food in the countryside and foraged

food in the countryside and foraged for fuel in the Vienna

woods, stripping entire hillsides of trees and bushes.

Thousands queued overnight for food rations, rushing the

distribution point and seizing the goods so that women in the

rear were left with nothing. On one occasion, when a horse

fell on the street, the mob butchered it within minutes and

scurried off with the meat.

During this upheaval, Schrödinger somehow continued his

intensive research work in theoretical physics at the

University of Vienna’s Physics Institute, but with an added

interest. As he put it, “I was j ust now with great enthusiasm

becoming familiar with Schopenhauer and, through him, with

the doctrine of unity taught by the Upanishads.” Schrödinger

filled notebook after notebook with commentaries based

upon his reading of European and Eastern philosophers. “It

was in those dying days of the Danube Empire,” Moore

wrote, “that he formed the foundations of his philosophy,

which was to remain remarkably constant all his life.”3

Arthur Schopenhauer, whom we met earlier in our

discussion of saving others, was known as a philosopher of

pessimism, but his views may have come as consolation to

Schrödinger amid the suffering and turmoil of four years of

senseless war and destruction. The impact of Schopenhauer ’s

philosophy has been immense. This “lone giant” in Western

philosophy, as the novelist Arthur Koestler called him,

influenced individuals as diverse as Nietzsche, Freud, Mann,


----------------------- Page 76-----------------------

4

and Wagner. Schopenhauer honored the wisdom of the East,

especially India’s contributions of Vedanta and the

Upanishads. He named his faithful dog “Atman,” the Hindu

term for the spiritual principle of the universe that is inherent

in all individuals. At his bedside he kept Hindu scriptures

and a gold-leafed statue of the Buddha dressed as a beggar.5

Among Schopenhauer ’s views that may have given

comfort to Schrödinger amid the misery of war-ravaged

Vienna was Schopenhauer ’s understanding of the harmony of

life. He maintained that not only do all the events of an

existence fall into place in one’s own traj ectory through life,

but they simultaneously mesh with the life courses of all

other individuals, even though the drama of others’ lives may

be unknown to her. When viewed in aggregate, multiple lives

fit together like a j igsaw puzzle whose overall pattern is so

complex it is beyond the comprehension of any particular

individual. Said Schopenhauer, “Everything is interrelated

6

and mutually attuned.” Schopenhauer saw order in disorder

and apparent randomness, offering meaning to Schrödinger ’s

world turned upside down.



