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at the very beginning of my encounter of eastern traditions I was very threatened myself for maybe

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different reasons but I was I felt it threatening to leave rational thinking the analytical mind

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the kind of world that I have grown up in and that I have been educated in and to try and transcend this

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world in meditative experience that is something threatening to somebody who does it for the first

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time and so many physicists are threatened by the main idea of having their very dear theories

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compared to mystical traditions Fritjof Capra is 46 years old he studied physics at Vienna University

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and worked for various institutes in Europe as a theoretical physicist he now lives in San Francisco

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in 1975 Capra wrote a book which made him famous with the general public and unpopular with most of his

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colleagues it was called the Tao of physics in it he argued that there exists a profound harmony between

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the insights of modern physics and Eastern mysticism he now believes that this unlikely meeting between

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East and West contains lessons for our global survival searching for the fundamental building block of the

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universe physicists have divided up matter in experiments that deal with phenomena far beyond

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the range of the senses the first candidate for the basic unit of matter was the atom later it was

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discovered that the atom could be split into smaller component parts a nucleus and electrons then the nucleus

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itself was found to be divisible into protons and neutrons but advancing technology added dramatically to the complexity

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over a hundred further particles were identified in the wake of numerous experiments with particle

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accelerators these instruments consist of vast hollow rings in which bundles of particles are accelerated to

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almost the speed of light other particles can be accelerated in the opposite direction and the two bundles of

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the subatomic matter made to collide

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the results of such a collision can be represented as a graphic display on a computer screen

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this is the subatomic world ruled by the indeterminacy of quantum mechanics a world in which the search for the

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the simplest particle has led to baffling complexity a dance of subatomic matter creating and destroying itself

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in trying to understand these phenomena scientists have had to let go of analogies with the world of the senses

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they no longer apply to grasp the unimaginable some have turned to ancient symbols used by eastern mystics they too contended with the problems of searching for knowledge beyond the senses

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to grasp the unimaginable some have turned to ancient symbols used by eastern mystics they too contended with the problems of searching for knowledge beyond the senses

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one such symbol is the hindu god shiva whose dance represents the creation as an indivisible reality by contrast capra says classical science has divided nature artificially into separate fragments and so brought about a state of crisis

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the way out lies through an interplay between scientific analysis and mystical intuition

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the global crisis can be seen as essentially a crisis of perception

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it comes from the fact that the cartesian newtonian world view is embodied in our social institutions

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and forms the basis of our approach to the major problems of our time

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now what are the major problems of our time just to take the most urgent ones

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the threat of nuclear war

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the devastation of the environment

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and our inability to deal with hunger around the world

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now all three of these can be traced back directly to this crisis of perception

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that we are using a fragmented mechanistic reductionistic world view to understand and deal with the world around us

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what we need is a holistic or ecological world view which takes into account the fundamental interdependence of all phenomena and activities

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and the world as a process rather than as a rigid structure

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capra's book has been translated into twelve languages and almost a million copies printed

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in calling it the Tao of physics he linked his own science with the world of the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu

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the founder of Taoism and a contemporary of Confucius

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Tao means way and in Taoism it is the way or the path along which the universe proceeds

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human fulfillment can only be found in flowing with the Tao

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in the world view of Taoism real knowledge is achieved not through effort of mind but through direct contact with reality

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such experience can arise in a meditative state in which thoughts are cleared away

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so that spiritual insight can surface from the depths of consciousness

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something like this happened spontaneously to capra in 1969

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it was this experience which inspired him to write the Tao of physics

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five years ago I had a beautiful experience which set me on a road that has led to the writing of this book

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I was sitting by the ocean one late summer afternoon

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watching the waves rolling in and feeling the rhythm of my breathing

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when I suddenly became aware of my whole environment as being engaged in a gigantic cosmic dance

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being a physicist I knew that the sand rocks water and air around me

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were made of vibrating molecules and atoms

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and that these consisted of particles

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which interacted with one another by creating and destroying other particles

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I knew also that the Earth's atmosphere was continually bombarded by showers of cosmic rays

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particles of high energy undergoing multiple collisions as they penetrated the air

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all this was familiar to me from my research in high energy physics

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but until that moment I had only experienced it through graphs diagrams and mathematical theories

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as I sat on that beach my former experiences came to life

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I saw cascades of energy coming down from outer space

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in which particles were created and destroyed in rhythmic pulses

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I saw the atoms of the elements and those of my body participating in this cosmic dance of energy

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I felt its rhythm and I heard its sound

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and at that moment I knew that this was the dance of Shiva

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the lord of dancers worshipped by the Hindus

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The comparison between physics and mystical traditions is only a small part of a much broader change of world view

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and change of consciousness that is now happening in our society

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a shift of paradigms as it is often called

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it is a shift from the mechanistic world view that is expressed in classical physics

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to a holistic and ecological vision of reality

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and this shift is taking place in society

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if you wish it is taking place in the collective unconscious

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and people somehow sensed that

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so when I wrote the Tao physics

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I had many enthusiastic reactions

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from psychologists, from anthropologists

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from health professionals, doctors and nurses

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from many many people

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who felt intuitively

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that in their fields

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things were also changing in this direction

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moving in this direction