"No problem is able to be resolved from the same level of consciousness from which it was discerned." Albert Einstein
Such is my translation of Einstein from the Spanish, as I have read from the last of the trilogy about the Mayan end times by Steven Alten (originally in English), and it should be about right - we cannot solve a problem from the same level of knowledge in which we first noticed it. In Alten's book, he talks about a necessary change in thought from the three-D world in which we live to the multi-dimensional 'nexus' in which his characters act to save the world; for Einstein, he is telling us that we need to think in entirely different ways to work out the problems created from an earlier level of thought. Einstein's theories are still beyond the reach of most of us today, and his theories have not been the last to expand our understanding of things. Einstein's thoughts have been followed by quantum theory, which includes possibilities as miraculous as the parting of the Red Sea, and these are forcing many to think further beyond, creating more problems to solve which will need even more new ways to think. It's enough to make one feel like one's 94 year old grandmother handed an I-pod for the first time. Obsolete!
Yet the physical world - however it is being redefined - is not the only one in which infinite expansion of possibilities exist. Surprisingly, this works for the moral world itself. Even in Alten's sci-fi thrillers, the most important thread that runs through everything is the direction of will of the protagonists. Central to his end- of- the- world scenario is the hydron collider (if I have that right) or CERN, which is currently (in real life) operating in Switzerland, where atomic particles are whirled around at near-light speeds to collide which each other and reduce them to their fundamental substance - and thus give scientists a peak at the beginning of all things. In Alten's book, we find that the collider is creating mini black holes that can escape from the machine; and then we find that one actually does, and will swallow the earth and end the history of everything. What is important here, though, is not the machine itself, but the reason for its being. The scientists and politicians giving them the research money are well aware of the possibility of the destruction of the world through the experiment, and while the scientists might want to continue for reasons of obsessive curiosity, the politicians and those wealthy elite who back them want to run against the odds to gain more money and power.
In other words, the destruction of the world will not come about because of technological knowledge, but because of the motivation for such knowledge. That motivation is our old nemesis, Greed and Power.
But these motivations themselves are based on a certain plane of knowledge - one where fulfillment comes from vast wealth and power. Like pre-Einstein science, this is a moral plane that asks more questions than it solves - for wealth and power have never led to permanent fulfillment. In fact, as this sci-fi fiction makes so realistically clear, when wealth and/or power become an end to themselves, they create a more miserable life - although for the poor and powerless, this might seem like a fantasy. It isn't, however, and as Einstein said, the problems created at this level of thought can only be answered at another level of thought.
In the moral world, Siddhartha pondered the sufferings of the world outside his family's palatial estate and found that suffering exists everywhere, with rich and poor. He determined to find the solution and came upon the five-fold path of renunciation - a path that led in a direction opposite to that of the drive for wealth and power. Desire, he found, was the source of unhappiness, and indeed, the source of life as we understood it. To rise above it was to ascend into another world of thought, and indeed into other worlds in every sense of the word, including new planes of reality. With Einstein, average minds like my own have been trying to truly understand his theories for over one hundred years; with the likes of the Buddha, or the Christ, we have been trying to understand them for two thousand years or more, with the same limited results.
