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THE DANCE OF SHIVA

        NOV 1, 2014     

In This Issue
CHANT CLUB
THE DANCE OF SHIVA
JENNIS IN GUELPH
JENNIS ON TOUR
'WHY IS LIFE' - ONLY $6
Greetings Dear Friends
  
With the spirit of Halloween in the air, we move into November. Soon the snow will be flying and so will I. Before I do, I hope to see you at Chant Club or at a Jennis gig.

The previous set of articles was on the topic of mysticism, providing a brief overview of several of the mystical traditions, which have so much to say about the nature of our reality and our journey through life. The next set of articles comes from a section in my book, 'Why Is Life', called 'The Parallels Between Mysticism and Physics'. Both of these seemingly opposite points of view have startlingly similar things to say about the nature of our reality. This month will feature the second in that series entitled 'Dualities, Space and Time'.

Also in this newsletter, some upcoming Jennis concerts. See details below.

   

If you'd like to access past newsletters containing articles on the Big Shift, as well as articles on the Physics of Mysticism, Magic, the Power of Mantra and other topics, please visit the 'newsletter' page of my website: 

 whyislife.com


Peace and love, Dennis.
  

GUELPH CHANT CLUB  
DATE                                        CITY                                 VENUE   
WED., NOV. 5, 2014                 Guelph,                        Unitarian   Church
7:45 to 9:30 pm                         Ontaro                   

The Unitarian Church is on the corner of
Harris and York Streets in Guelph.

For more detailed directions, check out guelph-unitarians.com

SUGGESTED DONATION - $15

THE PARALLELS BETWEEN

MYSTICISM AND PHYSICS

 

"For us believing physicists, the distinction between past, present and future is only an illusion, even if a stubborn one."

Albert Einstein

 

Part 3

The Dance of Shiva 

 

Another concept common to both the scientific and the mystical perspectives is the idea that everything in the universe is in constant motion. The mystic writings of ancient Greece and the teachings of shamans make frequent reference to the liquid, ever-changing nature of reality. In the Hindu 'Rig Veda', this idea of continual motion is called 'Rita'. In Buddhism it is called 'samsara'.  

 

At the sub-atomic level or the micro-universe, as witnessed by science, everything is in constant motion. At the quantum level, particles are in constant motion, something that has been called the 'quantum foam'. Even what was thought of as the vacuum of 'empty space' has been shown to be frothing and roiling with activity when magnified to a quantum level. 

 

This is also true of the macro-universe. Every cosmic body is in motion, relative to other bodies. Countless calculations and observations testify that the universe is continually expanding. The further a body is from us, the faster it is moving away. No matter how powerful some future telescope may be, it will never tell us the true size of the universe. The galaxies furthest away from us are moving away at the speed of light, so that the light that would indicate their presence never reaches us.

 

Science has embraced the concept of the 'big bang' and subsequent 'big crunch'. It claims that the entire universe was once compressed to a size smaller than a pinprick and that it then began to unfold and will continue to do so until it reaches maximum expansion. It then will begin to contract until it arrives once again into a singular point. This would occur over the course of an enormous amount of time, many billions of years. These concepts are nothing new to the ancient Tantric writings. This concept is called 'lila' and the amount of time required for one cosmic 'breath', one complete cycle of expansion/contraction, is called a 'kalpa' by the Hindus. When the entire universe is compressed to the size of a pinprick, this point is called the 'mahabindu' or 'great point' in the Tantras.

 

One of the most fundamental laws of physics is the conservation of energy. It states that the many manifestations of energy continually change form, but that the total energy in the universe never changes. No violation of this law has ever been witnessed by science. When particles collide in the micro-world, the energy of collision forms new particles of matter, which then become energy once again. A particle can be described as both an event and a chunk of matter - 'processes' rather than 'solid objects'. Matter and the activity of matter are one and the same thing. This is also in line with mystical thought and in the ancient language of Sanskrit, the word 'samskara' means both an object and an event.

 

Several of the mystical traditions refer to the idea of a 'cosmic dance' as an analogy to describe one characteristic of reality. It is the idea that the universe is in a constant state of creation and destruction - endless cycles of life and death, coming and going, inhaling and exhaling. In the Hindu tradition, this is the 'dance of Shiva'. The observations of modern physics are very reminiscent of these ideas. We are continually being bombarded with cosmic radiation, streams of particles that collide with each other and with our earthbound particles. These collisions result in endless transmutations, with particles being annihilated while others are being born. At the sub-atomic level, particles are coming and going continually. This constant motion, this 'dance' of microscopic matter, is very much like the dance of Shiva.

 

The next installment will be about how science and mysticism are in accord with the concepts of 'emptiness and form'.

 

JENNIS at SILENCE in GUELPH

Jen Gillmor and I have a new musical project called Jennis, featuring original songs and a fresh new sound. We've been busy doing concerts in Kingston, Ottawa, Toronto, Guelph and beyond. We playing at Guelph's hot new music venue, SILENCE, on Fri. NOV 7.
SEE DETAILS BELOW.

To listen to some sample music and to download a free song, please visit our website at jennis.ca
  

JENNIS ON TOUR IN NOVEMBER

OTTAWA - NOV 19
PETERBOROUGH - NOV 21
BARRIE - NOV 22
TORONTO - NOV 27
KINGSTON - NOV 28

FOR MORE INFO PLEASE CLICK HERE:

  
'WHY IS LIFE?'- NOW ONLY $6

My book, Why Is Life?, has been released as an e-book, available for approximately $6 or less, from a list of online bookstores:
Apple i-Books, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony Reader Store, Koby, Copia, Gardners, Baker & Taylor, eBookPie, eSentral, Scribd and PagePusher.
The book can be purchased at any of these outlets, searching with either the title or this ISBN number: 9781483515403
OR, just click on one of these links: 
New to e-books?
Click this link for a wikipedia article about e-books:
If this is the first time you've bought an e-book, you may need to download an app - the most popular ones are from Amazon and are free to download. You can read an e-book on your computer, laptop or an e-book device like a Kindle (Amazon) or an I-Book or I-Pad (Apple). For an article comparing them, click here:

To download a Kindle app for any reading device including Apple products, click here:

ABOUT 'WHY IS LIFE'
To read a variety of reviews of this book, click here and then, once in the website, click 'reviews':  
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