SCIENCE AND SPIRITUALITY and not SCIENCE VERSUS SPIRITUALITY - THE SECRET SHU CHU by BALAYOGI

Preface Higgs Boson the discovery of God Particle has created great international interest among all sections of the people not only for the great advancement in science but also because of the fact that they came up with a terminology that is always a live wire and therefore sends electric currents all over. There was a section which looked in wonder as to could it be true as if in suspicion; some in the scientific community itself felt some other terminology could have been a better choice rather than clinging on to something which is always considered as THE SUPERLATIVE; and , of course, the religious people , who think that they have the patent rights and the exclusive marketing rights of the term God started questioning using such terms for any scientific discovery however great or good it may be; then there are those who have the fortune of rich heritage ,thanks to their abstract, esoteric, mystical and marvelous scriptures imbued with profound philosophy and unbiased observations to which they refer every time something good, popular and useful to human race happens and claim that they already have it all in a different form in their scriptures. .continued

Preface continued All of these people could be correct or wrong. I am not an expert either in science or spiritual wisdom to question any of these nor would I like to pass judgments on any of these. I just wanted to place on record the many versions, views and counter views on this great discovery. However, what attracted me in the whole issue was the age old debate on Science versus Spirituality that started flooding the net with both scholarly and silly write ups continued

I felt an inner impulse to clear the air about this controversy in my own humble way based primarily on what I have always felt and my philosophical view [which of course is the result of many Gurus some in flesh and blood, some through books, some through lectures etc] about this issue which the title explains in a nutshell. Through this write up I also want to place on record my observations by substantiating them based on certain things I remembered out of the many that I have read on this issue much before the announcement of this God particle and after that. What was surprising was the fact in the past one week when I started writing this there was that unbelievable serendipity which made many relevant materials to reach me through many means unasked for.

SCIENCE AND SPIRITUALITY and not SCIENCE VERSUS SPIRITUALITY - THE SECRET SHU CHU

SCIENCE AND SPIRITUALITY and not SCIENCE VERSUS SPIRITUALITY - THE SECRET SHU CHU

Wecanneitherdenynordefythe importanceofanythinginthisuniverse. Afterallthewholeworldis interdependent,interconnected, interrelatedandinteractive.Sonoone canaffordtobealoof,aloneandaway fromtherest.Itisonlytheintensityof interdependence,interconnectedness, interrelatedness andinteractivitythat variesfrompersontoperson,fromone thingtoanotherandwithdifferent personsorthingsorevenwiththe samepersonorthingatdifferenttimes.

Everything is reciprocal and curved or cyclical or going around, in the sense that whatever is done has its effect, impact and influence and in turn gets impacted and influenced. This may almost sound redundant but the real meaning of these statements will be better understood as we proceed to delineate them.

We cannot afford to consign certain things to oblivion or unimportance because of our filtering mechanism and resort to selective amnesia and collective indifference on the presumption that we are right or that it is correct for the common good.

I am tempted to quote here what Confucius said once when Tsekung once asked Confucius, Is there one word that can serve as a principle of conduct of life and Confucius replied, It is the word SHU meaning reciprocity.

Curved or going around or cyclical. Most things get repeated in our life. Some of the repetitions are inevitable like many physiological activities; some repetitions happen as a result of similar necessity of the less understood cosmic physiology; some repetitions happen as a result of our committing similar mistakes repeatedly;

some repetitions happen as a result of our own choice to linger in the comfort zone of the known etc.

As for the statement of everything being curved or going around, it involves the observation of the manifestation of many things and the innate initial instinct of everything to bend and adopt by adjusting so that the growth and evolution are not hampered. For, ultimately everything is more about evolution rather than creation.

A tiny sapling which bends to every breeze grows into a big bark but if it refuses it will have its death at that very moment. Most of the life processes, growth etc like all metamorphism are cyclical and repetitive with birth and death, evolving and decaying, the only difference being in duration chronologically in different species or creations.

Constant repetition creates such expertise that nature evolves every now and then some slight modification or adjustments to adopt better which we call as change. No change in nature happens by totally erasing what was there already. In fact there is only evolution rather than creation in most aspects. All studies on evolutionary psychology have documented these repetitive phenomenon in all forms and aspects of life.

Again here I cannot resist the temptation of thinking about the wonderful CHINESE word CHU especially as it is used in a Chinese essay with its multiple subtle meanings sixty three [63] times in a wonderful essay titled THE CURVED CITY. I have typed the whole essay in the link given below for the benefit of everyone, though the play on the word is lost in translation. It is a sheer joy reading this. Its anonymous but appears in the collection of translated works of Lin Yutang titled THE IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2012/07/th e-curved-city.html

I normally like to etymologically trace the meaning of the word/s of the topic,

and then analyze the exact denotation and the possible connotations that may be accommodated based on the many contexts in which they are applied and arrive at a definition before proceeding further on the topic. However, when I think of doing the same with these two terms it sends shivers down my spine and shock waves up to my brain and suffocation in my heart. So I have decided to approach these two subjects very cautiously.

It is all the more scary because whenever, or very often when I have encountered materials, discussions and debates on these two terms especially together as SCIENCE AND SPIRITUALITY it has mostly been narrated and described as conflicting, controversial, confronting and contradictory rather than complimentary, concomitant, collateral and co- operative, all these more out of conformity and confusion than clarity of vision. At the same time there has also been literature available aplenty on topics like scientific spirituality and spiritual dimensions of science etc

Due to these very reasons I was also instigated to look into these two life defining major fields of study in very open manner because I am neither a great scientist nor a very spiritually evolved person but I love both of them and live with both of them. They are the vertical and horizontal planes of every step of my life, and if I may be allowed to say so, as well as everyones life. Both these, Science and Spirituality provide the important pieces to form my own jigsaw puzzle called life in its unique form.

