Wholeness
Although David Loy acknowledges that the notion of the self as illusory seems counter-intuitive and even nonsensical to those of us raised in Western cultures, the complementary idea of a fundamental unity of all things seems to have moved in the past decade or two from an intellectually specious "New Age" trend to a widely accepted view that informs a wide array of disciplines and knowledge systems, including philosophy, anthropology, sociology, and the sciences. One of the most interesting and compelling examples of how this idea of unity or oneness has gained legitimacy in the West comes from physics. Physicist Fritjof Capra has examined the commonalties between the views of reality offered by modern physics and by what Capra refers to as "the philosophical and religious traditions of the Far East" (18), such as Taoism and Buddhism. Capra presents a careful and detailed analysis of the key concepts of contemporary quantum physics as well as relativity theory to show that the insights gained by these highly sophisticated branches of physics are essentially the same insights offered for centuries by the Far East traditions he surveys. Chief among those insights is the idea of the fundamental unity of all things. Capra elaborates:
The most important characteristic of the Eastern world view – one could almost say the essence of it – is the awareness of the unity and mutual interrelation of all things and events, the experience of all phenomena in the world as manifestations of a basic oneness. All things are seen as interdependent and inseparable parts of this cosmic whole; as different manifestations of the same ultimate reality. (130)Capra goes on to show how modern physics in effect corroborates this view:
The basic oneness of the universe is not only the central characteristic of the mystical experience [of Eastern religions], but is also one of the most important revelations of modern physics. It becomes apparent at the atomic level and manifests itself more and more as one penetrates deeper into matter, down into the realm of subatomic particles. (131)More specifically, he writes, "Quantum theory forces us to see the universe not as a collection of physical objects, but rather as a complicated web of relationships between various parts of a unified whole" (138).
While such an idea may seem impossibly abstract, it can inform our sense of self in ways that can have profound – and beneficial – consequences.