"There is something in all of us that seeks the spiritual. The spiritual is inclusive. It is the deepest sense of belonging and participation. We all participate in the spiritual at all times, whether we know it or not. There's no place to go to be separated from the spiritual, so perhaps one might say that the spiritual is that realm of human experience which religion attempts to connect us to through dogma and practice.
Sometimes it succeeds and sometimes it fails. Religion is a bridge to the spiritual--but the spiritual lies beyond religion. Unfortunately, in seeking the spiritual we may become attached to the bridge rather than crossing over it."
--Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D.
BRIDGE - ANTAKARANA - LINK BETWEEN MATTER AND SPIRIT - SCIENCE AND RELIGION
Heart Sutra, Ancient Buddhist Wisdom in the Light of Quantum Reality by Mu Soeng Sunim
The
electron-scanning microscope, with the ability to magnify several thousand
times, takes us down into a realm that has the look of the sea about it.
In the kingdom of corpuscles, there is transfiguration and there is
Samsara, the endless round of birth and
death. Every passing second, some 2 1/2 million red cells are born, every
second, the same number die. The typical cell lives about 110 days, then
becomes tired and decrepit.
As the magnification increases, the flesh begins to dissolve. Muscle fiber
takes on a crystalline aspect. We can see that it is made of long spiral
molecules in orderly array. And all of these molecules are swaying like
wheat in the wind, connected with each other and held in place by invisible
waves that pulse many trillions of times a second.
And what are the molecules made of? As we move closer, we can see atoms, the
tiny shadowy balls dancing around their fixed locations in the molecules,
sometimes changing position with their partners in perfect rhythms. And now
we focus on one of the atoms: its interior is lightly veiled by a cloud of
electrons. We come closer, increasing the magnification. The shell dissolves
and we look on the inside to find . . . Nothing.
Somewhere within that emptiness we know is a nucleus. We scan the space,
and there it is: a tiny dot. At last, we have discovered something hard and
solid, a reference point. But no! As we move closer to the nucleus it,
too, begins to dissolve. It, too, is nothing more than an oscillating field,
waves of rhythm. Inside the nucleus are other organized fields: protons,
neutrons, even smaller particles. Each of these, upon our approach, also
dissolves into pure rhythm.
Of what is the world made? It is made of emptiness and rhythm. At the
ultimate heart of the body, of the world, of the universe, there is no
substance. There is only the dance.