An attempt to present a holistic view of knowledge

[sravna]

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At a time when Science is considered the most authoritative knowledge, everything else being dismissed as half baked knowledge or quackery, let me submit that Science is not the last word on knowledge and that it is only the stepping stone in the logical route to true knowledge.

Those who have read my posts would know my view that reality goes beyond this physical world and that absolute reality is spiritual. Ancient Indian wisdom clearly spells out how everything ultimately becomes one with this reality. In the ensuing posts I would like to present a holistic view of all worldly knowledge and how spiritual maps to the physical and mental reality. Though my conviction about reality is in accordance with the Indian wisdom, I do not want to start with a bias towards any school of philosophy. I would like to let my thoughts run freely and logically and see how all current knowledge fit into this framework of holistic knowledge.

 

[vgane]

Welcome this thread Srinivasan!

 

[a-TB]

At a time when Science is considered the most authoritative knowledge, everything else being dismissed as half baked knowledge or quackery, let me submit that Science is not the last word on knowledge and that it is only the stepping stone in the logical route to true knowledge.

Those who have read my posts would know my view that reality goes beyond this physical world and that absolute reality is spiritual. Ancient Indian wisdom clearly spells out how everything ultimately becomes one with this reality. In the ensuing posts I would like to present a holistic view of all worldly knowledge and how spiritual maps to the physical and mental reality. Though my conviction about reality is in accordance with the Indian wisdom, I do not want to start with a bias towards any school of philosophy. I would like to let my thoughts run freely and logically and see how all current knowledge fit into this framework of holistic knowledge.

Science is about scientific method which means proof and logic. Not all theories in Science have conclusive proofs. No one I know views unproven ideas as real.

I don't know what is 'everything else'? Who is dismissing what?

Ultimately means what - at a particular time? What Indian wisdom says it all becomes one with reality?

I am not sure what is assumed for a reader to make sense out of this post.

 

[sravna]

Here's the outline of how I am going to present my views.

I will start with the assumption that there is a reality beyond this physical world and I will attempt to show how that reality maps onto the reality in this world. Basically I will try to show that there are higher level laws beyond the laws that Science can discover through its methods and try to show how both these laws correspond.

To me, Science has only taken the first step. There is one more step that we need to climb before our knowledge becomes real and complete.

 

[renuka]

Dear Sravna,

I agree about knowledge that we need to have a holistic view when it comes to knowledge.

I will give you an example..a few months back I had to consult a doc for some condition and since the condition involved 3 systems in the body I was referred to a total of 3 different specialists.

All I could see is none of them were having a holistic view of the human body..each one of them were just seeing the symptom from the sub specialist point of view and did not combine each symptom with the entire human body as a whole unit and each one said they could not really understand what was happening to me.

Finally I myself combined all the symptoms and connected it and came to a proper diagnosis and now I am symptom free after making the needed changes without the need of medication.

Thanks to my holistic view in life that I managed to 'cure' myself. If I had narrow view in life I would be on medication!

So I do agree with your point of view about being holistic but firstly being holistic even in science is hard enough cos the more we know the more narrow our vision and connection with the whole picture thinking does not arise.

Now if you propose to want to prove that there is something beyond the physical world wont that be almost a Mission Impossible?

How do you propose to even start?

 

[yesmohan]

Even in hurdles- race in sports, the first hurdle will after 10 metres. Why people put hurdles before "the attempt" to start?

 

[sravna]

Dear Renuka,

The following is the logic I propose to use:

We perceive the physical world through the senses. But we do not stop there.We try to interpret what we perceive through the senses. To me this suggests that there is a higher reality beyond the physical world. I will try to argue this point to show that there is spiritual reality.

 

[Brahmanyan]

Dear Sri Srinivasan Vaidyaraman,

Nice of you to have started an interesting subject. There are many questions that come to our mind when we look into our Universe. Same has passed through the minds of thinkers of past and present, hereunder I give one to ponder:
“We find ourselves in a bewildering world. We want to make sense of what we see around us and to ask: What is the nature of the universe? What is our place in it and where did it and we come from? Why is it the way it is?”
― Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time

Regards,
Brahmanyan,
Bangalore.

 

[sangom]

Dear Renuka,

The following is the logic I propose to use:

We perceive the physical world through the senses. But we do not stop there.We try to interpret what we perceive through the senses. To me this suggests that there is a higher reality beyond the physical world. I will try to argue this point to show that there is spiritual reality.

Dear Shri Sravna,

I will say that "there is something within us, which is able to make us interpret the perceived world, and most of us perceive and interpret the phenomena in the same way". This alone does not make a "reality" or "higher reality" indispensable; may be it is an unidentified force. What do you feel?

 

[sravna]

Dear Sri Srinivasan Vaidyaraman,

Nice of you to have started an interesting subject. There are many questions that come to our mind when we look into our Universe. Same has passed through the minds of thinkers of past and present, hereunder I give one to ponder:
“We find ourselves in a bewildering world. We want to make sense of what we see around us and to ask: What is the nature of the universe? What is our place in it and where did it and we come from? Why is it the way it is?”
― Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time

Regards,
Brahmanyan,
Bangalore.

Thank you Shri Brahmanyan.

 

[sravna]

Dear Shri Sravna,

I will say that "there is something within us, which is able to make us interpret the perceived world, and most of us perceive and interpret the phenomena in the same way". This alone does not make a "reality" or "higher reality" indispensable; may be it is an unidentified force. What do you feel?

Dear Shri Sangom,

I think I can answer your question during the course of my argument.

