The most advanced physics now gives reason to 'heretical' scientists like Brouwer, who in his work tried to reconcile mathematics and mysticism, leading him to perspectives that are nothing short of unusual, albeit influenced by the Pythagorean School of ancient Hellas and by oriental mystics.
di Valentino Bellucci
(review by Marco Maculotti)
He was one of the greatest mathematicians of the twentieth century, a philosopher, one of the founders of topology, as well as a lover of mysticism. The Dutch Β Luitzen Egbertus Jan Brouwer (1881-1966) created a certain embarrassment among his colleagues as early as 1905, at the age of 24, by publishing a small book (the result of a series of lectures) entitledΒ Life, art and mysticism.
It is no coincidence that Heyting, editor of his writings, considered Β«only a few steps of Life, art and mysticism. Among other things, the scarce importance of digressions and long quotations from Meister Eckhart, Jakob BΓΆhme and from Bhagavad-gita, and it was therefore decided to omit them " [1].Β This omission is exemplary, representingΒ the omission that for centuries official science has made with regard to a non-materialistic vision of reality: the experiences of the mystics are rejected a priori, but this refusal is only the fruit of a slave ideology of Enlightenment materialism first and then positivist.
Nonetheless, the most advanced physics now gives reason to 'heretical' scientists like Brouwer, who in his work tried to reconcile mathematics and mysticism, this leading him to unusual perspectives, albeit influenced by the Pythagorean School of ancient Hellas and the Eastern mysticsΒ [2]:
"Like other mathematicians of the early twentieth century, Borel and Brouwer faced questions on which the fate of science and the very meaning of science depended. Logos [β¦] Brouwer shared with BΓΆhme the thesis that everyone tries to realize their own internal image which has always been established, as by virtue of the power of individuation of an eternal spirit that creates and divides, but it is also a single center, the only interiority from which everything comes. "
According to Brouwer, mathematics itself cannot ignore this spiritual source, this interiority that transcends space and time, thus allowing the manifestation of space and time. As for the Pythagoreans, for Brouwer the mathematical entities had a non-abstract and formal foundation, but innerΒ [3]:
Β«The existence of a mathematical entityΒ it depends solely and exclusively, Brouwer repeated, on the fact that we succeed in build it actually. Construction was the only guarantee of mathematical evidence; not formal or axiomatic theories. As an action of the mind, construction was the sign of interiority ... "
On this basis Brouwer was among the proponents of the intuitionist school and placed serious limits on the arrogance of mathematiciansΒ formalists convinced that they can apply abstract logic "also in the mathematics of infinite systems" [4]. Not only physics entered a crisis in the early twentieth century, but also mathematics [5]:
Β«Weyl [β¦] preferred to abandon his attempts and resolutely make Brouwer's theses his own: the principles of classical mathematics were no longer sustainable; the continuous was a becoming, not a given; mathematics was an activity, a doing, not a doctrine "
An activity sacred, would add the Pythagoreans, who knew well about these practical and mystical aspects of mathematics. Classical logic can be useful in resolving some aspects of daily life, but when we enter the territories of ultimate reality the terrain of the positivists and materialists dissolves under their feet.Β Brouwer knew another method of moving into that dimension: the science of mysticism.
In the world of mathematics and topologyΒ left his mark with the famous Fixed point theorem, of which "generalizations and variants of all kinds have been found, indispensable for the study of equilibria in economics and in game theory" [6].Β Qhis theorem will even be applied, long after his departure, for the functioning of search engines on the world Wide Web! Yet for Brouwer the most important study, the Ultimate Theorem, must necessarily concern her soul and destiny.
Mysticism as a science
In his short text Brouwer writes [7]:
βAll the castles in the air collapse, and all are replaced by new ones. The life of the individual is illusion, pursuit of a purpose with hard work and thenβ¦ disappointment; in the face of death, which awaits unprepared and in complete alienation [...] The life of humanity as a whole is an arrogant eroding one's lairs on intact earth "
Words as hard as a diamond and just as bright; they reflect the esoteric thought of all time, from the Bible to Vedanta: the vanity of material life, its being a dream, a pure mirage dissolved by death. How to "save yourself" then? Here is the suggestion of the Dutch mathematician: "the conviction that all the sufferings suffered in the past were your fault: you had abandoned the Self, and your embodied consciousness was devoid of his Direction" [8].