Only One Mind



Schrödinger thought deeply about the key teachings he

read. He reformulated them in his own words, and they

became the pillars that sustained him for the rest of his life.7

In books such as My View of the World, What Is Lif e?, and


----------------------- Page 77-----------------------

M ind and Matter, he painstakingly built a concept of a single

mind, in which consciousness is transpersonal, universal,

collective, and infinite in space and time, therefore immortal

and eternal. In adopting a unitary view of human

consciousness, Schrödinger recognized what he called the

“arithmetical paradox”—that although there are billions of

apparently separate minds, the view that humans have of the

world is largely coherent. There is only one adequate

explanation for this, he wrote, “namely the unification of

minds or consciousness. Their multiplicity is only apparent,

in truth there is only one mind.”8

Schrödinger believed we are suffering from a consensus

trance, a collective delusion, about the nature of

consciousness. As he put it, “We have entirely taken to

thinking of the personality of a human being … as located in

the interior of the body. To learn that it cannot really be found

there is so amazing that it meets with doubt and hesitation,

we are very loath to admit it. We have got used to localizing

the conscious personality inside a person’s head—I should

say an inch or two behind the midpoint of the eyes…. It is

very difficult for us to take stock of the fact that the

localization of the personality, of the conscious mind, inside

the body is only symbolic, j ust an aid for practical use.”9

Immortality for the mind was a key feature of

Schrödinger ’s vision. He wrote, “I venture to call it [the

mind] indestructible since it has a peculiar time-table,


----------------------- Page 78-----------------------

namely mind is always now. There is really no before and

after for the mind. There is only now that includes memories

and expectations….10 We may, or so I believe, assert that

physical theory in its present stage strongly suggests the

indestructibility of Mind by Time.”11

For many Westerners, the extent of Schrödinger ’s holism

can be shocking. He acknowledged this but did not hold

back, maintaining, “[As] inconceivable as it seems to

ordinary reason, you—and all other conscious beings as such

—are all in all. Hence this life of yours which you are living

is not merely a piece of the entire existence, but is in a

certain sense the whole; only this whole is not so constituted

that it can be surveyed in one single glance. This, as we

know, is what the Brahmins express in that sacred, mystic

formula: Tat tvam asi, this is you. Or, again, in such words as

‘I am in the east and in the west, I am below and above, I am

this whole world.’”12

For Schrödinger, this vision was no airy-fairy piece of

philosophy; it was thoroughly practical. Echoing

Schopenhauer, he declared that one’s unity with others

“underlies all morally valuable activity,”13 including

altruism and heroism. In the embrace of oneness with others,

individuals will risk their life for an end they believe to be

good, lay down their life to save someone else’s, and give to

relieve a stranger ’s suffering even though it may increase

their own.


----------------------- Page 79-----------------------

Oneness with the All permeated Schrödinger ’s workaday

life as a scientist. Done properly, scientific work was akin to

fathoming the mind of God. He wrote, “Science is a game….

The uncertainty is how many of the rules God himself has

permanently ordained, and how many apparently are caused

by your own mental inertia…. This is perhaps the most

exciting thing in the game. For here you strive against the

imaginary boundary between yourself and the Godhead—a

boundary that perhaps does not exist.”14

Schrödinger saw not conflict but harmony between his

interpretation of quantum physics and Vedanta. As his

biographer Moore explained, “In 1925, the world view of

physics was a model of the universe as a great machine

composed of separable interacting material particles. During

the next few years, Schrödinger and Heisenberg and their

followers created a universe based on the superimposed

inseparable waves of probability amplitudes. This view

would be entirely consistent with the vedantic concept of the

All in One.”15

But not j ust with Vedanta. Schrödinger cited with

approval Aldous Huxley’s magnificent treatise The

Perennial Philosop hy, an anthology of mystical writings

from the esoteric side of the world’s maj or religions.16 This

suggests that Schrödinger agreed in principle with the view

that “all mystics speak the same language, for they come from

the same country.”17 If Vedanta had not existed, he would


----------------------- Page 80-----------------------

have found affirmation of his vision in other traditions. The

stars don’t rise; it is the earth that tilts and spins, causing the

stars to come into view. So it is with great truths. Although

they are always present, they await our movement in order to

be seen.



Patron Saint of the One Mind



For all of his insights into Eastern philosophy,

Schrödinger was no one’s idea of a “spiritual physicist.” He

made no pretense of being saintly. His personal shortcomings

were obvious in his relations with other persons, which were

often tumultuous. As Moore delicately put it, “He did not

achieve a true integration of his beliefs with his actions.”

Moore elaborated: “The Bhagavad-Gita teaches that there

are three paths to salvation: the path of devotion, the path of

works, and the path of knowledge. By inborn temperament

and by early nurture Erwin was destined to follow the last of

these paths. His intellect showed him the way, and throughout

his life he expressed in graceful essays his belief in Vedanta,

but he remained what the Indians call a Mahavit, a person

who knows the theory but has failed to achieve a practical

realization of it in his own life. From the Chandogy a

Up anishad: ‘I am a Mahavit, a knower of the word, and not

an Atmavit, a knower of Atman.’”18

Well, all right. Schrödinger would no doubt agree that he

was not the way, he merely p ointed the way. And for all his


----------------------- Page 81-----------------------

imperfections, our world could use more scientists like him.

If there were a patron saint of the One Mind among

physicists, it would be Erwin Schrödinger.



Professor Kothari and My Debt to India



A personal note. I, too, owe a debt to India.

In 1988 I was invited to deliver the annual Mahatma

Gandhi Memorial Lecture at the Gandhi Peace Foundation in

New Delhi. The invitation was brokered by Professor D. S.

Kothari, whom I had never met. Kothari was one of the best-

known Indian physicists of the 20th century, whose research

on statistical thermodynami

Kết quả (Việt) 1:

