What is Reality?

David Bohm, Theoretical Physicist

“Individuality is only possible if it unfolds from wholeness.” ~David Bohm

David Bohm (1917 – 1966, born in a small coal mining town in Pennsylvania) has been described as one of the most significant theoretical physicists of the 20th century. He contributed new ideas to quantum theory, neuropsychology, and the philosophy of mind. In 1951, Bohm published the book, Quantum Theory and in 1966, The Special Theory of Relativity.

I think the time has come to investigate where is the Observer! ~His Holiness the Dalai Lama

His Holiness the Dalai Lama came to regard David Bohm as his “Science Guru”. Ever since childhood, the Dalai Lama had a deep interest in science. And Bohm was the one that grounded him in Quantum Physics. As a child, the Dalai Lama was trained to always ask “why, why, why”, never to easily accept or “say yes”. His Holiness states that Buddha himself always told his followers, monks, and scholars “never to accept his teaching out of faith, but only out of thorough investigation and experiment”.

Watch the film Now, The Infinite Potential, featuring David Bohm.

Bohm in a sense summarized this view by relating the quest for truth to the “scientific spirit, the artistic spirit and the religious spirit”. He points out that one of the most essential qualities of the scientific spirit is “to acknowledge the fact or the interpretation of the fact whether one likes it or not” and not to engage in wishful thinking or reject something just because you don’t like it. The religious spirit, Bohm says, requires the same approach, otherwise, it would get lost in “self-deception which is so easy to do”.

The Wisdom of the East echoes this view.

Stick to your reason until you reach something higher; you will know it to be higher because it will not jar with reason. Then you can transcend reason… ~Swami Vivekananda

Both the scientific approach and the mystical approach come from investigation. Ancient India has a long tradition of investigation through mind, meditation and wisdom. Modern science does most of its investigation in laboratories and through the use of instrumentation. But ultimately both meet at the same point and ask the same basic question – what is REALITY?

It is here that we find a common Universal perspective that integrates the Observer with the Observed. This is again where both Bohm and His Holiness find agreement which overcomes the illusion of separation between the observer and the observed. Both quantum physics and the ancient mystics are united here as expressed by His Holiness when he says, ‘nothing objectively exists, all depends on the observer’. This mystery is the one that His Holiness states is the greatest challenge facing both science and spirituality.

‘I think the time has come to investigate where is The Observer?’

Both Bohm and the Dalai Lama shared the view that at the deepest level of reality everything is interconnected and interdependent. In our everyday world of manifest reality, our sense perceptions misperceive this truth. And that misperception is at the basis of our fragmented worldview. When one grasps that the universe is organic, interconnected, and interdependent, we realize that it’s not the parts that determine the whole, but it is the whole that determines each and every part of the cosmos. The Dalai Lama echoes this profound view in his book The Universe in a Single Atom. Therein lies perhaps the most important message for our planet! As the Dalai Lama says, ‘According to that reality, we really must take care of the whole world and the environment.”

Watch the film Now, The Infinite Potential, featuring David Bohm.