I also feel certain facets of reality both physically definable and discernable as well as those non physical mysteries must be made use of, ,experienced , relished, realized ,reveled and if and when necessary and possible must be revealed in the best possible manner with the tools of communication available at that particular context or situation.

However, unfortunately and inevitably when we resort to record, report and communicate these revelations, discoveries and communion as concepts and ideas they not only lose their original splendor but also very often get mutilated.

In fact trying to define the meaning of these two terms SCIENCE AND SPIRITUALITY is a meaningless exercise instead we must look into what they mean to us in life, and for life in general , in terms of their utility, importance, intrinsic value, impact, influence etc.

Everything in life gets its importance based on the contextual or situational relevance and applicability. Thats why we must use Spirituality in some contexts and Science in some contexts. Misplaced application will render both Science and Spirituality ineffective. But unfortunately most of us are prone to apply wrong and irrelevant methods expecting correct results. While there may be many reasons as to why we do it.

Primarily wrong applications are of two types one out of context and irrelevant and two wrong dosage, either excessive or inadequate quantum of application. Both these stem from the very nature of lifes jigsaw puzzle wherein even the very shape or figure of the puzzle is not readily given as a blue print nor are all the suitable and relevant pieces readily available at all times. So with so many uncertain elements most of us become vulnerable when faced with some difficult situations.

Difficult situations throw up challenges; Challenges expose our vulnerabilities along with our capabilities; We refer to our existing stock of belief systems based on our attitude and then chose to act on or react to those situations; if the reference manual is , not necessarily out of date, but out of context, then we cannot expect the desired results.

Similarly the dosage of remedial measure also must be relevant. For example when boiling milk overflows a vessel and on to the burner of a gas stove you can move fast to switch off the burner to solve the problem from aggravating. If large quantity of boiling oil overflows the rims of the vessel and everything around including the stove, vessel etc catch fire then you cannot even think of going near the stove, leave alone switching off the burner. Here you must resort to more effective methods of putting off the fire. I have given a very simple physical example.

There are millions of more complicated and severe challenges occur in life they could be emotional, psychological, intellectual, social, cultural, scientific, technological, medical etc and we have to deal with corresponding load of vulnerabilities and this is where anything and everything may come in handy at times. Thats why we started the topic with the sentence that we cannot either deny or defy the importance of anything. So, even as a matter of selfish reasons for the two major aspects of life, namely the mere survival aspect and the living aspect we need both the important domains SCIENCE AND SPIRITUALITY.

There are of course many scholars who have ventured to define spirituality in many ways like basic meaning of spirituality, etymological meaning of spirituality, functional meaning of spirituality, theological meaning of spirituality, scientific meaning of spirituality and many more.

These only go to show each one has observed, grasped and gloated in the splendor of some facets of spirituality and classified it as per their comprehension. The reason being spirituality is the perception of the vibrations of the manifestation of ubiquitous divinity in everything by human beings.

How we define SPIRITUALITY, misinterpret it, use it properly, abuse it, misuse it, deify it etc are left to our choice. Depending upon the degree of refinement of sensitivities we may be able to tune into different frequencies to understand and realize the manifestation of divine spirits. In a more simple way it is the understanding of invisible realities which guide our daily activities in all facets of our life like the ideas and imaginations in mind, the feelings in our heart, the joys and sorrow in our life and our attitude, outlook, interaction, reciprocations etc towards all these.

This has been very lucidly expressed for all learners and listeners in the path of wisdom by Neale Donald Walsch in his book Happier than GOD in chapter 21 titled Your Total Freedom Is Gods Greatest Gift , as follows, Indeed, God can show up in any form that we wishincluding pure, undifferentiated energy-and we can shape that undifferentiated energy into anything that we choose. He concludes that chapter very nicely as, Could we call God simply Undifferentiated Life, from which all Individual Life emerges?

And this fact God simply Undifferentiated Life, from which all Individual Life emerges? is one of the reasons the noninstitutionalized religions of the world, otherwise called as Pagans and Heathens [always almost with a tinge of derision] by the institutionalized religious cultures, have not only multiple forms of Gods and Goddesses but they also worship many animals, trees and things and what not. To know just the facts of what is paganism visit
http://www.religioustolera nce.org/paganism.htm/

Lifes processes, perceptions, priorities, problems are not the same for all human beings at all times at all places. Hence there cannot be any homogeneous panacea either.

Anything and everything seem to reveal the manifestation of divinity in them to these people. For, the very shape or dimension of the jigsaw puzzle called life is not known and we get the pieces, get to choose assembling them and lo and behold there emerge different life forms.

Swami Vivekananda, the great saint from India, while describing the essential teachings of Vedanta says, Each soul is potentially divine, the goal is to manifest this divinity within. Do this either by work, or worship, or psychic control, or philosophy -- by one, or more, or all these -- and be free. This is the whole of religion. Doctrines, or dogmas, or rituals, or books, or temples, or forms, are but secondary details."

Again Swami Vivekananda declares manifest the divinity within you and everything will be harmoniously arranged around it, and he continues,Remember the illustration of Indra and Virochana in the Vedas; both were taught their divinity. But the Asura Virochana,took his body for his GOD. Indra, being a Deva understood that the Atman was meant. Here the reference to Asura and Deva are just symbolic representation of the concept of degrees of spiritual sensitivity and ability to tune in with the correct frequency to listen to and live in Divine vibration with complete awareness and total realization.

