The more the vastness of the universe is realised, the more the modern physicist is using the language of the mystics, says OSHO
The East has lived religiously — that is one pole — and because it has lived religiously it has not been able to produce science. The West has lived scientifically, and because of its science it has lost track of religion. Now for the first time, the East is no more East and the West is no more West. The earth is becoming one — it is becoming one global village. This is the time when the reconciliation can be seen, can be understood.
Man is entering into a new phase; a new consciousness is to dawn. For at least ten thousand years, as far as consciousness is concerned, nothing new has happened. There have been Buddhas and there have been Albert Einsteins, but we are still waiting for a Buddha who is also an Albert Einstein or an Albert Einstein who is also a Buddha. The day is coming closer and closer. Albert Einstein in his last days was very much interested in meditation, in religion. His last days were full of wonder. He said in his old age, “I used to think when I was young that sooner or later all the mysteries of existence would be solved, and I worked hard. But now I can say that the more we know the more existence turns out to be mysterious. The more we know, the less we know...” Science has not been able to demystify existence. Now this is recognised not by ordinary technicians but by geniuses; because they are the pioneers, they can see the dawn very close by, they are the prophets. Albert Einstein says that science has failed in demystifying existence, that on the contrary it has mystified things even more.
For example, it was so easy in the old days, just a hundred years ago, for the scientist to say that all is matter. Now matter has disappeared; in neo-physics there is no entity called matter.
The deeper the physicist went into the world of matter, the more matter was not to be found at all: It is pure energy. How to define energy nowIJ Is it materialIJ Energy cannot be material; energy is something totally different from matter. Matter is static, energy is dynamic; matter is a noun, energy is a verb. Matter is measurable. Matter can be measured, that’s why it is called matter. Energy is immeasurable, it cannot be called matter. And as the physicist has entered into the world of energy, he has become more and more puzzled.
Mystics have always been in awe before existence. The physicist is for the first time in awe, because he has for the first time touched something very vital, otherwise he was just looking from the outside.
The modern physicist is using the language of the mystics for the first time. Eddington said, “The universe no longer looks like a thing but like a thought.” That means the universe is more consciousness than matter. And matter has been analysed, our penetration has become deeper; we have come across atoms, electrons, neutrons — and we are utterly mystified, at a loss even to express what we have come across. We don’t have the language, the right language for it, because we have never known it.
Now the right language has to be found in the words of the mystics: A Buddha will be helpful, a lao Tzu will be helpful and scientists are looking into the words of the Buddhas to find the right language, because these are the people who have been talking about paradox, mystery. And now science is coming across paradoxes.
The scientist is dumb. Now he knows that the mystics, who have always been talking in paradoxes, who have been saying God is far away and very close-by, must be saying something through their experience. The mystics who used to say that life and death are one, not two, for the first time are becoming relevant to the scientist’s mind. A new science is arising which says it is a science of uncertainty. No more certainty! Certainty seems to be too gross.
Now the time has come. Don’t try to reconcile things — that will be a false phenomenon. Just watch, just look deep into things as they are. They are already reconciled; there is no conflict in existence. All contraries are complementaries.
Excerpts from Be Still and Know