The Buddha’s transcendence of the Subject and Object
“…the world is steeped in the notion of duality.It grasps either this end, or the other end. Hard it is for the world to understand the stance of the arahant couched in the cryptic phrase, neither here nor there nor in between the two”.The worldling is accustomed to grasp either this end or the other end.’
Bhikkhu Katukurunde Ñāṇananda
As Valentine’s Day draws near, it brings with it a gentle reminder of Love—a deep and intricate emotion that has touched hearts throughout history. Thinkers like Plato and Aristotle pondered love’s many forms, defining it as Eros (romantic love), Philia (friendship), Storge (familial love), and Agape (selfless, universal love). These distinctions show us that love is not just one feeling but a rich tapestry of emotions that connect us uniquely, demonstrating how love appears in countless ways and situations.
Eros, with its fiery passion, often inspires us to seek out romantic connections, while Philia helps us cultivate cherished friendships that bolster our well-being. Storge embodies the tender care found within families, which lays the groundwork for who we become and how we act. Lastly, Agape represents the boundless love that compels us to extend kindness to all living beings without expectation. This universal essence of love serves as a testament to why it holds such fascination for humanity—it is ingrained into our existence, influencing every interaction and emotion we encounter.
As we celebrate Valentine’s Day, let us honor love’s rich diversity and its incredible ability to unite us in meaningful ways, encouraging us to acknowledge and cherish the many forms it takes within our journeys.
Amen||
This is more than a philosophical exploration—it’s a practical roadmap for living with clarity, joy, and interconnectedness. Through cross-cultural insights, reflective practices, and meditative approaches, Dr. Ricketts shows how embracing the ineffable mystery of life can dissolve division, foster ecological and social harmony, and restore our inner paradise.
Whether you are a seeker, a meditator, a student of comparative religion, or someone simply longing for a more meaningful existence, The Garden of Eden in This Life will inspire you to see beyond duality and step into a living experience of unity.
If you are ready to move beyond dogma, transcend the limits of language, and reawaken to the timeless ground of being—this book will guide you there.
Oneness isn’t a mystical achievement or something you arrive at after years of effort; it’s simply what is already happening.
The effort usually comes from trying to feel connected, when in fact nothing was ever disconnected to begin with.
We are not in the universe like an object placed inside a container; we are something the universe is doing here and now just as a wave is something the ocean does.
Our thoughts, our breath, our body, and our relationships are not private events occurring in isolation, but expressions of the same ongoing process that moves clouds, grows trees, and turns seasons.
When this is seen, and not believed as an idea, but noticed as an experience, the sense of isolation softens.
Life stops feeling like a personal struggle to justify your place in the world and begins to feel more like participation in a larger movement, a dance you were never outside of, only momentarily imagining you were.
When we reflect on the idea of oneness, that we aren’t separate objects in a world of other objects but part of a single unfolding process, it can help us understand why events in one place ripple outward and affect people elsewhere.
The suffering and struggle communities face in any place around the world are not isolated ‘situations happening over there.’ They are part of a larger human system, shaped by shared histories, politics, economics, and our collective choices about how we govern, how we care for one another, and how we respond.
Seeing through the lens of interconnectedness, we notice that these aren’t isolated headlines: they are expressions of how we still grapple with systems that separate people into categories of ‘us’ versus ‘them.’
Oneness doesn’t mean ignoring real differences or injustices; it means recognizing that every human being’s pain and joy matters, and that the well-being of one community inevitably affects the well-being of others.
When one group is harmed or denied dignity, the reverberations are felt far beyond that community, shaping how all of us see justice, compassion, and our shared humanity.
We are not separate, what happens to one place touches the whole and indifference is not neutral.
To see our interconnectedness is to be quietly, insistently called into responsibility.
Connection is not a feeling we wait for; for it is something we practice through attention, through refusal, to care.
To resist, in this sense, is not only to oppose violence and injustice where we see it, but to interrupt the habits that allow harm to be normalized, distant, or forgotten. It is to listen, to speak, to show up, to protect one’s other dignity in ways small and structural,
Resistance rooted in oneness does not harden the heart, it sharpens it. It says: your suffering is not outside my concern; your freedom is bound up with mine. And so we act. Not because we are heroes or saviors but because separation was never real to begin with.
To connect us is to refuse the lie that some lies are disposable. To resist is to insist, again and again, on a world organized around love and care rather than domination, relationship rather than erasure.
This is not abstract philosophy it is lived practice. And it begins wherever we are.
If we take interconnectedness seriously, then awareness alone is not enough,
Seeing what is happening calls us into action. This means refusing silence when harm is justified or ignored. It means learning, naming what we see, and standing publicly against policies and systems that dehumanize, whether through state violence, displacement, occupation, or enforced poverty.
Action looks like showing up for communities under attack, amplifying voices that are being erased, demanding accountability from those in power, and materially supporting people on the front lines through mutual aid, organizing and sustained pressure.
