Namaste. This is a collection of essays written by Adam Wes, The Bhakti Math Guru, regarding spirituality, mathematics, and education.
Table of Contents
The Karma Yoga of Mathematics
5/30/2024
In spiritual mathematics we go beyond the limitations of the intellect to apprehend mathematical truth by becoming it. Traditionally in mathematics education and the general practice of mathematics in society, students and practitioners are encouraged to become proficient in deriving answers. But instead, in this enlightened approach to mathematics, we begin with the intent to comprehend a mathematical truth, an equation, such as Bayes’ Theorem, and see it as something so simple, so self-evident, so obvious, so peaceful, so beautifully and eternally perfect and true. When we do this, we have a genuine augmentation of our intellect, not just a further application of something we already knew, but a new insight into the nature of mathematical truth.
When we look at an equation like Bayes’ Theorem, we recognize that it can be put together in a number of different ways. Then, one may ask, which one is Bayes’ Theorem? But this equation really is like a finger pointing to the moon, and any perspective or description will be a confounding factor eclipsing and obscuring its ineffable truth. To know something beyond the limitation’s of the intellect, one must see it not from a particular perspective, but seek the source of all perspectives, the central truth from which each perspective is a reflection. To know this source we have to hold it in our minds and dive deeper and deeper into the unknown. We must become it. How much can you become Bayes’ Theorem? How much can you experience and embody its nature?
Once we embody it, then we can describe it in the language of mathematics, the poetry of mathematical symbols and equations. But like poetry, which seeks to describe the ineffable, those equations will not be the same as the reality.
And when we learn to see things as they are, without the conditioned mind, to listen from the spaciousness of silence, we become a movement of love. In knowing something we become it, and in becoming it we find union with it. And only by knowing the other as our very self, can we be a genuine and true expression of love.
Today I was working with one of the h.o.m.e. seekers in the new program, a middle school kid taking things to the next level, learning to see mathematical truth directly in this enlightened way with Bayes’ Theorem. In doing so he is cultivating one of the most central spiritual principles in yoga, which is to experience life not through the lens of a conditioned mind and its perspectives, but by becoming it. Karma Yoga is the Yoga of action. It employs action taken in light of a certain spiritual truth or principle to produce a transformation of consciousness that allows one apprehend life in its full splendor and beauty. It helps us to progress along the path to enlightenment, to a power and love so profound. THIS is Spiritual Genius. THIS is the development of a full-spectrum, multi-dimensional intelligence. THIS is how we cultivate a cultural inheritance that helps people become deeply happy.
A Futuristic Education
We see education in a different light. Right education centers on the holistic development of the individual, helping them understand the nature of life and the nature of themselves. In a world on the cusp of unprecedented efficiency and abundance due to technological advancements in computing, AI, and robotics, the primary concern of the individual will be their subjective experience of life. This includes the awakening of divine love and compassion, the development of lucidity and intellectual sophistication, and the awareness of the subtle energetics realms as an awakening of greater consciousness. Right education centers on developing the individual’s ability to apprehend beauty, to live in freedom, and to be awestruck by the nature of existence and The Self. Right education makes human beings embodiment of the divine and sacred, expressions of beauty itself.
Traditionally religion has been separated from education, and this has been necessary when religion is indoctrination of ideology and the perpetuation of dogma and organized belief. But this is not true religion, and it is unthinkable that any of the Prophets and Awakened Ones around which religions were formed intended their teachings to be interpreted in this way. Religion involves a transformation of the individual so that they can see Life and its fullest glory, so that they can become life in its fullest and most divine expression. It is evident that society has failed to fulfill the teachings of religions, and the most fundamental reason for this is that education has not included true religious teaching for the purpose of individual freedom, self-knowledge, and the awakening of love and intelligence. Separating religion from education has also been a reflection of economic values and the intent to produce productive individuals that contribute to a greater collective societal product.
Additionally, Mathematics has been seen as a utility, which can be exemplified by recognizing the educational systems emphasis on rote memorization and mechanical technique in mathematical education. Math isn’t about getting answers that one doesn’t understand, passing tests, or cramming methods that have no meaning or value in one’s life. We propose a fundamentally different ethos around Mathematics as an intellectual pursuit, an ethos that reveres and employs Mathematics as a deeply personal transformation of one’s own ability to apprehend beauty and exist in a state of order and perfection. Mathematics is a practice that elucidates the mind, and it is also an inquiry into the nature of dimensionality itself, which is the foundation of all experience. When we look to Mathematics for an existential revelation, we get to know the mind of God.
So in this program there are two fundamental paradigm shifts: