# Quote — Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics

> Five years ago, I had a beautiful experience which set me on a road that has led to the writing of this book. I was sitting by the ocean one late summer afternoon, watching the waves rolling in and feeling the rhythm of my breathing, when I suddenly became aware of my whole environment as being engaged in a gigantic cosmic dance. Being a physicist, I knew that the sand, rocks, water and air around me were made of vibrating molecules and atoms, and that these consisted of particles which interacted with one another by creating and destroying other particles. I knew also that the Earth’s atmosphere was continually bombarded by showers of ‘cosmic rays’, particles of high energy undergoing multiple collisions as they penetrated the air. All this was familiar to me from my research in high-energy physics, but until that moment I had only experienced it through graphs, diagrams and mathematical theories. As I sat on that beach my former experiences came to life; I ‘saw’ cascades of energy coming down from outer space, in which particles were created and destroyed in rhythmic pulses; I ‘saw’ the atoms of the elements and those of my body participating in this cosmic dance of energy; I felt its rhythm and I ‘heard’ its sound, and at that moment I knew that this was the Dance of Shiva, the Lord of Dancers worshipped by the Hindus.

- Author: [Fritjof Capra](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fritjof-capra.md)
- Book: [The Tao of Physics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fritjof-capra/the-tao-of-physics.md)
- Page: 11
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fritjof_Capra#The_Tao_of_Physics_(1975)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/fritjof-capra/the-tao-of-physics/five-years-ago

## More from this book

> Mystics understand the roots of the Tao but not its branches; scientists understand its branches but not its roots. Science does not need mysticism and mysticism does not need science; but man needs both.

p. 306 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fritjof-capra/the-tao-of-physics/mystics-understand-the.md)

> Both the physicist and the mystic want to communicate their knowledge, and when they do so with words their statements are paradoxical and full of logical contradictions.

p. 46 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fritjof-capra/the-tao-of-physics/both-the-physicist.md)

> The influence of modern physics goes beyond technology. It extends to the realm of thought and culture where it has led to a deep revision in man's conception of the universe and his relation to it.

p. 17 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/fritjof-capra/the-tao-of-physics/the-influence-of-modern.md)