About the Universe

Excerpt from Siddhartha – Hermann Hesse, p.142 – p.145

aboutheuniverse — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:42:33 +0000

Govinda said: ” it seems to me, Siddhartha, that you still like to jest a little. I believe you and know that you have not followed any teacher, but have you not yoruself, if not a doctrine, certain thoughts? Have you not discovered certain knowledge yourself that has helped you lto live? It would give me great pleasure if you would tell me something abouth this.”

Siddhartha said: “Yes, I have had thoughts and knowledge, just as one feels life in one;s heart. I hve had many thoughts, but it would be difficult for me to tell you abouth them. But this is one thought that has impressed me, Govinda. Wiston is not communicable. The wisdom which a wise man tries to communicate always sounds foolish.”

“Are you jesting?” asked Govinda.

“No, I am telling you twhat i have discovered. Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, be fortified by it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it. I suspected this when i was still a youth and it was this that drove me away from teachers. There is one thought I have had, Govinda, which you will again think is a jest or folly: that is, in every truth the opposite is equally true. For example, a truth can only be expressed and enveloped in words if it is one-sided. Everything that is thought and expresses in words is one-sided, only half the truth, it all lacks totality, completeness, unity. When the Illustrious Buddha taught about the world, the had to divide it into Samsara and Nirvana, into illusion and truth, into suffering and salvation. One cannot do otherwise, there is no other method for those who teach. But the world itself, being in and around us, is never one-sided. Never is a man or a deed wholly Samsara or wholly Nirvana. never is a man wholly a saint or a sinner. This only seems so because we suffer the illusion that tims is something real. Time is not real, Govinda. I have realised this repeatedly. And if time is not real, then the dividing line that seems to lie between this world and eternity, between suffering and biliss, between good and evil, is also an illusion. “

“How is that?” asked Govinda, puzzled.

“Listen my friend. I am a sinner and you are a sinner, but someday the sinner will be Brahma again, will somdeay attain Nirvana, will someday become a Buddha. Now this someday is illusion. it is only a comparison. the sinner is not on the way to Buddha-like state, the is not evolving, althought our thinking cannot concieve things otherwise. No, the potential Buddha, already exists in the sinner, his future is alreay there. the potential hidden Buddha must be recognized in him, in you, in everybody. The world, Govinda, is not imperfect or slowly evolving along a long path to perfection. No it is perfect at every moment. every sin alrealdy carries grace within it, all small children are potential old men, all sucklings have death within them, all dying people – eternal life. It is not possible for one person to see how far another is on the way, the Buddha exists in the robber and dice playwer, the robber exists int he Brahmin. During deep meditation it is possible to dispel time, to seel simultaneously all the past, present and future, and then everything is good, everything is perfect, everything is Brahman. therefore, its seems to me that everything that exists is good – death as well as life, sin as well as holiness, wisdom as well as folly. eveyrhing is necessay, everything nessds only my agreement, my assent, my loving understanding, then all is well with me and nothing can harm me. I learned through my body and soul that it was necessayr for me to sin, that I needed to lust, that i hdad to strive for property and experience nausea and the depths of despair in order to learn not to resist them, in order to learn to love the world, an no longer copare ti with some kind of desired imaginary wolrld, some imaginary wision of perfection, but to leave it as it is, to love it and be glad to belong to it. These, Govinda, are some of the thoughts that are in my mind. “

Siddhartha bent down, lifted a stone from the ground and held it in his hand.

‘”This is a stone, and within a certain length of time it will perhaps be soil and from the soil it will become plant, animal or man. Previously i should have said: this stone is just a stone, it has no value, it belongs to the world of Maya, but perhaps because withing the cycle of change it can also becoem man and spirit, it is also of improtance. Tha is what i should have thought. But now i think: This stone is a stone, it is also animal, God and Buddha. I do not respect and love it because it was one thing and will become something else, but because it has already long been soemthing else, but because it has alreayd long been everything and always is everything. I love it just because it is a stone, because today and now it appeart to me a stone. I see value and meaning in each of its fine marking cavities, in the yellow, in the gray, in the hardness and the sound of it when i knock it, in the dyrness or dampness of its surface. There are stones that feel like oil or soap, that look like leaves or sand, and each one is differnt and worships Om in its own way, each one is Brahman. At the same time it is veyr much stone, aily or soapy, and that is just what pleases me and seems wonderful and worthy or worship. But I will say no more about it. Words do not express thought very well. They always become a little different immediately they are expressed, a little distorted, a little foolish. And yet is also pleases me and seems right that what is of value and wisdom to one man seems nonsense to another.”

Protected: Tantra Rising, from Yoga Journal

aboutheuniverse — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:15:47 +0000

This post is password protected. You must visit the website and enter the password to continue reading.

WHAT IS YOGA? from Godfri Dev’s talk on Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

aboutheuniverse — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 11:48:57 +0000

Yoga provides tools, new lenses to look at self and life. Through looking these lenses we develop CLEAR SIGHT.

- SEEING CLEARLY!!!!! CLEAR SEEING!!! by LOOKING DEEPER with lenses you discovered in your Yoga Practice.

- When you start seeing Clearer, what you see is : Nothing is under your control. nothing is out of your control – You are a part of the orchestra.

What you see is : You are not the breather. You are being breathed. Life breaths through you.

THY WILL BE DONE!

- CLEAR SEEING at its DEEPEST LEVEL: Samadhi (enlightnment, oneness, nothingness, emptiness) is here NOW – we just have to realize it is here through CLEAR SEEING.

What Silence is to music, Samadhi is to experience. It is already here!!! if it wasnt here, experience would not be here.

Samadhi is between your perceptions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- How do you get Samadhi – to Samadhi? Just relax into it…. it is already here.

eg. in a hotel loby… you waiting for a friend… hotel is living around you… you have no preference… you are not Bothered nor interested in it… you are in SAMADHI…. then you see your friend, you come out of SAMADHI as you focus on your friend…

nothing bothers you nothing interests you – Samadhi..

you just regocnize it. samadhi, breath, intemacy, coming and going… everything, energy… coming and going…

We come in to and come out of SAMADHI…. because life is dualistic… in samadhi alone there is no life… the nature of life is dualistic.

perception is duality… there is no duality between duality and non duality.

silence is not not sound

stillness is not not action

- yoga is happening NOW. (always…)

- Yoga is the activity of the mind surrendered.

