Intuitive Mysticism, Meet Pragmatic Science

Capra, Fritjof. The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels Between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism. 3rd ed. Boston: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1991. Print.

Although interesting from any point of view, the book that made Capra famous is particularly fascinating to one coming from a Western culture. The aim of the book is to illuminate some of the parallels between physics and Eastern mysticism (the subtitle says it all) and to propose why these parallels exist. A few of these similarities: the method employed by the physicist and the mystic is empirical (the physicist relies on experiment, the mystic on meditative insights); a physicist wanting to repeat an experiment must go through many years of training, just as mystical experiences and their repetition requires many years of training; the quantum world nor the world of mystical experience can be expressed verbally; both the mystic and the physicist see the world as interconnected and interrelated; both the mystic and the physicist see the world as intrinsically dynamic; both physics and Eastern mysticism include the concept of the “participator” rather than “observer”; both the physicist and the mystic view opposites as unified; and so on. It is not difficult to ascertain the reason for these parallels when one considers that both quantum physics and Eastern mysticism are peering into the essential nature of things.

In the process of exploring these parallels, Capra also ends up explaining the basic aspects of quantum physics, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and Zen. Thus, not only is the average Westerner being offered enthralling new ideas to consider, but she/he is also gaining some fundamental insight into science and religion that most people are not privy to.

The Tao of Physics, along with a number of other books, is at the forefront of a modern movement (for lack of a better word) predicting and facilitating the transformation of traditional cultural world views and the prevailing paradigm. It is an exciting and informative read, but it does have its flaws. One flaw comes in its publication date. It originally was published in 1975 and is thus outdated. The inclusion of the afterwords to the second and third editions is at least somewhat of a help, and the updated findings in quantum physics only serve to further strengthen Capra’s argument of the parallels between physics and Eastern mysticism. Another flaw is the language of the book, and by this it is meant the way that Capra presents his ideas. From the start he claims he is attempting to write in such a way that the layman can follow him, but this is not always the case. He manages to elucidate his ideas very well in the majority of the book, but there are some chapters (especially those dealing principally with physics) that are more than a little tough for the average reader without any prior knowledge of the subject to follow. This is definitely a book that could have benefited from a glossary. Other than these few complaints, this reader found The Tao of Physics to be an insightful and thought-provoking read and foresees numerous re-readings in the future.

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“The Tower is as wide and spacious as the sky itself. The ground is paved with (innumerable) precious stones of all kinds, and there are within the Tower (innumerable) palaces, porches, windows, staircases, railings, and passages, all of which are made of the seven kinds of precious gems…

And within the Tower, spacious and exquisitely ornamented, there are also hundreds of thousands…of towers, each one of which is as exquisitely ornamented as the main Tower itself and as spacious as the sky. And all these towers, beyond calculation in number, stand not at all in one another’s way; each preserves its individual existence in perfect harmony with all the rest; there is a state of perfect intermingling and yet of perfect orderliness. Sudhana, the young pilgrim, sees himself in all the towers as well as in each single tower, where all is contained in one and each contains all” (293). - from the Avatamsaka Sutra, paraphrased by D.T. Suzuki

“In the heaven of Indra, there is said to be a network of pearls, so arranged that if you look at one you see all the others reflected in it. In the same way each object in the world is not merely itself but involves every other object and in fact is everything else. ‘In every particle of dust, there are present Buddhas without number’” (296). - The metaphor of Indra’s net, from the Avatamsaka Sutra, in the words of Sir Charles Eliot

“One is led to a new notion of unbroken wholeness which denies the classical idea of analyzability of the world into separately and independently existing parts…We have reversed the usual classical  notion that the independent ‘elementary parts’ of the world are the fundamental reality, and that the various systems are merely particular contingent forms and arrangements of these parts. Rather, we say that inseparable quantum interconnectedness of the whole universe is the fundamental reality, and that relatively independently behaving parts are merely particular and contingent forms within this whole” (138). - David Bohm

Top 5 Works of Fiction on My 'To Read' List:

1) Samuel R. Delany: Dhalgren

2) Hermann Hesse: The Glass Bead Game

3) Julio Cortazar: Hopscotch

4) Richard Brautigan: In Watermelon Sugar

5) J.G. Ballard: The Drowned World

Animal Farm for the 21st Century

Vaughan, Brian K., writer. Pride of Baghdad. Art by Niko Henrichon. Lettering by Todd Klein. New York: DC Comics, 2006. Print.

