If you look out the window, see the world, and deem it real, you would be very wrong. If you search on the internet, you will find people who consider the world as simulated, a hologram, or illusional.
Indeed, the world is just not what you think it is.
A) What Exists:” Humanity’s Struggle to Understand
The question, What Exists?, is asked on the TV series Closer To Truth with the remarks, “Lots of things exist. But what’s truly fundamental? The challenge is to discern the minimum number of basic categories that explain the entirety of existence.”
“What Exists?” reflects the fact that humanity lacks an understanding of the reality of the world they live in. In fact, humanity’s quest to understand the world started with pre-Socratic Greek philosophers.
One of these pre-Socrtatic Greek philosophers was Thales of Miletus, one of ancient Greece’s seven sages and one of its founding figures who accurately predicted the solar eclipse in 585 BC. According to Bryan Magee, author of The Story of Philosophy, “The question that most obsessed Thales was “What is the world made of? It seemed to him that it must ultimately be made from a single element.” While he wrongly assumed it to be water, Magee suggests that his insight was “amazing” “because the physics that leads up to it had not yet been done.”
Pythagoras of Samos, a polymath well-known for his eponymous Theorem, was another pre-Socratic ancient Greek philosopher who, according to Bryan Magee, “was the first person to have the idea that all the workings of the material universe are expressible in terms of mathematics.”
Isaac Newton was the first scientist to propose that solid particles existed. However, he never actually investigated their existence. According to author Fritjof Capra of The Tao of Physics, Newton wrote the following in his Opticks, “It seems probable to me that God in the beginning formed matter in solid, massy, hard, impenetrable, movable particles, of such sizes and figures, and with such other properties, and in such proportion to space, as most conduced to the end for which he formed them; and that these primitive particles being solids, are incomparably harder than any porous bodies compounded of them; even so very hard, as never to wear or break in pieces; no ordinary power being able to divide what God himself made one in the first creation.” The author added, “In the Newtonian view, God had created, in the beginning, the material particles, the forces between them, and the fundamental laws of motion.”
However, with the advent of quantum field theory in quantum mechanics, “there are no particles in the world,” said Dr. David Tong firmly in his video lecture.
In this video, How is the Cosmos Constructed, 2004 Nobel Laureate Dr. Frank Wilczek added more details, “The most basic objects out of which to construct the universe are not particles but objects we call quantum fields. We think of them as space-filling ethers that create and destroy the objects, the particles. …….. We see particles as epiphenomena. They are kind of ripples on the deep structure.“
While Dr. Wilczek did not elaborate on the “deep structure,” we know the ripples are the ripples of the quantum fields he mentioned. By calling particles epiphenomena, it is clear that quantum mechanics consider particles as secondary phenomena derived from the quantum field. Without the quantum field, particles do not exist because there would be no ripples.
So, what are quantum fields? A quantum “is a discrete quantity of energy proportional in magnitude to the frequency of the radiation it represents.” In other words, a quantum field is a field of energy with discrete values.
So, what is energy?
According to this article, energy, “in physics,” is a “quantitative property that is transferred to a body or a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of heat and light.”
In other words, energy is a man-made investigative tool scientists defined to help them study specific physical system properties. However, it does not exist in nature. Indeed, in the scientific universe, where everything is energy, everything exists as mathematical expressions. While mathematical expressions satisfy Pythagoras’ insight, they do not inform “What Exists?” in nature.
To explore “What Exists,” four scientists were interviewed. Among the four scientists, there were four different views, ranging from a quantum physicist who believes that “the universe is a quantum mechanical wave function,” to one believing that consciousness has equal standing with physics, to one who thinks that reality is limited to what is only known to science, to a quantum physicist who believes in God. The group does not have a unanimous opinion on “What Exist?”