Game of Go

aboutheuniverse — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 09:38:59 +0000

“The game of Go is a multidimensional” game… such as life. Has in its base, clear seeing, seeing the big picture… in it Good and Bad unify. Stories can disseapear.

Black Go Stones will not exist without the Whites, and whites without the blacks… and in it they play and create one picture together. Within the illusion of the game as a “war”, they actually work together, not against each other. One will not exist without the existance of the other.

Space to be, Emptiness, Nothingness is the intrinsic goal.

When the game is over a beautiful picture is left – only to be destroyed - wiped off the board – to make space for the next game.

It is played for the sake of playing… sake of expression… to enjoy… to be… just like life.

aboutheuniverse — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 20:38:37 +0000

Holografik Evren…

Holografik Evren

Çeviren: Işık UÇKUN
Yayın Tarihi: 17.Şubat.2009

1992’nin sonbaharında, dünyanın en büyük çağdaş fizikçilerinden birini kaybettik. Çalışmaları tüm dünyada pek çok kişiye ilham olan David Bohm, Londra’da hayata gözlerini yumdu. David Bohm’un bilime ve felsefeye olan katkıları çok geniştir, bu katkı gelecekte tamamen fark edilecek ve tamamlanacaktır.

David Bohm 20 Aralık 1917’de Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania’da doğdu. Bohm, kozmik güçlerden, anlayışlarımızın ötesinde, çok daha geniş bir uzay kavramı ile ilgili şaşırtıcı düşüncelerden etkilenmiş bir bilimadamıdır. Bohm teorisine, modern fiziğin iki temel direği olan kuantum mekaniği ve rölativite teorisinin gerçekte birbirlerine zıt olduğunu öne sürerek başladı.

Üstüne üstlük bu zıtlık sadece küçük detaylarda değil, çok temel noktalardaydı; çünkü kuantum mekaniği gerçekliğin süreksiz, nedensiz ve mekandan bağımsız olmasını gerektirirken rölativite teorisi ise gerçekliğin sürekli, nedenli ve mekana bağımlı olmasını gerektiriyordu. Bu farklılığın matematiksel bazı tekniklerle aslında varolmadığı gösterilebilir ama bu yaklaşım Bohm’un teorisine sınırsız sayıda keyfi özellik getirir ve Ptolmaic Astronomi’nin parçalayıcı teorisini birleştirmek için kullanılan ilmekleri anımsatır.

Dolayısıyla, bilim adamları arasında yaygın olan anlayışa karşıt olarak, yeni fizik temeli itibariyle kendi içinde çelişiyor gibi görünüyor ve yeni, tamamlanmış bir gerçeklik modeli sunmaktan uzak duruyor. Pek çok önde gelen fizikçinin bu farklılığa yeterince ilgi göstermemesi Bohm için ileride sorun oldu.

Kuantum fiziğine göre gezinen iki foton kuantası arasında ne kadar mesafe olursa olsun, ölçüldüklerinde her zaman özdeş bir polarizasyon açılarına sahip oldukları görülecektir. Bu da şu anlama geliyor; iki foton bir şekilde bir anda birbirleriyle iletişim kuruyor ve böylece hangi kutuplaşma açısında olacaklarını biliyorlar. Sonuçta, teknoloji parçacık deneyini gerçekleştirmek için elverişli hale geldi, ama hiç kimse sonuca ulaşan bir üretimde bulunamadı. Ardından 1982’de dikkate değer bir olay gerçekleşti. Paris Üniversitesi’nde, yöneticiliğini Alain Aspect’in yaptığı bir araştırma ekibi, 20 yüzyılın en önemli deneylerinden biri olabilecek olan çalışmayı gerçekleştirdi. Bu keşfin, bilimin yüzünü değiştirebileceğini düşünenler hala vardır. Aspect ve ekibi belirli koşullar altında atomaltı parçacıklarının, kendilerini ayıran mesafeye rağmen birbirleriyle anında iletişim kurabildiklerini keşfetti. İster 3 metre ya da 10 milyar mil uzakta olsun sonuç fark etmiyor, bir şekilde her parçacık, her zaman diğerinin ne yaptığını biliyor gibi görünüyordu.

Buna göre ya Einstein’ın uzun süre kabul gören “hiçbir iletişimin ışık hızından daha hızlı gerçekleşemeyeceği” teorisi gerçekti ya da iki parçacık mekandan bağımsız olarak birbirleriyle bağlantılıydılar. Çoğu fizikçi ışıktan hızlı oluşu reddettiği için bu korkutan manzara, bazı fizikçilerin Aspect’in bulgularını açıklamak adına ayrıntılı yöntemler denemelerine neden oldu. Ne var ki diğerleri için de bu yöntemler, daha da radikal açıklamalarda bulunmalarını sağladı.

David Bohm, atomaltı parçacıkların, birbirlerini ayıran mesafeye rağmen ilişkide kalabilmelerinin nedenini parçacıkların ileri geri bazı gizemli sinyaller vermelerine değil, gerçekte ayrı olduklarının bir illüzyon (aldatmaca) oluşuna bağlıyor. Bohm, fiziksel gerçekliğin nihai doğasının bize göründüğü gibi ayrı objelerin bir toplamı değil, daha çok sürekli ve dinamik bir akışa ait bölünmemiş bir bütün olduğunu önermektedir. Bohm’a göre, kuantum mekaniğine ve rölativite teorisine ait anlayışlar bölünmemiş, tüm parçaları tek bir birlik içinde birleşen bir evreni işaret etmektedir.

Sözedilen bölünmemiş bütün statik değil, daha çok sabit bir akış ve değişim halindedir; buna her şeyin ondan varolduğu ve sonuçta her şeyin onda eriyeceği bir tür görünmez esir (eter) denilebilir. Aslında, zihin ve madde de bir bütündür. Bohm kendi teorisini “holo eylem” olarak tanımlıyor. Holo ve eylem kelimeleri gerçekliğin iki asli özelliğine işaret etmektedir. Eylem kısmı gerçekliğin sabit bir değişimi halinde olduğuna, akışın ise yukarıda bahsedildiği gibi olduğuna işaret eder. Holo kısmı gerçekliğin holograma çok benzer bir şekilde yapılandığını gösterir. Bohm, evrenin bir holograma benzediğini söylemektedir.
Dolayısıyla, bunun ne anlama geldiğini anlamak için, bir hologramın bileşenleri ve yapısı hakkında fikir sahibi olmamız gerekir. Hologramla ilgili birkaç açıklama bulunsa da, hologram fikriyle ilgili şunlar söylenebilir.

