Tuesday, May 14, 2013

The totality

Reality has several levels, or dimensions.
Everyday life is just a small part of the play.

We consist of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and a few other atoms.
However,
a painting is quite different from linseed oil, canvas and pigments.
You cannot submit a painting to a chemical laboratory
and expect to get it fully analyzed.
Key aspects will be missed.
Likewise,
we are something quite different from the atoms and molecules we are made of.
We are also animals, governed by biological laws.

But everyone knows that we are not just a kind of thin-haired apes
and that we are not driven solely by our genes.
Our actions are also governed by our delusions, dreams and misunderstandings.

Grandiose scientific theories about our true nature
are completely meaningless in the everyday dimension
although they may be confirmed by precise experiments.
In the same way,
free will, egoism and conscience
are useless concepts at the level of quantum physics.
String theory does not examine our world.
Darwin's discoveries do not apply to us.
The Law of the jungle does not apply here.

Biology, chemistry and quantum physics
cannot provide a complete explanation of the totality.
There are also other dimensions, mystical dimensions
where words, mathematical computations and chemical formulas are unusable.
These dimensions can not be proved scientifically.
They must be experienced.
Moreover, 
there are also metaphysical dimensions that can never be experienced.
The totality is like an ocean where we are drifting about in a lifeboat.

(Religious speculations have, of course, not much to do with everyday reality either.
Such activities belong to the realm of daydreams
Vedanta, christian eschatology and astrology may admittedly serve a purpose.
They can create meaning, cohesion or entertainment
but they cannot create consensus about what's really going on.)