The Tao of Physics
Fritjof Capra
‘The Tao
of Physics’ is Fritjof Capra’s classic exploration of the connections between
Eastern mysticism and modern physics. According to the author the mystical
traditions of the East constitute a coherent philosophical framework within
which the most advanced Western theories of the physical world can be
accommodated.
Excerpts…
The Unity of All Things
The most
important characteristic of the Eastern world view – one could almost say the
essence of it – 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 seen as interdependent and inseparable parts of this cosmic whole; as 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. Because it transcends
all concepts and categories, Buddhists also call it Tathata, or Suchness.
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
following discussion is based on the so-called Copenhagen interpretation of
quantum theory which was developed by Bohr and Heisenberg in the late 1920s.
The observed systems are described in
quantum theory in terms of probabilities. This means that we can never predict
with certainty where a subatomic
particle will be at a certain time, or how an atomic process will occur.
All we can do is predict the odds. For
example, most of the subatomic particles
known today are unstable, that is, they distintegrate – or ‘decay’ – into other
particles after a certain time. It is not
possible, however, to predict this time
exactly.
Subatomic particles do not exist with certainty of definite places, but
rather show ‘tendencies to exist’, and
atomic events do not occur with certainty at definite times and in definite
ways, but rather show ‘tendencies to occur.
It is not possible, for example, to say with certainty where an
electron will be in an atom at a certain time. Its position depends on the
attractive force binding it to the atomic nucleus and on the influence of the
other electrons in the atom.
Quantum theory thus reveals an essential
interconnectedness of the universe. It shows that we cannot decompose the world
into independently existing smallest units. As we
penetrate into matter, we find that it is made of particles, but these are not
the ‘basic building blocks’ in the sense of Democritus and Newton. They are
merely idealizations which are useful from a practical point of view, but have
no fundamental significance.
The picture of an interconnected cosmic web, which
emerges from modern atomic physics has been used extensively in the East to
convey the mystical experience of nature. For the Hindu, Brahman is the unifying thread in the cosmic web, the ultimate
ground of all being.
In
Buddhism, the image of the cosmic web plays an even greater role. The core of
the Avatamsaka Sutra, one of the main
scriptures of Mahayana Buddhism, is the description of the world as a perfect network of mutual relations where
all things and events interact with each
other in an infinitely complicated way.
In atomic physics,
then, the scientist cannot play the role of a detached objective observer, but
becomes involved in the world he observes to the extent that he influences the
properties of the observed objects.
The idea
of ‘participation instead of observation’ has been formulated in modern
physics only recently, but it is an idea
which is well known to any student of mysticism. Mystical knowledge can
never be obtained just by observation, but only by full participation with
one’s whole being. The notion of the
participator is thus crucial to the Eastern world view, and the Eastern mystics
have pushed this notion to the extreme, to a point where observer and observed, subject and object,
are not only inseparable but also become indistinguishable.
The mystics are not satisfied with a situation
analogues to atomic physics, where the observer and the observed cannot be
separated, but can still be distinguished. They go much further, and in deep
meditation they arrive at a point where the distinction between observer and
observed breaks down completely, where subject and object fuse into a unified
undifferentiated whole.
This,
then, is the final apprehension of the unity of all things. It is reached-so
the mystics tell us – in a state of
consciousness where one’s individuality dissolves into an undifferentiated
oneness, where the world of the senses is transcended and the notion of ‘things’ is left behind.
Quantum
theory has abolished the notion of fundamentally separated objects, has abolished the notion of fundamentally
separated objects, has introduced the concept of the participator to replace
that of the observer, and may even find it necessary to include the human
consciousness in its description of the world. It has come to see the
universe as an interconnected web of
physical and mental relations whose
parts are only defined through their connections to the whole.
To
summarize the world view emerging from atomic physics, the words of a Tantric
Buddhist, Lama Anagarika Govinda,
seem to be perfectly apropos:
The Buddhist does
not believe in an independent or separately existing external world, into whose
dynamic forces he could insert himself.
The external world and his inner
world are for him only two sides of the
same fabric, in which the threads of all
forces and of all events, of all forms of consciousness and of their objects, are woven into an inseparable net of endless, mutually
conditioned relations.
