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"To live a pure unselfish life, one must count nothing as one’s own in the midst of abundance." - Buddha |
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Reflections On Quantum Physics - September 2005 |
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Written by Rev. Mary David
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Saturday, 24 September 2005 |
Editor's Note - This is an excerpt from the September 2005 issue of the Buddhist Wheel
“In short, the physical world, according to quantum mechanics, is:
‘...not a structure built out of independently existing unanalyzable
entities, but rather a web of relationships between elements whose
meanings arise wholly from their relationships to the whole.’ (Stapp).”
—Gary Zukov, The Dancing Wu Li Masters, pp. 80-81.
How odd it is to begin this article with a quote
from a book on quantum physics! Yet, as I read it, I realized
that it is an excellent description of interdependence and of
“no-self”, fundamental concepts of Buddhism. During the time I spent
recovering from surgery, I have read many books. I am an avid
reader; I read everything from best-sellers to books by B.C.A.
ministers Rev. Tesshi Aoyama and Rev. Seigen Yamaoka. Quite by
accident, I picked up this book, The Dancing Wu Li Masters. It promised
to make the subject of physics accessible to those of us who are
“physical sciences challenged”.
Part of the reason that quantum physics interests me is that so much of
it sounds oddly like Buddhism. It sounds that way to Gary Zukov
too, who wrote in the book’s introduction that he planned to write
another book that explored the relationship between physics and
Buddhism more deeply based on what he learned in his research for the
first book. The first physicist, Sir Isaac Newton, began with the
premise “I make no hypotheses”, which meant for him that if something
can be verified experimentally it is true. If not, it is
suspect. Śakyamuni Buddha taught that one of the three criteria
of the true Dharma is that it can be verified by our own
experience. He asked us to accept nothing on “faith”. The
Sanskrit word that Śakyamuni and the sutras use is “śraddha”, which
implies belief based upon experience. Shinran-shōnin makes clear
to us that shinjin, often translated as faith in older versions, is
based on our experiences of the power of the Nembutsu working in our
own lives. In short, quantum physics is verifying the concept of
interdependence that the Buddha taught centuries ago!
Interdependence, impermanence, “no-self”,
enlightenment, and above all, the wonderment and preciousness of life,
of nature, of the universe are daily being reaffirmed not only in the
temples, homes and lives of Buddhists all over the planet but also in
the scientific laboratories of quantum physicists around the
world. We are truly living in an era of discovery, of wonder.
But we must also remember, lest we become too
enchanted with the ideas of modern physics, the lessons of history. The
same theories of quantum physics that reaffirm the oneness of all life
were also utilized in constructing the horror, the tragedy that was
unleashed sixty years ago on August 5, 1945 over Hiroshima, Japan, when
the atomic bomb exploded over that city. Ideas such as
interdependence, impermanence, gravity and the very marvel of life
itself are morally neutral. Human beings give these ideas value
in the ways that they use them. As human beings, each of us faces
innumerable choices daily, choices of how we act upon the physical
world, including what we do to each other. The laws and tendencies of
physics are neutral in value and depend on the choices that we make
about how to use them. Knowing we cannot see or experience True
Reality from the point of view of the Buddha, we still attempt to make
the best choices that we can about how we utilize these laws of nature
of which we are each a part. From history, we learn the lessons
of how people act out of the inner conflict of their blind passions,
tearing reality in opposite halves.
Through the calling voice of Amida Buddha’s
Nembutsu, bringing us to become our authentic selves in naturalness,
let us try to see this world and all its beauty. Through Amida’s
Light and Life, let us make choices of how of how we utilize this
knowledge we have acquired based upon true Wisdom and Compassion.
Visit our downloads section to get the complete issue.
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