceed by Parinama, transformational causation. Energy, inertia, gravity, all cause transformations that have results based on cause and effect. The origin of the Universe is apparitional; it is not something that came from something else, by changing. It originated from we know not what. Now that the Universe is here, it operates by cause and effect, transformational causation.
The underlying existence shows through into our Universe as energy, as gravity, as inertia; they cause the transformations. Parinama is what we European physicists usually think of as causation. It is governed by the conservation laws. The form of the energy may change but the amount of energy, in any change, does not change; the laws of thermodynamics describe this effect.
The electrical energy (energy being the Infinite) of an electrical particle would go to zero if, and only if, the size of that electrical particle went to the size of the known universe. The gravitational energy (gravitation being the Undivided) of the Universe would go to zero if, and only if, the dividedness of the known Universe went to zero. Infinity and Undividedness are written into our physics as Energy and Gravitation. Changelessness is written in as Inertia/Momentum. Time shows up in our physics within the inertia/momentum constituent portion. We see Time as Change, yet Changelessness is the underlying component; that which is without time. Perhaps this is how sentiency, or awareness, is pervasive throughout the Universe.
Had those old physicists known what we know now; that the Universe is made of hydrogen and that the hydrogen is made of electrons and protons, they would have seen that the Changeless shows through in the hydrogen, as its inertia. The Infinite shows through in the hydrogen as its electrical energy. The Undivided shows through in the hydrogen as its gravity, and the attraction between electrical opposites. Richard Feynman has pointed out that although we know how things fall, we have no knowledge of why they fall, and that although we know how things coast or stay at rest, we have no knowledge of why they coast or stay at rest. Einstein has made a similar remark about electricity, namely that we cannot comprehend, on theoretical grounds, why matter should appear as discrete electrical particles. Those older physicists knew why ! ! !
Only the primordial hydrogen arises by Vivarta (apparitional causation) from the Changeless, the Infinite and the Undivided, and shows through into this Universe located in space and time. Everything else that we see arises from that universal hydrogen by Parinama (transformational causation). The details are in Burbidge, Burbidge, Fowler and Hoyle, "Synthesis of the Elements in Stars". We know now that the hydrogen falls together by transformational causation (gravity) and makes galaxies and stars, planets and people. Even the bodies of living organisms arise by transformational causation (electro/chemical), but the notion that one (one’s soul or spirit or consciousness) IS such a body, is again, a personal mistake.
Our physics does not at this time understand how one’s consciousness/soul/spirit is connected to or inhabits one’s body. The transformational machinations of the primordial hydrogen within the gravitationally formed stars, creates by inertial/momentum interactions all of the heavier elements from which our bodies are composed. Our body lives in a universe of space and time and is the vessel or portal through which our consciousness/spirit/soul looks out upon or connects thru into this existence. But transformational causation does not explain how consciousness/spirit/soul comes into this Universe, on a renewing basis of newly formed bodies which provide the portal for that spirit.
The philosophy of the Advaita Vedantins take all of this old physics for granted. It is even taken for granted that there is but one reality behind both the individual and the Universe, Ayam Atma Brahma, this Atman is Brahman. (Atman is the reality behind the ego, and Brahman is the reality behind the Universe.) It is also taken for granted that if what we think we are seeing is by the result of a mistake, it must be possible to see through that mistake somehow. It must be possible to see through the ego to the Atman, and through the Universe to Brahman.
Now those old Vedantins were not content simply to understand all this in their intellects. When they discovered that there must be an existence underlying the world which we see, their question was, "Can we teach it?" This was the effort that swept thru India in those days, and that is why we have the Upanishads with all those stirring declarations. Revelations and insights achieved through the correction of previous mistakes.
"All this is Brahman. Let a man meditate on that, this visible world as beginning, ending and breathing it in, the Brahman."
"Not there the Sun shines, nor moon nor star. There the lightning does not flash, nor how could this fire? That shining, after-shines all this. By its light all this is lit."
"That which is beyond this world is without form and without suffering. Those who know it become immortal."
"I know that great Purusha of sun-like luster beyond the darkness. A man who knows Him truly passes over death. There is no other path to go."
"Only when men shall roll up the sky like a hide will there be an end of misery, unless That has first been known."
"The infinite alone is happiness. There is no happiness in the superficial. Even the small has greatness."
For us physicists there is still a question. Why is it that the underlying existence as seen by us is hydrogen?
Perhaps those older physicists would have pointed out, that in order to see, in space and time, that which is NOT in space and time, there must be a problem (a paradox to sustain it).
If the One (Brahman) were to be seen as two, the Undividedness showing through (gravity), would bring the two together. What could stop it? Similarly, if the One were to be seen as Many the Undividedness showing through would still bring the manyness together. But, if the One were to be seen as a Duality within a Plurality. Then the plurality could keep the duality from collapsing by electrical attraction, and the duality could keep the plurality from collapsing by gravity. This would be because neither could be seen alone without the other component being intertwined. This is an extremely interesting concept, and it shows up this way in our physics !