The Dynamic Universe
The
Hindus call it, Brahman, the
Buddhists Dharmakaya (the Body
of being), or Tathata (Suchness),
and the Taoists Tao; each affirming that it transcends our intellectual concepts and defies further
description. This ultimate essence, however, cannot be separated from its
multiple manifestations. It is central
to its very nature to manifest itself in myriad forms which come into being and
disintegrate, transforming themselves into one another without end.
In Indian
philosophy, the main terms used by Hindus and Buddhists have dynamic
connotations. The word Brahman is derived from the Sanskrit root brih – to grow – and thus suggests a reality which is dynamic and alive. In the words of S.
Radhakrishnan, ‘The word Brahman means growth and is suggestive
of life, motion and progress’. The Upanishads refer to Brahman as ‘this unformed, immortal, moving’, thus associating it with motion
even though it transcends all forms.
The Rig
Veda uses another term to
express the dynamic nature of the universe, the term Rita. This word comes from the root ri– to move; its original meaning in the Rig Veda being ‘the course of all things’, ‘the order of
nature’.
The
general picture emerging from Hinduism is one of an organic, growing and
rhythmically moving cosmos; of a universe in which everything if fluid and
ever-changing, all static forms being maya,
that is, existing only as illusory concepts.
Buddhists call this world of ceaseless change samsara, which means, literally,
‘incessantly in motion’; and they affirm that there is
nothing in it which is worth clinging to. So for the Buddhists, an enlightened
being is one who does not resist the flow of life, but keeps moving with it.
The Eastern mystics
see the universe as an inseparable web, whose interconnections are dynamic and
not static. The cosmic web is alive; it moves, grows and changes continually.
Modern physics, too, has come to conceive of the
universe as such a web of relations and, like Eastern mysticism, has recognized
that this web is intrinsically dynamic. The
dynamic aspect of matter arises in
quantum theory as a consequence of the
wave-nature of subatomic particles, and is even more essential in relativity
theory, as we shall see, where the unification of space and time implies that
the being of matter cannot be separated
from its activity. The properties of subatomic particles can therefore only be understood in a dynamic context; in
terms of movement, interaction and transformation.
Modern physics, then, pictures matter not at all as
passive and inert, but as being in a continuous dancing and vibrating motion
whose rhythmic patterns are determined by the molecular, atomic and nuclear
structures. This is also the way in which the Eastern mystics see the material
world. They all emphasize that the universe has to be grasped dynamically, as
it moves, vibrates and dances; that nature is not in a static, but a dynamic
equilibrium.
In
physics, we recognize the dynamic nature of the universe not only when we go to
small dimensions – to the world of atom and nuclei – but also when we turn to
large dimensions – to the world of stars and galaxies. Through our powerful telescopes we observe a universe in ceaseless
motion. Rotating clouds of hydrogen gas contract to form stars, heating
up in the process until they become burning fires in the sky. When they have
reached the stage, they still continue to rotate, some of them ejecting
material into space which spirals outwards and condenses into planets circling
around the star. Eventually, after millions of years, when most of its hydrogen
fuel is used up, a star expands, and then contracts again in the final
gravitational collapse. This collapse may involve gigantic explosions, and may
even turn the star into a black hole. All these activities – the formation of
stars out of interstellar gas clouds, their contraction and subsequent
expansion, and their final collapse – can all actually be observed somewhere in
the skies.
The spinning,
contracting, expanding or exploding stars clusters into galaxies of various
shapes – flat discs, spheres, spirals, etc – which again, are not motionless
but rotate. Our galaxy, the Milky Way,
is an immense disc of stars and gas turning in space like a huge wheel, so that
all its stars –including the Sun and its planets – move around the galaxy’s
centre. The universe is, in fact, full of galaxies strewn through all the space
we can see; all spinning like our own.
When we study the
universe as a whole, with its millions of galaxies, we have reached the larges
scale of space and time; and again, at that cosmic level, we discover that the
universe is not static- it is expanding!