Bir hologram meydana getirmek için, iki ışık huzmesine (lazere) ihtiyacınız olacaktır. Bir huzme, sizin hologram olmasını istediğiniz nesneye fırlatılacak ve diğeri de doğrudan özel fotografik plaka ya da film üzerine gönderilecektir. Bu iki ışık kaynağının karışarak oluşturduğu örüntüler plakayı etkileyecektir. Burada bir girdap oluşacaktır ve o anda plakaya bakarsanız, bu görüntünün bildiğiniz hiçbirşeye benzemediğini görürsünüz. Bununla beraber, eğer bir lazer ışınını bir film plakasının içinden geçirirseniz, nesne bir hologramın 3 boyutlu formunda yeniden oluşacaktır. Ayrıca eğer plakayı ikiye böler ve ışık huzmesini parçaların birinin içinden geçirirseniz nesnenin tamamı yeniden oluşabilir. Dolayısıyla, aslında her bir parça resmin bütününün bir modelini kapsayacaktır.

Bohm’un konunun ilgililerini en çok ürküten iddialarından biri de, günlük yaşantılarımızın somut gerçekliğinin gerçekten bir tür illüzyon olduğudur, tıpkı bir holografik imajda olduğu gibi. Bunun altında yatan gercek, varoluşun daha derin bir düzeni; tıpkı bir holografik film parçasının bir holograma hayat vermesi gibi, fizik dünyamızın nesnelerine ve görünümlerine de hayat veren gerçekliğin daha geniş ve daha temel bir seviyesidir.

Bohm, gerçekliğin bu daha derin seviyesine “saklı düzen”, bizim içinde bulunduğumuz seviyeye veya varoluşa da “görünür düzen” adını vermektedir. Başka bir bakışla, elektronlar ve tüm diğer parçacıklar bir suyun kaynağından fışkırırken aldığı geçici formdan öte birşey değildir. Bunlar, saklı düzenden yayılan sürekli bir akış ile desteklenirler ve bir parçacık yok oluyor gibi göründüğünde de aslında kaybolmaz. Bu durumda parçacık sadece bünyesinden çıktığı derinlerdeki düzene geri dönmüştür.

Bir holografik film parçası ve onun meydana getirdiği imaj da saklı ve görünür düzenlerin birer örneğidir. Film bir saklı düzendir çünkü kendisine kodlanmış olan imajın girişim modelleri, bütünden açığa çıkan saklı bir bütünselliğin yansımalarıdır. Filmden projekte edilen hologram görünür düzene aittir çünkü imajın açığa çıkmış ve algılanabilir haldeki bir görünümünü temsil etmektedir.

Karl Pribram
Bohm, evrenin bir hologram olduğunun kanıtını bulan tek araştırmacı değildir. Beyin araştırmaları alanında bağımsız olarak çalışan Stanford’lu nörofizyolog Karl Pribram da gerçekliğin holografik doğasının varlığına ikna olmuştur. Pribram, insan beyninin hologram şeklinde modellenebileceğini söylemektedir. Pribram, holografik modele; anıların beyinde nasıl ve nerede depolandığını araştırırken çekilmiştir. Onyıllarca devam eden sayısız çalışma anıların beyinde spesifik bir yerde sınırlanmaktan çok beyinde dağıldığını göstermektedir. 1920’lerde gerçekleştirilen bir dizi beyin bölgesi araştırmasında Karl Lashley, bir tavşanın beyninin hangi bölümü çıkarılırsa çıkarılsın karmaşık görevleri yerine getirmekle ilgili ameliyattan önce öğrendiklerini tavşanın hafızasından tamamen silemediklerini görmüştür. Tek problem şudur; hiç kimse hafıza deposuna ait bütünün, her bölümünde bulunan bu mekanizmayı açıklayabilecek bir mekanizma ortaya çıkaramamıştır.

Ardından 1960’lı yıllarda Pribram hologram kavramıyla karşılaştı ve beyin bilimcilerinin aradıkları açıklamanın ne olduğunu fark etti. Pribram hafızanın nöronlarda ya da küçük nöron gruplarında değil; tüm beynin, lazer ışını girişim modellerinin holografik bir imajını içeren lazer ışığı modelleriyle aynı şekilde, çaprazlama bölen sinir impulsları şeklinde kodlandığını kabul etmektedir.

Pribram’ın bulgularından yararlanan Bohm, beyinlerimizin daha büyük bir hologramın küçük birer parçaları olduğunu belirtmektedir. Yani beyinlerimiz, evrenin tüm bilgisini içinde barındırmaktadır. Ama henüz zihinlerin evrensel holograma ilişkin ne kadar sınırlı bir bakış açısı içinde olduğunu da göz ardı etmemek gerekir. Beyinlerimiz bizim algı pencerelerimizdir. Her zihin her zaman bütün resmi kapsar, ama sınırlı ve net olmayan bir bakış açısıyla. Bizler her birimiz yaşamlarımızda farklı deneyimler ediniriz ama yine de her bakış açısı doğru kabul edilir. Beyinlerimiz, zamanın ve mekanın ötesinde yeralan varoluşun daha derin olan başka bir boyutuna ait bazı frekansları yorumlamak suretiyle matematiksel olarak nesnel gerçekliği oluşturur.

Beyin, holografik evrende tezahür eden bir hologramdır. Bizler kendimizi mekanda hareket eden fiziksel bedenler olarak görebiliriz. Ya da kendimizi kozmik hologram boyunca açığa çıkmış girişim modellerinin bulanıklaşmış bir hali olarak görebiliriz.

