Quantum physics and mechanics point to underlying energy forces that are not perceivable through the physical senses. They extrapolate that the entire material world is dependent on the observer. What we consider to be solid matter, composed of atoms and molecules, is actually patterns of energy that can either be a particle or a wave, depending on the observer and on probability.
The observer interacts with the particle or wave during the act of observation, for the scanning electron microscope alters what it is aimed at through light energy that interacts with the observed. This makes it almost impossible to pin material objects down to solid forms when we are examining them at this level. The basic building blocks of all that is felt, seen, heard, tasted, so elusive that we cannot measure them under laboratory conditions. Furthermore, they are not blocks or structures that can be quantified.
Spirituality is also based on the unseen and unmeasurable. It is observer-dependent. The observer perceives through spiritual senses the underlying energy patterns from which all material forms arise. As Lao Tau says in verse 25 of the Tao, “There was something formless and perfect before the universe was born.” From this formlessness, all forms arose and all perished. But the underlying formlessness from which it arose is eternal, unchanging, and One.
Lao Tzu said this 2,500 years ago and it still perfectly describes the paradox that all this stuff around us that we think is real, perishes and therefore cannot be “really” real. Yet it comes from something that never perishes. It comes from something eternal. Some will call it God, some the Source Energy of the Universe, some the Tao, all in an attempt to understand what seems to be illogical. But it cannot be pinned down to one name.
In Newtonian physics we have measurable laws of cause and effect, gravity, and thermodynamics. In Quantum physics, cause and effect don’t apply because an atom might be a particle or a wave based simply on probability. Everything exists in the realm of possibility. And so it is in spirituality as well. It is a space of infinite possibility, unbounded by physical, material laws. At it’s root, matter is not real because it is not eternal. The only thing that is eternal is the fountainhead from which everything that exists proceeds. And that cannot be seen, heard, named or quantified in any way.
The underlying structure holds all in place, and yet we cannot “see” it. And cannot “see” the atom either. This requires a leap of faith that all is well and perfectly organized, even if the human brain cannot grasp it. And this is the same faith that pervades spirituality, regardless of the form it takes.
The observer interacts with the particle or wave during the act of observation, for the scanning electron microscope alters what it is aimed at through light energy that interacts with the observed. This makes it almost impossible to pin material objects down to solid forms when we are examining them at this level. The basic building blocks of all that is felt, seen, heard, tasted, so elusive that we cannot measure them under laboratory conditions. Furthermore, they are not blocks or structures that can be quantified.
Spirituality is also based on the unseen and unmeasurable. It is observer-dependent. The observer perceives through spiritual senses the underlying energy patterns from which all material forms arise. As Lao Tau says in verse 25 of the Tao, “There was something formless and perfect before the universe was born.” From this formlessness, all forms arose and all perished. But the underlying formlessness from which it arose is eternal, unchanging, and One.
Lao Tzu said this 2,500 years ago and it still perfectly describes the paradox that all this stuff around us that we think is real, perishes and therefore cannot be “really” real. Yet it comes from something that never perishes. It comes from something eternal. Some will call it God, some the Source Energy of the Universe, some the Tao, all in an attempt to understand what seems to be illogical. But it cannot be pinned down to one name.
In Newtonian physics we have measurable laws of cause and effect, gravity, and thermodynamics. In Quantum physics, cause and effect don’t apply because an atom might be a particle or a wave based simply on probability. Everything exists in the realm of possibility. And so it is in spirituality as well. It is a space of infinite possibility, unbounded by physical, material laws. At it’s root, matter is not real because it is not eternal. The only thing that is eternal is the fountainhead from which everything that exists proceeds. And that cannot be seen, heard, named or quantified in any way.
The underlying structure holds all in place, and yet we cannot “see” it. And cannot “see” the atom either. This requires a leap of faith that all is well and perfectly organized, even if the human brain cannot grasp it. And this is the same faith that pervades spirituality, regardless of the form it takes.
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