thực phẩm ở vùng nông thôn và foraged đối với nhiên liệu ở Vienna Woods, tước toàn bộ sườn đồi của cây và bụi cây. Hàng ngàn xếp hàng qua đêm để khẩu phần thực phẩm, gấp rút các phân phối điểm và nắm bắt các hàng hóa như vậy mà phụ nữ trong các phía sau đã được trái với không có gì. Một lần, khi một con ngựa rơi trên đường phố, đám đông butchered nó trong vòng vài phút và scurried ra với thịt. Trong thời gian biến động này, Schrödinger bằng cách nào đó tiếp tục của mình nghiên cứu chuyên sâu công việc trong vật lý lý thuyết tại các Trường đại học của Viện vật lý của Vienna, nhưng với một bổ sung quan tâm. Như ông đã đặt nó, "tôi là j ust bây giờ với sự nhiệt tình trở nên quen thuộc với Schopenhauer, và thông qua Ngài, với học thuyết thống nhất giảng dạy bởi Upanishad." Schrödinger máy tính xách tay đầy sau khi máy tính xách tay với các bài bình luận dựa Khi ông đọc nhà triết học châu Âu và miền đông. "Nó trong những ngày chết của Đế quốc Danube"Moore đã viết, "rằng ông đã thành lập những nền tảng của triết lý của ông, mà là để duy trì liên tục đáng chú ý tất cả cuộc sống của mình." 3 Arthur Schopenhauer, người mà chúng tôi gặp nhau trước đó trong của chúng tôi thảo luận về tiết kiệm những người khác, được gọi là một nhà triết học của bi quan, nhưng quan điểm của ông có thể đã đến như là khuyến khích để Schrödinger giữa những đau khổ và tình trạng hỗn loạn của bốn năm chiến tranh vô tri và hủy diệt. Tác động của Schopenhauer triết học đã được bao la. "Lone khổng lồ này" ở Tây triết học, như các tiểu thuyết gia Arthur Koestler gọi anh ta, ảnh hưởng cá nhân khác nhau như Nietzsche, Freud, Mann, ----------------------- Page 76----------------------- 4 và Wagner. Schopenhauer tôn vinh sự khôn ngoan của phía đông, đặc biệt là Ấn Độ của những đóng góp của Vedanta và các Upanishad. Ông đặt tên con chó trung thành của mình "Atman," Ấn Độ giáo thuật ngữ cho các nguyên tắc tinh thần của vũ trụ là vốn có trong tất cả các cá nhân. Ở cạnh giường ngủ của mình, ông giữ kinh thánh Hindu và một bức tượng vàng-leafed của Đức Phật ăn mặc như một beggar.5 Trong số các quan điểm của Schopenhauer rằng có thể đã đưa ra Tiện nghi để Schrödinger trong bối cảnh đau khổ của chiến tranh tàn phá Vienna là sự hiểu biết của Schopenhauer của sự hài hòa của cuộc sống. Ông duy trì rằng không chỉ làm tất cả các sự kiện của một sự tồn tại rơi vào vị trí trong chính traj ectory thông qua cuộc sống, nhưng họ đồng thời lưới với các khóa học cuộc sống của tất cả cá nhân khác, mặc dù các phim truyền hình của những người khác sống ngày được biết đến cô ấy. Khi xem trong tổng hợp, nhiều cuộc sống phù hợp với nhau như một igsaw j câu đố mà mô hình tổng thể là như vậy phức tạp là quá hiểu bất kỳ đặc biệt cá nhân. Schopenhauer nói, "tất cả mọi thứ tương quan 6 "và cùng hài hòa." Schopenhauer thấy trật tự trong rối loạn và rõ ràng ngẫu nhiên, cung cấp ý nghĩa cho của Schrödinger thế giới quay lộn ngược. Chỉ có một tâm trí Schrödinger nghĩ sâu sắc về những lời dạy quan trọng ông đọc. Ông lập chúng bằng chữ riêng của mình, và họ became the pillars that sustained him for the rest of his life.7 In books such as My View of the World, What Is Lif e?, and ----------------------- Page 77-----------------------M ind and Matter, he painstakingly built a concept of a single mind, in which consciousness is transpersonal, universal, collective, and infinite in space and time, therefore immortal and eternal. In adopting a unitary view of human consciousness, Schrödinger recognized what he called the “arithmetical paradox”—that although there are billions of apparently separate minds, the view that humans have of the world is largely coherent. There is only one adequate explanation for this, he wrote, “namely the unification of minds or consciousness. Their multiplicity is only apparent, in truth there is only one mind.”8 Schrödinger believed we are suffering from a consensus trance, a collective delusion, about the nature of consciousness. As he put it, “We have entirely taken to thinking of the personality of a human being … as located in the interior of the body. To learn that it cannot really be found there is so amazing that it meets with doubt and hesitation, we are very loath to admit it. We have got used to localizing the conscious personality inside a person’s head—I should say an inch or two behind the midpoint of the eyes…. It is very difficult for us to take stock of the fact that the localization of the personality, of the conscious mind, inside the body is only symbolic, j ust an aid for practical use.”9 Immortality for the mind was a key feature of Schrödinger ’s vision. He wrote, “I venture to call it [the mind] indestructible since it has a peculiar time-table, ----------------------- Page 78-----------------------namely mind is always now. There is really no before and after for the mind. There is only now that includes