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 simulated, a hologram, or illusional from a quantum mechanical perspective. However, you will not find anyone shouting the world is real.
The world is just not what you think it is.
The purpose of this website is to expound on Buddha’s teachings on why that is the case, what reality is, and why understanding reality is so critical to the quality of your life.
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 founding figures. According to Bryan Magee, author of The Story of Philosophy, “he realized that the material world was reducible to a single.” While he wrongly assumed it to be water, his insight was right. However, Buddha alone could prove it because it is not material.
Pythagoras of Samos, a polymath well-known for his eponymous Theorem, was another pre-Socratic ancient Greek philosopher who, according to Bryan Magee, Pythagoras “was the first person to have the idea that all the workings of the material universe are expressible in terms of mathematics.” Indeed, his insight was profound, as modern science investigates the universe using 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.”
Indeed, with the advent of 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.” Furthermore, particles are “just kind of epiphenomena” and “ripples on the deep structure.”
While Dr. Wilczek did not elaborate on the “deep structure” on which the ripples ripple, we know they are ripples of the quantum fields he mentioned. By definition, epiphenomena are a secondary phenomenon derived from another phenomenon. In other words, quantum mechanical epiphenomena are secondary phenomena derived from quantum fields.
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 an investigative tool scientists designed to help them recognize specific physical system properties. However, it does not exist in nature.
So, while quantum mechanical epiphenomena satisfy Pythagoras’ insight, they exist only as mathematical expressions.
Today, the quest to understand the world continues. The question, What Exists?, is asked on 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.”
The four scientists interviewed offered four different views on what exists, ranging from one who believes that the universe exists as 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.
While these scientists did not offer a “minimum number of basic categories that explain the entirety of existence,” NASA did.
Insert NASA image.
Original image- https://wmap.gsfc.nasa.gov/media/121236/121236_NewPieCharts720.png
According to NASA, the universe is a simple two-category structure: a 95.4% “dark” realm and a 4.6% atomic realm. However, according to NASA, “Dark matter and dark energy are mysterious substances that affect and shape the cosmos, and scientists are still trying to figure them out.” In other words, NASA knows what the dark realm does but is unsure if it exists in nature.
However, as discussed earlier, with the advent of quantum mechanics, particles do not exist in the atomic slice either because they have become epiphenomena, mathematical expressions.
Unable to find reality 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. With these questions, science moves a giant step toward Buddhism. Not only can Buddha answer these questions, but he can also answer “What Exists?” together with the associated remarks.
In Buddha’s cosmos, mentality is the only existence. Furthermore, mentality comes in two categories: quiescent and fluctuating. These two categories “explains the entirety of existence” in Buddha’s cosmos.
It really cannot be any simpler.
Buddha teaches that there is an adventitious relationship between them, i.e., they exist by chance and are not integral to each other. In Buddhism, happening by chance means these two realms are not causal. In other words, both have existed naturally since time immemorial. The following is a depiction of Buddha’s cosmos.
Insert Buddha’s three-body image.
Buddha calls the quiescent realm enlightened and luminous but deems the fluctuating realm defied. In other words, the fluctuating realm is unenlightened and non-luminous. Therefore, the fluctuating realm can be called unlightened or non-luminous. While unenlightened usually refers to the mental state of sentient beings, non-luminosity usually refers to the domain of fluctuating mentality. Buddha is in it because an enlightened person, such as Buddha, must be present to make it known.
However, you would be mistaken if you think Buddha’s three-body setup is disconnected from NASA’s version.
Buddha’s quiescent realm is equivalent to ASA’s dark realm because, according to their respective doctrines, they are both deemed to be where the universe expands,
On the other hand, non-luminosity is comparable to the quantum field because, like the fluctuating quantum fields, its fluctuating mentality serves as the foundation block of Buddha’s conscious universe. Also, similar to quantum mechanics, Buddha has its own epiphenomena. These two epiphenomena occupy the same position in their respective version of what science calls the Standard Model, just before where materiality/mass appears.