I mentioned this here because Donald Walsch in his book Happier than GOD titles his next chapter , that is chapter 22 as The Mechanism Of Manifestation and he writes in that chapter , An intellectual understanding of this process [ manifestation of divine energy-this is my inclusion] can help us to engage in the process itself. When we know what we are doing-and why- we are usually more adept at doing it.

If we glean through the existing definitions from great scientists and spiritualists they range from the fully profound to the fantastic to the fervent to fanatical ones depending on the intensity of involvement, frames of reference and their impact in the life of the scientists and the spiritually evolved person and sometimes they were also based on situational and contextual expectations from the circle of academicians, sponsors, supporters and the society at large. As Neale Donald Walsch says, in his first volume of Conversations with GOD, What's happening is merely what's happening. How you feel about it is another matter.

We cannot, however, afford to avoid referring to at least some of them in the course of this write up, for, they naturally reveal the many facets and facts of both science and spirituality and therefore, I will be spicing up this write up with the gems from these scholars.

BOTH SCIENCE AND SPIRITUALITY are the manifestation of lifes innate urge to find meaning to life and also the meaning , purpose, relevance and role of all other things that life comes into contact and influence or impact life and also which life in turn influences and impacts; that life interacts with; that life is interrelated with; that forms part of life either physically as tangible matter or inexplicably as mysteries and in mysterious ways which though not physically visible to each and everyone but still is felt, experienced and realized in many ways ,at various levels , at different places and in varying degrees and intensities.

The process of observing life and all these things by enquiring, exploring, experimenting , experiencing and then finally explaining these through certain labels, names, theories, laws, discoveries, inventions, isms etc in some form of identity and communicating them with one another has been the modus operandi of both science and spirituality.

Science has the advantage of being tangible, physically verifiable in many cases, referable with some measurement, objective, universally applicable and replicable. It is therefore, easily understood and undoubtedly more accepted, appreciated and applied.

Science has undoubtedly rendered living more marvelous and appreciation of all things more interesting because it relates, reveals and rationalizes everything through the use of any one, or combination of the five basic senses; sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell and the intellect and therefore definitely a better bet for everyone. But this does not mean that there are no things or life beyond the ken of what science can observe, reveal and rationalize.

Spirituality may include many things and the comprehension and quality of ones sensitivity [referred earlier in ..] to the spirit beneath and beyond those things. This in other words means things we cannot see directly with our physical senses and refer and report by our mere reason. As C.W.LEADBEATER has rightly said It is the commonest of mistakes to consider that the limit of our power of perception is also the limit of all there is to perceive.

There are realms beyond the physical and the physically verifiable factors and these realms have been and are definitely observed, experienced and realized by many at different ages and times.

Basically facts and truths have existed from time immemorial but we have realized them only through observation, discoveries, detailed experimentation and followed by rational and verifiable explanation in science one by one. The fact of gravity was there even before Newton explained it scientifically. Atoms existed always and they did not pop up one day to one scientist and said lo and behold I have arrived.

manifestations too have always existed and do continue to exist in every soul and everything but some enlightened souls have been able to experience, realize and reveal their communion with these divine manifestations in different forms of communication.

Spirituality being highly subjective and not objective; being experience oriented than experiment oriented; its experiences and realizations cannot be understood by everyone unless they too are tuned into the same wavelength or frequency of spiritual enlightenment. This being a bit complicated and tricky to ensure greater receptivity, acceptance, appreciation and understanding , those who either partially or totally understood these realities from the fully realized divine souls resorted to push it down on everyone through belief systems, faiths, religious institutions, scriptural texts, rituals, religious edicts , carefully designed cultural activities, social mores etc.

Therefore, it becomes definitely difficult for souls that are used only to perceive through the five senses and intellect to accept the spiritual realities easily.

When we see a person we immediately notice, recognize and record his/her physical features[even here we cannot at once know all the details of the basic building blocks of the physical body ,namely the Genes their RNA and DNA etc ] if we happen to interact with that person we understand his /her mind but we rarely ever can fathom or bother to fathom the elusive intentions, thoughts, attitudes etc beneath that mean and mind, but it is precisely his/her intentions, thoughts, attitudes etc are the vital aspects upon which the body and mind function.

When we see a building we view it and if interested further study and appreciate its architecture and also gather all information related to its construction but we rarely notice the details of foundation unless we want to build a similar structure but it is the foundation that holds everything concerning the building.

When we see a river or tree or mountain we admire its beauty , then note their other details like name, location, size etc but seldom we know about all the life forms that live , die , decay and/or reemerge as something else in the river, tree or mountain but it is precisely these elements of life that exist there that make them [ rivers, tress , mountains etc what they are .

Similarly we notice easily the body and mind but fail to notice the Soul ,the seed of divine energy or a tiny part of the field of divine energy that is the very source and support of the totality of life made of the soul, body and mind.

When we viewed these three namely, the person, the thing created by him a big and wonderful building, nature etc. We did have a macro view and did bother to notice the micro details but still missed out the vital aspect. So that seems to be an inherent factor of human perception and attitude. So it is no wonder that we miss to see our soul and therefore the inherent spirituality.

After all we evaluate everything with our extremely limited tool called perception. http://contentwrite ups.blogspot.com/2 010/02/realperception.html

Science and religion, though I would prefer the term spirituality to religion, are like the horizontal and vertical planes of the steps of the staircase that lead to human and humane growth and evolution.

