Eastern spirituality and quantum mechanics
Philosophy Club 9 August 2019
INDIAN PHILOSOPHY, QUANTUM PHYSICS AND SPIRITUALITY
I started out thinking to look at Eastern and Western Philosophy following a podcast on Radio National's “The Philosophers Zone” .
It is an interview with a French Philosopher, Francoise Dastur, on differences between Western and Indian thought. It highlights the disdain of some key Western Philosophers toward Eastern Philosophical Traditions.
QUESTIONS
1
Why today is the west more open to the possibilities of wisdom in the Indian and Chinese Traditions?
Yoga, meditation, Pranayama, Ayurvedic Medicine, Qigong and Chinese Medicine – more mainstream that 20 years ago.
2
Can you see a link between Quantum Physics and Spirituality, Meditation, Yoga?
3
How do you see the distinction between Spirituality and Religion?
1
Link for Interview with Francoise Dastur
https://abcmedia.akamaized.net/rn/podcast/2018/06/pze_20180617.mp3
2
Vedic Theories of the Universe. The Vedas are Ancient Indian Scriptures
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEca1MiE4GA&app=desktop
3
Overview of Indian Philosphies. Ashtanga Yoga follows tradition of Patanjali
http://lukemuehlhauser.com/ancient-indian-philosophy-a-painless-introduction/
4
The Hatha Yoga Project, SOAS University of London
https:w//ww.youtube.com/watch?v=6PWk-ZywGis
SOAS is leading the way in the field of yoga studies, which is growing rapidly around the globe.We host the Hatha Yoga Project, a research initiative funded by the European Research Council, which will chart the history of physical yoga practices, and we are one of only four universities in the world to offer an MA in Yoga and Meditation.
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I subsequently received an article entitled “Dalai Lama: Spirituality without Quantum Physics is an incomplete picture of reality” from a yoga friend who is also a Medical Research Scientist.
I was intrigued.
“Quantum mechanics is essentially the science of consciousness and spirituality, proving just how connected we are to everything in existence, which is all an illusion.”
“Quantum physics is verifying what Buddhists and other spiritual practitioners have been saying for years, helping people to accept their inherent spiritual nature all around the world.
We are fundamentally connected to everything around us, and science is finally proving that. Nevertheless, there’s still a lingering dualistic air surrounding science and spirituality: You have religious people denying scientific facts and scientists identifying themselves as self-proclaimed Atheists. However, we’re simultaneously seeing a merging of the two, and it’s truly beautiful.”
Link to Article Spirituality and Quantum Physics
https://www.collective-evolution.com/2017/04/26/dalai-lama-spirituality-without-quantum-physics-is-an-incomplete-picture-of-reality/
Hope you enjoy dipping into further references below to get us thinking about this wonderfully “out there” subject.
4 links on Quantum Physics and Connectedness
2 links on Spirituality and Relgion
1 link on eastern and and western thought
and notes from a graduate student
QUANTUM PHYSICS 101
1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Usu9xZfabPM&app=desktop
2
London City Girl – Quantum Mechanics for Dummies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JP9KP-fwFhk
3
How Quantum Biology Might Explain Lifes Biggest Questions
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox?projector=1
4
Everything is connected by Tom Chi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPh3c8Sa37M
SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION
1
https://www.speakingtree.in/blog/major-differences-between-religion-and-spirituality
2
EASTERN AND WESTERN THOUGHT
1
http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/crosscuttings/cultures_east-west-phylosophy.html
Notes from a Graduate student in response to question on
Differences in Eastern and Western Philosophy
Fundamentally, there is no difference. Though there are different social factors, the fundamental questions of philosophy don’t change. For example: What is a life of excellence? What is existence? Are we fundamentally good or evil, or does good and evil even exist?
Moving from a western classics undergrad to an eastern classics graduate program, I was more struck by similarities than differences. Socrates and Confucius were pretty much contemporaries, and both extremely concerned with moral philosophy.
Sure, there are some superficial differences, e.g. Parminides and Aristotle’s influence brought more of a focus on logic to the Western canon (at least more of a focus earlier), but in the east, you have thinkers like Nagarjuna and Dogen to whom existential philosophy was paramount over 1000 years before that became a focus in the west.
Further, there are some pretty compelling arguments that the west wouldn’t have had the Enlightenment (and thus things like Western Democracy), without the influence of Confucian thought, and then there are authors like Heidegger, who pretty unapologetically plagiarized eastern authors (this too occurred in the Enlightenment, but some of the authors, like Leibniz, were good at giving attribution, others, not quite as diligent or concerned).
Then there are questions like, what do you mean when we say, “West,” and, “East.” Ancient Athens would be as foreign to the average US citizen today as ancient India. Do we mean the shared history that led to a Christian dominated, Eurocentric tradition of though? What part of the East are you referring to? Daoism, Confucianism, Shinto, the various forms of Buddhism, Hindu, etc., sometimes have common roots, e.g. the Buddhists and Hindus have a common root in the same way the Abrahamic religions do, but do we assume, in the west, that, e.g. all US citizens share a common moral or epistemological philosophy, or share a common theology? We don’t, and for good reason. Philosophy is a continual conversation, and the fundamental questions don’t change simply because your geography does.
Western Philosophy is a singular tradition which developed in concert, Eastern Philosophies are not quite so linked, but arise in different cultures with different traditions. In other words, Leibniz and Descartes and Kant all read the same ancient philosophers, but, Santideva came from an Indian Buddhist culture, Mozi came from Chinese Confucian culture, and so on and so forth. Western Philosophy is much more of a monolithic structure than is Eastern Philosophy, in fact, Eastern Philosophy is only Eastern from the perspective of the monolithic culture of Western Philosophy.
That being said, there are several rubrics available to broadly compare Eastern and Western thought, but, we must remember that when we do so we are doing this from a Western perspective. One rubric is Intimacy and Integrity, outlined in a book by this name by Thomas Kasulis. These categories have to do with the self and relation to the world, the self and relation to others, the self and its process of identification and self-formation. In a culture of integrity the self stands against world (subject object division), is separate from other people, and identifies itself as an individual. In a culture of intimacy the self is inseparable from the world, is intimately related to others, and identifies itself according to the intimate relationships she has with other people. In the west, we talk about ourselves by first speaking of what we do for work, and other individualistic things, before we speak of our relations to others, while in the east a person is more likely to begin talking about themselves by establishing the relations they have with others. These kinds of cultural differences create fundamental differences in approaches to ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, aesthetics and so on.
Another way of broadly comparing eastern and western thought was explored by Richard E. Nisbett in The Geography of Thought. It has been quite some time since I read this book, but I remember that one of the important differences he highlights is the difference between a focus on the foreground and the background. We can look at this difference by comparing Renaissance art to Zen art, and asking What am I supposed to do when I look at this painting? In a certain period of Zen art, artists would create vast landscapes populated by huts and paths, and rivers and valleys, and soaring mountains. The intention of these paintings was to induce a peaceful sense of connection to the landscape, one is supposed to imagine themselves inside the painting, wandering the paths, occupying the hut. The story of the painting involves you entering the landscape and walking about it. Renaissance painting, on the other hand, has a clear subject, often an explicit allegorical meaning. We are not so much supposed to occupy the painting as we are to confront the painting, have the painting instill in us a certain sentiment, and to appreciate the beauty of the work. In doing so we celebrate humanity.