Encountering Life in the Universe: Ethical Foundations and Social Implications of Astrobiology

5. The Wonder Called Cosmic Oneness: Toward Astroethics from Hindu and Buddhist Wisdom and Worldviews - Nishant Alphonse Irudayadason

94 chapter five The Wonder Called Cosmic Oneness Toward Astroethics from Hindu and Buddhist Wisdom and Worldviews Nishant Alphonse Irudayadason Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth: Pontifical Institute of Philosophy and Religions In this chapter I attempt to show how the Hindu and Buddhist worldviews affirm universal harmony and how this can be paradigmatic for evolving astroethics. We shall explore the possible connections between key insights and intuitions of Buddhist and Hindu thought and our rapidly expanding understanding of the Universe, including our knowledge of life and conscious life here on Earth and possibly elsewhere. In particular, what Buddhist and Hindu perspectives and convictions are consonant with the broad findings of cosmology, astronomy, biology, and astrobiology? And what basis do they provide for ethical attitudes and guidelines for our interaction with environments, organisms, and societies here on Earth and elsewhere in the cosmos? The Universe forms an organic and indivisible whole. All its parts are interdependent. The whole becomes possible only in the collaboration of all its parts. This is one of the important insights of the great philosophical tradition since Plato and finds echo in the creative thinking of Aristotle and Plotinus, in the discourse of the Stoics and the Neoplatonists, and later in the treatises of Spinoza and Hegel. In the words of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, “All things are woven together and the common bond is sacred, and scarcely one thing is foreign to another” (Aurelius 1998). All beings The Wonder Called Cosmic Oneness · 95 are intertwined in the whole like the threads of a single fabric. A life breath unites them all, and they participate in and contribute to the universal harmony. Thus this idea of cosmic oneness is not exclusive to Hindu and Buddhist philosophies. In fact, a stream of Western philosophy, along with modern science, and psychology promotes this view. The Stoics and the Neoplatonists have argued that the Universe possesses a single soul, in which all individual souls participate and are related to one another. Spinoza affirms, “We may easily consider the whole of nature to be one individual , whose parts, that is to say, all bodies, differ in infinite ways without any change of the whole individual” (Spinoza 2009/1673). His contemporary , the champion of monism in Western philosophy, categorically states: “Reality cannot be found except in one single source, because of the interconnection of all things with one another” (Leibniz 1965/1670). In this vision of the Universe, each singular point is a knot of relationships. Every particular being, writes Hegel, exists only in its relation to others: everything is connected and interdependent. Things are different, but they are not separated, and each carries the mark of all. The microcosm therefore reproduces the macrocosm. Both physical sciences and human sciences have profoundly changed the course of the twentieth century, allowing mechanistic and deterministic models to move toward holistic approaches. What characterizes this new perspective is the idea that each object (an atom, a cell, an organism, a human being, a society)—forming an integrated whole through the dynamic relations of all its elements—is itself part of a further larger system. From this perspective, interdependencies and interrelationships are fundamental . In modern physics, the vision of the Universe as organic and dynamic is becoming more widespread. Elementary particles are also understood as interactions or interrelations rather than objects or substances. Theories of relativity and quantum mechanics have somehow paved the way for a new holistic approach. Thus, advancements in modern physics have led to an understanding of the Universe as organic and dynamic. Physicists like David Bohm and Fritjof Capra affirm that, in some sense, the Universe is not only a living organism but also intelligent. They speak of the inseparability of the particles , forming a single cosmic fabric. Again, the Universe appears as an indivisible whole, all parts interconnected with each other and related to the whole. Each elementary particle appears essentially as a knot of relationships and events. It is interwoven with the other elements and exists only in interdependence within the cosmic whole.1 Isn’t this similar to the 96 · Encountering Life in the Universe Soul of the Universe of the ancient Greeks or the Great Atman of the Hindu-Buddhist traditions? This interrelatedness is exemplified in the physical interactions of particles . For instance, a proton can become a neutron and a neutron can change into a proton, thus giving rise to photons (light). Both light and matter can transform...