While exploring the facts in both these domains Spirituality and Science we must desist getting distracted from the following major traps, which have become, unfortunately, almost a prevailing trend:1] Mutilating the facts, 2] Analyzing them with preconceived notions or prejudices, 3] Generalizing the particular and particularizing the general, 4] Approaching facts with unloving criticism or uncritical love, 5] Evaluating facts with our pet isms or philosophies, 6] Resorting to statistical justifications, 7] Unleashing unworkable utopia, 8] Mask them with logical fallacies, 9] Bury them in pleasant jargons, and 10] Give historical justifications. http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2009/10/peace-and-nonviolence-harmony-and.html

Spirituality and Science are collaborative, cooperative and not necessarily always conflicting, confronting and totally compromising or confirming either, as each as its own limitations and range of operation.

As GUY MURCHIE says in THE SEVEN MYSTERIES OF LIFE. "Science can experience only what it measures while religion [Spirituality- my inclusion] may tune in on even wider experience of things beyond measure. There are areas of perception outside mere deductive reasoning as well.

http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2012/07/boo k-of-wisdom.html

To know the other side of religion and spirituality, I am not judging it as either strength or weakness. I suggest you all read the CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD by NEALE DONALD WALSH followed by his other books FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD and Happier than GOD, COMMUNION WITH GOD etc as these books break the clam shell of our crammed and confined perceptions and opens up areas of real understanding leading to realization of facts in a very unprejudiced manner both scientifically and spiritually. Real education, enlightenment starts only when we are able to logically and lucidly understand things without and preconditions, presumptions and predetermined belief systems.

Most importantly remember that everything must be studied and understood in their contexts, situations and circumstances. This includes everything from all our religious scriptures and scientific discoveries. They all have chipped into complete a jigsaw puzzle at some specific time and have played the role as an important step at that time that is it. Even morality is only situational or contextual http://www.scribd.com/doc/9 7901860/Morality-is-Just-Contextual1

To know the other side of science, I am not saying strength or weakness. I suggest you all read 101 Things YouDont Know about Science and No One Else Does Either -by Trefil, James S.

Finally our process of evaluation is based on our attitude, Attitudes are formed as a result of this ongoing process of evaluations. We all constantly evaluate everything, everyone and various aspects of our environment. So to ensure correct attitude we must analyze what are the tools with which/basis on which we evaluate? The methods we adopt to evaluate? And how we evaluate? All these, in turn, will determine to a great extent our attitude in most of the cases. This will also give us an idea whether our attitude influences our behavior or our behavior influences our attitude.

Evaluate the purpose of life by the amount of happiness you have given to others. Evaluate the value of life by the extent you have been useful to others. Evaluate the meaning of life by the love you give to others. Evaluate the destiny of life by the amount of love you get from others. Evaluate the quality of your life by your attitudes. Evaluate the wisdom of your life by the experience you have gained and the lessons you have learnt and the knowledge you have acquired from your experiments and actions. Evaluate the worthiness of your life by the amount of or extent of realizations you have had. Evaluate the totality of life not by owning anything or even trying to own life itself but by living life. But the best way to evaluate life is to live it. And you live based on what you have and who you are.

Even if you are schooled in irrelevant, inadequate, out dated, useless, erroneous trivia at least do not base your belief systems or thoughts on them because Your thoughts and beliefs decide your life irrespective of whether you are prosperous, peaceful and happy or the other way. Because they help you to make the choice and the choices you make decide who you are and what you do depends on who you are and ultimately what you do gets you whatever you have. But unfortunately we tend to think the process topsy-turvy. We want to have whatever we want and think that it will make us and shape us. Be on your own dont choose for others nor let others choose for you. So have your own set of resolutions to make and break." from http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2010/12/attitude.html

Choice is again a very vital element in everyones life. you may read http://2011newattitudesbalayogi.blogspot.in/2010/12/02-012011-choice.html also in my book http://www.scribd.com/doc/68004915/Atti tude-Calendar-New-Ppt

We cannot conclude that either science or spirituality is always strong or correct in all situations or contexts or always weak in any situation or context. It is only our grasp of their significance in specific context, our wrong, prejudiced or preconditioned or limited interpretations of their intrinsic aspects creates an illusion where in they may look weak or strong relatively and in specific contexts. Their strength or weakness are ascribed or attributed directly based on our perceptions, justifications and their utility to us as we perceive rather than their own inherent reasonable value.

We need to study the strength of Science and Spirituality based on facts both empirically verified and verifiable or experience based realization without restricting our parameters of evaluation. How do we know which is superior and which is better with our limited frames of reference, limited ranges of observation or our limited knowledge base?

We buy nowadays everything from any solid even liquids and gases based on measurement named as Kilogram. Now let us read the history of kilogram to find how scientifically sound or reasonably valid it is to justify its acceptance. Just because someone came out with some label we have all been blindly adopting, accepting it in our everyday life and we must bear in mind that measurement is the very basis of science. In both science and spirituality we resort more to rationalize than be rational. http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/ 2012/07/kilogram-story-howmuch-is-kilogram-by.html

I have taken just one example from 101 Things You Don't Know about Science and No One Else Does Either by James Trefil, because the very basis of Science is measurability. Read this interesting info in this link..

In the case of spirituality, it again, has been ruined by religions, almost all the religions of the world, because spirituality is unfolding the mystery of the purpose of life and the intrinsic value of everything otherwise called generally as Truth, by the individual based on his /her own experience leading to realization. Had the religions along with their scriptures and preaching have helped human beings primarily towards self realization of the spiritual aspect of life, all the religions would have produced enlightened and tolerant humane souls rather than violently fighting and verbally debating creatures.