To connect is to commit. To resist is to act in ways that make separation harder to maintain.
We choose where to spend our money, how we use our platforms, which stories we repeat, and which injustices we refuse to normalize.
We build networks of care, protect one another, and insist again and again that no one is disposable.
This is how oneness becomes practice, not theory: through collective action that interrupts harm and moves us toward a world organized around dignity, justice, and shared responsibility.
Wherever you are, whoever you are, all of us stand eye to eye, stand in love and solidarity with you.
Liberation to all,
Aya Gozawi Faour, Co-Founder, Olive Odyssey
COMPUTERS AND HUMAN NATURE
On Human Nature vs. Machines: “Man is not a machine; he is a spiritual being, expressing a depth of consciousness and emotion that transcends mere mechanical function.”
On the Danger of Misconception: “The idea that classical computers can become smarter than human beings is a dangerous fantasy. It is dangerous because if we accept this notion, we will inherently limit ourselves to expressing only a very small fraction of who we are, reducing the rich tapestry of human experience to mere computations.”
On Consciousness and Quantum Systems: “We are not even close to computers in terms of understanding the complexities of consciousness. While comparisons are often drawn, the reality is that the brain functions on an entirely different level. We are quantum systems, embodying a depth and intricacy that far surpasses that of artificial constructs.“
On Free Will: “Humanity stands at a significant crossroads. Either it chooses to return to the belief that it holds a fundamentally different nature than machines, or it risks being reduced to a mere machine among machines, losing the essence of what it means to be human.”
On Meaning and Understanding: “A computer ‘knows without knowing that it knows,’ highlighting a crucial distinction. It processes symbols without genuine understanding; there is no witness, no pause for reflection, and no self that engages in true comprehension of its actions or outputs.”
On the Limitations of AI: “AI cannot truly be empathic. The notion of ’empathic robots’ being developed to care for the elderly is overly simplistic and naive. Such claims fail to recognize the profound human capacity for empathy, which cannot be replicated through programmed responses or algorithms.”
IRREDUCIBLE- 2024 John Hunt Publishing
Top physicist and inventor of the microprocessor & touch screen, Federico Faggin, for an intriguing conversation into the nature of reality. Federico once had a materialistic scientific perspective on consciousness and reality until one day a spontaneous spiritual awakening changed his perspective forever. In this episode he shares that very experience and how it has shaped his current view on reality. With this deeper knowing, he spent decades researching reality, today he shares his findings. He reveals why computers can never be conscious, who we are our essence, what carries on after death, and our unbreakable connection to something larger than ourselves. He also discusses the very real force of love that underlies all things, the secret to spiritual growth, and why humans can never be replaced by artificial intelligence.
“Love is the feeling out of which all other feelings emerge.
It’s the force that motivates you to find out who you are.”
– Federico Faggin
David Chalmers formulated the “hard problem” of consciousness as the question of how and why neural activity in the brain gives rise to subjective experiences (qualia). Traditional science considers consciousness an emergent property of brain complexity, but Faggin offers a radically different perspective:
Faggin proposes a reinterpretation of quantum mechanics based on the primacy of consciousness. He builds upon key quantum phenomena that challenge materialist views and integrates them into his metaphysical framework.
One of the most enigmatic and debated aspects of quantum mechanics is the collapse of the wavefunction. In the standard interpretation of quantum mechanics, physical systems exist in a superposition of multiple states until they are observed. This raises the profound question: what causes the collapse of possibilities into a single reality?
Federico Faggin’s metaphysical interpretation suggests that consciousness itself plays an active role in this process. Rather than being a passive observer of an already-determined reality, consciousness participates in shaping what is actualized. In this view, observation is not merely an act of measurement but an act of creation, where consciousness determines the outcome of quantum potentialities.
This perspective aligns with interpretations of quantum mechanics that emphasize the role of the observer, such as the von Neumann–Wigner interpretation, but extends further by positing consciousness as the foundational element of reality rather than an emergent property of the brain.
This framework naturally leads to the idea that the universe is fundamentally interconnected, a notion strongly supported by the phenomenon of quantum entanglement. When two particles become entangled, their states remain correlated regardless of the distance between them, even across vast cosmic scales. The speed at which this correlation manifests exceeds the limits of classical physics, defying the constraints of locality.
If consciousness is indeed fundamental, then this interconnectedness might not be merely a physical anomaly but a reflection of a deeper unity within reality itself. The separation between objects, beings, and events could perhaps appears from our limited perception, while at the most fundamental level, all things are interwoven within a single, complex and conscious reality. This evokes the concept of Wholeness which is central to our research in the Science & Philosophy Institute.
However, contrasting with our approach, Faggin suggest that matter itself is not independent of consciousness but rather a manifestation of it. Classical physics treats matter as the fundamental substrate of reality, governed by deterministic laws. However, quantum mechanics reveals a world in which particles do not have fixed properties until they are measured, existing instead as a field of probabilities.
