Guest guest Posted May 3, 2008 Report Share Posted May 3, 2008 - Mark Scorelle wisdom-l Tuesday, April 29, 2008 5:39 PM W. Heisenberg and the Kevala Samadhi W. Heisenberg and the Kevala Samadhi from http://blog.hasslberger.com/2007/04/science_and_spirituality_heise.html The scientist Werner Heisenberg was one of the founders of quantum Physics, that is, of the study of dynamical laws that govern the microcosmos. This great discovery represented a strong shock for Heisenberg with respect to the 'reality' of the physical world. Heisenberg had to accept that things are up to us measuring them, in other words, it is necessary that an observer interacts with a system in order for the system to acquire reality. What is stated above is totally compatible with the teachings of Emptyness (in Buddhism) and Maya (in Hinduism), in which the world of phenomena lacks its own integrity because it is just a mental construction; so, if there is no mind then there is no world. Albert Einstein disagreed with this interpretation. He always insisted on the idea that Nature has its own reality, independent of any observer. In 1939 Rabindranath Tagore talked to Einstein in New York and tried to explain to him that the world depends on the human factor, that the beauty and the truth are not independent of the human being; but Einstein never changed his concept about the reality of the Universe. We would like to mention Heisenberg's second shock: In the Yoga International magazine (Vol. 3, No. 6, 1994) it was published that Prof. Heisenberg had a spontaneous experience of kevala samadhi, which was also confimed by Paul Brunton and Paul Cash. It is not surprising that Prof. C.F. von Weizsäcker (we may remember that this important german scientist had, in the 1950's, a deep inner experience during his visit to Ramanasramam at Tiruvannamalai) and Heisenberg had invited several yogis to Germany, for example, Gopi Krishna, who explained them how to awake the kundalini shakti. In chapter 14, entitled "An experience in the Cosmic Consciousness" from the book "Autobiography of a Yogi", by Yogananda Paramahansa, you can find a beautiful poem in which is described the mystical experience of Samadhi. The essential point is that in kevala samadhi the mind is turned off and the physical world disappears with its conceptions of space and time, the universe is perceived as an illusion without intrinsic reality, the ego is dissolved revealing the Oneness of Creation and the existence of the Cosmic Mind. When somebody experiences samadhi even only once, a deep internal transformation results that annihilates all patterns of "reality" of the world. Thus, it is not difficult to imagine the impact that the great experience of kevala samadhi had on Heisenberg. Surely this experience reinforced his concept of 'reality' that he introduced in the 1920's as the fundament of quantum Physics. Samadhi is a state which anyone describes in very personal terms, so we are now trying to find some writings in which Heisenberg himself narrated his own mystical experience. This would be very basic for the establishing a close connection between science and spirituality. __________ When he was dying, Heisenberg said to von Weizsäcker, "It is very easy: I did not know this before." At another moment he said, "I see now that physics is of no importance, that the world is illusion." He passed away in peace. — Paul Brunton, Notebooks Category 9: From Birth to Rebirth > Chapter 1: Death, Dying, and Immortality > # 104__.__________________,_.___ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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