Truth and its Pathway --- (working towards the highest qualities).

Monday 05 Nov 2012

Radio Nationals "The Science Show" gives me so much pleasure to listen to on Saturday's at lunch time. It keeps everyone abreast of the latest finds and discovery's in Science and does a good job at it. Robin Williams, who is the show's host, often "goes in to bat" for scientists when he fears Science is not being taken up seriously by students or if it's funding is threatened. He believes passionately in Science along with the Scientific Method and quite rightly wants to champion its cause. I guess he expresses a fear that Science and its benefits could be made irrelevant if enough people do not believe in it whole heatedly. This general expression becomes very agitated when funding or attention goes to what they see as the soft sciences or the New Age. A balanced view can get lost when this powerful faction lets rip on those they see as being intellectually bereft or irrelevant.

Last Saturday Robin included quite a long piece by Tim Minchin who did a clever poem/monologue/song where he ridiculed a girl named Storm. Storm is a girl Tim apparently had the misfortune to accidently have at his dinner table one night. She pushed his buttons with her new age talk so much that he said "his dam of restraint" cracked open and he wrote this piece using his prodigious intellect and wit to totally vilify her. Robin clearly wanted to cheer him on. In doing this he reminded me of a school kid egging on the school bully to the detriment of his hapless victim.

There have been a few episodes like this on the Science Show over the years where Robin and in this case Tim probably think they are doing Science a favour by bullying someone like this. They hold forth that Science is a process to discover what is true for humanity! They forget or do not appreciate that that humanity is made up from both the head and the heart and just as well that it is, because we all know that if it was to be just intellect taking us forward, we would have no future at all. The Heart with its feelings and emotions is just as important in developing our perceptions of the physical world as our thinking. Bullying with the intellect, while dismissing what some may see as the "airy fairy" heart will not lead us to Truth and instinctively most of us know this. That is why the public very correctly keeps the Science in its proper place. Science educators need to understand this and not get so far above themselves, because I think they miss the very point they are trying to discover.

It was interesting that in the same Science Show described above there was a piece on the latest ideas about Matter and Energy in the Universe. Only a very small portion of actual physical energy can be described by Science so far --- perhaps around 5%. We know the remaining percentage of energy must be there, but at this stage Science has no idea of even what to look for let alone how to detect it. There is a strong idea that perhaps another 20% of the unknown energy may be found in a physical form, but fully 75%, perhaps more, is totally unknown.  

Science comes to terms with this ignorance and disconnection with some very beautiful and elegant ideas to try and explain our connection back into the Universe. These ideas involve speculation about different and multiple dimensions, or perhaps different realms where energy that connects us to the Universe can exist in very exotic forms. This "new age" speculation is reported seriously and very fully on the Science Show and elsewhere within the Science community and to my way of thinking its structure and bottom line are not too far different from the way that Storm would see the world. In other words, apart from the equations, the conscious description she gives for her reality is not too different from the conscious description of the Astrophysicists. Their conditioning is different in that she has trained herself to see things her way and the Scientists have trained to see things their way but they are both describing their presence on earth, here and now back through their consciousness in order to understand their connection with the Universe.

Personally, I think the human body and brain --- the human form and condition with its ability to reflect is the best and only instrument we have to fully understand the Universe. No telescope or cyclotron can ever do it for us. However, like any instrument our human condition needs to be calibrated to allow us to see what we are looking for.  We need to be able to get to a point where we can see past our conditioned beliefs and ideas. This calibration requires us to let go of the past and let go of the future and to come fully into the present moment with perfect clarity. Reflection shows clearly that this is the only reality we have, and the place we need to be mindful of to see and understand Truth.

These calibrations are not necessarily the easiest thing in the world to do, but there are tried and tested pathways that can be followed that go back over Millennia. The experiment can be repeated and verified by different people so it fits with the Scientific Method, it just requires each of us to do it for ourselves, because there is not a machine (not yet anyway) or even another person who can come and say you have seen the Truth. For it to be real we must know it for ourselves, and know it without deceiving ourselves and without doubt.

Consciousness is the overriding energy that fills our Universe. It shapes and conditions us and we shape and condition it. All beings that tap into this universal consciousness --- at whatever level need to be respected and accepted if we are to fully understand this mystery we are all involved in. We are all dependant and we are all in it together.  Tim Minchin's consciousness is important but so is Storm's. Intellect does not trump emotions. They are both required to give us the clarity needed to understand and come to terms with our Universe.

Pathway to the Truth

1.            Know and cultivate peace and stillness in your mind.

2.            Know and cultivate bare awareness (consciousness) in your mind.

3.            Know and cultivate the quality when consciousness ends.