Bu aynı zamanda beynin, modelleri yorumlamak için holografik filmin içinden yansıtılan lazer ışını huzmesine benzediği anolojisiyle de açıklanabilir. Sonuçta, lazer ışını projeksiyonlarını farklı açılarla kullanarak aynı film üzerinde birden fazla hologramın girişim modellerini saklayabilirsiniz. Dolayısıyla, filmden gönderdiğiniz ışının doğrultusuna ve frekansına göre farklı bir hologramın ortaya çıktığını göreceksiniz. Bu beyne uygulandığında da şuur tam olarak algısının açısına göre şekillenen gerçekliğin ortak-yaratıcısı haline gelir. Bu, ben bir ağaca bakıyorsam o ağacın gerçekte orada olmadığı anlamına gelmez. Ağaç çok boyutlu düzeylerde oradadır ve bu da benim akort olduğum şuur düzeyine bağlı olarak ağacın kesitini gördüğüm anlamına gelir. Eğer beyin türlerin dekoderiyse, şuurun farklı hallerine ya da frekanslarına akort edilebilir ve ben, kendi akort olduğum gerçeklik düzeyine bağlı olarak, ağaç gerçekliğinin farklı seviyelerine akort olabilirim demektir. Dolayısıyla, zihin gerçeklik fenomeninin kendisine katılır sadece gerçekliğin bilgisine değil. Holografik olarak işleyen bir beyinde bir şeyin hatırlanan imajı, duyular üzerinde o şeyin kendisi kadar etki yaratabilir.

Bohm saklı düzen fikrini, tüm evrenimizin içinden çıktığı varoluşun derin ve mekandan bağımsız düzeyini şu düşünceyi yansıtmak için kullanıyor: saklı düzende her eylem bir niyetten kaynaklanıyor. İmajinasyon (zihinde resmetme, hayal etme), formun yaratılışıdır, o zaten kendisini sürekli kılacak tüm hareketlerin tohumlarını ve niyetlerini kendisinde barındırır. Ayrıca bedeni de etkiler, böylece yaratılış saklı düzenin daha ince seviyelerinden bu şekilde gerçekleştiğinde, dışsal olanda tezahür edene kadar saklı düzende varlığını sürdürmeye devam eder.

Başka bir deyişle, saklı düzende, tıpkı beyinde olduğu gibi, imajinasyon ve gerçeklik ayırt edilemez bir haldedir ve bu yüzden de bize zihindeki imajların fizik bedende gerçeklik olarak tezahür etmesi sürpriz gibi gelmemelidir. Dolayısıyla, imajlar kullanılarak, beyin bedene, daha fazla imaj üretmesi de dahil olmak üzere, ne yapması gerektiğini söyleyebilir. İşte bir holografik evrende zihin-beden ilişkisi böyledir. Holografik modele göre; zihin ve beden, beynin gerçekliği deneyimlemek için kullandığı nöral hologramlarla, bir gerçekliği imajine ederken çağırdıkları arasındaki farkı ayırt edemez. Bu etki öyle güçlüdür ki her birimiz sağlığımızı etkilemek ve fiziksel formumuzu kontrol etmek için belli bir düzeyde yeteneğe sahibizdir.

Çağdaş bilim adamları Bohm’un çalışmasını görmezden gelebilirler (tıpkı pek çoklarının yaptığı gibi), ama bu çalışmanın içerdiklerinden kaçamazlar. Bohm’un hipotezi fizik bilimine ait deneysel ve dikkatli bir zemin üzerine oturuyor ve bu yüzden de sadece fizik ile ilgili yeni bir yol olmakla kalmayıp aynı zamanda bir “yeni fiziktir”, yani bu fizik evrenin vazgeçilmez doğasını anlamaya yönelik tamamen yeni bir yoldur, çünkü fizik biliminin yasalarında ve verilerinde görülen budur.

Görüntüler dünyası yanlış değildir, bu bilgi, gerçekliğin bu düzeyinde herhangi bir nesne olmadığını göstermez. Bu, evrene yeterince nüfuz ederek holografik bir sistemle bakarsanız farklı bir gerçekliğe ulaşırsınız anlamına gelmektedir. Bu diğer gerçeklik ise şimdiye dek bilimsel olarak açıklanamaz olan şeyleri açıklayabilmektedir; yani paranormal fenomenleri ve eşzamanlılığı, anlamlı tesadüfleri izah edebilmektedir. Bohm’un holografik teorisi beyin fizyolojisinde ve insan şuurunda verimli bir uygulama alanı bulmuştur. Bu teori yeni araştırma alanları açmakta, şimdiye değin bilinmez kalan fenomenleri haber vermekte ve yeni tahminlerde bulunmaktadır.

Bohm, parçalı olmayan bütünsellik hipotezine karşı çıkanlar için bilimsel bir kanıtı olan bilimsel bir dünya görüşünün olmadığını işaret etmektedir. Bilimsel kanıt bu doğrultuda herhangi bir kanıt sunmazken, diğer kanıt formları ve maddeyi biraz aydınlatmaktadır. Örneğin mistik ve ruhsal öğretiler çağlar boyunca her şeyin birbiriyle bağlantılı oluşundan sözetmiştir. Eğer Bohm’un fiziği ya da ona benzeyen başka bir fizik, Gary Zukav’ın “The Dancing Wu Li Masters (1979)” da belirttiği düşüncesine göre gelecekte fiziğin temel itici güçlerinden birini oluşturacaksa, Doğu’nun ve Batı’nın dansları zarif bir ahengin içinde eriyebilir demektir.

Yirmibirinci yüzyıl fiziğinin meditasyon sınıflarını da kapsadığını görürseniz şaşırmayın. Holografik beyin, holografik evren ve kuantum fiziği modelleriyle gerçek olarak kabul ettiğimiz her şeyin boyutları ve sınırları olmayan bir ışığın şakacı bir dansından öte birşey olmadığını söyleyebiliriz. Bohm’un saklı düzeninin radikal anlamları, batılı zihinler açısından anlaşılması güç olabilir. Bu nedenle de Bohm’un holografik paradigması, bilim için bazen kabul edilirken bazen de fark edilmemeye devam ediyor.

http://www.essays.cc/free_essays/e4/dkt106.shtm

The Hawking Paradox

aboutheuniverse — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:50:27 +0000

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=about+the+universe&rls=com.microsoft:tr:IE-SearchBox&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7HPNN&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=BLiiSfaJFITz-AaCkJlr&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&resnum=10&ct=title#

- Existance in universe maybe too complex for human mind to ever understand.

-Information Paradox

- Theory of Big Bang, back in 1960s…

- then he starts working on the Black Hole: the death of a star – where all is sucked in. sooo dense. equations of phisics break down, time and space disseapear. single point, like the big bang. space and time come to an end and matter is crushed out of existence. how did time begin at the Big Bang?

- ALS – with 2 years to live… around the age of 20??

- ability to visualize 4 dimensions – 3 dimensional space plus time. he can construct shapes in his head – intuitive understanding.

-Hawking’s Black Hole Equation

with G for Gravity – Newton, c from e=mc2, h from quantum phisics, S from thermodynamics!!!

he puts all physics together!! by visualising he gets to the right answer.

shows underlying unity in nature…

- The equation has a dark side. it has inner conflict.

