I am amazed by our manufactured dichotomies. I use the word ‘manufactured’ with much respect because I do understand that many of us have deep convictions about our realities of ‘black vs. white’; ‘up and down’; ‘light and dark’; ‘female and male’; the list is endless. Choose any form, any category and an opposite can be named. Like the big-one, the age-old debate and violence surrounding belief systems i.e. the intangible aspects of our lives -religion, spirituality vs. science, reality – the tangibles.
Being a card-carrying member of the One-ness or All-ness Tribe, I get befuddled by the debates, not to mention the violence based on this perception of differences. But over the years as the debates rage and views are violently defended, I could hear my soul say, “It’s all One.” This reassurance resulted in me retreating and not sharing my Nobel Prize winning intuition. (I have come to know that there is a thin line between what passes for genius and what can be determined as insanity). Well, until now that is. I am willing to share my thoughts because I have the full support of science. Come; let us pause on this idea.
Recently, I stumbled on the PBS show, Nova. (Sadly, our Governor has decided that public funds should not be spent on public broadcasting. Oh, I digressed.) I struggled with my science classes in high school and had to drop Biology in college. If there is redemption for me and science I did earn A’s in my college Physics classes. Yet, this does not a scientist maketh of me and I generally stay away from science and its form of reality. Can you imagine how startled I was when I ended my surf, put down the remote and was overpowered by the presentation on Fractal Geometry?
Warning if you have never heard of this, please conduct your own research. I was so taken in by the concept that I hurried to Google for further information. I learned that in its current scientific form, fractal mathematics has been around since the seventeenth century. However, some experts note that the concept predates that period by pointing to African art, textile, sculpture, hair style and architecture as evidence.
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| Fractal Image |
At its core fractal is a fragmented geometric shape that when split into parts each is just a reduced replica of the whole. Almost like scooping a cup of water from the ocean. The water in the cup has the same properties as the ocean – just a smaller version.
Fractals are classified in three groups. A) Exact self-similarity (ESS), the strongest type, closely resembling the whole or the parent. B) Quasi self-similarity (QSS), the middle order type being a tad weaker than ESS. Then there is C) statistical self-similarity (SSS), the weakest form of fractals – the similarities are there but not as evident as ESS or QSS.
I was feasting on this fascinatingly delicious information when my big bang occurred. “Faith and science are on the same track.” Thanks to fractal studies. Remember my analogy using the ocean? Take this a step further; if we are created by God, then we are God’s fractals! Genius, wouldn’t you say? Well, choose what you may. Some of us are exact self-similarities like the great Way Show-ers – Yeshua, Mohammed, Rumi, Baha’u’llah, Buddha, Krishna, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Joan of Arc, and many others.
There are those of us who behave as quasi self-similarities. We run the gamut of those who are almost ESS to those who are SSS prints. Some of us practice the tenets of our faith and treat others with love and respect. At times too, we recite the creeds while intentionally harming others, especially those we view as different. Then there are the real statistical self-similarities. We can describe our version of the seemingly un-Godly acts such individuals, whether members of our own families, communities or world, have committed. A ranking in this category means that we have forgotten who we are. We have forgotten the traits of our Creator and we act outside of our nature, outside our truth.
So, there! This new branch of science, even though Africans had modeled its use hundreds of years before, is another tool that proves there are only the Whole and its mini-wholes. How can I say the cup of water I took from the ocean is different from the ocean? What or who we see differs only by degrees or along its spectrum. Again using water, the temperature ranges from cold to hot. It is still water just a variance in temperature. So it is with humans. Any difference we conjure up about each other is simply a mirage. It is not real.
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| African textile |
The idea that the parts are just mini-wholes blends perfectly with the declaration of Truth “My Creator/Father and I are one.” We can now end the debates and study war no more. The rich and poor are alike. The saint and mass murderer are comparable. It was Mother Teresa who told us that we all have a bit of Hitler in us. She was right.
Each person looking at us is our self. Now it totally makes sense. Remember the teachings of the sages when they commanded us to love others as we love ourselves. Since we have ventured in the world of science, let me take some liberties and formulize this concept: Love Self = Love Others. Mathematically, Love cancels itself so we are left with Self = Others or Others = Self. The Upanishads remind us: “Who sees all beings in his own Self and his own Self in all beings, loses fear.”
Can we now move forward knowing that this is true - what we do to others is in fact what we do to ourselves because we are in fact One ? It is proven at both ends of the faith and science pole.
Thanks for taking a Precious Pause. Share your thoughts and next time bring a friend.