Unable to find an answer in physics, scientists start to wonder about consciousness and ask questions such as, “Is Consciousness Ultimate Reality?” “Is Consciousness Fundamental?“, “Does Consciousness Cause the Cosmos?“, etc. Again, as with “What Exists?” physicists do not have answers for these questions either. However, inquiring about reality through consciousness is a giant step forward for humanity toward Buddhism.
People do not know that Buddha answered, “What Exists?” 2600+ years ago while meditating under the Bodhi Tree until his enlightenment.
B) “What Exist:” Buddha Answers
In Buddha’s cosmos, mentality is the only perduring reality. Furthermore, mentality has two different states: quiescent and fluctuating. These two states of quiescent and fluctuating mentality explain the entirety of existence in the cosmos.
It really cannot be any simpler.
With mentality as the only reality in the cosmos, Buddha realized Thales’ insight that everything can be made from one element, although he might not have thought it is not physical.
C) Buddhism and Science: Different Cosmos.
The following image from NASA shows the scientific structure of our universe.
According to NASA, the universe is a simple two-reality structure: a 95.4% “dark” realm and a 4.6% atomic realm. However, according to NASA, 95.4% of the universe is unknown because “Dark matter and dark energy are mysterious substances that affect and shape the cosmos, and scientists are still trying to figure them out.”
Additionally, even though it is called the atomic slice, there is no scientific consensus on whether atomic particles exist in it. While some physicists think particles are there, the quantum field theory suggests there are no particles in the world, only epiphenomena. Most importantly, consciousness is nowhere to be found in NASA’s cosmos.
The following is Buddha’s depiction of how the cosmos is structured.
In Buddha’s universe, where mentality is the only perduring reality, there are two realms of reality. One is where mentality is quiescent, while the other is where mentality fluctuates incessantly.
- The Quiescent Realm.
- Buddha deems the realm of quiescent mentality the Ultimate Reality. It is the Ultimate Reality because, without any fluctuation, the “realness” of its reality can never change. In Buddhism, the realness of the Ultimate Reality must be permanent.
- Additionally, Buddha deems the Ultimate Reality enlightened and luminous. The Ultimate Reality is the enlightened realm because Buddha defined enlightenment as “no thought.” Of course, a quiescent mentality is a “no thought” mentality.
- The Ultimate Reality serves a critical role in enlightenment as the enlightened “experienced object” that forms a non-dualistic mentality with the “experiencing subject“ that is the quiescent mentality of the enlightened.
- The Ultimate Reality corresponds to the realm of dark energy in the NASA universe because Buddha teaches that the expansion of the universe occurs in it, which, according to science, happens in dark energy. There is no counterpart for dark matter in Buddha’s cosmos.
2) The Fluctuating Realm
- In contrast to the Ultimate Reality, Buddha deems the realm of fluctuating mentality defiled. Therefore, the fluctuating mentality can be known as unenlightened or non-luminosity. While unenlightenment applies to the mental state of conscious beings, non-luminosity signifies the realm of fluctuating mentality spreading throughout the universe.
- Non-luminosity is comparable to the quantum field in the atomic slice of the NASA universe for many reasons. Three of the important ones are:
- Non-luminosity is Buddha’s Conscious Quantum Realm because mentality is quantized. The quantum field is called quantum because energy is quantized, i.e., it comes in very small discrete amounts. As most humans can attest, their conscious thoughts come in discrete amounts, one after another. However, in Buddha’s conscious universe, the quantization of thought first appears in Buddha’s smallest conscious epiphenomenon known as “Neighbor-to-Emptiness dust,” the equivalent of quarks in science. (“Dust” is a Buddhist term comparable to particles in science.)
- Both fluctuating realms are considered the building blocks of their respective universes, although what fluctuates in them differs.
- Both have epiphenomena but no particles.
3) Buddha
- Buddha is part of the three-body structure because, as discussed below, he must be part of the world of mentality to understand its empirical facts.
