A different awareness

Cosmological Ruminations, Part 7

Photo: Canglang Pavilion, Suzhou, China

“There is no need to study or investigate the sun in order to discover the matter of the solar world: this matter exists in ourselves and is the result of the division of our atoms. In the same way we have in us the matter of all other worlds. Man is, in the full sense of the term, a 'miniature universe'; in him are all the matters of which the universe consists; the same forces, the same laws that govern the life of the universe, operate in him; therefore in studying man we can study the whole world, just as in studying the world we can study man.”

G.I. Gurdjieff, as quoted in In Search of the Miraculous, P. 88

One of the things I think about frequently is the difference between understanding the world through material science and understanding it through a direct inner experience.

They’re not at all the same thing, although they are in many ways absolutely complementary. Yet the sciences study things strictly from the external point of view; and there are certain things that can only be understood through an inner understanding, which is not dependent upon physical experiments in order to explain itself.

To this end, I share with readers the fact that I am the grandson of Arthur E. Ruark, from whence my mostly-unused middle name Edward. Lest folks think I know very little about quantum physics, know that I was told about quantum physics by him in person when I was yet a wee thing.