The late Dr. Joseph Campbell, author, professor, mythologist, and storyteller-extraordinaire, wrote the following about humanity’s first encounter with the idea of a godhead in his book Transformation of Myth through Time: “According to philosopher Giambattista Vico (1688-1744), the first notion of the godhead arose out of experiencing the voice of thunder. The voice in the thunder is the first suggestion of a power greater than that of the human system.”
In my opinion, this proposition is reasonable. After all, the origin of the “voice of the thunder” was beyond human comprehension at the time. It is not difficult to imagine our ancestors wondering: Where did that “voice” come from?
While the “voice of the thunder” is no longer the object of wonder, the idea that the universe is bifurcated persists. The three major disciplines of the world, religions, philosophy, and science, all express their opinions on the subject.
Today, millions of believers in thousands of religions worldwide believe that deities superior to human beings reside in the invisible realm separately from the phenomenal universe in which all beings reside. While the thousands of religions worldwide command billions of believers, this solution is unsatisfactory for non-believers of religions.
Similarly, philosophers since ancient Greece have also theorized that the universe could be bifurcated. For example, in his Theory of Forms or Ideas, Plato proposed that everything in the world was a transient, decaying copy of something ideal that exists permanently outside of time and space. Prussian philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) posited a realm of Noumenon that exists as the thing-in-itself outside of human perception, in contrast to the phenomenal world that humans can perceive and understand. While their ideas may be insightful, without being verifiable, philosophical insights remain no more than personal opinions.
https://earthsky.org/upl/2014/09/dark-matter-energy-atoms-pie-chart-NASA-300×209.png
As the NACA image shows, contemporary scientists also suggest that the universe is bifurcated into a visible atomic universe that is separated from an invisible realm that belongs to dark matter and dark energy. However, scientists do not know much about dark matter and energy, considering them “mysterious substances that affect and shape the cosmos, and scientists are still trying to figure them out.” However, mysterious though they may be, dark energy and matter together constitute 95% of the universe’s mass and energy. So, something exists, although it cannot be energy, dark or not dark.
Energy in physics, as this Wikipedia article suggests, “is a quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of heat and light.” Simply put, a quantitative property is a value or number obtained by measurement. One does not need to attend college to understand that numbers cannot have weight.
So, the question that remains unanswerable for thousands of years since our ancestors wondered about the “voice of the thunder” is, “What does the invisible universe consist of?”
Even though energy is not a phenomenon and cannot have mass, it is a very useful concept for scientists to use in equations to understand the mechanisms behind the phenomena of the universe.
One of these equations led to the discovery in quantum mechanics that Quantum Fields are The Real Building Blocks of the Universe—with Dr. David Tong. With quantum fields as the building blocks of the universe, the nature of a particle also changed.
Dr. Frank Wiczek, a Nobel Laureate in Physics, briefly explains the nature of particles from the quantum mechanical perspective: “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.”
Indeed, particles are no longer “solid, massy, hard, impenetrable,” as Newton imagined them and wrote in his Opticks. Instead, particles have become epiphenomena, secondary phenomena derived from the ripples in the fluctuating quantum energy field. With particles as ripples in the quantum field, what is known as the central mystery of quantum mechanics emerges. The central mystery states that “everything in the universe, from light to electrons to atoms, behaves like both a particle and a wave at the same time.”
According to Dr. O’Dowd in this video, the preferred solution to the central mystery of quantum mechanics is the Copenhagen Interpretation. The Copenhagen Interpretation postulates that the probability wave function collapses when observation changes waves to particles. While the collapse of the probability wave function seemingly solves the central mystery of quantum mechanics, another mystery emerges about the probability waves. Quite obviously, like energy, the probability waves cannot be reality. So, the central mystery of quantum mechanics is, as Dr. O’Dowd puts it, “What does the wave function represent? What are these waves of or waves in?”
Indeed, the change from quantum energy waves to probability waves did not lead to a better understanding of the fundamental nature of reality. What are the waves of or in, and what is their relationship with the particles?
However, scientists do have a sense of what they would like the waves to be, so the Copenhagen Interpretation can better explain reality, as elucidated in this article, “Reality is an illusion: The scientific proof everything is energy and reality isn’t real.”