However, their closest relationship has to be the quantization of their basic units. Quantum mechanics is quantum mechanics because energy is quantized, i.e., in small discrete amounts. Humans can testify that their thoughts are quantized, coming one after another. While the quanta of human thoughts are much larger than energy’s, in Buddha’s universe, where consciousness, defined as the fluctuating mentality, originates everything, quantization begins with epiphenomena, the first conscious being in the cosmos. Indeed, when other similarities are considered, non-luminosity is essentially the quantum field with consciousness.
Significantly, by separating the realm without fluctuations from the one with, Buddha solves an otherwise unsolvable scientific problem known as the Cosmological Constant Problem, deemed “the worst theoretical prediction in the history of physics.” [3]
Other problems that Buddhism can help science solve or explain include the Observer Effect, A Mind-body Problem?, Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?, etc.
The obvious question is, why could Buddha understand mentality 2600+ years ago without an advanced degree in modern education, but science could not?
Dr. Max Planck, a 1918 Nobel Laureate in Physics for discovering energy quanta and the originator of quantum theory, understood why. After his entire professional career originating and developing quantum theory, he famously said.
Dr. Max was right on both counts. Buddha teaches that consciousness is fundamental in the universe, and one must be part of it to understand it.
Understanding how to become part of the mental world requires knowing the unique Buddhist epistemology. Our discussion on epistemology begins with the dialogue between Dr. Robert Kuhn, host of Closer to Truth, and the prominent professor of history and philosophy of science, Dr. Mehachem Fisch, on “How Do We Know What We Know.” What Dr. Fisch revealed during that discussion was so unexpected that it led Dr. Kuhn to wonder aloud, “What prevents you from cascading into skepticism where we can’t know anything? Everything is related to something else. I have no foundation between what I believe and what the world really is. So, how do I know anything?”
Dr. Fisch started the dialogue by saying, “According to latter-day philosophy,” “we do not know by our eyes or ears, but by means of the words we speak.” He said information about the world first impacts humans through their senses, such as the eyes. However, the information thus imparted immediately enters the mind, where it is conceptualized “in ways we do not govern.” Conceptualization, of course, distorts the original data by turning them into mental constructs. The mind then projects these mental constructs to be seen as the phenomena of the universe. In other words, the universe humans face is conceptualized in their minds, and it has nothing to do with “what the world really is,” as Dr. Kuhn said.
Humans know the already-conceptualized world “by means of the words we speak.” However, words are inferentially connected and only inform how “Everything is related to something else,” as Dr. Kuhn said. Indeed, “How do I know anything?”
The uniqueness of Buddhist epistemology is that Buddha teaches a way to understand the original data of the world before they are conceptualized. Known as direct perception, it allows a person to become a “part of the mystery,” as Dr. Planck put it. By becoming part of the mystery, one can understand “what the world really is.” “What the world really is” was what Buddha realized upon his enlightenment and informed Buddha that there is Nothing but Menrality in the cosmos.
Indeed, by Buddha’s definition, one is enlightened when one becomes a “part of the mystery.” Getting enlightened is not easy. Many tried, but only a few succeeded. However, anyone who succeeds also realizes Nothing but Mentality. In other words, faith in Buddhism needs not to be blind. Any enlightened person can independently verify this Buddha’s core teaching.
Furthermore, the Buddhist enlightenment has a definitive hallmark. When the original data is not conceptualized, there can be no mental constructs and their projections. Without projections of mental constructs, there can be no phenomenal world.
Therefore, the hallmark of Buddhist enlightenment is the disappearance of the universe. Indeed, the vanished physical universe leads the enlightened to understand that there is Nothing but Mentality.
The Verification Category contains three examples of enlightenment, two from ancient China and one from a contemporary American, Adyashanti. While all three witnessed the vanishing of the universe, Adyashanti’s use of modern language is more relatable to his contemporaries. In this post about his enlightenment, there is a link to his personal descriptions of how the universe disappeared upon his enlightenment, leading him to understand there is Nothing but Mentality and the true nature of his being.
Whether interested in Buddhism, curious, or undecided, you are welcome to join this journey of a new understanding of Buddhism you may not have encountered before, especially when we explore the details of what is presented here. 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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