 

[sravna]

The basic premise that I am going to use is that everything that happens in this world has an underlying significance. This significance emanates from what I call as spiritual reality. I define spiritual reality as something that transcends space and time. All that exists in this world changes with respect to space or time. Depending on whether these change with respect to both space and time or with respect to time only make them two different realities. If it is with respect to both space and time we have the physical reality and if it is only with respect to time only we have the mental reality. Spiritual reality is unchanging with respect to both space and time.

There will be more clarity as the discussion proceeds.

 

[renuka]

Dear Sravna,

Do we really have to link everything to spirituality?

If we do.. how different are we from those who only think that its only the physical world and nothing else.

I somehow feel the word Spirituality sort of gives a sense of something "Higher".

It somehow makes me feel uncomfortable if I still want to view something as Higher or Lower.

Thats like having the God and Devil concept.

Personally I would prefer to not use the word spirituality ..if we want to define that which transcends space and time we need to come up with a new word.

Cos dividing our understanding into Higher and Lower reality is simply just the same thing turned inside out.

The physical world is perceivable..we have not much idea of its "substratum" whether its actually "spiritual" as we think it is.

So for now it would be a safer bet if we could arbitrarily define "reality" as Physical and Non Physical ,reason being we do not have much idea about the Non Physical reality.

 

[Lalit]

Can it be termed as "metaphysical reality?

 

[sravna]

Dear Renuka,

What I wrote comes out of my conviction . The very reason for this initiative is to show that the substratum is indeed spiritual. The reason for separating the realities as higher and lower will also be evident. You will have to wait till I am done with my arguments.

 

[sangom]

What baffles me is the real meaning of this word "spiritual"; what spirit and where is it? And, why should anything spiritual be more of reality than what is less spiritual or worldly?

 

[sravna]

Dear Shri Sangom,

It is my theory that spiritual cannot be measured by any instrument. Its existence has to be directly understood by the mind. That is the reason the knowledge acquired through scientific methods will never be complete.

Spiritual reality is a greater reality because physical reality vanishes when spiritual reality acts on it. The enlightenment that worldly existence is illusory is an example. I will discuss more of this in the coming posts.

 

[renuka]

What baffles me is the real meaning of this word "spiritual"; what spirit and where is it? And, why should anything spiritual be more of reality than what is less spiritual or worldly?

Is there a Sanskrit equivalent for the word Spiritual?

In Sanskrit actually there is no classification as Higher and Lower when it comes to the physical and non physical.

Its Para(Transcendental) and Apara(Material) but mostly Para and Apara is "wrongly" translated as Higher and Lower.

 

[renuka]

Can it be termed as "metaphysical reality?

that would be a good term to use.

 

[sravna]

Is there a Sanskrit equivalent for the word Spiritual?

In Sanskrit actually there is no classification as Higher and Lower when it comes to the physical and non physical.

Its Para(Transcendental) and Apara(Material) but mostly Para and Apara is "wrongly" translated as Higher and Lower.

Dear Renuka,

In gaining an understanding of something, words used are not really important if there is an intuitive understanding of what is said. But I do agree that there should be a clear definition of a word to avoid potential misinterpretation of what is said.

I will embark on this exercise first and define the key words that I will be using.

 

[sravna]

Please watch out for this thread. I am working on some fundamental ideas about reality and also how various pieces of knowledge can be connected together. I will post them as soon as I can see a coherent picture of the whole. Based on my experiences helping people with health and other problems and my understanding of the vedas , I plan to submit a hypothesis with proof to the Nature magazine on spiritual energy and reality

For a month or even two, I will not be posting much but expect to post regularly after that.

Trailer till then:

Mental and Spiritual reality exist
Spiritual energy is real

 

[renuka]

Please watch out for this thread. I am working on some fundamental ideas about reality and also how various pieces of knowledge can be connected together. I will post them as soon as I can see a coherent picture of the whole. Based on my experiences helping people with health and other problems and my understanding of the vedas , I plan to submit a hypothesis with proof to the Nature magazine on spiritual energy and reality

For a month or even two, I will not be posting much but expect to post regularly after that.

Trailer till then:

Mental and Spiritual reality exist
Spiritual energy is real

Dear Sravna,

You might like this:

[h=1]Paralysed Man Walks With Help Of Brain Power[/h]
http://news.sky.com/story/1557862/paralysed-man-walks-with-help-of-brain-power

 

[renuka]

Dear Sravna,

If brain power can by pass the spinal cord and be transmitted via electrodes placed on the paralyzed person's lower limbs to make him walk..then I guess medical science can think of doing spinal surgery and placing these electrodes along the spinal cord(paraspinal area) to start transmitting brain signals.

Then it would be more relaxing for the patient cos right now for an external electrode the person would be mentally fatigued to walk.
With internal paraspinal electrodes there would be less effort from the brain.

 

[sravna]

Dear Sravna,

If brain power can by pass the spinal cord and be transmitted via electrodes placed on the paralyzed person's lower limbs to make him walk..then I guess medical science can think of doing spinal surgery and placing these electrodes along the spinal cord(paraspinal area) to start transmitting brain signals.

Then it would be more relaxing for the patient cos right now for an external electrode the person would be mentally fatigued to walk.
With internal paraspinal electrodes there would be less effort from the brain.

Dear Renuka,

Very interesting.

The ways are different. If one day spiritual science develops it would be a top down approach by being sure about the theories first.

On the other hand Science as it is, affirms knowledge mostly by experimentation

Brain is the key to everything in the body. A lot of accomplishments can be made if one understands the brain well.