The dance of Shiva-Shakti ( A repost )

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Here is an excerpt from Fritjof Capra's classic 1975 text (as

updated, 2000), "The Tao of Physics," which explores the astonishing

parallels between modern physics and the ancient Eastern mystical

constructs.

 

It's a book of particular interest to those following Shaktism and

Tantrism -- their emphasis on the reality of maya as the gross body

of Shakti precisely parallels Capra's argument. Capra, a renowned

particle physicist, is a good writer and his thesis tightly argued

(for more, see file section of the group "The Yoga of Physics"). He

begins by recounting a powerful spiritual revelation

…

"I was sitting by the ocean one late summer afternoon, watching the

waves rolling in and feeling the rhythm of my breathing, when I

suddenly became aware of my whole environment as being engaged in a

gigantic cosmic dance. Being a physicist, I knew that the sand,

rocks, water and air around me were made of vibrating molecules and

atoms, and that these consisted of particles which interacted with

each other by creating and destroying other particles. I knew also

that the Earth's atmosphere was continually bombarded by showers

of 'cosmic rays', particles of high energy undergoing multiple

collisions as they penetrated the air. All this was familiar to me

from my research in high-energy physics, but until that moment I had

only experienced it through graphs, diagrams and mathematical

theories. As I sat on that beach my former experiences came to life;

I 'saw' cascades of energy coming down from outer space, in which

particles were created and destroyed in rhythmic pulses; I 'saw' the

atoms of the elements and those of my body participating in the

cosmic dance of energy; I felt its rhythm and I 'heard' its sound,

and at that moment I knew that this was the Dance of Shiva, the Lord

of Dancers worshipped by the Hindus…."

 

" ….The exploration of the atomic and subatomic world in the

twentieth century has revealed an unsuspected limitation of classical

ideas, and has necessitated a radical revision of many of our basic

concepts. … These changes … all seem to lead in the same

direction,

towards a view of the world which is very similar to the views held

in Eastern mysticism.

 

"… Whenever the essential nature of things is analyzed by the

intellect, it must seem absurd or paradoxical. This has always been

recognized by the mystics, but has become a problem in science only

very recently. … Like the mystics, physicists [are] now dealing

with

a nonsensory experience of reality and, like the mystics, they [must]

face the paradoxical aspects of this experience. …

 

"Quantum theory … reveals a basic oneness of the universe. It

shows

that we cannot decompose the world into independently existing

smallest units. As we penetrate into matter, nature does not show us

any isolated 'basic building blocks,' but rather appears as a

complicated web of relations between the various parts of the whole.

These relations always include the observer in an essential way.

… In

atomic physics, we can never speak about nature without, at the same

time, speaking about ourselves.

"[The study of subatomic physics remains] paradoxical as long as we

adopt the static view of composite 'objects' consisting of 'basic

building blocks.' Only when the dynamic, relativistic view is adopted

does the paradox disappear. [subatomic] particles are then seen as

dynamic patterns or processes which involve a certain amount of

energy appearing to us as their mass.

 

"In modern physics, … traditional concepts of space and time, of

isolated objects, and of cause and effect, lose their meaning. Such

an experience, however, is very similar to that of Eastern

mystics….

 

"[in Hinduism,] maya does not mean that the world is an illusion, as

is often wrongly stated. The illusion merely lies in our point of

view, if we think that the shapes and structures, things and events,

around us are realities of nature, instead of realizing that they

are concepts of our measuring and categorizing minds. Maya is the

illusion of taking these concepts for reality, of confusing the map

with the territory."

 

Contributed by Devi_bhakta