Electrical attraction collapses the duality, gravitational attraction collapses the plurality, and because they are intertwined they create a ‘Mexican Standoff ’, and neither can collapse to completion because a resistance builds that stops the collapse.
What we see in this Universe is an electrical duality (the electrons [-] and the protons [+] of the hydrogen atoms) against a gravitational plurality (the dispersion of the atoms through a very large space-time). The undividedness principle shows through as gravity (in the plurality) and as the attraction between electrical plus and minus (in the duality). The collapse of the electrical duality in the hydrogen atom is prevented by what we call Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, because the proton is involved in the gravitational plurality and the electron is not ! The collapse of the gravitational space-time plurality is prevented by Pauli's exclusion principle, because the neutrons have only ‘one-half integer’ of spin. Particles of half-integer spin, fermions, must have antisymmetric wavefunctions.
The Pauli exclusion principle is one of the most important principles in physics, primarily because the three types of particles from which ordinary matter is made, electrons, protons, and neutrons, are all subject to it. Consequently all material particles exhibit a space-occupying nature. The Pauli exclusion principle underpins many of the characteristic properties of matter, from the large-scale stability of matter to the existence of the periodic table of the elements.
The principle states that identical fermions cannot be squeezed into each other, hence our everyday observations that material objects collide rather than pass straight through each other, and that we are able to stand on the ground without sinking through it. Another consequence of the principle is the elaborate electron shell structure of atoms and of the way atoms share electrons, giving rise to a wide variety of chemical elements and their combinations. Since electrons are fermions, the Pauli exclusion principle forbids them from occupying the same quantum state, or space, so electrons have to ‘pile on top of each other in shells’ within the atom.
Astronomy provides another spectacular demonstration of this effect, in the form of white dwarf stars and neutron stars. For both such bodies, their usual atomic structure is disrupted by large gravitational forces, leaving the constituents supported by ‘degeneracy pressure’ alone. This exotic form of matter is known as degenerate matter. In white dwarfs, the atoms are held apart by the degeneracy pressure of the electrons. In neutron stars, which exhibit even larger gravitational forces, the electrons have merged with the protons to form neutrons, which produce an even larger degeneracy pressure. Neutrons are the most ‘rigid’ objects known, their bulk modulus, or inflexibility, is 20 orders of magnitude stronger than that of a diamond. That’s 10 x 20 power !
Heisenberg's uncertainty principle does not prevent the collapse of the duality between the electron and the positron (an electron with a positive charge) because gravity is not involved in the rest energy of either particle. But it does prevent the collapse of the electrical duality in the hydrogen atom (proton - electron) because the rest energy of the proton is related to its gravitational separation from all of the rest of the matter in the observable Universe, and the electron’s is not.
As Richard Feynman has pointed out, "The electron is purely 'electrical' and the proton is not." The proton has an inherent inertia component and the electron does not. This is what sets up the paradox between the Duality and the Plurality.
Pauli's exclusion principle does not prevent Boson particles (those with a full integer of spin) from sitting together, but it does prevent fermions from sitting together. This exclusionary pressure resists the attractive force exerted by the undividedness principle, and keeps the plurality from collapsing by gravity. Black holes may be the only exception.
Heisenberg and Pauli both saw through mistakes, and expressed their seeing in mathematics and philosophy, two subjects which usually do not sit together, and that makes it much more difficult to understand quickly.
The spiritual practices of the Advaita Vedantins follow the cosmology of those old physicists. If we have mistaken the real for the make believe, there are four things to do about it.
First, discriminate between the real and the make believe!
Next, give up the make believe!
Third, give up the attachment to the fruits of your actions!
Fourth, give up the expectation that through transformational causation you'll reach the underlying existence!
This is Karma Yoga, the path of action, and finally;
Keep your body and mind in such fantastic shape that you can get the job done!
That's called Raja Yoga, the royal path.
Sri Ramakrishna saw the underlying existence manifesting in time and space, as Mother, and said that we are not the doers. Mother is the doer. And Lao Tzu said, "To Her only I bow, trusting Her now and forever."
If it were impossible to see through this mistake to the underlying existence, we would not have the Upanishads and the lives of the saints.
Mother is the hydrogen. Mother is the star.
She falls it all together to make us what we are.
She makes the heavy elements and throws them all around.
To make the rocky planets with soil on the ground.
She scatters the ingredients across the planet Earth.
Assembling them with sunlight to give us all our birth.
She shines the sun on all these plants; the oxygen is waste.
We munch the plants, and huff and puff, and run around in haste.
But we, poor dears, so mean of heart, assume we're in the know,
And thinking we can manage, fail to see Who really runs the show.
If, in time and space, the changeless didn't show through, we wouldn't have inertia. If the infinite didn't show through, we wouldn't have electricity. And if the undivided didn't show through, we wouldn't have gravity and the attraction between opposites. Also, if the duality didn't keep up the plurality, we wouldn't have the atomic table. And if the plurality didn't keep up the duality, we wouldn't have atoms at all. That's how I see it.
"Space is not that which separates the many, but that which seems to separate the one. And in that space that oneness shines, therefore falls whatever falls." John L. Dobson February 28, 2002