memories and expectations….10 We may, or so I believe, assert that physical theory in its present stage strongly suggests the indestructibility of Mind by Time.”11 For many Westerners, the extent of Schrödinger ’s holism can be shocking. He acknowledged this but did not hold back, maintaining, “[As] inconceivable as it seems to ordinary reason, you—and all other conscious beings as such —are all in all. Hence this life of yours which you are living is not merely a piece of the entire existence, but is in a certain sense the whole; only this whole is not so constituted that it can be surveyed in one single glance. This, as we know, is what the Brahmins express in that sacred, mystic formula: Tat tvam asi, this is you. Or, again, in such words as ‘I am in the east and in the west, I am below and above, I am this whole world.’”12 For Schrödinger, this vision was no airy-fairy piece of philosophy; it was thoroughly practical. Echoing Schopenhauer, he declared that one’s unity with others “underlies all morally valuable activity,”13 including altruism and heroism. In the embrace of oneness with others, individuals will risk their life for an end they believe to be good, lay down their life to save someone else’s, and give to relieve a stranger ’s suffering even though it may increase their own. ----------------------- Page 79----------------------- Oneness with the All permeated Schrödinger ’s workaday life as a scientist. Done properly, scientific work was akin to fathoming the mind of God. He wrote, “Science is a game…. The uncertainty is how many of the rules God himself has permanently ordained, and how many apparently are caused by your own mental inertia…. This is perhaps the most exciting thing in the game. For here you strive against the imaginary boundary between yourself and the Godhead—a boundary that perhaps does not exist.”14 Schrödinger saw not conflict but harmony between his interpretation of quantum physics and Vedanta. As his biographer Moore explained, “In 1925, the world view of physics was a model of the universe as a great machine composed of separable interacting material particles. During the next few years, Schrödinger and Heisenberg and their followers created a universe based on the superimposed inseparable waves of probability amplitudes. This view would be entirely consistent with the vedantic concept of the All in One.”15 But not j ust with Vedanta. Schrödinger cited with approval Aldous Huxley’s magnificent treatise The Perennial Philosop hy, an anthology of mystical writings from the esoteric side of the world’s maj or religions.16 This suggests that Schrödinger agreed in principle with the view that “all mystics speak the same language, for they come from the same country.”17 If Vedanta had not existed, he would ----------------------- Page 80-----------------------have found affirmation of his vision in other traditions. The stars don’t rise; it is the earth that tilts and spins, causing the stars to come into view. So it is with great truths. Although they are always present, they await our movement in order to be seen. Patron Saint of the One Mind For all of his insights into Eastern philosophy, Schrödinger was no one’s idea of a “spiritual physicist.” He made no pretense of being saintly. His personal shortcomings were obvious in his relations with other persons, which were often tumultuous. As Moore delicately put it, “He did not achieve a true integration of his beliefs with his actions.” Moore elaborated: “The Bhagavad-Gita teaches that there are three paths to salvation: the path of devotion, the path of works, and the path of knowledge. By inborn temperament and by early nurture Erwin was destined to follow the last of these paths. His intellect showed him the way, and throughout
his life he expressed in graceful essays his belief in Vedanta,

but he remained what the Indians call a Mahavit, a person

who knows the theory but has failed to achieve a practical

realization of it in his own life. From the Chandogy a

Up anishad: ‘I am a Mahavit, a knower of the word, and not

an Atmavit, a knower of Atman.’”18

Well, all right. Schrödinger would no doubt agree that he

was not the way, he merely p ointed the way. And for all his


----------------------- Page 81-----------------------

imperfections, our world could use more scientists like him.

If there were a patron saint of the One Mind among

physicists, it would be Erwin Schrödinger.



Professor Kothari and My Debt to India



A personal note. I, too, owe a debt to India.

In 1988 I was invited to deliver the annual Mahatma

Gandhi Memorial Lecture at the Gandhi Peace Foundation in

New Delhi. The invitation was brokered by Professor D. S.

Kothari, whom I had never met. Kothari was one of the best-

known Indian physicists of the 20th century, whose research

on statistical thermodynami