Science and Spirituality

Science is not entirely so different from spirituality in that both want to know the nature of Nature. However it is how they approach it that is different. When scientists discover and understand this, they can work together with yogis and mystics to establish a more complete understanding.

If you take a strawberry, for example, you can weigh it, measure it, find the chemical composition, dissect it and describe it – study it in relation to other fruits, conduct experiments to find its nutritional and medicinal properties, etc. However it is only when you pop it into your mouth and crush it gently with your teeth, that you begin to know its nature based on your own experience.

Yogis and philosophers in the Indian tradition have always been interested in the 'nature of Nature’. They explored it from the inside, rather like the example given above. but instead of exploring the 'nature of strawberry’, they sat down and turned their attention inward to discover their own nature or deeper Self or other aspects of Nature that interested them.

Anybody who has tried to do turn their attention inward, will be aware that this is no easy task. To start with one might notice how one’s thoughts seem to be really very pervasive or one might be continually distracted by pains or discomforts in the body. So to help in this task, the yogis developed methods which lead to 'meditation’.

The methods are in themselves not meditation - but they certainly help give rise to different insights and experiences regarding the nature of our consciousness and the nature of the Universe.