It has been suggested by many authors that perhaps the most widely accepted, perhaps cherished, tenet of Western civilization is the concept of “self-hood”–or ego if you will–as non-material, isolated and persistent. This idea began when Rene Decartes stated famously: ‘I think, therefore I exist’. From this rationale, Westerners are led to equate identity of person with the “mind” rather than the complete organism, including the material “body”. In his book Tao of Physics, Frijof Capra asserts “[a]s a consequence of the Cartesian division, most individuals are aware of themselves as isolated egos existing ‘inside’ their bodies. The mind has been separated from the body and been given the futile task of controlling it, thus causing an apparent conflict between the conscious will and the involuntary instincts.” (Capra, p 23). With the advent of modern physics, it has become clear that all matter–as comprised of subatomic particles–is in a state of flux, repeatedly coming into and out of existence all of the time. Capra further posits that this transitory property is incompatible with the Western concept of identity as applied to material things in our universe. He continues:
The phenomenal manifestations of the mystical Void, like the subatomic particles, are not static and permanent, but dynamic transitory, coming into being and vanishing in one ceaseless dance of movement and energy. Like the subatomic world of the physicist, the phenomenal world of the Eastern mystic is a world of samsara–of continuous birth and death. Being transient manifestations of the Void, the things in this world do not have any fundamental identity. This is especially emphasized in Buddhist philosophy which denies the existence of any material substance and also holds that the idea of a constant ‘self’ undergoing successive experiences is an illusion. Buddhists have frequently compared this illusion of a material substance and an individual self to the phenomenon of a water wave, in which the up-and-down movement of the water particles makes us believe that a ‘piece’ of water moves over the surface.* It is interesting to note that physicists have used the same analogy in the context of field theory to point out the illusion of a material substance created by a moving particle. Thus Hermann Weyl writes: “According to the [field theory of matter] a material particle such as an electron is merely a small domain of the electrical field within which the field strength assumes enormously high values, indicating that a comparatively huge field energy is concentrated in a very small space. Such an energy knot, which by no means is clearly delineated against the remaining field, propagates through the empty space like a water wave across the surface of a lake; there is no such thing as one and the same substance of which the electron consists at all times.” -H. Weyl, Philosophy of Mathematics and Natural Science. p 171
Capra, Fritjof. The tao of physics: an exploration of the parallels between modern physics and Eastern mysticism–4th ed., updated. Shambhala Publications Inc. 2000. pp 23, 212-213.
If we are not persistent egos that are distinct from, or in control of, our material bodies, what then can be said about individual responsibility, achievement, justice and the like? What alternatives are there, to these Western identity-based concepts, to justify so many influential and long-standing institutions that impact our lives?
