This is Deepak and today I'm in London.
And on my way to New York.
And I thought I'd share a few thoughts with you.
So this morning, when I was going through social media,
I came across a lovely video
by Professor Brian Cox
from England, who's a cosmologist.
And it was actually quite
lovely.
Dr. Cox has the ability to take complex
scientific ideas in cosmology and quantum mechanics
and make them relatable to all of us.
So first of all, thank you, Dr. Cox.
Brian Cox.
So here is what I learned from the video.
Couple of videos this morning
that current cosmology
is almost certain that the universe began
with the Big Bang about 13.8 billion years ago.
However, the cause of the Big Bang
is not known why it happened
when it happened.
Also, there's something called cosmic inflation, where
the universe tripled in size every trillionth
of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second
and then slowed down.
So it moved from the size of a dot to a period
at the end of a sentence to the size of a grapefruit.
In that period, cosmic inflation.
And then it continued to expand, but at a slower rate.
So right now the cosmic horizon is over
48 billion light years away from where we are
because of the cosmological constant, etc..
So the cause of cosmic inflation
and the precision of that mathematically is not known.
Also, there's a period called
the blank epoch, 10
to the power of -43 seconds,
post time zero.
And during that period
there are no laws of physics.
Also, it's not known why
laws of physics exist.
So, you know, as I was watching this video,
I also remembered an email
that I had received from
from a prominent physicist.
I'm trying to recall his name at Princeton,
one of the only living then living
contemporary physicists
of Einstein's time and
Freeman Dyson and Freeman Dyson.
In an email that I received some time ago before he passed
on, said that there were three riddles
that he had
been confounded by all his life.
Number one, a universe fine tuned for mind and.
And mind and
life. Number one.
Number two, around consciousness.
And number
three, the unpredictable.
He didn't say random,
but unpredictable movement of particles.
He said he didn't know the answer to these riddles,
but he thought they were somehow connected.
I thought that was brilliant.
I want to share with you.
So then I was also watching
this video of Professor Cox.
Maybe it was another one where he spoke about life
beginning in our planet about 2.8 billion years ago
in probably volcanic thermal
voids deep inside,
under the sea, in the ocean,
several miles under the ocean,
where there was the appropriate,
I guess, temperature
and an environment for molecules
to arrange themselves in such a way that maybe
DNA was created.
So lots of very interesting theories.
But here is my response to all these theories.
You cannot come up
with these theories or even name elements.
Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen.
Nitrogen.
Or name forcefields.
Or come up with hypotheses.
Unless before you do that,
there is some experience
or some mode of knowing
in consciousness.
And that mode of knowing, of course, is filtered
through the conditioned human mind and by the limitations
of the human brain.
So even that which we call
an empirical fact, let's take
Higgs boson.
That's a species-specific perceptual snapshot.
And by the time you actually locate
it, measure it, whatever, it doesn't exist.
In fact, by the time you measure anything,
it doesn't exist.
We're only measuring the past,
it doesn't matter in a timescale of a few
microseconds or
eons, billions of light years.
What we perceive, what we measure,
even as empirical facts.
Cosmic wave background
is a very species specific mode of knowing.
that requires, first of all, the human brain,
but even the mode of knowing is influenced by
scientific bias.
An empirical fact is not a measure of truth.
It's just
what we can perceive
with all these very
complicated instruments that we create as well.
And then we give names to modes
of knowing and experience.
Higgs Boson.
Higgs is the name of a physicist.
Boson actually was related to Bose.
Another Indian physicist.
So these are names
given to modes of knowing and experience.
And therefore, I think
unless we actually can explain consciousness,
then no theory is valid, no matter what
the empirical facts are, no theory is valid.
And just to remind ourselves once again
that scientific method,
the scientific discipline,
is also conceived in consciousness.
Experiments are done in consciousness
observations are made in consciousness.
And all of them have limitations
of knowing as well, the human brain
and the conditioned human brain whether it's conditioned
by the scientific method or mathematics,
which remains a mystery why it's so effective.
It doesn't matter.
So scientific conditioning actually
is in the mind,
and it's a very useful discipline
because without that,
I wouldn't be able to talk to you right now
on the Internet
or do any of the things that we do or take for granted
flying in planes, intergalactic
probes, all these observatories in space
and all the amazing technology that has now emerged,
including artificial intelligence.
And of course,
the technology
that we're using right now to communicate
and the next phase of our technology, web3.
So science is an amazing gift
that has evolved,
let's say, in the human mind and human consciousness.
Two separate things, by the way.
Consciousness is not really human.