Significantly, Buddha’s two-realm reality setup helps solve a huge problem for physicists. Known as the Cosmological Constant Problem, it is deemed “the largest discrepancy between theory and experiment in all of science” and “the worst theoretical prediction in the history of physics.” Without separating the realm with fluctuations from the realm without, the Cosmological Problem is probably unsolvable, as discussed here.
C) Epistemology
So, why can science still not understand “What Exist?” even with the advent of Einstein’s Theories of Relativity and quantum mechanics? This is, in fact, the most critical to understanding the difference between science and Buddhism. Only when one understands the uniqueness of Buddhist epistemology can one hope to understand the uniqueness of Buddhism. Therefore, we propose, “To Understand Buddhism, First Understand Epistemology.”
Also known as the Theory of Knowledge, epistemology “is the branch of philosophy that examines the nature, origin, and limits of knowledge.”
Buddha teaches that humans live in a world of two realities: the visible and the invisible. The visible reality is the phenomenal world, while the invisible reality is mentality, which underlies the visible world and is spread throughout the cosmos. Therefore, we need two ways to understand both realities: word-based knowledge to understand the visible world and empirical facts to understand the invisible mental world. Consequently, Buddha teaches that, to thoroughly understand our universe, humans need two means of knowledge: inference and direct perception.
The uniqueness of Buddhist epistemology is that Buddha expands the scope of knowledge by adding empirical facts.
Inference refers to the fact that the word-based knowledge humans use to understand the world is inferentially connected. For example, if one calls east the west or vice versa, it does not affect where the sun rises or sets. If one calls a mountain a river, the world does not change. Or, as Shakespeare said, “A rose by another name would smell as sweet.” In other words, words have no intrinsic meaning except to inform how concepts are related. While words can help humans understand the phenomenal world, they certainly do not give knowledge to “what the world really is,” which Dr. Kuhn of the Closer to Truth website said to Dr. Fisch after their discussion on “How Do We Know What We Know?“
In Kalama Sutta, Buddha teaches that word-based knowledge is useless when searching for an unchanging Truth. Instead, one must use direct perception when searching for an unchanging Truth.
To help understand direct perception, we quote from Dr. Max Planck, a 1918 Nobel Prize Laureate in Physics and the originator of quantum theory. He came to the following conclusions after a lifetime of investigating quantum mechanics.
- “I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness.”
- “Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are a part of the mystery that we are trying to solve.”
Dr. Planck was right on both counts. Not only is consciousness fundamental in Buddha’s universe, but one must be part of the world of mentality to understand its mystery.
Indeed, allowing one to become part of the mystery mental world is what direct perception does. Direct perception is done through meditation until one becomes enlightened in the Buddhist way. Enlightenment in the Buddhist way happens when the quiescent mind of the enlightened forms a non-dualistic state of the mentality with the quiescent mentality of the cosmos, as mentioned earlier. By becoming one with the mental world of the cosmos, the enlightened can perceive the empirical facts of nature directly.
However, the mental nature of the cosmos contains Nothing but Mentality. So, when the mind of the enlightened becomes one with the mental world, the enlightened experiences Nothing but Mentality. Consequently, the physical universe disappears upon his enlightenment. Therefore, the hallmark of enlightenment in the Buddhist way is the disappearance of the “physical” universe, proving that the world is illusional as it exists only when the mind is active. When the mind becomes quiescent, it disappears.
Getting enlightened in the Buddhist way is not easy, but Buddha teaches that the potential to be enlightened is within all of us. In the Verification Category, you can find the enlightenment experience of a contemporary American, Adyashanti, and two Buddhist monks in China here and here, respectively. Their enlightenment told them that there is Nothing but Mentality and that the “physical” world is illusional. It is an experience no enlightened person ever forgets.
The world is not what everyone thinks because it is illusional. It exists only when the mind is active. When the mind becomes quiescent, it disappears. The world we experience daily is, in fact, created in our minds.