Both science and spirituality suffered mainly because, in both, the vested interested groups, their entire entourage of parasites, sponsors and self proclaimed experts have decided that what they have already decided is the axiomatic truths and well established theories which need to be promoted at all costs and therefore entertaining any other view[s], counter view[s], contradictory view[s] etc are a danger to these presumed and predetermined axiomatic certainties.

Once the freedom to question existing, accepted and/or established facts are allowed to be questioned or probed and new ways of seeking, independent of those established facts, are also encouraged then both Science and Spirituality will reveal their hitherto unraveled myriad blossoms of various splendors of many hues in full bloom of multiple colors, different shapes and sizes and marvelous fragrances.

In short we need to approach both Science and Spirituality with broad mind and beloved heart with bias free attitude.

Finally we must desist from applying both Science and Spirituality in wrong contexts. Applying scientific principles while seeking spiritual realization and applying perceived spiritual parameters to arrive at or validate scientific theories and/or using both of them for justifying our positions or stand about the perceived superiority or inferiority or presumed importance or relevance of either over the other as per their utility to us at specific times in our life at particular situations or in specific contexts.

However, the great truth is, important scientific factors and spiritual wisdom by themselves pop up and influence or impact only at certain situations or contexts and that too with varying intensities and in different ways depending on the situational or contextual requirements or exigencies

Doesnt mothers milk appear at the correct time biologically? Here I would like to quote Deepak Chopra, from his work The Book of Secrets: Unlocking the Hidden Dimensions of Your Life Two chemicals called actin and myosin evolved eons ago to allow the muscles in insect wings to contract and relax. Thus, insects learned to fly. When one of those paired molecules are absent, wings will grow but they cannot flap and are therefore useless. Today, the same two proteins are responsible for the beating of the human heart, and when one is absent, the persons heartbeat is inefficient and weak, ultimately leading to heart failure. Again, science marvels at the way molecules adapt over millions of years, but isnt there a deeper intent? In our hearts, we feel the impulse to fly, to break free of boundaries. Isnt that the same impulse nature expressed when insects began to take flight? The prolactin that generates milk in a mothers breast is unchanged from the prolactin that sends salmon upstream to breed, enabling them to cross from saltwater to fresh.

Evolution is imbued with so many such excellent facts and the easiest way to know many of them is to read THE SEVEN MYSTERIES OF LIFE by GUY MURCHIE or Human Destiny, Lecomte du Nuoy both excellent books for all those interested in learning the marvels and mysteries of evolution in a very nice way.

Spirituality and Science are strong or superior or weak and worthless depending on the context or situation or circumstance in which we use them.

For example if we apply spiritual values to unearth the facts of material aspects we may not succeed that well. Similarly if we apply scientific theories to evaluate and realize certain spiritual truths we may never succeed. So, what is important is using the correct tool for the relevant situation, context or circumstance.

Due to the lack of objectively and physically verifiable and difficult to physically verify aspects of spirituality there were, are and shall be many misleading information and misuse of certain principles by some or many. However that is not the fault of spirituality but that of the proclaimed practitioners, preachers , priests, propagators etc who predominantly crowd all religions.

The greatest mistake is to presume, though it has been the trend for many centuries, that spirituality may be, can be or must be approached and apprehended only through or better through religion. In fact all the religions are guilty of masking and clouding the individuals unfettered perception and experience of spirituality through all their multiple dos and donts and also their demand on forced adherents to those rules. Institutionalized religions are more guilty in this than the rest , for, they have confined spirituality to single scripture, single manifestation of divinity to the exclusion and sometimes even intolerance of other forms of manifestation of spirituality or divinity.

Spirituality being the subjective experience and realization of the greatest source of universally present intelligence, energy, divinity etc present inside us and outside us, it would be wrong to specify how it is? Or what it is? Or who it is? And also insist that everyone must accept and follow only that and nothing else. Being ubiquitous, but not homogenous, spirituality is not and cannot be confined to any single specific path but can take up and use any path and /or many paths. This realization has slowly but surely seeped into the modern man despite all the fine and ferocious fencing by all the religions. This is reflected in the growth of many NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS, shortly called as NRMs to fulfill at least different perspectives and aspirations of the seekers of spirituality beyond religion

Spirituality being the subjective experience and realization of the greatest source of universally present intelligence, energy, divinity etc present inside us and outside us, it would be wrong to specify how it is? Or what it is? Or who it is? And also insist that everyone must accept and follow only that and nothing else. Being ubiquitous, but not homogenous, spirituality is not and cannot be confined to any single specific path but can take up and use any path and /or many paths. This realization has slowly but surely seeped into the modern man despite all the fine and ferocious fencing by all the religions. This is reflected in the growth of many NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS, shortly called as NRMs to fulfill at least different perspectives and aspirations of the seekers of spirituality beyond religion.

Spirituality in simple terms is all about trying to understand, unravel and realize the divine source behind everything, integrate with it and with awareness accept its inevitable influence on everything and this can be done in any way as well as in many ways, not necessarily only some single specific way. http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2009/08/ new-religious-movements-nrms.html

As Neale Donald Walsch says, I was told to challenge every spiritual teacher, every world leader to utter the one sentence that no religion, no political party, and no nation on the face of the earth will dare utter: 'Ours is not a better way, ours is merely another way.

Religions, of course are very important resources of reference for seekers but they must not play a restrictive role. So religions have and do play a very important role in making man at least acknowledge the fact of divinity and lay before him the previously acquired, accepted, allowed thoughts, ideas, wisdom, experiences, events etc to facilitate to him to understand and approach the subject of divinity and spirituality but then they are the resources and steps and not the ultimate and only way to understand the spiritual reality.

