Approaching the Infinite

"We live the now for the promise of the infinite."
-Mos Def

In my calculus course, I have been learning about limits, which as I understand them, are numbers that represent the infinite set of values of a function f(x) as x approaches some number. Leaving this complicated and perhaps incorrect definition aside, the study of limits has brought me to yet another concept of the theological imagination: approaching the infinite.

The infinite is an entity that defies form and understanding; thus, it belongs to the realm of the sacred. In both mathematics and religion, it is a concept that is necessary for making sense of the world, but limits are imposed. After all, mapping the dimensionless dimensions of the infinite is an impossible, if not psychologically dangerous, task for the human mind.

A more accessible and visually appealing way that the cosmic infinite is represented in mathematics is the Fibonacci Sprial, which comes from the Fibonnacci series of integers in the following sequence: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, etc, where

The spiral is made by drawing arcs connecting opposite corners of tiles that have side-lengths of successive Fibonacci numbers. The center point from which the spiral begins to emanate is known as the "Eye of God."

The Fibonacci Spiral

Nautillus shell

  

The spiral continues to infinity, taking in the cosmos. In nature, the spiral is seen in galaxies, nautillus shells, flowers, and fiddle-head ferns. In sacred architecture, the staircases of Antoni Gaudi's unfinished masterpiece, La Sagrada Familia, follow a Fibonacci spiral pattern:


Staircase, La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain


But are nature, mathematics and religion the only ways to approach the infinite?

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, in her wonderful answer to the interminable debate over the question, "What is art?" would say no. She writes,

“What is art but life upon the larger scale, the higher. When, graduating up in a spiral line of still expanding and ascending gyres, it pushes toward the intense significance of all things, hungry for the infinite?”

I like Browning's view of art as a spiral that pushes us toward the infinite. Certainly sacred art intends to do this, but Browning's reference is to Art in the macro, sacred and secular.

The Buddhist experience of attaining Enlightenment could perhaps be described in Browning's terms, as a sudden awareness of "The intense significance of all things..."

Perhaps it is no coincidence that spirals are important in Buddhism, where the footprints of the Buddha leave spiral markings. In Tibetan Buddhist temples, the Gankyil spiral represents the dharma (the teachings of the Buddha) and primordial cosmic energy:

Gankyil

Here's a photo I took at a Korean restaurant this evening...



In Korea, this symbol is known as the "Sam-Taegeuk"


While I enjoy the intellectual exercise of thinking about the infinite in an interdisciplinary way, I believe there is a deeper significance to these connections.  One meaning to take away from all of this is that the infinite, while impossible to grasp, is worth approaching.

Like the Buddha, who was lost for many years practicing austerities before finding the bodhi tree, it may take falling into a spiral to get to that enlightened place. Doing so, however, you will eventually emerge changed for the better, and with a new appreciation of your own limits.