- S suggests that the black hole through out his life radiated heat and finally dissapears, along with it everything it has swallowed dissapears.

- This is against physics understanding that all is made of particles that carry information and info can never dissapear.

- if info is lost, there is no longer cause and effect, no relationship between past and future, everything can disseapear, nothing is preserved over time.

- nothing can be trusted, not even our memories – one can not predict the future with certainty nor be sure what happened in the past.

- “Science should read the mind of God” SH

-1972 first black hole is seen. 100,000 million black holes and more. also a super massive black hole at the center of our galaxy… and we are surrounded by many tiny subatomic around us, even in our heads, in the room and we wouldnt know anything about them.

- if info paradox is true, then all these blacks holes are machines eating up information.

-suskin?? event horizon, edge of the black hole. at the event horizon, what would happen to a person is evaporation, ionization, splitting into tyniest parts – however from the person’s perspective nothing special happens. Same equation says death and being alive is possible at the same time. info is smeared at the event horizon, but the person thinks he is still intact. taking a 3d person, and sending 2d as the person passes through. so suskin says the info stays at the event horizon.

- 10 years from suskin, his idea is proven mathematically

-in 2003 Hawkin comes back and says he was wrong, Suskin was wrong too. The info is not lost true. it is shared in parallel universes where there are no black holes. there are many parallel universes, and the number of the ones with black holes and the ones without even each other out.

UNIMAGINED ECSTASY, UNIMAGINED PAIN by OSHO

aboutheuniverse — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:09:19 +0000

from : http://www.otoons.de/death/sudha-osho-comments.htm

Question 1
BELOVED MASTER,
UNIMAGINED ECSTASY, UNIMAGINED PAIN.

Yoga Sudha, it is natural.

Ecstasy and great pain happen together, because it is a new birth: the joy of being born, the joy of entering into the unknown, the great adventure into God. But pain is also there, great pain: the pain of leaving the old, the familiar, the known; the pain of leaving the secure, the safe; the pain of dying — dying as the ego. If the ecstasy is true, it is bound to happen that there will be great pain. This is one of the criteria by which to judge whether the ecstasy is true or not.

It is like uprooting a tree from its known soil and transplanting it into a new climate, into a new country. The tree will have to learn to live again from ABC; it is hard to unlearn and it is hard to learn again. There is bound to be pain. Great pain and agony precede great ecstasy. It can continue for months, for years too — it all depends on you.

Now, don’t look back. That which is gone is gone, and gone forever, never to return again. Whatsoever you do, you cannot bring it back. The child cannot enter into the womb again, howsoever pleasant it was, comfortable, convenient, secure, safe. The child may have great nostalgia for the womb, for those beautiful, eternal nine months. Yes, I say eternal, because the child feels them as eternity, not as nine months. He has no idea of calculating time — those long long nine months of such warmth, of such protection, of such unworried existence, of such tremendous rest and relaxation. The nostalgia hangs around. The child would like to go back to the womb, but it is not possible.
Going back is not possible at all; it is not in the nature of things. One always has to go forward. And when you look forward everything is so unfamiliar that great fear arises. One never knows where one is. One loses one’s identity, one passes through a great crisis of identity. The known is no longer there to cling to, and the unknown seems to be ungraspable.
But don’t look back; that which can’t happen can’t happen. Look forward! And don’t interpret the new and the unknown as unsafe. Interpret it in terms of adventure, exploration. Interpret it as great freedom. Buddha talks again and again about freedom. It is freedom from the past, freedom from the mother, freedom from the parents, freedom from the society, freedom from the church, the state.
What I am giving to you is absolute freedom. Yes, fear can arise, but fear arises because of your interpretation. Deep down somewhere in the unconscious you still would like to go back, to close your eyes to the new sunrise. You would like to go back even though there was nothing very valuable, nothing significant, but at least one was safe. The territory was familiar; one lived surrounded by walls. We call it a prison, but you used to call it your home; and I have taken you out of your home because it was not your real home, it was only make-believe. This freedom, this ecstasy that is arising, is your real home. Now, if you cling to the past, which is no longer possible, and you don’t allow the future to happen smoothly, the pain can continue, the agony can continue, for months, for years. And you will be split: a part of you clinging to the no-more and a part of you longing for the not-yet. Now be courageous. Take the quantum leap! Just as the snake slips out of the old skin, slip out of the old. It has fulfilled its function, it has brought you to the new. Gratefully say goodbye to it and plunge into this exploration that is becoming valuable to you. Plunge into this insecurity, into this danger, because life is where insecurity is; life is where danger is. There is no way to live totally unless you learn to live dangerously — more danger, more aliveness; less danger, less aliveness.
And I am making peaks upon peaks available to you. This is an unending chain. You will reach one peak thinking that this is the end and now you can rest, but by the time you have rested a little bit you will become aware of a higher peak challenging you, calling you forth. A new pilgrimage starts. And this goes on and on. Life is an eternal pilgrimage. There is no goal to it, it is a pure journey. Hence the joy of it. If there was a goal to it, that would mean a full stop to your life. Then what are you going to do? After the full stop there is nothing, nothing more. Life knows nothing of full stops. Life is a continuum, a song that never ends, a story that goes on unfolding. Each moment something new is ready to happen if you are available. Your observation is true. You say, “Unimagined ecstasy, unimagined pain.”

That’s how it has always been. I don’t talk much about the pain, because that will make you so afraid that you will not take the jump. I talk about ecstasy to persuade you, to seduce you into taking the jump. Once you have taken the jump you will know that there is great pain too, but that pain is a blessing in disguise. That pain is the pain the gold passes through when it goes through the fire: it purifies, it makes you more and more integrated, it gives you centering, it creates a soul in you. Without this pain there is no soul, and without this pain no ecstasy is possible. You would like to bypass the pain and reach the ecstasy, but that cannot be done.
AES DHAMMO SANANTANO: this is the law and the law has to be followed; you can’t go against the law. But once you have known the ecstasy, it is worth going through all the pain. You can sacrifice everything for the ecstasy, because ecstasy is another name for God approaching closer to you. Your melting into God is what ecstasy is all about.
The word ‘ecstasy’ is beautiful; it simply means “standing out.” Out of what? Standing out of your ego, your personality, your mind; getting out of the whole structure in which you have lived — not only lived but with which you have become identified. Standing out of all this, just a pure witness, a watcher on the hills — and everything is left deep down in the valley.
Drop the nostalgia. Drop this dreaming about the valley. You have lived in the valley long enough, and what have you gained? For many many lives you have lived in the valley, in all those chains, thinking that they were ornaments. Maybe they were made of silver and gold, maybe they were studded with diamonds and emeralds; but whether a chain is made of iron or gold, it makes no difference. In fact, a golden chain is far more difficult to break because you become more attached to it.
You have lived in the valley so long, for so many lives — now try to live on the peaks. And be totally with the peaks. Forget all about the valleys, because that will be a disturbance. That disturbance is creating pain. You are looking back again and again: there is still some desire, some longing, some hope that you may get back to your old structures again.
But let me make it absolutely clear to you: there is no going back. Now you have crossed that point from where a person can still go back, so it is an exercise in futility to feel pain for something which is no more. But it will keep you occupied and you will miss the joys of the peak, the fresh air of the peak, the unpolluted atmosphere of the peak, the closeness of the sun and the clouds. Now is the time to whisper with the clouds and with the sun and the stars! It is a beautiful moment.
Decide in favor of ecstasy, and whatever pain happens through that decision, accept it with joy, with thankfulness. The more gratefully you accept it as part of growth, the sooner it will disappear — and it will not leave even a trace on you; you will be unscratched by it. If you cling to it too long, it will leave wounds. Even if they heal, the marks will remain.
In these moments, when one passes from one stage of being to another stage of being, one is very vulnerable. In these moments one is very soft, impressionable. Don’t give much attention to pain.
And that’s what you have been doing for a few months. I have been watching silently. Many times I have to be just a silent watcher, because I hate to interfere. Even though I know you are in need, still I respect your freedom so much that, unless you ask, I will keep quiet, I will not say a word. I will feel great compassion for you — I am perfectly aware of your tears and the anguish that you are passing through — but I have been keeping myself aloof deliberately, because this is the only way to give the disciple a chance to grow.
If I go on interfering at every stage, helping, supporting, you will start depending on me too much. Then you will never be able to walk on your own feet; you will always need crutches. And I don’t want to give you crutches, I don’t want you to be dependent on me. The only gift that I can give to you is that of total freedom, of independence.
Hence I have been silent, waiting for the day when you would ask the question. Today you have asked the question. Now I can speak, I can share my understanding with you, but still the decision always remains with you. You can go on crying and weeping over spilled milk, or you can gather yourself and take a plunge into the new world that I have made available to you.
Don’t waste time. Time is really precious, far more precious than money, far more precious than anything in the world, because it is through time that you can contact eternity. And these moments are rare: if you miss them once, you never know when they will come back again. Maybe after lives you will come across a buddha again… and there is every possibility you will repeat the same mistakes, because mind wants to repeat. Mind is repetition — even after lives it repeats the same mistakes.

It happened once: a young prince asked Buddha to initiate him as a BHIKKHU, as a sannyasin. Buddha was a little reluctant. This was very rare — buddhas are never reluctant, or very rarely; they are always happy if somebody is asking for initiation. Ananda, Buddha’s chief disciple, immediately became aware that Buddha was a little hesitant. He said, “Bhagwan, why are you hesitating? I have never seen you hesitate. You persuade people, you help people, you do everything possible to bring them to the way — and this man himself is asking! And not an ordinary man — a great prince, with great potential. If he becomes a disciple, many more will follow. Why are you hesitating?” Buddha said to Ananda, “Because this young man has been initiated in the past by other buddhas at least seven times, and he has committed the same mistake again and again. And mind is repetitive. I know I can give him initiation, but he is bound to repeat the same mistake. But if you say so, I will initiate him. Now watch what happens.”
The young man was initiated… and of course this whole dialogue with Ananda had happened in front of him, so he was very conscious not to repeat anything. But he did not remember anything of his past lives, and when you don’t remember, how can you avoid repetition? If you remember, you can avoid. He asked Buddha many times, “Please tell me, what is my mistake that I have been repeating again and again? And you say I have lived with seven other buddhas? I don’t want to miss this opportunity.” Buddha said, “That won’t help very much, because you have asked the sixth buddha the same question and the fifth also, and they answered. I am not going to do it. I will tell you only when the time arrives.”
And the time arrived within a few days. They traveled to another city; they were staying in a small caravanserai — ten thousand sannyasins — there was no space. It must have been as overcrowded as it is here! Now when I look at you, I completely forget whether you are sannyasins or sardines. I have to go on reminding myself, “No, these are my sannyasins.” The older sannyasins of Buddha were given a little better space, a little more space — they were old, senior. This young man was the latest addition to the Buddha’s SANGHA — his order; he got the place at the outermost circumference, just in the porch where people used to put their shoes. He had to sleep there. A prince, sleeping in a porch where people keep their shoes? He was very hurt. In the night he could not sleep, for the same reasons that you suffer — mosquitoes! They are the ancientmost enemies of meditators. If you are not meditating they will not take any notice of you; once you start meditating, they suddenly become interested in you. The blood of a meditator has a certain sweetness. And there were mosquitoes and he was unable to sleep; and the serai was so overcrowded, and people were coming and going the whole night — somebody was coming, somebody was leaving. How can you sleep in a porch? In the middle of the night he said, “This is stupid, this is just nonsense! I have not become a sannyasin for all this. I had a beautiful palace, every facility. Tomorrow morning I will say goodbye to Buddha.” In fact he wanted to leave at that very moment, but that would not be right. At least he had to say to Buddha, “I am finished.” But before morning, Buddha came to him and said, “Now the time has come. I can answer your question. This has happened to you again and again: you have been initiated seven times, but just for small things you always became so much disturbed that you went away. You can go — this is your old habit. Because of this habit I was hesitant.”
He had brought Ananda with him and he said, “Look! What do you say now? This man wants to leave tomorrow morning.” The young man had not said a single word. He fell at Buddha’s feet. He said, “How did you come to know in the middle of the night?” Buddha said, “That is not your business. That’s what makes me a master. In the morning you want to go; you can go, but go with this awareness: that this is how you have been losing the track again and again.”
The young man never left. It was difficult — Buddha gave him many many uncomfortable situations — but he was a man of integrity; he belonged to a very famous family, ancient, noble; he belonged to the warrior race. It was against his whole upbringing to leave the Buddha. And now that Buddha had told him what the cause had been in the past… and as meditation deepened he started remembering his past associations with other buddhas. Slowly slowly he became aware that yes, for small things he had left buddhas; for such small things he had lost the way many times.

Yes, Sudha, the pain is there, and it is not only for you; others will also pass through the pain. Many have passed through it, many will have to pass through it. Pass through it joyously. Keep your eye on the ecstasy. Don’t focus yourself on the pain — that is the wrong approach. Focus yourself on the ecstasy, and think that the pain is the price we pay for the ecstasy. Soon the pain will disappear. And the energy released from the pain will bring you to even higher realms of ecstasy, will bring you to greater altitudes of ecstasy. Be watchful….

Osho The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol 6 Chapter #6
Chapter title: No going back
26 October 1979 am in Buddha Hall

Mathematics: The only true universal language

aboutheuniverse — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 14:51:35 +0000

16 February 2009 by Martin Rees
Magazine issue 2695. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.

IF WE ever establish contact with intelligent aliens living on a planet around a distant star, we would expect some problems communicating with them. As we are many light years away, our signals would take many years to reach them, so there would be no scope for snappy repartee. There could be an IQ gap and the aliens might be built from quite different chemistry.

An alien’s description of the cosmos might teach us a thing or two about the nature of reality (Image: Wolcott Henry/National Geographic/Getty)

Yet there would be much common ground too. They would be made of similar atoms to us. They could trace their origins back to the big bang 13.7 billion years ago, and they would share with us the universe’s future. However, the surest common culture would be mathematics.

Mathematics has been the language of science for thousands of years, and it is remarkably successful. In a famous essay, the great physicist Eugene Wigner wrote about the “unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics”. Most of us resonate with the perplexity expressed by Wigner, and also with Einstein’s dictum that “the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible”. We marvel at the fact that the universe is not anarchic – that atoms obey the same laws in distant galaxies as in the lab. The aliens would, like us, be astonished by the patterns in our shared cosmos and by the effectiveness of mathematics in describing those patterns.

Mathematics can point the way towards new discoveries in physics too. Most famously, British theorist Paul Dirac used pure mathematics to formulate an equation that led to the idea of antimatter several years before the first antiparticle was found in 1932. So will physicists’ luck hold as they aim to probe still deeper levels of structure in the cosmos? Are limits set by the intrinsic capacity of our brains? Can computers offer insights, rather than just crunch numbers? These are some of the questions that exercise me.

The precedents are encouraging. The two big breakthroughs in physics in the 20th century owed much to mathematics. The first was the formulation of quantum theory in the 1920s, of which Dirac was one of the great pioneers. The theory tells us that, on the atomic scale, nature is intrinsically fuzzy. Nonetheless, atoms behave in precise mathematical ways when they emit and absorb light, or link together to make molecules.

The other was Einstein’s general relativity. More than 200 years earlier, Isaac Newton showed that the force that makes apples fall is the same as the gravity that holds planets in their orbits. Newton’s mathematics is good enough to fly rockets into space and steer probes around planets, but Einstein transcended Newton. His general theory of relativity could cope with very high speeds and strong gravity, offering deeper insight into gravity’s nature.

Yet despite his deep physical insights, Einstein was not a top-rate mathematician. The language needed for the great conceptual advances of 20th-century physics was already in place and Einstein was lucky that the geometrical concepts he needed had already been developed by German mathematician Bernhard Riemann a century earlier. The cohort of young quantum theorists led by Erwin Schrödinger, Werner Heisenberg and Dirac were similarly fortunate in being able to apply ready-made mathematics.

Einstein was not a top-rated mathematician. The concepts he needed had already been developed

The 21st-century counterparts of these great figures – those seeking to mesh general relativity and quantum mechanics in a unified theory – are not so lucky. A unified theory is key unfinished business for science today.

The most favoured theory posits that the particles that make up atoms are all made up of tiny loops, or strings, that vibrate in a space with 10 or 11 dimensions. This string theory involves intensely complex mathematics that certainly cannot be found on the shelf, and the challenges it poses have been a stimulus for mathematics. Ed Witten, the acknowledged intellectual leader of string theory, ranks as a world-class mathematician, and several other leading mathematicians have been attracted by the challenge.

String theory is not the only approach to a unified theory, but it is by far the most intensively studied one. This endeavour is surely good for mathematics, but there is controversy about how good it is for physics. Arguments rage over whether string theory is right, whether it will ever engage with experiment, and even whether it is physics at all. There have even been commercially successful books rubbishin g the idea.

To me, criticisms of string theory as an intellectual enterprise seem to be in poor taste. It is presumptuous to second-guess the judgement of people of acknowledged brilliance who choose to devote their research career to it. However, we should be concerned about the undue concentration of talent in one speculative field.

Finding a unified theory would be the completion of a programme that started with Newton. String theory, if correct, would also vindicate the vision of Einstein and the late American physicist John Wheeler that the world is essentially a geometrical structure.

An interesting possibility, which I think should not be dismissed, is that a “true” fundamental theory exists, but that it may just be too hard for human brains to grasp. A fish may be barely aware of the medium in which it lives and swims; certainly it has no intellectual powers to comprehend that water consists of interlinked atoms of hydrogen and oxygen. The microstructure of empty space could, likewise, be far too complex for unaided human brains to grasp.

String theory involves scales a billion billion times smaller than any we can directly probe. At the other extreme, our cosmological theories suggest that the universe is vastly more extensive than the patch we can observe with our telescopes. It may even be infinite. The domain that astronomers call “the universe” – the space, extending more than 10 billion light years around us and containing billions of galaxies, each with billions of stars, billions of planets (and maybe billions of biospheres) – could be an infinitesimal part of the totality.

There is a definite horizon to direct observations: a spherical shell around us, such that no light from beyond it has had time to reach us since the big bang. However, there is nothing physical about this horizon. If you were in the middle of an ocean, it is conceivable that the water ends just beyond your horizon – except that we know it doesn’t. Likewise, there are reasons to suspect that our universe – the aftermath of our big bang – extends hugely further than we can see.

That is not all: our big bang may not be the only one. An idea called eternal inflation developed largely by Andrei Linde at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, envisages big bangs popping off, endlessly, in an ever-expanding substratum. Or there could be other space-times alongside ours – all embedded in a higher-dimensional space. Ours could be but one universe in a multiverse.

Other branches of mathematics then become relevant. We need a rigorous language to describe the number of possible states that a universe could possess and to compare the probability of different configurations. A clearer concept of infinity itself is also required (see “The enigma of infinity”).

The multiverse confronts us with infinities, multiplied by other infinities – perhaps repeatedly. To bring sense to these concepts, we must deploy the mathematics of transfinite numbers, which date back to Georg Cantor in the 19th century. He showed that there was a rigorous way to discuss infinity and that in a well-defined sense there are infinities of different sizes. Without these exotic concepts, cosmologists will not be able to firm up the concept of the multiverse theory and decide, without paradoxes or ambiguities, what is probable and what is improbable within it.

At its deepest level, physical reality may have a geometric intricacy that would be satisfying to any intelligences on Earth or beyond, just as it would have delighted the Pythagoreans. Provided we could understand it, a unified theory that revealed this would be an intellectual triumph. Calling it a “theory of everything”, though, is hubristic and misleading as it would offer no help to 99 per cent of scientists. Chemistry and biology are not held up through ignorance of subnuclear physics; still less are they dependent on the deepest structure of space-time. String theory might unify two great scientific frontiers, the very big and the very small, but there is a third frontier – the very complex. That is perhaps the most challenging of all, and it is the frontier on which most scientists work.

Finding a theory of everything would offer no help to 99 per cent of scientists (i disagree, as everything is connected beyond our current understanding…ece)

There are nonetheless reasons to hope that simple underlying rules might govern some seemingly complex phenomena. This was intimated in 1970 by the mathematician John Conway who invented the “game of life”. Conway wanted to devise a game that would start with a simple pattern and use basic rules to evolve it again and again. He began experimenting with the black and white tiles on a Go board and discovered that by adjusting the simple rules of his game, which determine when a tile turns from black to white and vice versa, and the starting patterns, some arrangements produce incredibly complex results seemingly from nowhere. Some patterns can emerge that appear to have a life of their own as they move round the board.

The real world is similar: simple rules allow complex consequences. While Conway only needed a pencil and paper to devise his game, it takes a computer to fully explore the range of complexity inherent in it.

Computer simulations have given science an immense boost. And there is no reason why computers cannot actually make discoveries, albeit in their own distinctive way. IBM’s chess-playing computer Deep Blue didn’t work out its strategy like a human player. Instead, it took advantage of its computational speed to explore millions of alternative series of moves and responses before deciding an optimum move. This brute force approach overwhelmed a world champion.

The same approach could be put to good use to solve problems that have us so far eluded us. For example, scientists are currently looking for new superconductors that, rather than requiring low temperatures to conduct electricity as they do now, will work at ordinary room temperatures. This search involves a lot of trial and error, because nobody understands exactly what makes the electrical resistance disappear more readily in some materials than in others. Suppose that a machine came up with a recipe for such a superconductor. While it might have succeeded in the same way that Deep Blue defeated Russian chess champion Garry Kasparov, rather than by having a theory or strategy, it would have achieved something that would deserve a Nobel prize.

Simulations using ever more powerful computers will, in a similar way, help scientists to understand processes that we neither study in our laboratories nor observe directly. In my own subject of astronomy, researchers can already create a virtual universe in a computer and carry out experiments in it, such as calculating how stars form and die.

Some day, perhaps, my biological colleagues will be using them to simulate many processes including the chemical complexities within living cells, how combinations of genes encode the intricate chemistry of a cell, and the morphology of limbs and eyes. Perhaps they will be able to simulate the conditions that led to the first life, and even other forms of life that could, in principle, exist.

However there is a long way to go before real machine intelligence is achieved. A powerful computer can be a world chess champion, but not even the most advanced robot can recognise and move the pieces on a real chessboard as adeptly as a five-year-old child.

Maybe in the far future, though, post-human intelligence will develop hypercomputers with the processing power to simulate living things – even entire worlds. Perhaps advanced beings could even simulate a “universe” that goes far beyond mere patterns on a chequer-board and the best movie special effects. Their simulated universe could be as complex as the one we perceive ourselves to be in. This raises a disconcerting thought: perhaps that is what our universe really is. (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ece)

It is fascinating to speculate whether hyper-intelligent aliens already exist in some remote part of our cosmos. If so, would their brains “package” reality in a mathematical language that would be comprehensible to us or our descendents?

Profile

Martin Rees is professor of cosmology and astrophysics and master of Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. He was appointed Astronomer Royal in 1995 and is President of the Royal Society. This article is based on contributions to a discussion by a panel that included mathematicians Michael Atiyah and Alain Connes about the relationship between mathematics and science

The enigma of infinity

Infinity is an ancient mystery and unendingness is hard to conceive. As far back as 350 BC Greek philosophers speculated about what would happen if you could throw a spear from the edge of space, should such a place exist.

It seems absurd that there should be no “beyond” where it can go. Space may curve up on itself – and so be finite but unbounded – but equally it can go on for ever.

Infinity is qualitatively different from even the largest number. Finite numbers, however large, obey the laws of arithmetic. You can add, multiply and divide them, and put different numbers unambiguously in order of size. But an infinity is the same as a part of itself, and when it is multiplied by another number (even another infinity) it is in a well-defined sense just the same.

A metaphor for this is known as Hilbert’s hotel. Suppose a hotel is full and each guest wants to bring a colleague who would need another room. This would be a nightmare for the management, who could not double the size of the hotel instantly.

In an infinite hotel, though, there is no problem. The guest from room 1 goes into room 2, the guest in room 2 into room 4, and so on. All the odd-numbered rooms are then free for new guests.

From issue 2695 of New Scientist magazine, page 36-39. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.
Browse past issues of New Scientist magazine

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

INTERMINGLING

aboutheuniverse — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 14:22:49 +0000

You are plurality transformed into Unity,

And Unity passing into plurality;

This mystery is understood when man

Leaves the part and merges in the Whole.

Sa’d Ud Din Mahmud Shabistari

SEN CANINDA CANISIN…

aboutheuniverse — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 14:04:53 +0000

Meleklerin ibadet ettikleri Tanri Aksi Sensin…

O yuzden sana secde ettiler…

Her tenin cani sende… Hersey sana bagli.

Ondan dolayi hersey sana Tabi… Cunku herseyin cani senin bedeninde gizli.

Sen alemin icisin, Ruhusun; Ondan dolayi da Alemin merkezisin…

KENDINI BIL, SEN CANINDA CANISIN.

Sebusteri