Everything in any process of growth is merely a step, though important and inevitable, but not a stop. It is so with mothers milk [our biological aspect of life]; it is so with learning of alphabets, words and numbers [our intellectual aspect of life]; it is so with hugging, kissing and cajoling as babies [our emotional aspect of life]; it is so with our learning and understanding of different concepts [ our philosophical aspect of life]; it is so with all forms of worship, devotion and all its concomitant rituals and religious practices [ our spiritual life] and so on. This is the inherent wisdom.

A normal human being has to go through a process to grow in everything or into something. There may be exceptions like a Adi shankara, or a Bhagawan Ramanamaharishi.

We can neither avoid the steps nor get struck to them. Thats why I cannot accept the snobbism of so called intellectuals parroting pet slogans like religion without rituals, god without religion or religion without gods, spirituality without god or religion etc. http://contentwriteu ps.blogspot.in/2010/0 2/sanathanadharma.html

However, as my basic thesis covering many subjects including this one [Science and Spirituality]deals with contexts, situations and circumstances. I have to say that Religions, especially the institutions and some individuals who preside over the religious institutions have been the greatest stumbling blocks to realization of spirituality because they have failed to move with the times, evolve in the context and instead adamantly struck on to their old versions of everything connected with life while life has been naturally on the move. Again here I am tempted to quote Neale Donald Walsch , that our science, math, medicine, technology, philosophy and psychology have all changed to keep up with the times, but our religious ideas have not. So the root of our civilizations crisis is that we suffer from outmoded religious ideas that lead people to hurt each other and the planet. and people plunder the Earth, rape her of her resources, exploit her people, and systematically disenfranchise those who disagree with you

This is true of science too. In any branch of science we have lot of existing materials about the facts discovered and recorded. That does not mean that you must follow them, worse still completely follow only them, and only based on that come up with your hypotheses. If it were so, then no new discovery or invention or improvement on existing technology can come up in science.

Also it is not necessary that scientific discoveries have to adopt or follow the academically acknowledged or allowed methods like observation, hypothesis, theory, experimentations etc. Scientific discoveries need not always evolve out of hypotheses, theories etc they can occur as a sudden flash to even a person who is totally ignorant of any branch of science.

In science too the greatest stumbling blocks very often are the academic circles and the community of scientists who presume that new processes and methods of discovery cannot unravel truths and therefore prevent lot of great and good work from coming out because of some preconceived patterns and standards that they have set for something to be considered as a real discovery.

So both in spirituality and scientific discovery there are no hard and fast rules but that does not mean that one can neglect religions or existing research materials. The very act of constantly dabbling with the scriptures and scientific materials can be both a great pleasure, like wrestling with a person of the opposite sex, and in the process some sudden useful spark may pop up. Anything that curbs our field of perception is clearly neither scientific nor spiritual.

Of course there are certain set and accepted practices and processes in the normal course of seeking which have been laid down for facilitating and making things easier for ordinary mortals other than those who are already successful scientific discoverers or inventors or the spiritually enlightened souls, sages, saints and manifestations of Divine beings etc. This is what Cambridge University animal pathology professor W. I. B. Beveridge says in his book The Art of Scientific Investigation Although we cannot deliberately evoke that will-o-the-wisp, chance, we can be on the alert for it, prepare ourselves to recognize it and profit by it when it comes. Merely realizing the importance of chance may be of some help to the beginner. We need to train our powers of observation, to cultivate that attitude of mind of being constantly on the look-out for the unexpected and make a habit of examining every clue that chance presents. Discoveries are made by giving attention to the slightest clue. That aspect of the scientists mind which demands convincing evidence should be reserved for the proof stage of the investigation. In research, an attitude of mind is required for discovery which is different from that required for proof, for discovery and proof are distinct processes.

Scientific knowledge is gained in a variety of ways involving certain process which may include the some or many of the following in combination and not necessarily in any specific and strict straight jacketed order.

They are Observation, Measurement, Classification or categorization, hypothesis , theories, Quantification, Inference, Prediction, analysis of relationships of the interaction of variables, data interpretation, adopting Operational definitions, experimentation or test of some or all that went into the process to systematically evaluate to establish clearly the fact discovered, conduct field studies leading to actual adoption, practical application etc

In the above process it is normally moving from a probability or probabilities, not even axioms, rather than absolute truth. Again this is not the only method, but mostly adopted method, for , many great discoveries have also popped up all

of sudden from the blue while someone was either dabbling in scientific enquiry or something else.

In these myriads of elements involved in the process there are lots of myths like all hypothesis are highly educated and well probed guesses; all data and evidences would definitely lead to perfect scientific truth; that science is only procedural and pedantic and not creative; that experiments must be a vital part of science etc

What is of importance is the spirit of seeking. For, evolution, as it must and as it does always, either with or without our active participation, selective amnesia, collective indifference and protective self interests, keeps exploring and expressing the secrets through some unprejudiced probing souls.

This is the reason we find often a description as philosophy of science, philosophy of religion and philosophy of spirituality. The common thread being philosophy which means all these domains are pursued for the love of knowledge and wisdom that they can offer us. So what is this fuzzy and vague term philosophy, which is very often associated with verbal and theoretical methods of confusing ordinary concepts and facts, doing here acquiring such significance by appending itself to almost all the major domains of understanding life?

