Sense out of nonsense (1) – Understanding existence

2. Religion – a dualistic viewpoint of existence with a physical benevolent God being the creator and existence being the creation. Some have messengers and books as go-between Creator and creation. Has some amazing advantages in the devotion tradition but historically has been the source of immense violence, separation, competition and exploitation.

3. Spiritualism – a non – dualistic thought process which looks at each and every element of existence as being part of creator. Which deals with the energy / spirit of every being and works for inner clarity to discover the relationship between all forms of existence. Quantum physics has validated many of its worldview.

The dualistic religious movements in the west along with the Eastern religiosity consisting of various Gods, their messengers and their books created a worldview where humans were only connected directly one-to-one with the creator and sent to the world for various purposes – leading to claims and counter claims of superiority, proselytising (religious conversion) and competition leading to violence, strife, wars and tremendous unrest and indescribable horror and misery.

In the seventeenth century, a French philosopher, scientist and philosopher Rene Descartes proposed the ‘Cartesian’ division of nature as two independent realms (dualism or dwaita) – the mind and matter. Modern scientists started seeing matter as dead and completely segregated from themselves and the world as materialistic, working on principles of a Monarchical God. This view has led to huge advances in the field of science, technology, organizing of cities, political structures, medicines, agriculture, economy and similar. But due to this worldview, individuals started identifying themselves as separate mind and separate body parts with the futile expectation of the mind trying to control the separate compartments of talent, feeling, beliefs, individuality leading to endless inner conflicts generating confusions, stress and frustrations.

The inner fragmentation mirrors our alienation from nature and from our fellow beings treating natural environment as separate from us and therefore to be exploited by different interest groups. This fragmented view is further extended to society which is split into different nations, races, religions, groups and political entities leading to the present ecological, political, social and cultural crises.