The God that science has thus eliminated is called the God of the gaps - the G

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>

> i) All Holy Scriptures declare life is eternal;

> ii) The resurrection of Jesus Christ demonstrated that human

> evolution into that eternal spirit, a fundamental promise of all

> Holy Scriptures, is a fact;

> iii) The Advent and Message of Shri Mataji as the Comforter/Holy

> Spirit/Ruh meets the exacting requirements of eschatology;

> iv) Shri Mataji is verily the incarnation of the Adi Shakti/Holy

> Spirit/Ruh of God Almighty;

> v) adishakti.org is the only unassailable evidence available for

> those who want to confirm all the above before pursuing life

> eternal.

>

> Almost daily adishakti.org reminds me that the Divine Feminine

> within is omnipotent (all powerful), omniscient (all knowing), and

> omnipresent (always present everywhere). These attributes solely

> belong to God Almighty and His Power (Shakti), and adishakti.org

> confirms those attributes. Unlike the vast majority, my faith in the

> Divine is based on the experience, evidence and enlightenment of

> eschatological evolution. Can you name even a single priest, pastor,

> reverend, bishop, pope, rabbi, cleric, imam, mullah, shaikh, ulema,

> ayatollah, guru, swami, pandit, brahmin, acarya, bhagwan, amma,

> granthi, giani, lama, monk, or dalai lama capable of giving you that

> experience, evidence and enlightenment of eschatological evolution?

>

 

Beyond science, behind spirit.

 

" SCIENCE AND SPIRITUALITY have never made easy bedfellows. Their views on the

nature of things often seem to clash. And the more our scientific understanding

of the world has grown, the stronger that clash appears to have become.

 

Modern science, having explored deep into the realms of space, time and matter,

often appears to have done away with God. Astronomers have looked out into deep

space, to the edges of the known universe; cosmologists have looked back into

what they call 'deep time', to the beginning of creation; while physicists have

looked down into the 'deep structure' of matter, to the fundamental constituents

of the cosmos. From quarks to quasars, they find no evidence of God. Nor do they

find any need for God. The Universe seems to work perfectly well without any

divine assistance.

 

The God that science has thus eliminated is called " the God of the gaps " - the

God that was needed to explain the gaps in human knowledge. Over the centuries,

science has progressively filled these gaps. Before Newton, people thought God

moved the sun and moon through the heavens; now we understand their motion in

terms of gravity. Before Darwin, it was believed that God created the many

different species of life; now we account for them in terms of genetic

evolution. Similarly with earthquakes, the aurora borealis and the immune

response: today plate tectonics, solar ions and molecular biology explain them

quite satisfactorily.

 

Steadily and mercilessly, science has filled the gaps. For a while it looked as

if the most significant gap of all - the creation of the cosmos itself - would

not be filled. But quantum mechanics is now explaining how even the Big Bang

could have started all by itself. The God of the gaps has finally, it seems,

been made redundant.

 

There is, however, more to religion than explaining the gaps in our knowledge.

Most traditions also speak of the profound personal experiences that come from

following a spiritual path. They may talk of them in terms of rebirth,

liberation, awakening, enlightenment, transcendence, rapture or holy union. Yet

whatever the interpretation, there is a general consensus that these experiences

have a profound impact on one's life.

 

Science has very little to say about spiritual experiences. They are not

occurring in the world of space, time and matter that science charts so well,

but in the world within. To understand them fully we would need to venture into

the realm of 'deep mind' - a realm that Western science has yet to explore.

 

SCIENCE MAY NOT have explored deep mind, but others have. They are the mystics,

ascetics, shamans and spiritual adepts of every culture. These people have used

practices such as meditation to delve beneath the surface levels of the mind.

They have observed the arising and passing of thought. And they have looked

beyond, to the source of their experience, to the essence of their own

consciousness. There they have discovered a profound connection with the ground

of all being.

 

Western science does not usually pay much attention to such subjective

approaches. It certainly does not consider them 'scientific'. Scientists are

concerned with objective truths, with verifiable facts that are not dependent

upon one's state of mind. They are looking for effects that can be measured, not

internal subjective changes.

 

But is this subjective approach really so unscientific? The essence of science

is to gain knowledge through careful observation of the natural world. Since

scientists want to be able to trust this knowledge, a process has evolved to

make it as reliable as possible - what is often referred to as the 'scientific

method'.

 

An essential part of this method is isolating the object of study. If, for

example, you were investigating the electrical activity of the human brain

during meditation, you might put the subject in an electromagnetically shielded

room to reduce electrical noise ('noise' in the technical sense of unwanted

information). Then, in order to get as much desired information as possible, you

would ensure the electrodes made a good electrical contact with scalp. You might

also set up a 'control group', studying non-meditators in the same

circumstances, to be certain that the effects you measured were specific to

meditation, not simply the result of relaxation. Having gathered your data, you

would study it, draw conclusions, and then make your conclusions available to

others to see if they agreed. If they did, you would have established some

reliable knowledge about meditation and the brain.

 

Similar principles apply to someone using meditation to explore the mind at

first hand. First, they would seek to remove themselves from external noise.