Now we have to necessarily deviate here to define what is philosophy? This is another terminology quiet difficult to define. But in brief it is the sum and substance of all that helps us to emerge wise after our journey through or romance with these domains of life [Science and Spirituality], helps us to realize the underlying Oneness beneath everything in the universe and helps us to record and communicate these wisdoms gained in the course of lifes journey. In short it implies that through all these , namely Science and Spirituality, there must be primarily intrinsically important value addition or pleasure or happiness or peace or wisdom to either the physical body and /or for the human mind and/or spiritual aspect of the human being and then similar impact on the physical environment , to the society, to our cultural activities etc and ensuring at the same time inherent freedom for individual improvisation and aesthetic appeal in whatever we do be it art, architecture, music, dance etc. The seeking must culminate in abundant supply of what is essential and not mere extraneous paraphernalia.

Though the fact cannot be denied that Spirituality cannot be completely and comprehensively communicated or conveyed in existing concrete terms conforming to scientific principles. At the same time, everything within the realm of science can be subjected to physical verification. Therefore, both Science and Spirituality are manifestations of human observations and perceptions of reality emanating from human quest for knowledge and wisdom from two different, but not necessarily opposite, sides or dimensions or facets of that same reality.

The core philosophy of Science and Spirituality deal only with the wisdom of the realization of Oneness in everything and that is the reason this write up started with the statement , We can neither deny nor defy the importance of anything in this universe. time. All the great souls who have realized and reveled in this have revealed in different ways. For example J.Krishnamurthy says, You must

understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing and dance, and write poems, and suffer, and understand, for all that is life.

In his book An Anatomy Of Inspiration , 1942 Rosamund E. M. Harding writes , Many ideas outside the subject become associated with it by a kind of interest association and acquire a similar tone. Thus they tend to become available at the same time as the ideas directly connected with the subject itself. The variety of interests tends to increase the richness of these extra ideas fringe-ideas associated with the subject and thus to increase the possibilities of new and original combinations of thought.. I would like to add for any sincere seeker it happens as a matter of serendipity.

The main point of Neale Donald Walshs spiritual revelation is that God is life, and we are God. (QA, p. 195) This realization of oneness has tremendous practical ramifications as it means that what you do for another, you do for self and vice versa. (CW1, p. 131) In this higher state of awareness, he says you will lose your selfishness as someone elses interests are now seen as your own interests. (CW2, 141) Furthermore once you see others as you, you will not do harmful things to them as you are them, and you dont do harmful things to yourself. (T, p. 72-3)

It is the existence of this Oneness beneath everything, how everything, starting from the virus and microbes visible only to the best micro scopes to the biggest stars in the universe, pitches in at specific situations, contexts, circumstances, play their specific role to make a grand splendor has been very scientifically and excellently explained in detail by GUY MURCHIE in THE SEVEN MYSTERIES OF LIFE.

It is sometimes perhaps a fashion to parade, propagate and as a means of hypocritical popularity stunt to paint that both SCIENCE AND SPIRITUALITY as different facets or manifestations of the same Oneness pervading everything in the universes ; there have also been desperate attempts made sometimes by living scholars to avoid extreme confrontation jeopardizing the development of both as had happened earlier some centuries back where certain scientific discoveries were discouraged and dumped as useless because it was going against the views held by some religious scriptures or rendering certain religious institutions insecure.

Of course there have been many great souls in both fields who have had that enlightened real perception, experience, realization, communion etc and therefore have communicated this fact of Oneness underlying everything in SCIENCE AND SPIRITUALITY with some authentic, substantial and serious studies striding across both fields. The ease and the excellence with which they have straddled both spheres enthralls, enchants, enriches and enlivens us and makes us grasp the truth and reality of the Oneness otherwise made too complicated by the not so completely evolved proponents of either one of them ,namely SCIENCE OR SPIRITUALITY to the exclusion of the other.

The sayings, writings and other recorded contribution of these souls are also too voluminous and too many in number. However, I would be failing in my duty if I fail to bring to light some of them which have universal appeal without any tinge of any religious partiality. In the process of their enlightenment they may have adopted or lucky to have been adopted by some specific religion in their childhood and youth. That is a matter of pure circumstance and situation. Had these souls been born and brought up in totally different religious environment still they would have benefited the world with the same enlightenment breaking away from the confines of their religious institutions or other controlling institutions be it the social pressures, political pressures, academic institutional pressures, cultural pressures etc.

Their enlightenment gives them the courage born out of conviction and confidence born out of the clarity of vision not to conform , not to create conflicts but to create a better world for all of us by providing thoughts of wisdom to enhance our perception of the world , enliven our spirits and encourage us to think and act freely without any self imposed fetters or any socially imposed fences to our free and fantastic life.

In the course of this write up we souls through their quotes. Here intentional but out of sheer lack knowledge about them. It is these whole wave of changes for the alphabetical order Adi Shankara, Aristotle, Buddha, Bah'u'llh, Lutwidge Dodgson [Lewis Carroll] Jean Paul Sartre, Kalidasa, Madame Curie, Osho or Rajneesh, Lecomte du Noy , Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Shakespeare, Socrates, Wayne Walter Dyer Whatever they have spoken Soul

have already referred to some such are some more, the omissions are not of space and my lack of great souls who have set a benefit of society like, in Albert Einstein, Albert Camus, Bertrand Russel,Confucious, Charles J.krsihnamurthy, Jalaluddin Rumi, Kalil Gibran, Omar Khayym, Pierre Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ramana Maharishi, Tiruvalluvar, and many more . and written is music to the

Some ancient non religious and unauthored texts which have recorded the non judgmental and unbiased observations and the wise inferences like the many texts in Vedas have followed this path to a very great extent of probing and apprehending the knowledge of reality. For, as Paul Brunton writes, Philosophy is not any man's personal possession. It is itself impersonal.

