The mystical perception (which is only “mystical” if reality is limited to what can be measured by the intellect and senses) is remarkably consistent in all ages and all places, East and West, a point that has not been ignored by modern science. The physicist seeks to understand reality, while the mystic is trained to experience it directly. Both agree that human mechanisms of perception, stunted as they are by screens of social training that close out all but the practical elements in the sensory barrage, give a very limited picture of existence, which certainly transcends mere physical evidence.
Furthermore, both groups agree that appearances are illusory. A great physicist extends this idea: “Modern science classifies the world…not into different groups of objects but into different groups of connections…The world thus appears to be a complicated tissue of events, in which connections of different kinds alternate or overlap or combine and thereby determine the texture of the whole”1. All phenomena are processes, connections, all is in the flux, and at moments this flux is actually visible: one has only to open the mind in meditation or have the screens knocked away by dreams to see that there is no real edge to anything, that in the endless interpenetration of the universe, a molecular flow, a cosmic energy shimmers in all stone and steel as well as flesh.
The ancient intuition that all matter, all “reality”, is energy, that all phenomena, including time and space, are mere crystalizations of the mind, is an idea with which few physicists have quarrelled since the theory of relativity first called into question the separate identities of energy and matter. Today most scientists would agree with the ancient Hindus that nothing exists or is destroyed, things merely change shape or form, that matter is insubstantial in origin, a temporary aggregate of pervasive energy that animates the electron. And what is the infinitesimal non-thing—to a speck of dust what the dust speck is to the whole earth? “Do we really know what electricity is? By knowing the laws according to which it acts and by making use of them, we still do not know the origin or the real nature of this force, which ultimately may be the very source of life, and consciousness, the divine power and mover of all that exists”.2
The above is an excerpt from The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen. If you’ve enjoyed this excerpt, I suggest going ahead and purchasing this timeless classic(aff). I find it constantly taking my breath away with it’s beauty, and settling me with it’s Dharma.
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Love it Wade!
Namaste
Hey Wade, came back to reread and mention that Bhagavan’s courageous message, reminding us of our heritage of the rishis of old, gives us faith and courage despite the gloom of present day materialism, mysticalism to seek liberation from suffering or bondage to the non-self, the fake ego, which causes the sorrows and frustrations of life. By observing the world around me, were so hung up on mystical power and control. It is a wonder people can sleep at night. This about sums it up.
ttyl;’)
Excellent work, Wade.
Blessings and continued inspiration/insight,
CG
It’s interesting isn’t it that knowing the laws of nature – such as those pertaining to electricity – don’t lead to ultimate happiness or enlightenment. Technology is a wondrous thing that helps us as things in a universe of things, but doesn’t bring us any closer to our true nature. Only looking inwards & seeing the Buddha within can do that, can’t it?
G at ‘Buddha Space’.
http://buddhapsace.blogspot.com
The Grace of a teacher that has already realized the state beyond knowing can guide one to the ultimate realization. Otherwise we continue to layer on perceptions of duality.
God/Buddha/Alah (the great one of the “Beyond”) is found in the stillness of the heart, a flame of light that does not flicker and does not contain a wick but is the flame of existence (the essence of Consciousness) that we all share, every being shares…the outlet that we in the universe are “plugged into”.
God is that which observes your dream state and reports to you in the morning, the One that never sleeps, the One that has never changed with the ebb and flow of this plain of existence. The One who observes the thoughts yet is not part of it, The One would can experience the mind yet the mind cannot experience it, The One that can know the mind yet the mind cannot know it.
Whatever we can this (God/Buddha/Alah, etc) it is a fact that the observer of all we do is what we are in the process of realizing. To go beyond the concept of religion, tradition, castes, and groups is to unite in the Grace that we are all one with a common outlet that we are plugged into
Love all that is and ever will be and in that knowing we realize the essence of life.
A great saint Kabir said (paraphrased) “Why must we take apart a sweater to reveal the cotton when we can just LOOK at the sweater and realize that there is cotton within”, “Why break and crush a clay pot to bring it back to the state of clay, why can we not simply see the clay in the pot and save ourselves the trouble of breaking it.”
very good insights from all and so true ..