This website highlights discoveries in modern physics and relates them to ancient nonduality. The purpose is to help with the prep work for the science-minded spiritual seeker. It’s a concise resource of quotes, basic web links, and my commentary on science, philosophy, and spirituality. There will also be some ranting about materialism.

I’m not a physicist, just a retired Research Wildlife Biologist. Relativity and quantum mechanics have just been a life-long hobby of mine. But recently I happened upon an entirely new perspective, and the strangeness of the quantum world suddenly doesn’t seem strange anymore. Granted, my new perspective is likely going to sound strange to you, but it does explain a lot:

• The dreamer of the universe dreams in the language of mathematics.
• The structure of the universe is math on the outside, consciousness on the inside.
• We are the dreamer living in this mathematically stabilized dreamworld.

What happened to me? Late in my science career I was given some time off, and started meditating in my backyard. A month in, I found super amazing bliss, and became quite addicted. Six months in, it occurred to me to look for a meditation teacher, and I found a guru who was just new in town. She was a close disciple of a world famous guru, who’s guru was a great saint of India. Long story short, I received a deep end Shaktipat initiation into that seriously real nondual lineage. This was no mere epiphany, mind you. It left me shaking for days—the cognitive dissonance was well out of human range. When I did settle down (thanks to my guru) I was deeply rearranged, and found myself taking solace and feeling a sense of community by reading the Upanishads and other nondual texts. My strange new view was completely in line with theirs, which still amazes me.

Young Bhagawan Nityananda

From that I bring you quotes, mostly from Kashmir Shaivism, Tibetan Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta, Taoism, and even a few nondual-sounding Bible quotes. Also included is a balance of quotes from top physicists and philosophers, all pointing to the central idea that consciousness is fundamental. I have high confidence all these quotes are authentic. When a name is linked under a quote, it’s a citation link to Wikiquote. For the scriptural quotes I’m relying heavily on work of the translators Eknath Easwaran (The Upanishads, 1987; The Bhagavad Gita, 1985) and Bart Marshall (The Perennial Way: Expanded Edition, 2016).

You will also find my commentary, calling upon science, spirituality, and philosophy to support this nondual perspective I now have. I’m not much of a writer, but I feel nicely positioned to point to the ineffable in a way that would be helpful for a rational, science-minded seeker. I’m not adding new blogs so much as refining the same few posts. Be advised, this is not strictly nondual speak, since science is inherently dualistic. I’ll use whatever points to the nondual. I’m mostly just stating conclusions here, and providing links to back them up. I’m always trying to keep my science friends and colleagues in mind, who think this guru thing is way too woo-woo. I’ve always felt that way myself, but now I’ve eaten my words and just want to share what I was given.

Lastly, you will find many links providing the background and arguments for my conclusions (since we have the internet at our fingertips). All are carefully selected, and the safest I could find that support my position—mostly YouTube and Wikipedia. I’ll occasionally resort to something like the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, or Scientific American. Embedded links appear as YouTube images, but some of the best are just highlighted words. Unless otherwise specified, you shouldn’t have to read much, or watch two minutes, to see what I’m referencing.

The theme here is to boundary span between science and spirituality—relativity & quantum mechanics with Eastern mysticism—to help deal with our Western rationality in the midst of a true spiritual awakening. In my opinion, many religions have long been studying the quantum nature of our universe, just by very different means. The Tattvas of Kashmir Shaivism, Buddhism, and Jainism, etc., are layers of elements which map out the emergence of space, time, and localized causality from a nonlocal middle realm just as quantum field theory does. Other Tattvas stand in place of the periodic table of elements, and the table of elementary particles. Once science discovers the uppermost Tattvas, we should have full concordance. 

I use the terms, Awakening, Waking Up, Realization, Initiation, Born Again, Shaktipat, and Satori as though they have the same meaning—a realization that shifts your identity toward your nondual nature. There are various types of awakening, but I’m referring to this identity shift specifically. Most people are looking for the word enlightenment, but unless you are a skilled Bodhisattva, that usually means dropping the body. An awakening of this sort is the third step in the Ten Ox-herding Pictures, and the biggest step in the seekers path to enlightenment. It’s a temporary Enlightenment Experience that leaves you in-body, but with a transcendent world view.

Why do I think the world only manifests for consciousness? Because I got to see behind the scenes once, and because science says so. Three physicists won the Nobel Prize for it in 2022; for disproving Local Realism. They ran experiments for decades addressing all the counter arguments and confirming that particles, in fact, don’t have physical properties before they are observed! So, question: How could physical processes happen if particles don’t have physical properties before they are observed?

We think we’re just that little guy down in the universe, but we’re also the source of the universe.

Okay, here’s the thing. Humans have evolved just enough to sometimes “pop”. This is known by those who have done it, but most everyone else have written it off as just wishful thinking. If Realization is truly your goal, be advised that the experience can be quite destabilizing for some if the necessary prep work hasn’t been done. That’s why religions are always going on about purifying yourself (they’ll even give you a smoke bath of incense, or anoint you with scented oil). So before you go and realize you are One with all other humans, let alone the universe, it’s important to develop a stance of love and compassion for all beings, because of how intimately close you actually are to everything. How close? How many is one?

So, it’s always a good time to improve your ability to walk in the world with a sense of gratitude, compassion, and love …at least for your fellow humans. My guru gave us this Tibetan Buddhist quote: “Without love and compassion for all beings, enlightenment is impossible. But with love and compassion for all beings, enlightenment is inevitable.”

And, for the Westerner in particular, it’s important to get a rational grip on this whole realization business, so when it does happen, you can keep your head on straight. I made this website in the hopes it helps you with that.     -Garth