This is usually achieved by choosing a quiet place, free from disturbance. Since

one wants to observe the mind clearly, it is important to remain awake and

attentive, so people generally sit in a relaxed but alert posture. Then, closing

the eyes, which reduces visual distractions, one turns the attention within and

begins to observe.

 

The first thing people notice when they observe their own mind is the almost

incessant flow of thoughts and inner dialogue. This internal noise continually

distracts the attention from the subject of investigation: the nature of the

mind itself. Here meditation comes into play. It can be thought of as an

experimental technique employed to reduce the internal chatter, allowing subtler

aspects of the mind to come into focus.

 

Countless people, throughout history, have entered the laboratory of the mind

and performed such inner experiments. These 'inner scientists' have published

the results of their investigations in spiritual and mystical texts - the

Upanishads, the Tao Te Ching, The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation, The

Cloud of Unknowing. Their conclusions show a remarkable consistency across

culture and time, suggesting that this subjective approach does indeed lead to

reliable knowledge about the nature of mind.

 

What have they discovered? Almost everyone notices that as the mind settles down

there comes a growing sense of peace. The self-talk that normally occupies much

of our awareness tends to increase arousal and tension. We may be worrying about

things we have or have not done, feeling anxious about what might or might not

happen, planning a future action, solving a problem or going over a

conversation. As this activity subsides, the mind naturally becomes more

peaceful.

 

Reducing mental activity further, one can arrive at a point where all verbal

thinking ceases. At this level of consciousness, one discovers a much deeper,

all-pervasive peace. Some call it bliss, others joy or serenity; but all agree

that the pleasures of everyday life pale in comparison to this profound feeling

of inner wellbeing.

 

Another quality that is found in this inner quiet is love. This is not the love

we know in our daily lives, a love that is usually focused on a particular

person or circumstance. It is pure love, love without an object. It is 'being in

love' in a new sense: one's whole being is bathed in love.

 

Perhaps the most significant effect of stilling the mind is transcendence of the

ego. When all the thoughts, feelings and memories by which we usually define

ourselves have fallen away, the sense of a separate self dissolves. There is no

longer a sense of " I am experiencing this thought or this sensation. " Instead

there is an identity with the essence of being. I am the consciousness in which

all experience takes place.

 

ALTHOUGH THE DESCRIPTIONS of deep mind are remarkably consistent across

cultures, the ways in which people have interpreted them vary widely. Within the

monotheistic worldview that dominated Western culture for nearly 2,000 years,

mystical experiences were usually interpreted in terms of a personal God. Such

states of consciousness are so far removed from daily life that it is easy to

see how they could be taken to be a direct connection with divinity -

particularly when aspects of the experience correspond so closely to traditional

descriptions of God.

 

A state of profound peace could indeed seem to be " the peace of God that passeth

all understanding " . An upwelling of the heart that bursts forth in an

all-pervading love might well be interpreted as the love of God miraculously

entering one's being. The compassion that dawned could be confirmation of a

caring, forgiving God. And the sense of deep fulfilment and inner freedom that

comes with such states could easily be taken to be the salvation promised by a

merciful Deity.

 

The experience of the pure 'I am' did not, however, fit into the monotheistic

worldview quite as easily. Many identified this unbounded sense of self with

God. Some went so far as to say " I am God. " To traditional religion, this rings

of blasphemy. How can any lowly human being claim that he or she is God, the

almighty, supreme being? When the fourteenth-century German mystic Meister

Eckhart preached " God and I are One, " he was brought before Pope John xxii and

forced to " recant everything that he had falsely taught. " Others suffered a

worse fate. The tenth-century Islamic mystic al-Hallãj was crucified for using

language that claimed an identity with God.

 

Yet when mystics say " I am God, " or other words to that effect, they are talking

neither about the individual person nor about a supernatural deity. Their inner

investigations have revealed the true nature of the self. This they have

experienced as a connection with the ground of all being. And it is this that

they have named God.

 

Explaining such experiences as a direct contact with God could be seen as yet

another example of the God of the gaps - albeit in a more subtle form. In this

case, the gap is in our understanding of deep mind. Western traditions, both

religious and scientific, have left this realm largely unexplored. To find a

coherent body of knowledge about the inner world, we must look to the East,

where spiritual adepts have been exploring the mind for thousands of years.

 

Of the Eastern traditions, Buddhism has probably gone the farthest in charting

the mind. Buddhism has no concept of God: it is an atheistic religion -

paradoxical as that may sound to Western ears. For Buddhists, peace, ease, joy

and compassion come from knowing the essential nature of mind. They are inherent

qualities of pure awareness - an awareness that is unsullied by the agitation of

everyday thoughts and concerns.

 

A similar approach is taken by other Eastern traditions. Some of them may talk

of deities and devas, but in most instances these are interpreted as aspects of

the mind - the inner challenges we face and the inner allies that can help us on

our journey.

 

Although these traditions do not need to invoke a supreme deity to account for

mystical experiences, this does not make these states of mind any less awesome,

meaningful or life changing. On the contrary, by interpreting them in terms of

one's essential nature, the Eastern traditions can offer practical ways to make

them more accessible.