In Diamond Sutra, Buddha teaches about the illusional nature of the world by stating:
“All conditioned phenomena (Romanized Sanskrit=dharma, Chinese=法) are like the illusions of dreams and shadows of bubbles (Chinese=一切有為法; 如夢幻泡影),
like dew and lightening, this is how to have insight into all phenomena (Chinese=如露亦如電, 應作如是觀.”）
So, humanity has never been able to understand “What Exists?” since the pre-Socrtatic era because mentality is the only existence, and mentality is not accessible to word-based knowledge, including scientific knowledge.
D) Buddhism and Science: Their Complementarity
While science and Buddhism are different, they are complementary because their means of knowledge are complementary, even though they are mutually exclusive. Using inference and direct perception together would benefit humanity by understanding both the phenomenal world and its underlying mental nature. When applied to science, mentality and energy are complementary because while everything in the scientific universe is energy, everything is mental in Buddha’s universe. In other words, if mentality replaces energy in scientific formulas, it can help explain Buddha’s mental teachings.
Einstein alone provides two crucial examples. For example, if mentality replaces energy in his famous formula, E=Mc2, the formula expresses the equality of mentality and materiality and why the Mind-Body Problem should not exist. It is a crucial problem in Buddhism because Buddha deems the Mind-Body Problem a delusional misunderstanding of reality, the root cause of humanity’s existential suffering, and his soteriological goal is to liberate humanity from their existential suffering.
Einsteins’ second contribution is about Causality. Today, scientists acknowledge that “The special theory of relativity tells us that one person’s past may be another’s future. When time is relative, paradoxes threaten. Today, we peer deeper into Einstein’s theory to find that the immutable ordering of cause and effect emerges when we discover the causal geography of spacetime.” However, while one side of Einstein’s formula for the special theory of relativity is geometric, the other side suggests that the driving force of causality is energy-momentum. But if mentality replaces energy in the formula, the driving force of causality becomes mental momentum, which is what Buddha precisely teaches.
It is especially significant when applied to the Quantum Field Theory. Among the eight different theories on the origin of the universe, Buddha would give the Quantum Field Theory his stamp of approval because it is comparable to non-luminosity. While what fluctuates in the quantum field and non-luminosity differs, replacing energy with mentality in the equations of the Quantum Field Theory would allow it to build a universe where humans can have consciousness without changing anything else. With consciousness, the Quantum Field Theory should be more beautiful than The Most Beautiful Theory in Physics.
E) Buddha’s Soteriological Goal
In the Lotus Sutra, Buddha stated his soteriological goal clearly as below:
“I vowed from the beginning. (Chinese=我本立誓愿）
To make all sentient beings my equal without a difference. （欲令一切眾, 如我等無異)
Now that I have fulfilled this vow that I made in the past. (如我昔所愿，今者已滿足)
Transform them so they all enter the path of Buddhahood.” (化一切眾生，皆令入佛道).
To be equal to our Buddha without a difference means that one must become a Tathagata. Buddha wished humanity to be a Tathagata like him because only when one becomes a Tathagata can one be forever liberated from existential suffering caused by the delusional misunderstanding of reality.
F) The Five Aggregates
The Five Aggregates are Buddha’s teaching on the five constituents of all beings and play an essential role in satisfying Buddha’s soteriological goal.
In Buddha’s universe where mentality is the only perduring reality, the Five Aggregates are all mental. However, while four of them are obviously mental, the fifth one, rupa, meaning “body,” “form,” or “materiality,” viz., that which has shape and is composed of matter,” is often misinterpreted as being not mental. Buddha calls that a delusional misunderstanding of reality.
Indeed, this delusional misunderstanding of reality is so prevalent among even some Buddhists that The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism defines the Five Aggregates as “Of the five, only rupa is material; the remaining four involve mentality.”
