WHERE BUDDHIST AND SCIENCE MEET

WHERE BUDDHIST AND SCIENCE MEET 

Part One

Part Two

 Where Science and Buddhism Meet:  Emptiness, Oneness and Nature of Reality  – by Gerald

In this 2-part video presentation (See the video – part 1 ) Gerald draws parallels between Buddhism and Science on such complex concepts as: Emptiness, Oneness and Nature of Reality. He provides an overview of Quantum Entanglement, Uncertainty Principle, Dual Slit Experiment and how they help us to better understand the Nature of Reality. It is an easy to follow format  with his conclusion and implications. Science confirms what the Buddha said 2,500 years ago: All that we are is the result of what we thought.” 

TRANSCRIPT

 Part 1:

There seems to be strong parallels between the Buddhist and scientific way of perceiving and understanding reality. While these ideas are not exclusively Buddhist, but rather can be found in most ancient Eastern thought. Buddhism seems to resonate quite harmoniously with these latest scientific discoveries. I wish to illustrate these ideas by first going over three main tenants of Buddhism:  Emptiness, Oneness and Nature of Reality  and drawing the parallels of these ideas with modern scientific understanding. The premise of this video is the believe that these two seemingly opposite perception: non-material and material, intuitive and rationalistic, spiritual and scientific, are actually two ways of understanding of reality – two sides of the same coin. A very important thing to keep in mind while watching this is that there is a large discrepancy between how we perceive reality and how reality actually exists. 

Emptiness 

Emptiness is that in which all arises and returns from.  Buddha says reality rises from emptiness, a non-dual and infinite source.  For instance, the chair you are sitting on, the computer you are looking at, even you are body is arising in this moment from emptiness. To better to illustrate it – think of a dream.  In this dream there is an elephant and you.   So you think – this is me and that is an elephant. They have the appearance of being two separate entities. However you are wake up you realize that both yourself and the elephant were both manifestations of your dreaming consciousness, the source of both this dream and an infinite variety of other possible dream worlds. Another way to picture emptiness is as the page of a book.  The page of the book without words can be understood as emptiness.  While the page is itself relays no message, there are an infinite variety of words, sentences and stories that can be placed upon the page.  So, emptiness can be understood as the field of potential in which every possibility arises from. To begin to understand this we need to redefine our understanding of material reality.  We then find out this emptiness, also known as the Dao in Daoism and the Brahman in Hinduism seems to strongly parallel the concept of the quantum field within the quantum physics. Let us first explore the nature of what appears to be material of reality. 

Wave/Particle Duality 

Our reality exhibits a dualistic nature:  the matter that makes up what we experience exists both as wave, or non-material entity, and the particle, the material entity.  This wave form that particles exhibit has no definite location within space or time, but can only be understood as being everywhere all at once – spread out through the entire universe. Image an apple in your hand.  As a particle this apple exists within a defined location in space and time, for this example – your hand.  In its waveform this apple would not only be in your hand, but spread out all its possible states. But how can this be?  How can something that appears to be solid at the same time have the ability to be something non-solid?  And how can something that appears to have a definite location in space and time also be able to exist – spread out in the large region of space? As astounding as this may sound, the experience that confirms this has been repeated a thousand times with the same result.  What at first came a shock to the physics community inevitably became a well-known and accepted fact. The thing that determined whether or not particles behave like waves or particles was ultimately found to be the very thing that was observing this phenomenon – human consciousness. A particles quality is not pre-determined, but defined by the very mind that perceiving it. So what appears to be solid reality is actually just one side of two underling aspects of reality – that of wave and that of particle. 

The Emptiness of Atom 

Atoms are 99.999999999999 % empty space.   Again this forces us to redefine how we see both ourselves and reality.  If our bodies and everything around us is mostly empty space, then why the things have the appearance and feel of being solid objects. This feeling of solidity is actually a repulsion or push of other sets of atoms.  Similarly to how magnets will repel each other when two similar sides are put together. Our hands, feet, fingers never touch anything, but actually experiencing a repulsive force that gives us the illusion of solidity.  Believe it or not you are not physically touching the chair you are sitting in, but rather hovering right above it as the atoms of your chair and your body repel each other. What really holds everything together and makes the reality appear to be solid is the sea of fluctuating energy not actually anything physical.  Not only is your body mostly empty space, but everything you see, experience and interact with is overwhelming empty space. 

The Quantum Field 

In quantum physics we have what is called the quantum field.  This is an electro-magnetic field in which all matter arises from.  The particles that arise from this field are separate, but are actual different forms of the system. The field and the matter arising from this field are the same thing. We may therefore regard matter as being constituted by the regions of space in which field is extremely intense… 

There is no place in this new kind of physics both for the field and matter, for the field is the only reality.”  (Albert Einstein) 

Imagine a turbulent ocean as the field – as waves fluctuate continuously up and down the very tips of the wave crescents are what matter and our reality arises from. The rest of the sea is out of range of perception, but still exists as potential for matter.  So all matter arises and returns from this field. A field that is a continuous medium spread out from all space and time – seemingly paralleling perfectly with the idea of emptiness.  From this field arises not only all the particles we perceive, but also the very foundations of each and every atom that holds both ourselves and the universe together. 

