Physics and Buddhism, internalization

http://ngxinzhaomonk.blogspot.sg/2012/12/physics-and-buddhism-internalizing.html

Continuing from the link above,

The more textbooks of physics I'm reading, the more I feel that Physics is indeed not in the paper, or books, or even the form of the equation or maths. You can have a totally different way of formulating mathematics and writing down the equations, but the concepts will have to be there, the computational abilities of equations has to be there. So in other words, we are playing with our minds, our intellectual mind if you will.

The reason we write it down is for unambiguous communication and to compute. To show my point of Physics is a mind made object and exercise, show all these complicated looking equation to a normal five year old, they can barely make out the symbol for addition, and a few numbers if there are some in there, but other than that, it's all jargon to them. So we need to teach them how mathematics is done on Earth and then they learn those and the physics concepts, and the derivations, and finally when they look back at the same equations 18 years later, meaning is assigned to the pattern of inks on a paper.

The pattern of ink itself did not change, it is the mind of the Physicist that changed. Therefore Physics lives inside the collective consciousness of all Physicist. If all human beings one day go extinct, but our records of Physics and mathematics and language still exist, and one day some intelligent alien discovered the remains of our civilization and learn our knowledge, then Physics lives on in their mind.

Yet, they will also have to do the same experiments as we did to verify the results of our claims, follow the maths or translate it to their own mathematical symbol, however they write it as, and then they can fully fill in what is Physics in our world now.

The same is true for Buddhism. (I shall be using these brackets for the analogy for Physics)

The Dharma lives in the Sangha, for as long as there are beings who are enlightened in the world (knows how to do Physics, all of the core Physics...or derive all the equations of Physics from the still unknown theory of everything),  the Dharma is still very much alive and doing it's job of liberating people. The Sangha learn about the Dharma, and then practice, realize and share the Dharma.(Physicist learn, do physics, that is realize more of the world than we previously did and then teach people about it by publishing papers, sometime even more, by writing popular books, teaching in universities, etc...)

The same thing happens when all the Dharma disappear in the world, it can be rediscovered by a Buddha and re-spread the message out to the world. One will have to do all the Morality-Mind-Wisdom training in order to fully realize the truth. (The experiments of physics and the theories behind it.)

So the Dharma is very much a mental phenomena. Not to test on the intellectual skills, but to cool it down, to calm the mind, so that it can be sharpen and then penetrate to the truth of life and suffering. (In contrast, physics needs the intellectual mind to create and think of concepts that might model the world.)

So maybe the fusion of both ways to use the mind can help in Physics? Because it is known for a long time now that the active intellectual mind making philosophy and fabrications (like this blog) is a hindrance to the real practice in Buddhism.

Also, for the formula: To learn (same to learn), To practice by upholding morality (getting the basic physics concepts right), and meditation (Doing the maths correctly), To realize wisdom or insight, of getting to know things by ourselves (Doing the experiments and getting new theories never before seen in the world), To share (Publish papers!).

5 Powers

Being a full time theoretical physicist is very similar to being a monk practicing Buddhism.

1. Both are in the mind. It doesn't matter how much stuffs you read, the words, equations are just that, they translate to what you understand in the physics case, and what you realise in the Buddhism case.
2. You have teachers to teach you. Full time. Physicist works under a prof, until they trained up for a few year and go build their own team. Same thing with Buddhist monks, well, just that Buddhist monks don't call it teams. And both get paid/ offered donations all day for this mental activity. One in terms of money, the other food and other supports.
3. Both requires the usage of the 5 powers: Mindfulness (the present awareness of what we are doing), Concentration (the discipline to sit down and calculate/meditate), Energy (the effort to remain on an object/ mathematical equation), Faith (trust in the teacher to follow and guide you), and Wisdom (knowledge of basic Physics/Dharma, and realizing it via direct experience/ mathematical equations.)
4. And the outcomes: Both emphasize on teachings, on value transmission, on transmission of understanding, of realizations. Both are best started while young too.
5. The goals: Enlightenment, complete and full liberation for Buddhism, and for Physics? I'm still searching, is it for the love of it, for the sheer joy that I do it? Or for the benefit of future engineers which may not even be within my lifetime, or is it for accurate Science-Fiction writing, or just to teach? I suspect it should be because that Physics itself, the equations, and the understanding that comes with it is so beautiful that one cannot resist but to want to devote one's whole life in answering the deepest physical questions of the universe.

Humility

As the knowledge of Dharma grows within one self, should one be more humble or would one be more egoistic? If one gets egoistic, showing off the knowledge and qualifications of the Dharma to all, "I have such and such Diplomas, Bachelors, Masters, PhD. in such and such University of Buddhism..." one has only gained a bookish understanding of the Dharma. And this is not what the Dharma was intended to do.

One who really internalise the Dharma would feel more and more humble as the ego is peeled apart. Much like the situation in Astronomy.

Initially, we think the Sun revolves around the earth. And all the other planets do that too. There was even a complicated way of keeping track of the way the planets move just to satisfy our ego that we are in the centre of the world: the epicycle model, cycles within cycles.

Then as Copernicus proposed a heliocentric model, with simpler orbits for all planets, our sun became the centre of the Solar System. Well, it took some time for the people of the West to accept this, partly the fault of religion, partly because we cling to the ego too very much.

Then later on, our solar system is debunked to a lower status again, to be part of the many arms of our Milky Way Galaxy. Then we discovered our universe is bigger than just the Milky Way, the universe contains over 100 billion galaxies! By now, it would be absurd to think that the Milky Way is the centre amongst all these Galaxies. This principle that we learned in Science is named the Copernicus principle, saying that it is unlikely that we are occupying a special state in the Universe.

Looking at the size of our observable Universe compared to the size of the Earth, http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120312.html we can see how astronomers are constantly telling us that we do not matter in the cosmic grand design of things. The only reason we might be special is that we are the sentient beings that can question why and how we are here and be awed by all these discoveries.

Similarly, in Buddhism. The parallel of the Greeks thinking that Earth is the centre of the universe is akin to a person thinking that all the world is about him or her. He or she thinks about I, me, mine all the time. "Who's thinking about me?", "Who's out to harm me?", "Who's out to make me happy for today?" The addiction to facebook and other social networking sites are a lot about feeding this ego too, if one keeps on looking at one's profile and refreshing to get notification, likes and comments. This stage can be very dangerous, I know because I was there. It's dangerous as one interpret whatever happens to oneself is because someone else loves or hate us. It's giving our remote control to other people. One can get insane or mentally depressed if one continues to feed the ego and concentrate on the bad things that happens to oneself.

Then one derails from this thinking, mindfully observing that it is much easier to just stop assuming that everyone thinks about you all the time. One can get happier too. This is like the Copernican heliocentric revolution. One lives and let live. One can work for the welfare and benefit of  their family and friends. One gets lives a happier live as one approach the truth.

The discovery that the Solar System is not at the centre of the Milky Way would be parallel to a person being able to renounce his home and go forth into homelessness. One would surround oneself with spiritual friends and work for the welfare of all sentient beings as one's own ego reduces and one's can see that one's happiness is nothing compared to the happiness of all sentient beings.

The final step (here so far, there's more if we want to) of Milky Way is not the centre of the Universe is the final step of one attaining enlightenment. Dispelling the concept of self forever, and knowing true happiness. One can then share the experience of how to reach there and inspire the others in following the path.

I get the feeling that some New Age religion already has something similar to this. Well, this article is more about the parallels of Physics and Buddhism, and motivating our practise. Nothing more.