Albert Einstein = Great Scientist
Yoga and the absence of imagination in materialist science
Before I came to know of his contributions to general relativity, I saw Albert Einstein as the archetypal wise man, a gentle wizard who had great apprehension of ancient wisdom and the unseen world. Einstein may have been my first contact with the notion of cosmic law-- By cosmic law I am referring to the immaterial constants that hold universally true across time, space and material condition. This is the domain of law for which the yogic sciences have developed comprehensive maps that hold up as well today as they did 3000+ years ago.
Einstein is what in integral theory they call a "good scientist," being that he straddled the domains of both intellect and intuition, the rational and post-rational, or even more broadly the masculine and feminine. Intuition is primary datum associated with the feminine, below the level of mind at the level of raw feeling— A feeling of wholeness that allows one access to information through every dimension of being, not just the senses— Yet we’ve been largely conditioned to deny this felt presence of immediate experience in exchange for “safer” fear-based decisions to give rise. This compromise is what maintains the status-quo, undermines creativity and accounts for a tremendous amount of mediocrity in the world.
Many who worship at the altar of materialist scientism don't give any serious regard to levels of cognition beyond the intellect because a) this domain of life experience is unable to be shown or proven quantifiably, and b) the egoic structure of those who self-select to worship at such altars does not allow for any expansion into these domains in the first place. Much in the same way liberal arts professors don’t go out for the marines, self-identified rationalists don’t seek out answers to life’s questions by looking inward. And likewise, yogis and sages are absent from university advisory boards, corporate org charts and Congressional House sub-committees.
A yogi recognizes intuition as the highest level of cognition, above both intellect and instinct.
By contrast the self-described rationalist equates the intellect as the “ultimate intelligence,” casting aside intuition as a lesser quality of mind that is conveniently employed to help “make stuff up,” to arrive at answers without undertaking any of the rigorous study and observation required to put forth a respectable hypothesis. And furthermore to the rationalist— Even if there is some underlying non-physical intelligence from which one could glean information, it certainly cannot be relied on— Not until it is put through the rigor of empirical testing and observation and its accompanying instrumentation, for if said claim cannot be established through the inputs and outputs of our limited sensory apparatus then there is no basis on which said claim can exist. To many this might sound like just the kind of absolutism that is needed to steer civilization away from all its impending dooms. But to someone even slightly conscious, this way of perceiving the world can look extremely myopic, like one is walking around with a metal bucket over their head unawares, claiming loudly the world is dark and there is no light. Those around them try to convince them otherwise but they insist: “I know this with absolute certainty! My senses prove it!”
The issue with the skeptic’s logic is that it’s structured in such a way as to ensure its default position— materialism itself— never be questioned. This is a huge perceptual bias that sits front and center of the rationalist argument, a bias that is far more conditioned by cultural assumption and its accompanying fears than it is innate to the human quest for knowledge, much less any spiritual path. The one who claims to seek “truth,” but lacks the conscious space to turn skepticism on their own skepticism is a walking embodiment of the fixed mindset— Yet this quality is rampant in nearly every facet of modern human enterprise. Those who uphold and operate within this paradigm may have degrees framed on their wall or a Mercedes in their garage, but they ultimately have very little idea of what is really going on.
Per intuition— Can the feelings you have for your loved ones be understood by way of spin, charge, or angular momentum? Can the fear of losing them or the pain of seeing them suffer be graphed in atomic mass or units per deciliter? Can we really successfully navigate the unfathomable complexity of reality by way of experiments so crude that they are repeatable only when returned to a state of initial condition?
This is what Einstein means when he says "knowledge is limited." He's referring to the intellect and that information which is attained through measure, reason, logic and the senses. Einstein recognized what the yogis and the rishis did, that the intellect and rationality (vijnanamaya kosha) are not at the height of intelligence, but rather at its base layer, parked precariously above the emotional layer (manomaya kosha), where fear is the primary driver and to which the intellect constantly seeks out new strategies to avoid. While widely celebrated as the height of human cognitive achievement, the yogic sciences views the intellect as the primary evolutionary pathway for error avoidance and course correction, its function to preserve the physical body and overcome antagonistic life conditions at scale, to allow more ease around the pursuit of biological imperatives such as procuring food, resources, status, reproductive opportunity, going to the mall, etc. Likewise whatever is deemed “rational,” implies a mode or methodology that will have us more easily arriving at a consensus built around our own survival strategies, most of which are completely unconscious.