Consciousness is not species-specific.
Awareness is the fundamental ground of all experience.
But then the mind is species-specific.
And the mind is also,
you know, culture-specific,
and biased by
all theories
including all scientific theories.
So unless we know the origins of consciousness.
And unfortunately, my colleagues, scientific
colleagues, philosophical colleagues, neuroscientists
still think of consciousness as an emergent phenomenon,
not as something that is,
that is irreducible, that is fundamental,
that is without cause, that is formless,
that is infinite, and that is modifying itself
as the activities in humans, we call mind,
intellect and ego
and then modes of knowing and observation
and then labeling
our observations which occur in consciousness,
rarefying them as concrete objects out there
and then developing methodologies to study this.
So when we realize this,
then I think it's obvious
that these amazing theories
that Dr.
Brown colleagues, colleagues like Sean Carroll
and many others, including Dr.
Wilczek, all these people
have come up with amazing models
for explaining
the history of creation of the universe
and how the universe functions.
But let's keep reminding ourselves
that models of reality are not reality.
In fact, we don't even perceive
the world directly as it is
because our perception is always filtered
through the conditioned human mind and
all we do is make
mental models
of what we think reality is.
And these mental models, including spacetime,
causality, are mental models created by human beings
and modes of knowing and experience
that are given names: carbon, hydrogen,
gravity, force fields, electromagnetism,
are names given to human modes
of knowing and experience
and labeled
as objective reality.
But these are not
cannot be objective reality.
Spacetime causality
particles force fields cannot be objective reality.
They're human constructs.
And it's very important to recognize
that that human constructs
cannot access
Truth with the capital "T".
Reality.
Impossible unless we transcend the mind.
Then we have access to this field of possibilities,
superposition of possibilities,
unpredictability, non-local correlation,
and the source of all experience.
So I would like to propose
that we
need a consciousness based science.
And once we do that,
then all these conundrums will be easier.
Not that we will be able to solve
the mystery of our existence
or even the awareness of the mystery of our existence.
So that's the issue here.
Why embrace
this new idea of consciousness and cosmos
as complementarities?
Well, because it'll expand our ability to do science
and get us closer to truth,
closer to truth.
Fundamental truth
is inaccessible to the human mind
because of the limitations of the human mind.
Now, this also leads to actually something that
is very much part of yoga.
I've spoken in the past on yamas and niyamas.
But let's go to the last niyama which is Ishvara
Pranidhana, surrender to mystery.
So this is what I like to
propose, that actually, if
we take time to do
nothing and allow
consciousness to be
as awareness as part of our experience,
shift from perceptual activity, cognitive ability,
transcend all that and make
pure consciousness as our reference point.
Then in the mere witnessing
of form and phenomena there is a deeper
understanding in this spontaneous
evolution
that gives us insight,
intuition, and some kind of
creative
insight and imagination
that brings us closer to truth, and
that involves
great humility.
Surrender to mystery.
A lot of scientists have that, by the way,
the mystery and the sense of wonder.
But they forget to ask,
what is it that wonders?
What is it that is mystified?
What is it that wants to know?
And of course it's you.
It's me, but me not as a body,
mind me and as the awareness in which
the body, mind, ego, intellect
and its perceptual
activity are a unified activity
that is constantly evolving
into deeper
understanding.
So I think we need to revise Darwin.
And I know when I say this, I
risk being vilified,
burned at the stake, metaphorically speaking,
but it's obvious
that random mutations, we could say
unpredictable mutations, but not random
random mutations, natural selection
or the impermanent
appearance of virtual particles
as determined by the uncertainty principle
don't really explain
reality or how we know reality.
Because without even wanting to know
reality, reality's inaccessible.
The mystery of existence.
Not just the mystery of existence.
It's also the awareness of mystery of existence.
So when I look at the yamas and niyamas, I see the first
Ahimsa peace presence, because when your mind is disturbed,
it collapse every mode of knowing.
So ahimsa first Yama.
In the last niyama, Ishvara Pranidhana, surrender
to mystery of existence,
but also surrender to
the mystery of the awareness
of existence.
Existence is a mystery, but even more,
more mysterious
is awareness of the mystery of existence.
I hope to share this video of the doctor's
Brian Cox, with Dr.
Frank Wilczek, with
others who have postulated
these theories, including Sean Carroll
and the multiverse and string theories.
Michio Kaku and see
what their response is.
Through dialog, we can all learn from each other.
Okay, my friends.
That's it for now.
All the best from England.
London.
I'm on my way to New York now after having a fantastic
pilgrimage in the Himalayas and also a period of silence.