Tree in forest

[Guest guest]

Hi Everyone:

 

A few days ago there was a short exchange about the tree falling in

the forest with no one around, does it make a sound?

 

This has bothered me since 1959 when the question came up on a test

in my seventh grade science class. I argued with my teacher who was

also the hi-school girls basketball coach (where my sister was the

star player). I said of course there is a sound because there would

have to be.

Mr. Leach (who was grading by the answers in the back of the book and

could not really argue effectively) said I could have the points if I

would just sit down and shut up. I could not figure out why anyone

would even question whether things happened when we weren't watching

(or listening).

 

Then years later I read the popularized phisics books that came out

and learned a little about Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. The

issue became less clear. Is there an objective physical universe?

Some physicists claim an observer is required.

 

This morning I read this by Ramana Maharshi in "Vichara Mani Mala":

"When there is actual knowledge, of pots and other external

objects, what happens is this: The concept part in the concept of

the inner organ accompanied by the reflected consciousness goes out

as far as the pots and other objects and assumes their forms and

removes the obstruction which naturally covers them, on account of

ignorance. Just as a non-luminous object covered by a pot will not

be seen (in the dark) even if the pot is broken by a stick, but can

be seen with the help of a lamp, even so the reflected part [of the

consciousness-bg] illumines the objects."

 

An object is known by the process of consciousness taking its form

and because consciousness is self luminous the form which it has now

taken is known as the object.

 

I remembered this passage from a few pages before:

"Disciple: Since a man who wakes up from a dream believes the

objects he sees to be the same as before his dream, it cannot be said

that they come into existence only when there is knowledge of them.

Objects exist permanently prior to and after the knowledge of them.

 

Guru: Just as the things which come into existence for the time

being in a dream seem to have existed unchanged for a long time, so

also do the objects which come into existence in the waking state on

account of strong nescience [ignorance-bg]. The ideas of cause and

effect in respect of these objects are also, similar."

 

The result in conceptual form as I see it is that there is no

objective physical universe continuously existing.

 

It's magic!

 

Love

Bobby G.