Brouwer quotes Eckhart and BΓΆhme like those who have recovered the Direction of the Self, the only and true Reality, beyond the illusions that "made you attribute importance in oneself to what was recognized as a fleeting emanation of the Self, devoid of independent reality" [9]. OToday physics confirms what Brouwer accepted philosophically: the material dimension is a hologram, an ephemeral projection of a Reality beyond space-time.
What prevents the human being from turning to the Self, without falling into a slave to the illusions of its shadow? For Brouwer the greatest problem of humanity is due to the abstract intellect [10]:
Β«Intellect [β¦] has stiffened in her head, the symbol of the fall of man. [β¦] The intellect, held in such high esteem, is therefore at the same time the ability and the compulsion to continue living in Desire and Fear, instead of taking refuge in Turning to oneself for a healthy restraint; to cancel the disconcerting autonomy of wandering fantasies, putting them in relation to each other, and not each to the Self. "
The distorted, monstrous use of the intellect, aimed only at phenomena, forgetting their atemporal source: here is the ruin of man. In this sense, the logic that claims to be able to explain everything is precisely this intellectual madness that Pascal (another immense scientist-mystic) already denounced; but Brouwer as a mathematician showed that such logic could not even touch the foundations of mathematics, just as phenomena cannot, however much we try to connect and study them experimentally, account for the origin of everything: the Self, the Absolute itself. And here the mathematician becomes a sociologist, showing how this madness then necessarily led to the disaster of industrial 'civilization' [11]:
Β«Didn't industry originally supply its products with the aim of creating more favorable conditions of life for mankind in nature? In this way it has been overlooked that these products are made starting from nature, on which one intervenes by altering it, and that the balance of human living conditions is upset with greater damage than all the advantages that such industrial products have. could ever bring. "
Words of 1905! What would you say today, in the midst of the full environmental catastrophe? But Brouwer was not a prophet: just use the eye of wisdom to understand that altering a natural order to exploit it will lead to devastating consequences. Yet this eye in humanity is blind, since "the Self had been abandoned without hope [...] and the discourse does not stop at science at the service of industry: once again the means becomes an autonomous end" [12].
The whole modernity is a set of crazy tools, no longer at the service of the divine Self but at the service of oneself, as cancer cells, no longer at the service of the Center, of the Heart. Brouwer has no illusions: humanity does not magically change and the return to the Self is, ultimately, an intimate, individual matter [13]:
Β«Whoever opens his senses humbly without prejudices will be promptly guided in life by presentiments and apparitions; not those who have devoted scientific studies to telepathy and spiritism, or those who have participated in sΓ©ances or other exhibitions in that field. And who, like the Theosophists, wants to know something about life after death, will have a pretty bad time there. "
Brouwer attacks the new age of his time: spiritualists and theosophists, amateurs of esotericism, who believe they can reduce the science of the self to material science and the schematisms of a little logic. What needs to be done? He is clear: "Turning towards the Self will effortlessly break all the laws of nature" [14].Β This is why saints and mystics of every age were not abstract theosophists, nor did they go to sessions with mediums: they were only interested in this 'Turning towards the Self' and they put it into action with constant remembrance of God.