The immense significance of the Five Aggregates is that they explain why rupa is mentality. Rupas are mental because they are “mere projections of consciousness.,” according to Buddha. Rupas are “mere projections of consciousness” because they are created in the conscious mind and then projected from the mind to be seen as the “body,” “form,” or “materiality” of the phenomenal world. It explains the illusional nature of the universe as experienced by the enlightened people mentioned earlier. The universe disappears when the mind is quiescent upon enlightenment because rupas can neither be created nor projected from the mind when it is quiescent.
However, in his doctrine known as the Three Delicate Marks, Buddha teaches that the Five Aggregates start not in human beings but in the smallest conscious beings in the world, epiphenomena known as “Neighbor-to-Emptiness dust,” mentioned earlier. It explains why Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara had to meditate so profoundly to reach the Perfection of Wisdom before realizing that the Five Aggregates are mental because they are natural events buried deep within non-luminosity, the foundation block of the universe.
However, the Five Aggregates are also helpful in solving challenging problems for science and philosophy.
The Observer Effect is associated with the double-slit experiment discovered by British polymath Thomas Young (1773-1829) and deemed the Central Mystery of Quantum Mechanics by 1965 Nobel Laureate Dr. Richard Geynman (1918-1988). How the Five Aggregates help to solve the problem can be found here.
Known in philosophy as “the fundamental question of metaphysics,” “Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?” that German philosopher Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716) raised in the seventh century remains unanswerable today. How the Five Aggregates help to solve the problem can be found here.
G) Buddhism-A Unique Education
So, in setting his soteriological goal, Buddha aspires for humanity to become a Tathagata like him because he wants them to lift themselves from their existential suffering caused by their delusional misunderstanding of reality. Then Buddha teaches them that the method to achieve the goal is to practice profoundly samathavipasyana (Chinese=止觀), Buddha’s meditative method for perceiving reality directly, until the Perfection of Wisdom (Chinese=般若波羅蜜多/智度). When the Perfection of Wisdom is achieved, one can understand that all the Five Aggregates are mental, which allows one to liberate oneself from existential suffering forever, be ready to become a Tathagata and fulfill Buddha’s soteriological goal.
As discussed earlier, this is precisely the process Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara took to liberate himself from his existential suffering. By profoundly practicing Samathavipasyana (Chinese=止觀), Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara realized that all the Five Aggregates are mental, liberated himself from existential suffering forever, ready to become a Tathagata and satisfied Buddha’s soteriological mission.
As an education that sets its goal, teaches how to satisfy the goal, and gets it verified with the method taught, without making assumptions, offering philosophical opinions, or any external factors, Buddhism is a logically consistent, self-sufficient, and vefiable education.
Furthermore, Buddha’s two realms of reality are verifiable. While the quiescent realm is directly verifiable through meditation, the phenomena in non-luminosity are indirectly verifiable through science by replacing energy with mentality, as discussed earlier. However, the conscious nature of beings that non-luminosity gives rise to is directly verifiable in humans, plants such as mimosas folding, unicellular organisms such as amoeba engulfing paramecia, and paramecia’s attempt to escape, minerals like memory in water, animals like lion’s emotional reunion with a human who raised him, etc., all of which are missing in the world of energy.
Put together, it makes Buddhism uniquely the only education that is logically consistent, self-sufficient, and verifiable teaching in the world.
H) Buddha: A Truth-Telling Teacher
In Diamond Sutra, Buddha states that, like all the Tathagata before him, he is “a Sayer of Truth, a Sayer of Veracity, a Sayer of Thusness, a Sayer without Deception or Contradictions (Chinese=如來是真語者, 實語者, 如語者, 不誑語者, 不異語者.”）
Whether interested in Buddhism, curious, or undecided, you are welcome to join this journey of a breakthrough understanding of Buddhism with the help of epistemology and science you may not have encountered before. Even if you are a seasoned Buddhist, you may find definitions of Buddha, enlightenment, or Buddhism that may be new to you.
If you are not scientific, please do not worry. The difference between fluctuating or not is about as profound as we need to go scientifically. Furthermore, Buddhist dictionaries will help clarify all Buddhist concepts.
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