May 22, 2024

This Essay considers the relation of math to science, the reliance of both on consciousness, and what this means for understanding the true reality within which we live.

Many people think of math as the way we use numbers every day from an early age — adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. At a more advanced level, however, mathematics is a highly sophisticated discipline.

One great mystery — which has perplexed illustrious mathematicians for centuries — is why anyone has an interest in higher math at all. Human beings could get along just fine fulfilling their basic physical needs — finding food, shelter, and sex — without higher math.

Why Did Advanced Mathematics Happen?

Why is it that some people feel a powerful urge to understand and create complex mathematical formulas, sometimes even sacrificing material pleasures and practical opportunities to wrestle with a complex equation. Math can be as compelling for some as music, creating art, or playing a sport.

An equally perplexing mystery is why abstract mathematical formulas can precisely describe the material world. Higher math functions through complex formulas that are ideas, images, understandings that arise solely in consciousness, in the imagination of a gifted individual. These ideas are shared from one mind to another by symbols — markings on a piece of paper or a screen that often do not represent physical things, but ideas in consciousness.

So why do these abstract ideas that arise from a stroke of insight in consciousness, like E=mc², correspond to the material world? This simple formula came to Einstein in a flash of insight, yet it precisely described a previously hidden dimension of the material world. And there are many, many other examples, some of which have arisen in dreams and in other altered states of consciousness.

These immaterial ideas often do not start from a desire to build a shelter, cook food, or win a mate. Much of early science began as a process for studying the material world — trying to understand it in order to solve practical problems and improve daily life. Simple math was one of its helpers. But higher mathematics usually does not start from trying to solve any practical problem in the material world. It often involves an attempt to resolve a highly sophisticated mathematical question that has little or no practical application. Continue reading “Math, Consciousness, Reality” →

March 3, 2024

Continuing the series of Essays dealing with the choice between worldviews we each must make, it is important to consider how science might impact this choice.

Science is central to the modern world, so it is critical to examine how, or if, it might help us decide if we live in a moral world, and whether we should choose to live by the worldview of Materialism or that of the wisdom traditions.

The fascinating answer is that science does not have a position on either of these questions, and does not even provide much guidance on them. Since the dawn of modern science over 400 years ago, however, most scientists have overwhelmingly chosen for their own lives the belief that we live in a moral world, and that the worldview of the wisdom traditions is more likely to be true than that of Materialism.

The reason is simple: Although science is the cornerstone of everything we know about the material world, many of the most important things in life are outside the realm of the material. Since they cannot be measured or calculated, they cannot be dealt with using any scientific methods.

What Science Can and Cannot Do

We have learned many important things through science. In cooperation with its close ally, technology, wonderful inventions, marvelous tools, and useful objects have been developed — including medicines, airplanes, lasers, computers, agricultural innovations, magnificent buildings, rockets that travel into space, and so much more.

Science has incredible tools for accomplishing plans, goals, and ambitions. If you decide to go to the moon, science is indispensable. But it is not much help in deciding what is important in your personal life. In the public domain, when making decisions, science has little to say about which priorities should be funded among all those that require funds: Should the available money be used for going to the moon, improving highways, providing increased support for the military, or feeding those who are hungry? Continue reading “Science and a Moral World” →

February 3, 2024

Our country, and our world, are in a time of great turmoil — including wars, intense political conflict within many countries, and mounting climate problems all over the globe. These in turn are causing vast migrations of people seeking safety and a better life — but there is nowhere for all these people to go without causing disruption, division, and sometimes outright hostility.

Added to this array of problems is the impact of living in an age of instant communication, which is too often used to spread fear, anger, resentment, and blame. One result is an increasing level of polarization, causing communities to break apart and increasing numbers of individuals to feel alone, adrift on a turbulent sea. Loneliness, frustration, and despair are rising rapidly, and it is hard to envision what the future will bring.

The Perennial Message of the Wise

We humans have both good and bad tendencies within us. Throughout history, those seeking wealth and power have exploited our dark sides for their own gain, feeding our fears, stoking our anger and greed, urging us to blame others and look out for ourselves only.

On the opposite side, brave men and women have arisen in every age who have encouraged us to act from the “better angels of our nature.” They have taught the message of compassion, love, kindness, and concern for others. They have counseled that the only way we will have fulfilling lives ourselves, and the only way our communities will be peaceful and nurturing for all members is if we make an effort to live by shared values. Continue reading “Compassion, Love, Wisdom, Service” →

In order to give direction to your life and have a framework for how to spend your time, it is essential to have core intentions concerning where you would like to go. Here are some of the Ultimate Goals or Intentions around which many people have organized their lives. Which ones resonate most with you?

Accomplishments (feeling that you are affecting the world positively/using your talents wisely)
Duty (fulfilling the responsibilities you were given or you chose to take on)
Creativity (to manifest, in some field, your own unique expression into life)
Relationships (finding and nourishing meaningful connections with others)
Service (helping people, making the world a better place for others)
Harmony (feeling aligned with that which is most important)
Meaning (a feeling that your life is worthwhile)
Happiness
Authenticity (feeling true to yourself and to your understanding of life)
Inner Peace (serenity, tranquility, equanimity)
Becoming Wise
Awakening, or Becoming Enlightened
Salvation (feeling accepted and embraced by the Divine)
Developing Compassion
Love (being centered in and radiating out an energy of acceptance, warmth, and appreciation)
Divine Union (feeling at one with the highest reality, with all that is)
Joy/Bliss (to be filled with an all-encompassing positive energy that seems to transcend normal pleasure and happiness

January 1, 2024

After surviving for 80 years with most of my faculties intact, perhaps I have earned the privilege of offering a few words of wisdom to those passing through this thing called life. Although it has sometimes been called a “vale of tears,” and it can certainly be that, it can also be a marvelous adventure and a wondrous mystery — filled with joy, beauty, and love.

