Updated: August 31, 2024
Hello, my friends. So today I have a very very… Well, I'm saying important, but it may not be important
to you, but from my side,
I have an important message to share with you. And this is, in a way, the next chapter of my life. I just returned from a very wonderful pilgrimage in the Indo-Tibetan border. And I had a lot of time to go to various monasteries and also a lot of time to reflect and a lot of time to meet some luminaries or influencers. And we might say in both the world of Science and the world of Spirituality.
And I came back with a commitment to myself, and that commitment to myself and I'm sharing it with you, is that I am going to, in this phase of my life, pursue something that my entire life I've been leading up to. And that is a reformation, a renaissance for both science and spirituality. And what I want to do is create a global Sangha, or a forum, both online and offline. That starts with three things Seva, Service;
Sangha, Community; and Sadhana,
spiritual practice. And I want to create
an ecosystem starting with New York,
but spreading across the world for a deeper understanding of the nature of reality. The the deeper understanding that could liberate us
from existential suffering, but also a deeper
understanding of where science and spirituality
come together, why they need
their information, and also the limitations of both the spiritual and the scientific approach to understanding reality. Because both spirituality as practiced right now
to some extent, but also
as explained right now, spirituality has limitations and so does science. So if we create
a global movement for this reconciliation,
this renaissance, and we actually start creating people who are knowledgeable in this new paradigm and also who are good examples of what to know and discern, the ultimate goal,
of course, is not only to get rid of, to the extent we can, get rid of human suffering,
but also to help create a critical mass
for a more peaceful, just,
sustainable healthier world.
So let me share with you my thoughts, and I'd love
your feedback as well. So science
is a very powerful tool for understanding
the natural world. It is based on certain
assumptions, however, that limit its scope. And the most fundamental
of these assumptions is what we might call
the subject object split, which is an artificial divide between the
observer and the observed. The divide is so deeply
ingrained in our culture and has led to a reductionist view of the world,
particularly in science, where everything is
seen as separate and distinct
from everything else. Furthermore, science assumes matter to be
the ontological primitive, but matter is a word invented by humans
for our species-specific perceptual activity
in consciousness. No one has ever experienced a substance called "matter". Instead, what we experience
are our personal perceptual activities. As I said, these are species
specific and science is based on therefore what is called naive realism,
which is a belief that the picture of the world
we see is the look of it, when in reality
it's only a human look and a very species
specific look.
And yet
we call it objective reality. On the other hand,
spirituality and religious doctrine
are also incomplete in that in their current form they are Earth
centric and view God as the Creator, which is a human centric view
for a species only on this planet,
as far as we know, Homo sapiens. This perspective limits
our understanding of the universe,
which is vast and contains. Now we are being told,
possibly billions of habitable planets
in 2 trillion galaxies. So in my view,
and that of many wisdom traditions, the ground of all being is of course pure consciousness. Pure consciousness is a field of infinite possibilities where everything is entangled
and where everything is self-organizing and self evolving. It is the root
of all experience. It is the root of all experience
in every species, in every knower
and every form of knowing. Consciousness is fundamental,
without cause, it is spaceless, timeless, formless,
infinite, incomprehensible.
You've heard me say this before,
and maybe you're tired of it. And yet this incomprehensible, infinite, formless, fundamental reality
makes all things perceivable and knowable. But you, as consciousness, are neither perceivable, nor conceivable. I therefore believe
that only consciousness can be conscious
and that nothing perceivable or conceivable is inherently or independently conscious. Biological organisms, including human beings,
are not conscious. But we are an experience
in fundamental consciousness. This is a
very important point. Even the brain
is not conscious. It is a construct experience
in consciousness. Memories, for instance,
are not in the brain but exist as potential
in consciousness. Only when memories
are actualized do we see the neural
correlates in the brain which are experienced
in consciousness. So putting all this together, both science and spirituality,
need to undergo a reformation or renaissance
to better understand the nature of reality.
Science needs to move beyond its reductionist view
of reality. Spiritual spirituality
needs to move beyond its earth centric view and embrace the vastness of the universe, which contains
billions of habitable planets and ultimately both science
and spirituality, after all,
are seeking the same truth. And it is only by working
together that we can achieve a more complete understanding
of the nature of reality. So why bother? Why bother? What if matter is not matter? How does that change things? What if matter is part of the dreamscape? Does it matter that matter is not material? And does it matter
that every perceivable and conceptual entity is in reality an illusion of moving transient illusion? Does it matter? What does this have to do with issues like birth and death? With issues
like reincarnation? If that exists of recycling with multi dimensions,
with other lokas or locations in spacetime
as part of the dreamscape, what does this have to do with what we could say? Our onward journey
into different dimensions of spacetime, lokas, dreamscapes, and our ability to reconstruct our bodies,
extend our health span, and also reconstruct our experience
of the universe? If this idea appears to you, let's pursue it both as a new paradigm, but also as a practical way to address
existential dilemmas.
That is what's true identity. Does the divine exist and what is the meaning of
death? Are there other dimensions? And do we do we as awareness, have a journey, not only across the fabric of space time, but that which is beyond the fabric of spacetime. In which are constructed. The dreamscapes that appear as locations in spacetime,
in the world of causality. I find this a very worthy endeavor right now in my particular stage of life. If you like the idea, we can start and start right here in New York City and then, you know, slowly expand it
both online and offline as global community, starting with Seva, service Sangha, community, Sadinah, deep spiritual practice
going beyond just, you know, going beyond the conventional practices
that have brought us this far, but engaging very deeply
in reflective inquiry, looking at the limitations
of rational thought and the capacities of the human brain and how we can go
beyond those. And the realm… at all times, of infinite possibilities.
Let me know your thoughts..
