The Cosmic View of Albert Einstein: Writings on Art, Science and Peace. By Walt Martin and Magda Ott.176 pages, published in 2013.
Long time in the making, a book by two Transcendental Meditation practitioners from Fairfield sheds light on the spiritual core of Albert Einstein’s mindscape.
Wisdom beyond calculation
Albert Einstein, the father of modern physics, was arguably one of the greatest scientists ever.
However, the beautiful collection of Einstein’s quotes assembled by Walt Martin and Magda Ott leaves no room for doubt: not in the slightest did he conform to the stereotype of a mad, wicked genius.
Einstein was a man of compassion, constantly expressing a deep sense of awe and humility in the face of the laws of our universe.
Talking to Radio Kruu FM, author Walt Martin said: “We started off with what Albert Einstein himself called ’the religious feeling,’ and we ended with religion and science – making a full circle in a sense. Einstein takes on the big questions – afterlife, God, mysticism, the responsibility of science. He was a life-long pacifist ever after World War II.“
Einstein was the first to acknowledge that human rationality can go very wayward without the guidance of a sense of oneness with the surrounding universe.
“He wanted the human civilization to exist in harmony with the rest of the universe again,“ explains Martin. “Einstein saw that mankind becoming more and more uprooted, in terms of values and ethical connection. So he was very adamant about this – science has to serve the common good, not be an end in itself.“
“Cosmic View”: Universe lends its support
The process of compiling, editing and designing the book was itself testament to the creative force of harmony.
The two authors of the book come from different cultural backgrounds, and approached the whole project from different perspectives.
“A human being is a part of the whole, called by us “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” – Albert EinsteinWhile Martin had written down Einstein’s quotes ever since his adolescence, Magda Ott did not know much about the world view of the physicist. Yet it was her who suggested to compile the book.
“I was not really interested in Albert Einstein in the beginning,“ admits Ott. “I had no idea about him at all. But then the world showed the quotes to me. And it was amazing to see how he was able to bring spirituality into his life as a scientist. I’m so thankful for seeing this!“
Martin and Ott started off the old-fashioned way, diligently assembling quotes from Einstein’s articles and letters. After working with printed-out paper for seven years, the Albert Schweitzer Foundation bought a computer for them.
The rest is history.
With a foreword by the leading Einstein scholar Alice Calaprice from Princeton University, with endorsements from the Dalai Lama and the late US astrophysicist James van Allen, and perhaps most importantly of all, with its breathtakingly beautiful marriage of quotes and astronomical images, the Cosmic View of Albert Einstein has been catapulted from Fairfield to thousands of bookshops around the world.
