In previous postings (all of which, including this, are based on the appendix, “Science and Yoga”, from our book, “Yoga Psychology and the Transformation of Consciousness: Seeing Through the Eyes of Infinity”), I explored attempts to explore yogic topics using ordinary means of knowledge – and to some extent, what modern scientists consider “inner” means of knowledge, or what Sri Aurobindo refers to as “knowledge by direct contact.” Of course, the real inner knowledge is hardly even touched on in modern scientific discourse, even in the rarefied field of parapsychology and subtle energy research.
What follows is even more distant from anything that is nowadays considered “scientific.” The followers of Rudolf Steiner are attempting to touch on something that might be referred to as “true” intuition, but the “knowledge by identity” referred to by Sri Aurobindo (or “knowledge through identity”, as Franklin Merrell-Wolff referred to it – intending something very close to what Sri Aurobindo meant; Wolff was, by the way, a great admirer of Sri Aurobindo, whom he considered to be an Avatar) is still, I think, quite far from what Steiner, Bortoft or Goethe were writing about.
When we wrote this appendix, approximately 7 years ago, the opposition to parapsychology and alternative forms of scientific research was much stronger than it is today. There are signs of increasing openness, along with an increasing desperation in the face of financial collapse and global environmental breakdown. One can only hope that a revivified, truly integral science may be born and may have far-reaching social, political and – dare one say, “spiritual” – effects before it is too late.
Knowledge by Identity: Using Intuition
Though knowledge by direct contact is a more intimate way of knowing than the separative knowledge characteristic of the surface consciousness, knowledge by identity (what we’ve been referring to as “intuitive knowledge”) is a still more powerful and comprehensive way of knowing. Physicist and philosopher of science Henri Bortoft, in his book, “The Wholeness of Nature,” writes of an intuitive approach to research based on the work of German writer Johannes Wolfgang von Goethe and Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner. Bortoft describes this research as involving a different kind of seeing, one that sees the whole reflected in the parts. This intuitive way of knowing can take in both the quantitative and qualitative in one, integral glance.
| In addition to using intuition as a primary tool of research, the advanced yogic researcher, by virtue of having awakened the inner consciousness, would have a greatly expanded range of sensory data to work with. This would include the universal fields of physical, vital and mental conscious-energy. It would be interesting to see the extent to which a yogic methodology – utilizing both intuition and this expanded sensory capacity – could be applied to both the natural and social sciences. The use of intuition – which can “see” the whole in the part – may, in coming centuries, lead to a comprehension of large-scale socio-cultural phenomena with a specificity beyond what even the most rigorous statistical analysis can provide. Similarly, with regard to physical phenomena, yogic research may yield a new understanding – perhaps in conjunction with further developments in external technology – of the movements of the galaxies and the course of biological evolution. |
For example, studying a rose, the researcher would employ an intensely focused, highly disciplined awareness, making possible the discovery of a whole world of qualities not discernable by conventional quantitative methodology. To the extent he is able to identify his consciousness with the consciousness of the rose, he may actually experience it “coming-into-being.” According to Bortoft, this method can lead to an understanding of the evolution of plant and animal forms that has so far eluded conventional methods of research.
However, Bortoft’s descriptions still fall short of what one would expect at the highest levels of intuitive knowledge, as they lack an awareness of the inseparable relationship between the infinite and the finite.
What might a researcher with a highly developed capacity for knowledge by identity find, were she to examine the question of mutations in bacteria? Rather than focusing on the outer form of the bacteria, or even their inner qualities, she would enter into communion with the “Self” of the bacteria which is the same as her own True Self. Knowing the bacteria as an appearance of the Divine, she would see the mutation as a purposeful unfolding of the Divine Consciousness, and would know in the most intimate fashion the aspiration of that Consciousness to manifest more fully. In a single, unified act of knowing she would comprehend the relationship between the Will of the Supreme Knower, the group-soul of the bacteria, the appearance of their evolving form, and the timing of the whole process.
The Indo-Tibetan tradition contains many sublime descriptions of knowledge by identity – particularly in the writings of Tibetan Buddhists and the great 11th century Kashmiri philosopher Abhinavagupta. Building upon this tradition, Sri Aurobindo gives some hints as to how intuitive knowledge may contribute to a radically new understanding of matter.
Sri Aurobindo’s comments are offered here as scientific hypotheses to be tested. However, testing of these hypotheses, unlike those associated with conventional research, would require the use of a highly developed intuitive capacity. The level of requisite intuitive refinement is not one that could be easily achieved in a matter of weeks or even months. Rather, it would likely require an intensive, years-long training program along the lines of Alan Wallace’s Samatha project. A number of researchers so trained might then be able to work collaboratively to reach an intimate knowledge of the relationship between matter and consciousness.
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When science, instead of following the course of Nature upstream by analysis… shall begin to follow it downstream… and especially studying and utilizing critical stages of transition, then the secret of material creation will be solved, and Science will be able to create material life and not as now merely destroy it.
Sri Aurobindo, Commentary on the Isha Upanishad
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A diamond is a diamond and a pearl a pearl, each thing of its own class, existing by its distinction from all others, each distinguished by its own form and properties. But each has also properties and elements which are common to both and others which are common to material things in general. And in reality each does not exist only by its distinctions, but much more essentially by that which is common to both; and we get back to the very basis and enduring truth of all material things only when we find that all are the same thing, one energy, one substance or, if you like, one universal motion which throws up, brings out, combines, realises these different forms, these various properties, these fixed and harmonised potentialities of its own being. If we stop short at the knowledge of distinctions, we can deal only with diamond and pearl as they are, fix their values, uses, varieties, make the best ordinary use and profit of them; but if we can get to the knowledge and control of their elements and the common properties of the class to which they belong, we may arrive at the power of making either a diamond or pearl at our pleasure: go farther still and master that which all material things are in their essence and we may arrive even at the power of transmutation which would give the greatest possible control of material Nature. Thus the knowledge of distinctions arrives at its greatest truth and effective use when we arrive at the deeper knowledge of that which reconciles distinctions in the unity behind all variations. That deeper knowledge does not deprive the other and more superficial of effectivity nor convict it of vanity. We cannot conclude from our ultimate material discovery that there is no original substance or Matter, only energy manifesting substance or manifesting as substance,—that diamond and pearl are non-existent, unreal, only true to the illusion of our senses of perception and action, that the one substance, energy or motion is the sole eternal truth and that therefore the best or only rational use of our science would be to dissolve diamond and pearl and everything else that we can dissolve into this one eternal and original reality and get done with their forms and properties for ever. There is an essentiality of things, [the transcendent, infinite Spirit] a commonalty of things [the universal Spirit], an individuality of things [the individual Spirit]; the commonalty and individuality are true and eternal powers of the essentiality: that transcends them both, but the three together and not one by itself are the eternal terms of existence.
This truth which we can see, though with difficulty and under considerable restrictions, even in the material world where the subtler and higher powers of being have to be excluded from our intellectual operations, becomes clearer and more powerful when we ascend in the scale. We see the truth of our classifications and distinctions, but also their limits. All things, even while different, are yet one. For practical purposes plant, animal, man are different existences; yet when we look deeper we see that the plant is only an animal with an insufficient evolution of self-consciousness and dynamic force; the animal is man in the making; man himself is that animal and yet the something more of self-consciousness and dynamic power of consciousness that make him man; and yet again he is the something more which is contained and repressed in his being as the potentiality of the divine,—he is a god in the making. In each of these, plant, animal, man, god, the Eternal is there containing and repressing himself as it were in order to make a certain statement of his being. Each is the whole Eternal concealed.
Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine