Yoga of Physics

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Classical Western physics has its roots in the

philosophy of the fifth century Greek Atomists, a

philosophical school which saw matter as made up of basic

building blocks called atoms. These were believed to be

hard, solid, basically passive chunks of matter. This

inert matter was said to be moved by external forces of

a totally different nature and category, which was

identified with the spiritual realm. In this way, a

dichotomy was created which became characteristic of

Western thinking in subsequent centuries. It gave rise to

the dualism between spirit and matter, between the

mind and the body. <br><br> In contrast to the

mechanistic view of classical western science, the eastern

view could be called an organic, holistic or

ecological view. Things and phenomena are perceived as being

different manifestations of the same reality. The division

of the world into separate objects, though useful

and practical on the everyday level, is seen as an

illusion - Maya, as the Indians say. <br><br>To eastern

mystics, objects have a fluid and ever-changing character.

Change and transformation, flow and movement, play an

essential role in their world-view. The cosmos is seen as

one inseparable reality, forever in motion. It is

alive, organic, spiritual and material at the same time.

A very similar view is now emerging from modern

physics.<br><br> In the 20th Century western scientists began

probing the atom. They discovered that atoms were not

hard and solid but consisted mainly of empty space.

Each atom had a tiny nucleus made up of particles

around which whirled other particles. At first,

scientists decided that these sub-atomic particles must be

the essential building blocks of matter. But they

found that this was again wrong. This was shown in the

1920s when Quantum theory, the theoretical framework of

atomic physics, was worked out.<br><br> Quantum Theory

showed that the sub-atomic particles have no meaning as

isolated entities, but can only be understood as

interconnections between various agencies of observations and

measurement. Particles are not things but interconnections

between things; and these things are interconnections

between other things, and so on.<br><br> Quantum Theory

thus reveals a basic oneness of the universe. It shows

that we cannot decompose the world into independently

existing smallest units. As we penetate into mattter,

nature does not show us any isolated basic building

blocks, but rather appears as a complicatede web of

relations between the various parts of a unified

whole.<br><br> This network of relations, furthermore, is

instrinsically dynamic. According to Quantum Theory, matter is

never quiescent, but always in a state of motion.

Macroscopically, the materials around us may seem dead and inert.

But if you magnify a piece of metal or stone, you

realize that it is full of activity.<br><br>(to

continue...)