Self-Knowledge and Global Responsibility: "Emergence and Convergence"
I would like to dedicate this talk to that great Indonesian and founder of this university, Nurcholish Majdid, who saw that uncompromising devotion to the oneness of God is consistent with reason and science, because the creator's majesty is found in nature and its laws. He said "...modernity resides in ...discovery of which truths are relative, leading to the discovery of that truth which is absolute, that is God". He was ahead of his time, as much of the current debate between religion and science demonstrates.
Ultimately, both spirituality and science are looking for the truth and meaning of our existence, and if we accept that there is only one reality in existence, then there can't be two opposing versions of it. Although there can be different points of view, there must also be a global view that combines them all. The question is, where is it? When we look at why we are alive with an open and brave mind, although we may start with questions about the nature of God or the universe, they all eventually lead back to ourselves: 'who is it that is asking these questions – who am I, really?'
I would like to look at how the spiritual and scientific perspectives each deal with this question of 'who am I, really' and what it means to be human. When reduced to essentials, both physics and metaphysics converge on a profound understanding of our humanity as the key to the mystery of the universe and our existence in it. So what is it that defines our humanity? I suspect we would agree that our humanity is tied to our awareness – both of ourselves and of the world. All we have is awareness – without it what are we and where would we be?
From the moment we are born to our last breath, we have this awareness. Even though we may develop and grow old and change, this awareness remains, ever watchful. Our sense of self, life, all that we know is through this awareness, you looking at me. But are we aware of our awareness?
It has immense aptitude and extends across time and space. It seems to have an almost unlimited capability to receive and comprehend both seen and abstract knowledge – quite amazing really. But what is it, and, whose awareness is it – because we didn't create it, it's just constantly... here. It is what defines who we are and yet we know so little about it.
From the spiritual perspective, Humankind has been carried through its momentous history on several vast rivers of wisdom which have poured out news of the hidden universes through the great religious and mystical traditions. For myself some of the most profound and complete explanations were laid out from the 13C onwards by Ibn 'Arabi and Rumi and their heirs. What they brought out about the nature of reality and what it means to be human is so universal and timeless that it speaks equally to the modern mindset today. In fact you could say that their explanations have actually prepared the ground for the modern mindset to understand itself.
If we try to lay out the central ideas in as few words as possible, we find two principles: Firstly, that there is one ultimate reality, which includes everything, past future or present. It contains the universe. We can call It God or existence or absolute being or reality or spirit or consciousness or love, it doesn't really matter because it is what it is, beyond any ideas we have about It.
Secondly, that ultimate reality images itself in our virtual relative universe. If we probe deep enough into ourselves we find that what we thought was 'our' awareness is actually an extension of the original awareness that holds all the universe in it. When our individual awareness awakens into the original timeless awareness, we see things as they really are and witness both the emergence of the boundless universe in its infinite diversity and its convergence into a single vision – through these eyes.
Whether we call it union or awakening or enlightenment or realisation or perfection or completion or self knowledge, it doesn't really matter, as long as it means that our limited reality is rejoined with the ultimate reality. In this way, we see how our everyday existence is already connected to the deepest and highest meaning of the universe, we just aren't aware of it most of the time. It isn't far away – it is ourselves. It is waiting to be known. This is good news as it gives each of us a special place in the scheme of things, a reason for being alive, and if we follow through sincerely and know ourselves in this way, our purpose here will become clear. If we look at the world of science, we find that some very similar conclusions about the place of humankind are emerging, although from a different direction. First, a deep oneness in the structure of reality is accepted, as is its mystery. Secondly the awareness of the human observer is seen as essential to any knowledge of reality.
The cosmologist Paul Davies puts it this way "All science is a search for unification...Finding links between seemingly disparate phenomena is what makes the scientific method so powerful and compelling... it tackles all physical phenomena, and... weaves them, economically, into a common explanatory scheme requiring fewer and fewer assumptions".
By identifying many of the underlying laws of nature, it has been possible to understand with breathtaking accuracy how the universe was formed from an unnamed Singularity 13.8 billion years ago, and to track in detail the emergence of time and space from a few nanoseconds after the big bang, through the various stages of the creation of elementary particles, to chemical elements, gas clouds, the creation of stars and galaxies, planets, carbon-based life forms, complex life forms and finally, here-we-are, an intelligent life form that can actually start to comprehend it all.