Oneness 

The idea of oneness or inter-connectivity in Buddhism is the idea that everything in the universe is intimately interconnected.  The idea that we are separate entities, separate from both each other and the world around is considered to be an illusion.  The true nature of both our ourselves and our reality is that complete unification or oneness.   Let us see how these ideas parallel with what physics is now telling us.”

PART TWO

Gerald further describes Quantum Entanglement, Uncertainty Principles, Double Slit Experiments and his conclusions and implications. 

The Quantum Entanglement

 Einstein did not take well to quantum theory and in 1935 he and his few fellow physicists wrote a paper under the name “EPR”. And their attempt to disprove the quantum theory not only did they further validify, but they came across another strange feature of quantum physics – quantum entanglement. When two particles interact with each other they become what is called entangled - developing a special connective relationship with each other. Now when one of these particles are affected say by measurement or observation, one particle will reflect the exact same trait as the other instantaneously no matter how far apart they are – across the room or acres the universe. Einstein found this so strange that he later termed it “spooky action at a distance.” To understand how strange this really is.  Let’s imagine you and your friend two basketballs that have become entangled. Regardless of how far each of you travel from one another each of your basketball would instantaneously reflect anything either you did to them.  This can happen feet away, miles away or hundreds lights of away. In fact, entangled particles seem to behave one object rather than two-three or many separate objects that they appear to be.  Thus explaining the strange action at a distance. No matter where they position in space and time, these two particles remain forever interconnected. If now we go back to the singularity before the Bing Bang in which our entire universe was condensed into a point smaller than an atom, we realize all matter and energy that we experience right now has and always will be entangled or interconnected. Quantum entanglement seems to point to a true oneness within the universe. The Quantum Field We exist within the sea of energy that connects all atoms, from the atoms that are arising to make this video to the atoms in the birth of star across the universe. The field that these atoms arise from that spread out all space and time in interconnected web. The quantum field is the web that connects all life, energy, matter and existence into a single system. Everything we experience has a single interconnected source. Mind and Reality     “All that we are is the result of what we have thought.  The mind is everything. “  The Buddha. In Buddhism and many other mystic traditions, the mind is a center of reality.  It is not just a part of reality but is the very thing that creates it similar to how our dreaming mind creates our dream worlds. The idea of the world being outside of our mind and the world separate from us is something Eastern traditions consider incorrect. In reality all is the mind.  Nearly 2,500 years after the Buddha, quantum physicists seem to have stumbled upon to the same truth.  “All matter originates and exists only by a virtue of a force…  We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent Mind.  This Mind is the matrix of the matter.”  Max Planck – the Founder of Quantum Physics. 

Uncertainty Principle 

The famous German Quantum physicist, Werner Heisenberg, realized that by simply observing the atomic world we were affecting it. He realized that it is impossible to know both the electrons velocity (speed) and location at the same time. As soon as electrons speed measured it simply does not have a well-defined location in space. And as soon as the electrons location is measured it does not have a well-defined speed. He called this ‘the uncertainty principle.’ What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.”  Werner Karl Heisenberg This happens not the limits of our perception or measuring devices, but rather points to very mirage like quality of electrons.  Conscious observation is connected with the event that is observing and actually defines it locational momentum. Reality is defined by the mind that is observing it.  The Physicist John Wheeler considered the observer such a crucial aspect of quantum theory that he suggested that the term should actually to be replaced with the term participator.

Double Slit Experiment 

The double slit experiment originally created to test the nature of light, revolutionized quantum physics in a way we understand reality. The experiment involved the device that propels particles through slits and records where they land on the other side of the barrier.  What the physicists found was astounding. Particles that were once thought to be solid were behaving like waves.  And how they behaved was depended upon whether or not they being observed. When unobserved the particles took on a state of superposition or infinite potential.  While when observed particles take a well-defined locations within finite possibility. If we were to theoretically do this experiment with baseballs, when watching baseballs passing through the slits we would see them land at a well-defined location on the other side. When not watching the baseballs passing through slits we would see an interference patterns.  In other words, when not watched the baseballs behaved like waves going through the slits simultaneously. It is not until your mind or consciousness defined the baseballs’ position that they even had one.  This experiment has been done thousands of times with the same results and it has been done with particles as big as Carbon 80 molecules. The reality does not exist without the mind that is defining it. Without the mind the reality exists only as infinite potential.  Quantum physicists have now stumbled upon what mystics have been saying over 2,000 years that reality is the projection of the mind. 

Conclusions and Implications 

The lines between science and spirituality have been become inevitable blurred; The concepts interchangeable, our inquiry into science, our attempt to gravitate from all spiritual, religious, mystical has inevitable left us at the doorway in human history. The doorway that could provide the paradigm shift into a new self-realized civilization, casting aside the dogmas of yesterday, embracing a new world vision and creating the mythology for the 21 century. To make this transition we must be willing question, we must be willing to break apart the very foundations of our own believe systems, we must be willing to engage in an open-minded inquire into the true nature of reality. The implications are profound and ultimately in our hands because the true change can only happen within ourselves. For the sake of all those before us and all those after may we awaken to a new global vision that sees no hatred, but love, no division, but unity and not conflict, but compassion. I leave you with the dedication: May everyone be happy May everyone be free from suffering May  no one ever be separated from their happiness May everyone have equanimity, free from hatred and attachment.”