Authentic art is spiritual
For Brouwer, authentic art can help in the search for the Self [15]:
Β«Art, when it is truth, is of all times. True art is recognizable the more it highlights the self-annihilation of the illusion of time and space. [β¦] The transcendent truth appears only in a few: Bach, Leonardo. "
The sublime Art, indication and call of the Self, is very rare; Brouwer already considers great authors such as Beethoven and Rubens as too worldly, as a compromise towards the illusion of the phenomenal. What about modern society, its entertainment industry? Here are his words, very harsh [16]:
Β«Silencing the conscience [β¦] this is what the industries of art and poetry consist of on the one hand, and of religion on the other. [...] In the world, art and religion are only a large-scale morphine industry "
Art has become entertainment, a parody of the search for Truth, just as religions have become a parody of the real search for the Self. It is no coincidence that one of the greatest painters of the twentieth century, Pietro Annigoni, was ignored and forgotten by obsessed and modern critics, his painting as well as being excellent indicates the Truth of the Self beyond the ephemeral game of phenomena. But today there are no mediocre artists either, only obscene parodies.
Brouwer's pessimism is like Schopenhauer's, it leaves no way out; the only refuge is the divine Self: "Madness and misfortune, in mutual balance, rule the world" [17].Β The wise man, who has gone beyond illusions, feels compassion for the souls immersed in this cosmic farce, but is also reconciled with everything, serene. [18]:
Β«You will thus be reconciled with your world, without trying to change it, and thus you will work, eat, sleep and travel in your world, since you feel it as karma established for you; and for this very reason, thanks to your humility, you will grow even more in the fullness of the Lord. "
The sage moves in the world, does his duty, accepts the remaining karma and goes further, towards Reality.
The supreme knowledge
Having fallen into oblivion Brower, one cannot help but record how today, on the academic world stage, the applause is mostly received by atheistic and materialistic scientists who, like trained monkeys, laugh at any kind of "spirituality" on television: yet Brouwer did exist and his mathematical discoveries have marked the world. This author was able to reconcile the Christian mystics and the Bhagavad-gita, sensing the one and essential message [19]:
βEven the Bible contains too much semi-mysticism to be read with impunity by the masses. But much purer mystics are the ancient Indians and Chinese, and some Church Fathers; also Jakob BΓΆhme: they hold their affirmations above the practical life. "
Today far too many 'exegetes' believe they can read the Bible with impunity, talking about aliens and other flavorful nonsense new age⦠But the Bible is, like the Koran, a sub-text for the masses, to be handled only by those who have a certain lineage. And what about pure mystique and Vedanta? Very few can truly understand the sheer purity of the spiritual message, devoid of any actual reference to this material world.
Thus the great Dutch mathematician left us these precious indications, on which every scientist should reflect deeply: Brouwer has continued a tradition, reaching a necessary re-foundation of the paradigm of knowledge itself. Spiritual logic has nothing to do with material logic; this Brouwer understood this by studying numbers and their mystery and reading the mystics of every place and time. Nonetheless,Β the same and unique human being can grasp both worlds, as he has been placed on their border, to make a choice:Β "Writing or recognizing mysticism requires a freedom of soul that cannot be acquired with earthly forces, but that is granted only by divine grace" [20].
It is hoped that this grace will be able to seize the entire scientific world and society in general: it would be a turning point for humanity. For now, only a few have received this divine concession because, as another great mathematician and spiritualist, the great Leibniz, said: only those who are serious and sincere can open themselves to the divine.Β
Note:
[1] P. Zellini, The soliloquy of a mathematician, Cit. in LEJ Brouwer, Life, art and mysticism, Adelphi, Milan 2015, p. 127.
[2] Ibid., pp. 179 and 145.
[3]Β Ibid., page 160.
[4]Β Ibid., page 163.
[5]Β Ibid., page 172.
[6]Β Ibid., page 188.
[7]Β LEJ Brouwer, Life, art and mysticism, cit., page 24.
[8]Β Ibid., page 30.
[9]Β Ibid.
[10]Β Ibid., page 31.
[11]Β Ibid., page 33.
[12]Β Ibid., page 34.
[13]Β Ibid., page 53.
[14]Β Ibid.
[15]Β Ibid., page 58 and 76.
[16]Β Ibid., page 38-39.
[17]Β Ibid., page 43.
[18]Β Ibid., page 45.
[19]Β Ibid., page 88-89.
[20]Β Ibid.
Β Β
hello, well, I see that the article is being shared⦠when are the materials on Indian texts?
Valentino
> WordPress.com