After the initial excitement when the explanations and mathematics for this process of the emergence of the universe from a singularity to us were tidied up, some scientists sat down and scratched their heads. It all seemed too tidy, like it had been pre-arranged. In order for life and humankind to emerge, an unlikely string of events had to happen in exactly the right order and in exactly the right way and time that seemed beyond the probability of chance. There were just too many cosmic coincidences. In fact, the closer you looked at it, the more it seemed that the whole 13.8 billion year history of the universe was just for the creation of life and intelligence like ours. In his new book even the avowed atheist Stephen Hawking admits that "our universe and its laws appear to have a design that is both tailor-made to support us, and if we are to exist, leaves little room for alteration. That is not easily explained".
Many theories have emerged to try to explain why the universe should be so life-friendly, and there is not time here even to mention them all. A very popular one at present is the Multiverse in the form of M-Theory. It tries to offer an explanation that doesn't need a creator: because there are an infinite number of universes (which we can't prove or see), one of them is bound to be just right for life, and that just happens to be the one we live in. Its detractors have noted that because it cannot be proved, it is no better than the beliefs it claims to replace. Philosopher Neil Manson called it "the last resort for the desperate atheist".
For me, some of the most interesting lines of thought have ended up with what is known as the Anthropic Principle (from the Greek 'anthropos' = man), which is actually a group of related theories. What they have in common is that we cannot exclude the observer from our theories, and that in some mysterious way, our human awareness must be a part of the explanation. Because of the way human awareness can integrate all knowledge and encompass the universe in its mind, maybe human awareness is the fruit of evolution and the way in which the universe knows itself? And how is it that a biological life form can arrive after 13.7 billion years and in the blink of an eye of cosmic time develop the culture, thought systems and technologies to look back to the origin of the universe and unlock so many of its secrets unless it was hardwired to do so in the first place? Was the necessity for life and consciousness built into the workings of the cosmos in a fundamental way? And yet it is in this virtual temporary existence that we human beings are verifying the oneness of all existence, and tracing how life and intelligence emerged in a stunningly beautiful emerging story of creation.
And what is more, through science we are finding even more mysterious and unexpected links between our human awareness and the act of creation. Not only can human intelligence now encompass the known universe – which is precisely what the spiritual traditions tell us that humankind is for – quantum theory seems to demonstrate that things exist only when awareness is focused on them. In other words things remain in potential until we select one of them, and then it happens. If it is the awareness of a thing that brings it into existence, and if existence is one, surely what we call human awareness and the mind of God cannot be separated – they must also be one, even if we are not yet aware of it.
What science is doing is to verify not only that human awareness can encompass the knowable universe, but that we also participate in its emergence from the unknown into the known. It seems miraculous – and maybe it is – that these finite bodies and minds can be hardwired for something so vast. However, if we accept that our awareness is extended from the heart of infinite awareness, then we can see not only that this miracle is possible, but also that this awareness cannot really belong to us. Perhaps here is a clue to the question posed "who am I, really?".
Reading between the lines, we find that the wise who historically paved the way for us understood all this, but did not speak of it openly. Now, in our lifetimes, this deep meaning of our humanity is coming out into the open, surely not by chance, so it must be meant for us to hear as this is on our watch. Who else is there to take this on if not each one of us? On of the great paradoxes is that we are alive at a time both of greatest danger and of greatest opportunity. On the one hand, any sober analysis of the world today will set off many warning alarms – economic crisis, population explosion, climate change, depletion of resources, poverty, environmental degradation, collapse of fish stocks, mass extinctions of species, fundamentalism – to name a few. Within a generation most of these will have reached crisis points, if they haven't already. How will the world look then? And who is responsible but us?
On the other hand, we stand on the edge of unprecedented knowledge of our place in the universe. We have in our hands the knowledge to bring about 'heaven on earth'. We understand like never before the complete inter-dependence of everything in nature and its unity, and what a finely balanced place our beautiful earth home is. We are able to communicate over distance to a degree that we can really begin to see that humankind is one family. Knowledge and ideas don't sit in libraries and universities anymore, they flow like water around the globe, educating, expanding awareness, connecting minds. For all its downside, globalisation has allowed billions more people to fulfill their potential. It is hard to believe that only a century ago, hardly any women in the world enjoyed the rights that we all take for granted today. Health, education and life expectancy are at levels our grandparents couldn't have dreamed of.
But we are at a crossroads. If we accept that we, humankind, have emerged into this universe as conscious beings for a purpose as all the evidence shows, it also follows that if we ignore that purpose, we give up our right to be here and the universe will find other pathways. At these crossroads we have a choice – continue as we are into certain danger, or wake up and take responsibility for our life now. It has been made clear that the key to real progress is in knowing ourselves, and through that finding our individual responsibility whatever that might be, knowing that each of us has a real contribution to make. Hence the title under which this talk is given, "Self-knowledge/global responsibility" – the two go together like two sides of the same coin. In knowing our origin we find both our happiness and our responsibility to the universe. It's a win-win situation.
