INsight/ Science and Tradition

Photo of James Webb Space Telescope courtesy Arianespace.

Manila, 29 December 2021 — Connecting science and tradition to master leadership skills.

Story

It happened on Christmas Day in 2021. A large telescope launched into space. James Webb Space Telescope is a joint project of scientists at the American, European, and Canadian space agencies and aims to study the origins of the universe including life as we know it. In thanking the team after the launch, Bill Nelson, the NASA administrator and a former astronaut, proclaimed it “a great day for Planet Earth.” 

Remarkably, after reminding the team of their mission “We dare to explore“ Nelson then switched his language from science to that of one of the world’s wisdom traditions. He quoted words penned three thousand years ago and ascribed to David, a shepherd-poet who became a king, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows his handiwork.” (Psalm 19:1, New King James Version). 

Continuing his commentary on the historic moment, Nelson brought science and tradition together, “The handiwork of God, as we peer back in time, over 13 billion years ago, captured the Light of the very beginning of the Creation [my caps].” In a statement released by NASA later, Nelson was quoted saying, “The promise of Webb is not what we know we will discover; it’s what we don’t yet understand or can’t yet fathom about our universe.” 

Challenge

Think about that for a moment, “what we can’t yet fathom about our universe.” Have you ever wondered about the size of the universe? I remember doing so as a child, lying in bed before drifting into sleep. If the universe had a boundary, then what lay beyond? And if it was created, what existed before creation? Questions that defied explanation. Recently, I noted that space still holds many mysteries not explained by science. For example, while we have discovered that the universe is expanding at an accelerating speed, we don’t know what ‘energy’ drives that expanding creation.

Answers about primordial energies, the origin and the purpose of life and matter, and the nature and extent of the universe and human consciousness, are unknown. Humanity’s quest to find these answers gave rise to science and philosophy, which are ever advancing. The most comprehensive and open-ended philosophy I know of is called Integral. It fully recognizes science (including systems thinking) as one of three non-reducible perspectives we can take on reality — I refer to this objective exterior view as our Observed World (defined by It and Its). 

The other two non-reducible perspectives on reality recognized by Integral are the subjective interior, or what I call your Personal World (defined by I), and the intersubjective interior, or Social World (defined by We). Interestingly, the world’s wisdom traditions have encouraged us to refrain from naming ultimate reality, arguing that whatever name we give it would inevitably fall short and therefore miss the mark. Instead, the traditions guided us to focus on mastering the art of living by developing useful skills and exploring multiple perspectives to see how they fit together. Isn’t that what Bill Nelson was doing in the story?

Question

The more we discover about the story of the origin of life and the universe, the more we become aware of energies that operate in macro and micro dimensions, both inside us and outside us. Throughout history, wise people have told us about these exterior and interior dimensions in the languages they had at their disposal. Starting in the renaissance era, however, people in the West were triggered to narrow their perspectives and focus only on observed exteriors they could measure with the paradigm of empirical science.

Then again, since the 20th century, philosophers and scientists started to bridge East and West and reconnect with the three important perspectives. One of my role models for reconnecting East and West is Alan Watts, a prolific author and philosopher. Mastering the art of words — now available to listen to on Spotify — he explained in simple terms how divinity, for lack of a better word, is as much inside us as outside us. About the creative force, we can say that God or the Divine Spirit is in us and in the universe. Life’s ultimate intelligence, Watts implied, was to be found in the interiors and the exteriors working together in harmony.

Watts was also eminently practical and down to earth when he explained that mastering life is an art that will always come down to education and learning valuable skills — or skillful means for a purpose as implied by the ancient Sanskrit term Upāya. In the words of Watts, therefore, the ‘handiwork of God,’ such as quoted by Nelson, shows up as much in the universe at large as in the skills that you develop to master the art of life and create positive change in your workplace. Just like the scientists are now doing in their Webb telescope project. The question I have for you this week builds on this story. What skills do you want to master to manifest the ‘handiwork of God’ through positive changes in your workplace and the world at large, and inside yourself?