These wisdom stated in Vedas is not acquired by education, or by adherence to scripture. Instead, it is the recording of direct experiences. They have provided some valuable materials like a] The universe is a manifestation of one Spiritual Reality. b] Within each person this Divine Essence is at the core of his or her innermost being. c] Thus human life becomes an opportunity to unfold and manifest this Divinity from within. d] All religions are valid paths which can lead one to the realization of these truths.

These Vedas [texts] are supposed to be the observations or products of the intelligence of Rishis [ Rishi means discoverer] and the Vedas declare God or Divinity not as a He or She . It is referred to as IT a field of energy. To know it more precisely you may listen to the very enlightening and lucid lecture of Sri Sri Ravishanker here, he has used the correct occasion and trend to bring to light the interconnectedness of Science and Spirituality, titling his talk as Higgs Boson and Vedas http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fX lWqzazAkY

Some of the sayings by other such enlightened souls are W e are not human beings having a spiritual experience. W e are spiritual beings having a human experience. Pierre Teilhard Chardin.

Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. When we recognize our place in an immensity of light years and in the passage of ages, when we grasp the intricacy, beauty, and subtlety of life, then that soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely spiritual. So are our emotions in the presence of great art or music or literature, or acts of exemplary selfless courage such as those of Mohandas Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr. The notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both. Carl Sagan The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

I don't understand why people insist on pitting concepts of evolution and creation against each other. Why can't they see that spiritualism and science are one? That bodies evolve and souls evolve and the universe is a fluid package that marries them both in a wonderful package called a human being. What's wrong with that idea? Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

Physics, metaphysics, religion, and mysticism must unite before each can speak truth, which is a unique whole and not a particular fragment as they individually are.- Paul Brunton

The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge. Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe-a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble.- Albert Einstein

The scientists religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection. -Albert Einstein

Spirituality is recognizing and celebrating that we are all inextricably connected to each other by a power greater than all of us, and that our connection to that power and to one another is grounded in love and compassion. Practicing spirituality brings a sense of perspective, meaning and purpose to our lives. Bren Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think Youre Supposed to Be and embrace Who You Are

Spirituality is an experience, not knowledge. You cannot reduce it to knowledge; it is always knowing, never knowledge. It is an insight, irreduceable into words. You cannot put it into theories, into systems of thought; that is impossible. And those who try to do it dont know anything.only then can they do it. This is a strange phenomenon: those who know, they never try to reduce their knowing into knowledge; and those who dont know, they are absolutely free. They can create any knowledge, that is their invention. All spiritual knowledge is invention of the mind. Real spiritual knowledge happens only when the mind is dropped, when you are in a state of no-mind-Osho

Spirituality is ultimately a being tobeing dialogue.Osho

Spirituality is the science of the Soul.Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902).

Ultimately all the great advancement and progress in both SCIENCE AND SPIRITUALITY have come about out of the unbiased, unhindered, unfettered, unconditioned, and unpremeditated observation and philosophical enquiry into the nature and mystery of all life leading to transformation and more clarity of perception and vision. Do not fail to read article by Dr. Pawan Dhar here http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2012/07/s cience-and-spirituality-challenge-to.html

It is no wonder that the term philosophy gets tagged to both SCIENCE AND SPIRITUALITY and the other big institution which is supposed to aid spiritual wisdom, namely religion. That is the reason why this concluding note started with the sentence. There is often a description as philosophy of science, philosophy of religion and philosophy of spirituality. Both these spheres seek to unearth the blueprint of life by seeing through their very unique and invaluable lenses on the nooks and crannies of all life and life processes

This is after all the crux of philosophy as Paul Brunton says, Philosophy constitutes the supreme keystone of all man's evolutionary building to which he must ultimately come when he has exhausted all other cultural roads, all personal hopes, all worldly guides. It is the acme of his higher culture and the last lap of his ethical ascension. Its statuesque intellectual grandeur is akin to that of Himalaya. And as that mighty range mingles hard brown granite with soft white snow, so does this unique system mingle hard rational thinking with sensitive mystical meditation. These ideas do not stand alone--not that it really matters even if they did, provided they are true ideas. But we can bring to them the support of highgrade minds, perceptive metaphysicians, fine poets, contemplative mystics who lived in the beatitude of divine union, and even a few top-ranking nuclear physicists and Astronomers-Royal. It begins with the statement that the men of today are not completed beings.

Paul Brunton also says The world has yet to discover that the teaching of this philosophy is the most brilliant of all intellectual systems, the most religious of all religious paths, the most mystical of all mystical techniques. Philosophy can smilingly await its hour, for all roads lead to it, none away from it. Life is a mystery. Mystery provokes inquiry. Inquiry leads eventually to discovery. Discovery, by stimulating thought upon itself and by evoking intuition about itself, can end only in philosophy.

Philosophy has brought refinement to art, truth to

 Most simply put its about making sense of all this We find ourselves in a world that we havent chosen. There are all sorts of possible ways of interpreting it and finding meaning in the world and in the lives that we live. So philosophy is about making sense of that situation that we find ourselves in. ~ Clare Carlisle

I think its thinking fundamentally clearly and well about the nature of reality and our place in it, so as to understand better what goes on around us, and what our contribution is to that reality, and its effect on us. ~ Barry Smith

There are no differences but differences of degree between different degrees of difference and no difference. William James
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