The article states this about Copenhagen Interpretation, “The Copenhagen Interpretation comes from the school of quantum mechanics, and it believes that reality does not exist without an observer to observe it. As reality is nothing more than energy, then the energy is conscious when consciousness is observing it.”
In other words, these scientists want energy to become consciousness because they believe observation is necessary for reality to exist.
Dr. Max Planck was the originator of quantum theory and a 1918 Nobel Laureate in Physics. After spending practically his entire professional life studying matter, he went even further by postulating that, instead of energy, consciousness is the fundamental reality from which matter is derived, as he said:
“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.”
and
“Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are part of the mystery that we are trying to solve.”
Indeed, if Dr. Planck had only practiced meditation, he could have verified his insights and become the first Nobel Prize-winning Buddha because both of his insights align with our historical Buddha’s findings upon his enlightenment.
Buddha realized upon his enlightenment that mentality is the fundamental reality that permeates both the humanly imperceivable and perceivable realms of existence. Mentality, Buddha teaches, is the only directly verifiable and perduring reality in the cosmos. Furthermore, Buddha teaches that mentality comes in two states: quiescent and active.
Buddha defines the quiescent mentality as enlightened, luminous, and the Ultimate Reality. However, when mentality fluctuates, Buddha deems it defiled and becomes unenlightened and non-luminous. Significantly, though, in Buddhism, the fluctuating mentality, like the fluctuating quantum energy in quantum mechanics, is the foundational block of the universe. In Buddha’s view, there are no energy or probability waves in nature, only mental waves.
Furthermore, Buddha teaches there is an adventitious relationship between the Ultimate Reality and the universe. In other words, these two realms are extrinsic and associated only by chance. In Buddhism, “associated by chance” means no causal relationship exists between them.
Therefore, instead of a universe bifurcated into two realities, as science and religions believe, Buddha’s cosmos has two realms of the same reality manifesting differently: the realm of quiescent mentality is imperceivable, but the realm of fluctuating mentality manifests the universe in which all being live.
If readers find that teaching incredulous, they can find Buddha’s teaching within themselves.
Think of yourself as a mini cosmos. Firstly, when you are born, you already have consciousness because, as Buddha teaches, you are made of fluctuating mentality, which is the definition of consciousness in Buddhism. Secondly, Buddha also teaches that you have the ability to calm your mind down to inactivity. When your mind is quiescent, it becomes like the Ultimate Reality as you become enlightened, as Buddha defines. When you become enlightened, the universe disappears because the quiescent mentality cannot manifest the universe. As Buddha teaches, only the fluctuating mentality can. Indeed, the disappearance of the universe is the hallmark of Buddhist enlightenment. Furthermore, these two mental states have no causal relationship with each other and are extrinsic. Indeed, what Buddha teaches about the cosmos is within each of us.
In addition to giving humans consciousness, which the scientific universe cannot, by teaching mentality is the essence of reality, Buddha solves many long-unsolved scientific problems, such as “Why a Mind-Body Problem?” “Why is Consciousness so Mysterious?” “Is Consciousness Ultimate Reality?” Why the Cosmological Constant Problem? What was there before the universe? What holds the key to a full understanding of nature? Why the Observer Effect?
This blog will explain Buddha’s teaching of the Ultimate Reality in detail and the solutions to the questions mentioned earlier. Additionally, many other topics, such as what makes Buddhism uniquely the only teaching that claims to have found the Ultimate Reality, why the scientific method can never discover mentality, why science and Buddhism are complementary, why humanity’s understanding of reality will significantly improve when energy and mentality are both included in its discussion, are all explored.
If you are interested in Buddhism or just curious, please join me on this journey of discovery in Buddhism. Not only is Buddhism unique, but Buddha’s teachings will also help you live a calm, contented, and peaceful life and become a better person at the same time. Even if you are a double Buddhist, you are invited to join in this journey of newfound Buddhism and see if your opinion changes with the help of science and epistemology. Those already familiar with Buddhism are also welcome, as you may find many previously hard-to-understand Buddhist concepts clarified with the help of science and epistemology.
If you are not scientific, please do not worry. The difference between the fluctuating and non-fluctuating fields is about as profound as we go scientifically. Moreover, there will be no mathematics. If you are new to Buddhism, do not be concerned either, as all Buddhist concepts will be clearly defined with the help of Buddhist dictionaries.