As trying as our math and science world might be, more trying still is the world of moral being - which rises above even our greatest scientific thoughts. Couched in a variety of ways that different generations and cultures find more or less pleasing, what is trying to be communicated is that the foundation of our world is built on moral perspective. The advice from our spiritual masters is not only meant to make the world a better place, but to infinitely expand our possibilities. We have all heard of the remarkable feats of the Buddhist masters - of stopping the heart and even of levitation - but even more astonishing possibilities are to be found in the words of the Gospel: heaven, said Jesus, is with us now, if we could but see. He was not only talking about "getting along" and being nice to each other when he said this, but also of breaking through the barrier of our own limitations into a vastly greater reality. He did not raise the dead just for laughs, but to show what is possible when we understand the nature of deep morality, and where it can lead us. There is more to it than just being nice. In it, if we could see, is the key to knowledge beyond anything most of us can currently conceive. FK
Such is my translation of Einstein from the Spanish, as I have read from the last of the trilogy about the Mayan end times by Steven Alten (originally in English), and it should be about right - we cannot solve a problem from the same level of knowledge in which we first noticed it. In Alten's book, he talks about a necessary change in thought from the three-D world in which we live to the multi-dimensional 'nexus' in which his characters act to save the world; for Einstein, he is telling us that we need to think in entirely different ways to work out the problems created from an earlier level of thought. Einstein's theories are still beyond the reach of most of us today, and his theories have not been the last to expand our understanding of things. Einstein's thoughts have been followed by quantum theory, which includes possibilities as miraculous as the parting of the Red Sea, and these are forcing many to think further beyond, creating more problems to solve which will need even more new ways to think. It's enough to make one feel like one's 94 year old grandmother handed an I-pod for the first time. Obsolete!
Yet the physical world - however it is being redefined - is not the only one in which infinite expansion of possibilities exist. Surprisingly, this works for the moral world itself. Even in Alten's sci-fi thrillers, the most important thread that runs through everything is the direction of will of the protagonists. Central to his end- of- the- world scenario is the hydron collider (if I have that right) or CERN, which is currently (in real life) operating in Switzerland, where atomic particles are whirled around at near-light speeds to collide which each other and reduce them to their fundamental substance - and thus give scientists a peak at the beginning of all things. In Alten's book, we find that the collider is creating mini black holes that can escape from the machine; and then we find that one actually does, and will swallow the earth and end the history of everything. What is important here, though, is not the machine itself, but the reason for its being. The scientists and politicians giving them the research money are well aware of the possibility of the destruction of the world through the experiment, and while the scientists might want to continue for reasons of obsessive curiosity, the politicians and those wealthy elite who back them want to run against the odds to gain more money and power.
In other words, the destruction of the world will not come about because of technological knowledge, but because of the motivation for such knowledge. That motivation is our old nemesis, Greed and Power.
But these motivations themselves are based on a certain plane of knowledge - one where fulfillment comes from vast wealth and power. Like pre-Einstein science, this is a moral plane that asks more questions than it solves - for wealth and power have never led to permanent fulfillment. In fact, as this sci-fi fiction makes so realistically clear, when wealth and/or power become an end to themselves, they create a more miserable life - although for the poor and powerless, this might seem like a fantasy. It isn't, however, and as Einstein said, the problems created at this level of thought can only be answered at another level of thought.
In the moral world, Siddhartha pondered the sufferings of the world outside his family's palatial estate and found that suffering exists everywhere, with rich and poor. He determined to find the solution and came upon the five-fold path of renunciation - a path that led in a direction opposite to that of the drive for wealth and power. Desire, he found, was the source of unhappiness, and indeed, the source of life as we understood it. To rise above it was to ascend into another world of thought, and indeed into other worlds in every sense of the word, including new planes of reality. With Einstein, average minds like my own have been trying to truly understand his theories for over one hundred years; with the likes of the Buddha, or the Christ, we have been trying to understand them for two thousand years or more, with the same limited results.
As trying as our math and science world might be, more trying still is the world of moral being - which rises above even our greatest scientific thoughts. Couched in a variety of ways that different generations and cultures find more or less pleasing, what is trying to be communicated is that the foundation of our world is built on moral perspective. The advice from our spiritual masters is not only meant to make the world a better place, but to infinitely expand our possibilities. We have all heard of the remarkable feats of the Buddhist masters - of stopping the heart and even of levitation - but even more astonishing possibilities are to be found in the words of the Gospel: heaven, said Jesus, is with us now, if we could but see. He was not only talking about "getting along" and being nice to each other when he said this, but also of breaking through the barrier of our own limitations into a vastly greater reality. He did not raise the dead just for laughs, but to show what is possible when we understand the nature of deep morality, and where it can lead us. There is more to it than just being nice. In it, if we could see, is the key to knowledge beyond anything most of us can currently conceive. FK
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