Faggin argues that these probabilities are not mere abstract mathematical constructs but expressions of consciousness interacting with the physical world. In this sense, what we perceive as “matter” is not an independent entity but rather the structured unfolding of consciousness into form. As such, the laws of physics do not emerge from an abstract mathematical framework but from an intrinsic intelligence embedded within reality itself.
This leads to a redefinition of information at the quantum level. In classical computation and physics, information is treated as a purely quantitative measure, devoid of intrinsic meaning. However, if consciousness is primary, then quantum information is not just numerical data—it is qualitative and experiential.
What Faggin proposes is not merely an extension of quantum theory but a profound rethinking of reality itself, where consciousness and matter are inseparably intertwined, and the universe is understood as a living, conscious whole.
Faggin introduces a dual model of reality, which he calls “Internal Reality” and “External Reality”:
According to Faggin, consciousness is not a byproduct of the brain but the fundamental essence from which the material universe emerges. Internal Reality shapes and informs External Reality.
If consciousness is fundamental and the universe is its manifestation, several profound implications arise:
Federico Faggin’s theory offers a revolutionary perspective on consciousness and reality, proposing that consciousness is the fundamental essence of existence, while matter is merely one of its expressions. His theory provides a possible answer to the hard problem of consciousness and suggests a new interpretative framework for quantum mechanics, moving beyond reductionist materialism toward a metaphysical vision where each individual is a unique manifestation of the universal primeval consciousness.
I became aware that we’re all connected. This was not only every person and living creature, but the interwoven unification felt as though it were expanding outward to include everything in the universe- every human, animal, plant, insect, mountain, sea, inanimate object, and the cosmos. I realized that the entire universe is alive and infused with consciousness, encompassing all of life and nature. Everything belongs to an infinite Whole. I was intricately, inseparably immersed with all of life. We’re all facets of that unity- we’re all One, and each of us has an effect on the collective Whole.
Anita Moorjani
Dying to Become Me, 2012 Hay House, LLC
Conclusions: regaining our healthy, complete and harmonious self
Part of human nature is given by Nature; another part comes from society. The
ground of our personality is given by Nature, the construction built upon it is given
by culture. The basic directivity of human nature is towards uplifting life in the
comprehensive and profound context of the Living Universe. Our genuine human
abilities can develop and flourish only in a society establishing their favourable conditions. Our full human potential can be nurtured only in a culture which is in harmony to the cosmic roots of our ontological Self.
In order to live fully with the cosmic roots of our Selves and live the life we are
born into, we need to mobilize all our energies and abilities at all times. Recognising
the cosmic roots of our Self, and appreciating the comprehensive, ontologically
complete and healthy worldview it is possible to win over alienation and regain our
healthy, complete and harmonious Self. We can regain our genuine human nature
implanted into us by the Living Universe.
Attila Grandpierre
In the late 1980s, Lieserl, the daughter of the famous genius, donated 1,400 letters, written by Einstein, to the Hebrew University. This is one of them, for Lieserl Einstein.
I ask you to guard the letters as long as necessary, years, decades, until society is advanced enough to accept what I will explain below.There is an extremely powerful force that, so far, science has not found a formal explanation to. It is a force that includes and governs all others, and is even behind any phenomenon operating in the universe and has not yet been identified by us.
This universal force is LOVE.
When scientists looked for a unified theory of the universe they forgot the most powerful unseen force. Love is Light, that enlightens those who give and receive it. Love is gravity, because it makes some people feel attracted to others. Love is power, because it multiplies the best we have, and allows humanity not to be extinguished in their blind selfishness. Love unfolds and reveals. For love we live and die. Love is Divine and Divine is Love.This force explains everything and gives meaning to life. This is the variable that we have ignored for too long, maybe because we are afraid of love because it is the only energy in the universe that man has not learned to drive at will. To give visibility to love, I made a simple substitution in my most famous equation.If instead of E = mc2, we accept that the energy to heal the world can be obtained through love multiplied by the speed of light squared, we arrive at the conclusion that love is the most powerful force there is, because it has no limits.
After the failure of humanity in the use and control of the other forces of the universe that have turned against us, it is urgent that we nourish ourselves with another kind of energy…If we want our species to survive, if we are to find meaning in life, if we want to save the world and every sentient being that inhabits it, love is the one and only answer. Perhaps we are not yet ready to make a bomb of love, a device powerful enough to entirely destroy the hate, selfishness and greed that devastate the planet. However, each individual carries within them a small but powerful generator of love whose energy is waiting to be released.When we learn to give and receive this universal energy, dear Lieserl, we will have affirmed that love conquers all, is able to transcend everything and anything, because love is the quintessence of life.
I deeply regret not having been able to express what is in my heart, which has quietly beaten for you all my life. Maybe it’s too late to apologize, but as time is relative, I need to tell you that I love you and thanks to you I have reached the ultimate answer! “.
Your father Albert Einstein’
We are all Interconnected even with the Universe 