From page one, the vibrant color of this living, breathing graphic novel inhaled me into its pages. Eye candy though it was, I quickly realized that the sandy, apricot landscape not only projected sunny savannas over urban destruction, but it also imbued the unfolding events with a tragic sense of hopefulness. From panel to panel I roamed through this terrible and beautiful world with four lions as companions. Originally held in an Iraqi zoo, the animals escape during the confusion of an air raid. The rest of the story is really quite simple. It is a plight for survival and understanding of the new nature of their existence.

If the common association of animals with allegory were not obvious enough, the symbolism is entirely clear. Although numerous issues are confronted, such as the treatment of women in patriarchal societies of the Middle East, the principle concern of Pride of Baghdad is freedom: What is freedom? To what authority must one look for a definition of freedom? Can it be multiple things at once? Must it always come at the price of something else? These questions are only a few scraggly trees at the top of a mountain of ambiguity. At every point in the graphic novel the symbolism in which these themes and issues are couched  is clear, yet somehow Vaughan never sacrifices depth for clarity.

The beauty of this book is not just that it accurately reflects reality through metaphor, symbolism, and allegory, but that it also has the power to change that reality by offering a new perspective both intellectually and emotionally on a subject that enters into households every day through newspapers, the internet, and television. Reality is what one perceives and maintains through indifference or alters through action and attitudes. This graphic novel offers the vantage point necessary to affect that initial change in perspective. In the modern political climate where even ostentatiously impartial news networks seem to lack objectivity, Pride of Baghdad should be read by every thinking person because it rises above the inevitable lines of subjectivity and it confronts the one question that transcends political or religious affiliations: what it means to be human in the face of inhumanity.

Science Fiction and Nonfiction from Frederik Pohl

Pohl, Frederik. Digits and Dastards. New York: Ballantine Books, Inc., 1966. Print.

Digits and Dastards compiles six short stories and two nonfiction articles.

“The Children of Night” presents an intergalactic public relations game of chess that features political maneuvering akin to what might be found among the politicians of Asimov’s Foundation.

In “The Fiend” a lonely sociopath of the stars pines for what he cannot have.

“Earth Eighteen” offers a traveler’s guide to a prominent flyway of the future that crosses the United States, complete with descriptions of some of the strangely familiar roadside attractions that lie in wait off the beaten path.

The mind of man cocoons itself in the body of chimp for the duration of distant voyages in “Father of the Stars.”

To fend off a common enemy, egg-shaped beings with detachable limbs attempt to communicate with an alien race with which they have no mutual reference points in “The Five Hells of Orion.”

Four greedy, entrepreneurial humans must join “With Redfern on Capella XII” in order to escape the strange customs of a planet of arthropodal beings.

These stories are not the most thought-provoking in the world, but they are entertaining and kept fresh by unforeseeable twists of plot and resolutions as catchy as fishing hooks.

The two nonfiction articles are almost more intriguing than the science fiction preceding them. In “How to Count on Your Fingers” and “On Binary Digits and Human Habits,” Pohl explores the advantages of the binary numbering system over the ubiquitous decimal system. Here the compiling and expression of information is considered in terms more familiar to machines and computers, but vastly useful to humans versed in the right language. Indeed, Pohl goes so far as to suggest several languages for verbal indication of binary digits. Not only are these articles interesting, but they are entirely lucid and aimed at the reader whose experience with numbers goes no farther than school. As complex as the applications of the binary system are, Pohl’s arguments can be fully understood with the skills learned in fourth grade math. It would be interesting to see such nonfiction considerations put into the context of the science fiction Pohl otherwise sticks to.