Italian version

There is a widespread belief that science and spirituality deal with distinct aspects of reality. The scientific method explains phenomena to us rigorously, through theoretical formulations found by repeatable experiments, whereas spirituality is the domain of philosophical and religious traditions, whose statements, however, are not based on laws that can be demonstrated through experiments.

Although I am a person with a purely logical and mathematical way of reasoning, reinforced by my engineering degree, as I progressed into adulthood a feeling arose in me that there is no clear separation between science and spirituality, and that instead the intersection between these two aspects of reality is much broader than we are led to believe. So I started reading texts from the various religious traditions, and about ten years ago I discovered that Fritjof Capra, an internationally renowned physicist and essayist, wrote “The Tao of Physics” in 1975.

This book highlights the harmony between Eastern traditions and the most advanced theories of modern physics, particularly those relating to subatomic particles that are the subject of quantum physics. Subatomic particles, such as those observed in modern accelerators, are not isolated entities but rather manifestations of energy relationships. Experiments have shown that these particles are in constant interaction and motion, forming a dynamic network of energy. This concept parallels the view of ancient Eastern philosophies, which see the universe as a continuous flow of energy and interconnections. For example, in Soka Gakkai Buddhism, one of the fundamental principles is the mutual inclusion of an instant of life with all phenomena.

I add here a thought that is not contained in Capra’s book, but is the result of my own reflection arisen after reading some insights from Catholicism. According to some interpretations, the Holy Spirit is the active force of God that permeates the universe and the lives of human beings. Therefore, from my point of view, the convergence between science and spirituality is complete, embracing all religious traditions, including monotheistic ones.
I conclude with two excerpts from “The Tao of Physics,” Adelphi Editions 1982.

The deeper we penetrate into the submicroscopic world, the more we realize that the modern physicist, equal to the Eastern mystic, has come to regard the world as a set of inseparable, interacting and continuously moving components, and that man is an integral part of this system.

No matter how deep we delve into matter, nature does not reveal to us the presence of any isolated “fundamental brick,” but rather appears to us as a complex web of relationships between the various parts of the whole.

I find it curious and fascinating that very refined scientific experiments, requiring complicated technologies and particularly acute intelligence, are basically giving a view of reality that was anticipated thousands of years ago.
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