 

Western religions have much to offer on theology, morality and the potential for

spiritual advancement, but less on techniques that facilitate spiritual

experiences. Eastern teachings, however, provide detailed analyses of how our

awareness becomes trapped in habits and attachments, and various techniques and

practices - we might call them inner technologies - to relieve the mind of its

dysfunctional patterns. The goal is self-liberation, freeing the mind to

experience its essential nature, and reaping the rewards that come from such an

awakening. Here spirituality is science, the science of the mind.

 

A THIRD WAY OF interpreting spiritual states is that of Western science, which

believes that the real world is that of space, time and matter, and that all

phenomena are reducible to events in that world. It seeks to account for

transcendental experiences, neither as a union with some supernatural deity nor

as a reflection of the mind's essential nature, but in terms of brain function.

 

Some recent research, which has aroused quite a debate in this area,

investigated changes in the brains of advanced Tibetan Buddhist meditators. When

the subjects reported that their everyday sense of self was beginning to

dissolve, the researchers took a brain scan. By observing the flow of blood

through the brain, they were able to identify changes in brain activity. They

found that as the sense of a separate self dissolved, activity in the parietal

lobe, an area towards the top of the brain, decreased. This is precisely the

area that neuropsychologists believe is responsible for the distinction between

self and other.

 

The conclusion that many draw from such studies is that spiritual experiences

can now be explained in terms of brain function, and that science has once again

triumphed over religion. But there is really nothing very surprising about these

findings. It is generally accepted that brain activity and subjective experience

bear a close relationship (even if we cannot say whether one causes the other,

or how). We should expect, therefore, that changes in consciousness as profound

as the cessation of verbal thought, the dissolution of a separate sense of self,

and a feeling of deep peace would show corresponding changes in the brain.

 

That we are beginning to chart these changes does not explain away spiritual

states. If anything, it validates them. It shows that meditators probably do

experience what they claim. So we could think of these discoveries as Western

science beginning to confirm the conclusions of the inner sciences.

 

Meditators also claim that such states of consciousness have beneficial effects

on their lives: a tendency to be more open, generous, caring and forgiving.

There seems little reason to doubt that this, too, is true. If so, rather than

concluding that spiritual experience has been satisfactorily accounted for, the

scientific community might ask: how can we use our growing understanding of

brain function to enhance the occurrence of these deep states of consciousness?

For they would appear to be just what the world sorely needs.

 

IN THE PAST, spiritual awakening was seen as essential for one's personal

salvation: to save us from hell, whether God-delivered or self-created. Today it

has become an imperative for our collective salvation.

 

Humanity is clearly in crisis. If we continue consuming and polluting as we have

done, with little regard for the long-term health of our environment, we will

almost certainly trigger some or other ecological catastrophe. We may even

render ourselves extinct.

 

Looking to the underlying causes of this crisis we find, time and again, the

human factor: human decisions based on human desires, needs and priorities,

often driven by human fear, greed and self-centredness. It is clear that the

crisis is, at its root, a crisis of consciousness.

 

If we are to navigate our way safely through these challenging times, we need to

see some significant shifts in attitudes and values. We need to recognise that

inner peace does not depend on what we own, our social status, the roles we

play, or how wealthy we are. We need to wake up to a deeper sense of self that

is not at the mercy of external circumstances, and that does not need to be

continually defended and maintained. We need a degree of care and compassion

that extends beyond our immediate circle of family and friends to embrace

strangers and people of different race and background - and also the many other

species with whom we share this planet. We need to know in our hearts that their

wellbeing is our wellbeing.

 

What is the most effective way of promoting such shifts in consciousness? The

evidence points to spiritual experience. Rather than distracting us from the

course of scientific progress, spirituality could be our saving grace.

 

Our burgeoning scientific knowledge has led to technologies that have enabled us

to control and manipulate our world. The underlying goal has been to free us

from unnecessary suffering and increase human wellbeing. Spiritual teachings

have likewise sought to liberate people from suffering, but their path has been

inward. They have sought to understand the mind and to develop inner

technologies that enable us to find happiness and freedom within ourselves.

 

It is now becoming obvious that the material approach has not achieved all that

people hoped. Despite our abundant luxuries and freedoms there is little

evidence that people today are any happier with their lot than people were fifty

years ago. On the other hand, we have only to look at the peace and wisdom

emanating from someone such as the Dalai Lama to see that the spiritual approach

does seem to bear fruit.

 

When it comes to understanding the cosmos, science and spirituality are

describing two complementary aspects of reality: one the nature of the material

world we observe around us, the other the nature of the mind observing this

world. When we consider how these understandings can be applied to the

betterment of humanity, we see that science and spirituality are again

complementary. To create a truly sustainable world, we need both: the knowledge

of science integrated with the wisdom of spirituality. "

 

DEEP MIND: Beyond Mind, Beyond Spirit

Peter Russell

 

Peter Russell is the author of From Science to God: A Physicist's Journey into

the Mystery of Consciousness. www.peterussell.com