Week 6 has an interesting stream of topics ranging from removal of toxic chemicals from our bodies to a collection of positive reflections from some of the world’s greatest scientists, philosophers, religious leaders and thinkers. The chapter opens with a great quote from Einstein telling us to “widen our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” Later in Daily Beat 38 we hear a conversation between the Dalai Lama and Bertrand Russell where the Dalai states “the purpose of our life needs to be positive.” Not only was Bertrand Russell a philosopher but he was also a positivistic scientist. The most appropriate book end to the opening by Albert Einstein is a reference to Archbishop Desmond Tutu in the final chapter. Frank Lipman shares with us the Archbishop’s description of the South African word, Ubuntu: “what it means to be truly human, to know that you are bound up with others in the bundle of life, for a person is only a person through other people.”
What resonates very clearly in the final week is that our rhythms are not only aligned with nature but are also inter-dependent upon people close to us and inter-connected with all of humanity. An example of the inter-dependence was the concept of entrainment to our surroundings and the rhythms around us at an unconscious level. If we have a busy hectic pace at work, our adrenaline is pumping and our heart rate and breathing increase. When you go home and relax to calming music and/or meditation, the parasympathetic nervous system tells your heart and breathing to slow down. Our ability to shut off the adrenaline rush and slow down our heart rate is called recovery. For example, when you exercise at the gym or go running, the number of heart beats your pulse drops one minute after exercise is the recovery phase and reflects your level of fitness. A slower heart rate in recovery is consistent with better health.
In Daily Beat 38, Dr. Lipman also notes that the laws of physics support the fact that less energy is used when two objects are entrained or aligned with the surrounding energy. I think the concept of entrainment also applies to Archbishop Tutu’s description of Ubuntu and we are interconnected with other lives over time or “bound up with others in the bundle of life.” The following is an example of how people are connected over time.
When Einstein did his early physics research and published his findings in 1905, he selected a topic related to the movement of water molecules. He was curious about the research published a century earlier by a botanist who coined the word “Brownian Movement” to describe how spores move randomly in water. Einstein knew that the movement was not random but depended on the number of water molecules that bombarded each spore. To prove his theory, he calculated the mathematical formula to predict the movement of each water molecule. His colleagues thought he was wasting his time. In 2005, a hundred years after his publication, researchers at U.C. Santa Barbara used Einstein’s formula in the nano-technolgy lab to make smaller and faster computer chips by directing electrons to move like water molecules.
Enjoy the last chapter and sustain yourself by “widening your circle of compassion”. I look forward to the upcoming Live Chat.
Regards,
Dr. Tony Linares
