Cosmologically we are at
the instant, the moment of recognition of the utter relativity of existence.
Modern history consists of a series of “decenterings,” “Copernican” moments
when we recognize that our former seemingly-solid frame of reference is in fact
just a minor part of something larger.
E.g., realizing that the earth goes around the sun, the sun is one small
star in a galaxy, which is one of billions, and that our universe is just one
part of a larger reality. Even physical laws are not definite.
Recognizing our finitude,
our composite character, our emptiness, our sense of self fragments, dissolves,
explodes. But this World Two, the transcendent, nirvana! The anthropic principle tells us not merely
that if we weren’t in a suitable world we would not see what we do, but that we
recognize the infinite depth of reality by being who we are. That is, to be
fully human is to see through our limitations. The crucial point is not that we
are just who we are and where we are, and that these two facts are correlated (the
weak anthropic principle) but that our existence is in its essential nature one
of recognition. The fact that only
beings placed where we are in the cosmic order could see the truth is much less
important than the bare reality of that seeing itself. We cannot but recognize
(because it is part of the recognition of emptiness) that that recognition is
itself of ultimate significance. The
strong anthropic principle is not a “fact,” it is a realization, and seeing it
is enlightenment.
The above is a statement
of the conclusions of the Yoga Sutras and Samkhya Karikas. My discusson of the “purusarthic”
principle (at BrainDance.us) says the same thing.