It’s really eye-opening when you come to recognize that the most fervent self-described rationalists among us, those who would claim something like, “I act from logic, not emotion,” hold on to such pretensions to give their lower unconscious selves the much needed assurances around risk avoidance, for fear of failure, fear of loss, fear of rejection, fear of ridicule and humiliation, fear of eating out of a dumpster, drinking out of toilet etc. are all strong motivators against which to take action. But I should remind you that fear is an emotion, arguably the primary emotion, and is widely viewed to be completely irrational— Yet the rationalist is motivated by the irrationality of emotion just like everyone else, they’re just not conscious enough to see it because to do so would require a complete dismantling of their entire “logical” belief system identity religion— Something to which they have a lot invested and would appear to carry large costs if abandoned.
And while admittedly the common psychic space of humanity largely consists of bias, delusion and noise, (citta vritti) there are vast spectrums of signal intelligence to be gathered from the non-physical, one just has to develop cosmic-level awareness to gain access to the space. This space is what I’m referring to as intuition, and I think it gives rise to the imagination and vision as well.
Einstein seems to have been situated above the limitations of the logic-mind fear trap, and it’s no coincidence that his standing in this higher level of consciousness is what allowed him to see and express the dynamics of general relativity so succinctly, much in the same way an astronaut on a space station can describe the whole of the Earth. (See overview effect) Contrast that perspective with being stuck in the drive-thru at Zaxby’s— You can only see the uninspired menu board and the faint letter forms of the MAGA sticker under the brake light haze of the raised flatbed in front of you. Any potential for a life-shattering overview effect is mostly lost at this plane of perception, yet know that many of society’s myths and bedrock assumptions have their origins at this lower level of materialist drive-thru fast food intelligence.
This is something one must come to recognize if they want to awaken, because awakening will have you coming into greater realization of how the fear / intellect trap plays the most significant role in the shaping our life experience-- Far more so than any physical property, constant or material condition. From the standpoint of the yogic sciences, we take on the heaven and hell of a human incarnation because this is what the extent of our fears allow. We perceive ourselves as limited beings and are so wrought as such in material form (prakriti) with a relentless ego (asmita) that keeps us from seeing the most irreducible dimension of our own existence (atman). We persist like this because we're afraid that if we veer too far from the social orders designed to minimize our uncertainties and give meaning to our temporal existence then we will surely crash and burn, and everyone we know will be audience to our failure, watching on in delight as we endure the unforgiving consequences of having strayed too far from the normative path.
One of my critiques of classical yoga philosophy is that it dismisses the significance of the imagination as a vital force in one's evolution, especially given that imagination and vision are the first set of traits to emerge once one goes beyond mere self-preservation and survival cognition. The yoga sutras views the imagination (vikalpa) as an obstacle toward yoga— Day-dreaming, fantasy, illusion, ego-tripping, etc— These will keep you out of a state of yoga, but also recognize these traits, however much perceived as distractions, also contain within them the evolutionary pathways through which one de-conditions themselves of an ill-fated deterministic existence (samsara), into something more conscious and unrecognizable (jivan mukta).
The sutras of Patanjali define yoga with the explicit aim of stilling (nirodha) mental static (citta vritti). Another way I came to understand this was through Jung, who described yoga as “the erasing of images from the mind.” I personally do not want to erase the images from my mind-- I do however want to be able to still my mind at will. The images in my mind are what has given me vision, by which I mean being able to see things no one else can see. Sadhguru speaks of vision in much the same way Einstein speaks of the imagination-- As something “all inclusive, that exceeds one's sense of self and takes into consideration the entire world.”
Imagination is a spectrum of higher intelligence through which one accesses the means of creation. It is what allows an artist to see a sculpture in a piece of driftwood, or the author to feel through the emotional core of a novel, or the architect to envision a never before seen construction technique. In the case of Einstein, I am arguing that his raised level of consciousness is what allowed him to see the workings of the cosmos so clearly. I am also arguing that scientists need to become more conscious, so as to allow for more access to the imagination and intuition, as it will only help the advancement of the sciences and humankind.
The ability to access the imagination is a gift without parallel-- It's the farthermost extension of our potential as a source of conscious creation. Don't discount it. Don't let the corpocracy drill it out of you with their infantilized consumerist ideologies, shit-brained media and criminal peddling of anesthetizing drugs. If you are fortunate enough to have been born with an active imagination-- Tame it with asana and pranayama or whatever else is available, and do everything in your power to bring it into the world, even if the lesser around you laugh or think you're crazy. They respond this way because they are asleep.
Namaskaram to you all.