Of course, there are many problems in our world, and we must try to deal with them as best we can. But every age has had its dire predictions and warnings of doom, yet we humans have always muddled through, and sometimes thrived.

The current estimate is that our universe has been around for about 14 billion years, and the human species has been on Earth for over 2 million of them. Further, the brain size of average human beings 300,000 years ago was about the same as ours, and people living 100,000 years ago probably had the same capacity to learn and develop as do we.

During that long expanse of time, before you and I were born, there were great disasters and incredible achievements in the human community, and it is likely this will be the case into the foreseeable future. One estimate is that this Earth will be around for another 5 or 6 billion years. So, although we often take our own individual lives to be the center of everything, a lot went on before our brief sojourns here, and a lot is likely to happen after our current lives end, both good and bad.

In this broad framework, there is only one pressing question we each face right now:

How will I live for the rest of my life? Continue reading “80 Years of Lessons” →

November 20, 2023

As I finish 80 years of life — a life filled with exciting adventures and unexpected experiences — gratitude and wonder are at the top of the list of feelings. How did I receive the privilege of this life; how did it happen that I awakened one day into the gift of awareness, of having a conscious experience of living this particular life.

What a blessing it now seems, to have found myself on a planet with so many pleasures and delights, and with the gifts of seeing, hearing, and all the other senses available to experience it. As Thomas Traherne put it in his poem “Salutation”:

How could I expect smiles or tears,
Or lips or hands or eyes?

With Traherne, before they were just there, I too:

Did little think such joys as ear or tongue
To celebrate or see:
Such sounds to hear, such hands to feel, such feet.

Yet he concludes:

The earth, the light, the day, the skies,
The sun and stars are mine — if these I prize.

I too was given this Earth, and the ability to experience it personally, and even the capacities to learn, remember, and reflect. From those gifts, I have been able to put together my own life story, and even (I hope) gain a certain measure of wisdom. Continue reading “Reflections on Turning 80” →

September 24, 2023

The fourth Essay in the Two Worldviews series tackles the questions of why bad things happen, and if the world can really be a good place when there are so many problems.

Does the world seem like a good place to you?

In the United States especially, but other countries as well, polls show that the prevailing attitude about the nature of the world has fallen dramatically in the last few decades. This has led to a sharp rise in loneliness, alienation, drug use, and suicide — even among young people. Albert Einstein defined, in his view, the most important question facing humanity: “Is the universe a friendly place?” And Einstein concluded that he believed that it is, a similar conclusion to that of Martin Luther King, Jr. when he said, “The arc of the moral universe is long,” but it bends toward what is right and good.

Why Do Bad Things Happen?

Skeptico: If the world is a good place, why do bad things happen so often?

Wisdom Seeker: Because most of the time you identify “good” with what you want, with what suits you and your friends. But the world is not set up to fulfill your immediate desires; it is not organized to give you what your ego wants. Thus, before you can really know whether the world is a good place, whether it is friendly to us, you must understand what “good” actually is. Continue reading “If the World Doesn’t Seem Good” →

August 24, 2023

The third Essay in the Two Worldviews series considers the evidence for the worldview of the wisdom traditions.

Either you believe that the wisdom traditions are grounded in a Source to which we can all turn to establish justice, truth, fairness, and other principles we share concerning how we will interact with each other, or you believe that everything came about through random interactions of material things. The latter perspective is the worldview of Materialism, which denies the existence of any underlying values or meanings.

If you choose the latter, then each individual is finally alone, as the existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre maintained. You might join a group for protection, to fight for group power, or for social interaction, but each person in the group will ultimately be in it for themselves. There will be no shared recognition of justice or truth or the common good. Rather, each person will see the group as a place to get what they personally want, will use it to serve their self-interest.

Skeptico: Why does that happen?

Wisdom Seeker: Those who do not believe we are connected with each other in some fundamental way, or who do not accept that there are values that exist beyond the individual, will see no reason to refrain from continually trying to get what they want for themselves, however they can. For those who choose to live within this framework, the final resolution of the endless conflicts it brings can only be through power, so each person will attempt to secure and hold as much power for themselves as possible. Continue reading “Is This a Moral World?” →

July 12, 2023

This is the second Essay in the series entitled Two Worldviews. It focuses on how I made my choice between the two worldviews, and some of the experiences that have confirmed that choice for me over and over.

Skeptico: As I understand what you are saying, the wisdom traditions of the world share the view that values and meanings have a reality grounded in a dimension beyond the individual, that these exist independent of any one person’s wish or whim.

How this came to be is not agreed upon, but the conviction that there is an underlying Source for values and meanings is universal to all. Further, all agree that each of us has the capacity to harmonize our lives with this Unseen Order. Last, each tradition has its own name for this Source, this deep Order, but I like how Plato described it as the Good, the True, and the Beautiful.

Continue reading “How I Chose My World” →

The World In Which You Will Live

June 15, 2023

He who is not contented with what he has would not be contented with what he would like to have.
– Socrates

Greed is good! Greed is right! Greed works! Greed will save the U.S.A.!
– Gordon Gekko in the movie “Wall Street”

A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.
– Proverbs 22:1

The one who dies with the most toys wins.
– Bumper sticker

Embrace simplicity. Reduce selfishness. Have few desires.
– Tao Te Ching

The state of nature is a state of war of all against all.
– Thomas Hobbes

The world of the future will be different for each of the 8 billion people who live on this planet today. Each of us will experience, to a significant degree, the world we create: Our personal reality will be based on the beliefs we hold and the way we understand and interpret past, present, and future. And the choices we make in response to those things. Continue reading “Two Worldviews – and You Must Choose” →