An
obvious question to be asked about the expanding universe is: how did it all
start? From the relation between the distance of a galaxy and its recession
velocity – which is known as Hubble’s law – one can calculate the starting
point of the expansion, in other words, the age of the universe. Assuming that
there has been no change in the rate of expansion, which is by no means
certain, one arrives at an age of the order of 10,000 million years. This,
then, is the age of the universe. Most cosmologists believe today that the
universe came into being in a highly dramatic event about 10,000 million years
ago, when its total mass exploded out of a small primeval fireball. The present
expansion of the universe is seen as the remaining thrust of this initial
explosion. According to the ‘big-bang’ model, the moment of the big bang marked
the beginning of the universe and the beginning of space and time. If we want
to know what happened before that moment, we run-again-into severe difficulties
of thought and language.
As far as
the future of the expanding universe is concerned, Einstein’s equations do not
provide a unique answer. They allow for several different solutions
corresponding to different models of the
universe. Some models predict that the
expansion will continue for ever;
according to others, it is slowing down and will eventually change into a
contraction. These models describe an
oscillating universe, expanding for billions of years, then contracting until
its total mass has condensed into a small ball of matter, then expanding again,
and so on without end.
This idea of a periodically expanding and contracting
universe, which involves a scale of time and space of vast proportions, has
arisen not only in modern cosmology, but also in ancient Indian mythology.
Experiencing the universe as an organic
and rhythmically moving cosmos, the Hindus were able to develop evolutionary
cosmologies which comes very close to our modern scientific models. One of these cosmologies is based on the
Hindu myth of LILA – the divine play
–in which Brahman transforms himself into the world. Lila is a rhythmic play which goes on in endless cycles, the One
becoming the many and the many returning into the One.
The Hindu sages were not afraid to identify this rhythmic divine play with
the evolution of the cosmos as a whole. They pictured the universe as
periodically expanding and contracting and gave the name kalpa to the unimaginable time span between the beginning and the
end of one creation.
A body
has energy when it has the capacity for doing work. This energy can take a
great variety of forms. It can be energy of motion, energy of heat,
gravitational energy, electrical energy, chemical energy, and so on. Whatever
the form is, it can be used to do work.
Now, relativity theory tells us that
mass is nothing but a form of energy. The amount of energy contained, for example; in a particle is equal to the
particle’s mass, m, times c2, the square of the speed of light; thus
E = m c2
Once it is seen to be a form of energy,
mass is no longer required to be indestructible, but can be transformed into
other forms of energy. This can happen when subatomic particles collide with
one another. In such collisions, particles can be destroyed and he energy
contained in their masses can be transformed into kinetic energy, and
distributed among the other particles participating in the collision.
Conversely, when particles collide with very high velocities, their kinetic
energy can be used to form the masses of new particles.
In the
collision processes of high-energy physics, mass is no longer conserved. The
colliding particles can be destroyed and their masses may be transformed partly into the masses, and partly into the
kinetic energies of the newly crated particles. Only the total energy involved
in such a process, that is, the total kinetic energy plus the energy contained
in all the masses, is conserved.
In modern
physics, mass is no longer associated with a material substance, and hence
particles are not seen as consisting of any basis ‘stuff’, but as bundles of
energy.
These dynamic
patterns, or ‘energy bundles’, from the stable nuclear, atomic and molecular
structures which build up matter and give it its macroscopic solid aspect, thus
making us believe that it is made of some material substance. At the
macroscopic level, this notion of substance is a useful approximation, but at the
atomic level it no longer makes sense.
The Eastern mystics, in their non-ordinary states of
consciousness, seem to be aware of the
interpenetration of space and time at a macroscopic level, and thus they see
the macroscopic objects in a way which is very similar to the physicists’
conception of subatomic particles. This is
particularly striking in Buddhism. One of the principal teaching of the Buddha
was that ‘all compounded things are impermanent’.
Buddhists
have conceived an object as an event and not as a thing or substance… The
Buddhist conception of ‘things’ as samskara (or sankhara), that is, as
‘deeds’, or ‘events’, makes it clear that Buddhists understand our experience
in terms of time and movement.
Like modern physicists, Buddhists see all objects as
processes in a universal flux and deny the existence of any material substance.
This denial is one of the most characteristic features of all schools of
Buddhist philosophy. It is also characteristic of Chinese thought which
developed a similar view of things as transitory stages in the ever-flowing Tao and was more concerned their
interrelations than with their reduction to a fundamental substance.
Name of the Book: The
Tao of Physics
Author: Fritjof
Capra
Edition: Third Edition 1991
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