Product Description: So far as we know this is the first book to present the rock bottom connection between science and religion. And the interesting thing about it is that it is done from the basis of Einstein's equations of physics and geometry. For thousands of years we have been faced with the problem of understanding the relation between our physics and what underlies it. So far as we know this is the first time the solution has been in print. And it is simple and readable. We don't have two worlds one for the scientists and one for the mystics. There's only one of it. And if the mystics are right in their descriptions, and if the scientists are right in theirs, we need only a translator and a dictionary of both languages. Fortunately for us, John Dobson has lived and worked in both camps, and knows both languages, so he undertook the task of translating. But to succeed in joining the descriptions by the physicists and the mystics he had to start far below the scientist's descriptions and he got there through Einstein's 1905 equations, his physics and his geometry.
Steady State? This book tries to explain both scientific and religious implications of what we 'see' when we look into the night sky. The authors likens our view as what you might assume if you walked into the middle of a movie and didn't stay for the end. You could develop an entirely different opinion of what's 'really' going on which is quite different from the true plot. There is quite a bit of discussion of "negative entropy" which, as we understand it today, translates into a steady state rather than expanding universe. Fred Hoyle was known for a similar theory and actually coined the term "Big Bang" in opposition to competing theories of the day. It is an interesting book with complex ideas. John Dobson is intelligent and highly educated. We never want to be too close minded as there is always room for further discussion. We have therories, we don't have answers.
Advaita Vedanta and Modern Science Reconciled You may recognize the name John Dobson. He is famous for inventing the Dobsonian telescope, an affordable, easy-to-make, portable scope optimized for deep sky viewing. As a popular astronomer and cosmologist, he's been on the Johnny Carson show and he's had a documentary film made about him. But John Dobson is also a monk. And his interest in reconciling Advaita philosophy with the physics of the universe goes back a long way.
In 1955, when John Dobson was living in the Vedanta monastery in San Francisco, Swami Ashokananda assigned him the task of reconciling science and religion. John was sent back to school to finish up his education in the sciences, and by the time he was done, he was well equipped to tackle the job. He's been talking about it ever since.
"We don't have two worlds, one for the mystics and one for the scientists. There's only one of it. And if the mystics are right in their descriptions, and if the scientists are right in theirs, we need only a translator and a dictionary of both languages." John speaks both languages, and his translation is both elegant and exciting.
What John patiently explains, like putting together an intricate jigsaw puzzle, is that the physics of Einstein give all the support needed to back up the Vedantin idea that the universe is apparitional, not actual - that it is a mistake to see the universe as spread out in space and time. Although you have to look at it with new eyes, our science of today validates this ancient mystical knowledge.
Of course, these hidden treasures in the theory of relativity have not been found by most scientists, but that's because their lookers are broken. If you look at the equations freshly, the truth is there; however, if you look at the equations while first assuming the universe is actual, you'll miss the clues that suggest it is not, and this John makes very clear.
Advaita holds, and Einstein backs up: The "first cause" is apparitional. The rest of what appears comes from transformation of what appears with that first cause. But there is not a material universe which arises out of nothing; indeed, there is no material universe, and the universe we see gets "seeable" by a mistake.
In the appearance of the universe, as we see it, the Underlying Existence (Brahman) always shows through, and it shows through in the physics - in gravitation (going towards undividedness), electricity (going towards the infinite), and inertia (going towards changelessness). John suggests that as "beings" in this apparent universe, we are always trying to "return" to the Underlying Existence, and we are always frustrated in that attempt, because it is not possible for the apparitional (us) to become the real.
John makes the point that what drives us is our inner knowing that the Eternal Undividedness is all there is. He says, "...the primary motive which governs our actions is the vision of the real. It's the changeless, the infinite, the undivided (Asti, Bhati, Priya) as seen in this world of time and space that moves whatever moves. And the world itself is that Underlying Existence showing through. There is nothing else."
I won't even begin to try and lay out any of the physics. It's all there and explained in a way a lay person can understand. Just know that it's not a difficult read, and if you like the idea of Truth as it reveals itself in both science and spirituality, you're in for a real treat.
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