Unity in All Things

The worldview of the spiritual traditions mentioned are essentially the same.

It is a view which is based on mystical experience-on a direct non-intellectual experience of reality- and this experience has a number of fundamental characteristics which are independent of the mystic’s geographical, historical, or cultural background.

A Hindu and a Taoist may stress different aspects of the experience.

a Japanese Buddhist may interpret his or her experience in terms which are very different from those used by an Indian Buddhist;

but the basic elements of the world view which has been developed in all these traditions are the same.

These elements are the fundamental features of the world view emerging from modern physics.

The essence of the Eastern worldview is:

• the awareness of the unity and mutual interrelation of all things and events
• the experience of all phenomena in the world as manifestations of a basic oneness.

All things are:

• interdependent and inseparable parts of this cosmic whole
• different manifestations of the same ultimate reality.

The Eastern traditions constantly refer to this ultimate, indivisible reality which manifests itself in all things, and of which all things are parts.

It is called:

• Brahman in Hinduism
• Dharmakaya in Buddhism
• Tao in Taoism.

It transcends all concepts and categories. Buddhists also call it Tathata, or Suchness, as the oneness of the totality of all things, the great all-including whole.’

In ordinary life, we are not aware of this unity of all things, but divide the world into separate objects and events. This division is, of course, useful and necessary to cope with our everyday environment, but it is not a fundamental feature of reality.

It is an abstraction devised by our discriminating and categorizing intellect. To believe that our abstract concepts of separate ‘things’ and ‘events’ are realities of nature is an illusion. Hindus and Buddhists tell us that this illusion is based on avidya, or ignorance, produced by a mind under the spell of maya. The principal aim of the Eastern mystical traditions is therefore to readjust the mind by centering and quietening it through meditation.

The Sanskrit term for meditation-samadhi-means literally ‘mental equilibrium’.

It refers to the balanced and tranquil state of mind in which the basic unity of the universe is experienced:

Entering into the samadhi of purity, (one obtains) all- penetrating insight that enables one to become conscious of the absolute oneness of the universe.*

The basic oneness of the universe is not only the central characteristic of the mystical experience, but is also one of the most important revelations of modern physics. It becomes apparent at the atomic level and manifests itself more and more as one penetrates deeper into matter, down into the realm of subatomic particles.

The unity of all things and events will be a recurring theme throughout our comparison of modern physics and Eastern philosophy. As we study the various models of subatomic physics we shall see that they express again and again, in different ways, the same insight- that the constituents of matter and the basic phenomena involving them are all interconnected, interrelated and inter- dependent; that they cannot be understood as isolated entities, but only as integrated parts of the whole.