Where Buddhism and Science Meet

Buddhism seems to fit pretty well with science and quantum physics. Stuff Buddha said a long time ago is now being proven by quantum physics. Three important parts are emptiness, oneness, and the nature of reality.



Buddhist View

Emptiness is that in which all arises and returns from. Buddha said reality arises from emptiness. The chair you are sitting on, the computer your looking at and even your body is arising right now from emptiness. Picture emptiness in two ways like a dream and like a book. If in your dream you see yourself beside an elephant both are manifestations of the dream. Imagine a book with empty pages. The possibilities of the empty pages are great where you can write letter or words, draw pictures, and tell stories. This is emptiness.

Science’s view

In Science emptiness can be called the quantum field. What we think of as independent material reality is actually the product of consciousness. The quantum field can be pictured as an ocean of pure energy that surrounds the universe. Now quantum physics states that the way matter originates is when a wave frequency of a human thought hits the particle of an atom it sets it in vibration where it becomes physical. So an atom has two parts to it the wave frequency which is non material and the particle which is material. Atoms have no definite location and exist everywhere in the ocean of pure energy. Not until consciousness observes it does it have a definite location. When you imagine an ocean imagine that the tips of the waves are physical reality and the rest of the oceans is the pure energy we can’t perceive with our 5 senses. Atoms are 99.999999999999% empty space. If our body and everything around us is 99.99999999999% empty space how does it have the appearance and feel of physical objects? This feeling of solidarity is actually a push of force from other atoms repelling each other. Our hands and fingers don’t actually touch anything. What we are feeling is a repulsive force that gives us the illusion of solidarity.

“We may therefore regard matter as being constituted by the regions of space in which the 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

Buddhist View

Oneness in Buddhism is the idea that everything in the universe is intimately connected. The idea that we are separate beings separate from each other or material things is just an illusion.

Science’s View

Einstein didn’t take well to quantum physics and in 1935 he and a few physicists tried to dispute it. The problem was not only did they further prove it but they found another strange feature of quantum physics called quantum entanglement. When two particles interact with each other it is called entangled, developing a special connected relationship with each other. Now when one of these particles are affected 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 across the universe. Einstein found this so strange that he later termed it “spooky action at a distance”. Now if we go back to the big bang where everything in this universe was condensed into a point smaller than an atom we realize that all matter and energy we experience right now has and always will be entangled. Quantum entanglement seems to prove a sense of oneness throughout the universe. And if we go back to the quantum field we know that we are all connected to a sea of energy. The quantum field is the web that connects all life, energy, matter and existence into a single system, everything we experience has a single inter-connective source.

Buddhist View

“All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything.”
-Buddha

In Buddhism the mind is the center of reality. Just like our dreaming mind creates our dream world, our waking mind creates our waking world.

Science’s view

“All matter originates and exist only by virtue of a force. We must assume behind this force is the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter.”
-Max Planck (founder of quantum physics)

Reality is defined by the mind that is observing it. An atom that is unobserved has infinite potential but an atom that is observed has finite possibility.

“What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.”
- Werner Karl Heisenberg

After reading this post about how Buddhism and Science relate to one another I hope this can spark a light in people’s mind where they can awaken to an idea that each of our realities are the product of our thoughts, emotions, and beliefs. Man is much more powerful than were led on to believe. Man’s part in the divine unfoldment is to recognize what he really is, and through claiming his own divine nature to bring it through into expression. Much of Man’s confusion, sin, sickness, or limitation has been the result of his denial of his Divine nature. His belief in an existence apart from God has created negative conditions. The idea that man is one with God empowers individuals where it lifts them to a place where anything is possible and there are no limitations. I believe the more people that wake up to this will create a great ripple effect where humanity and civilization can be lifted to a dimension where people see love not hatred, see unity not division, compassion not conflict and where able to create a heaven here on earth.