Saturday, December 7, 2019

My quantum physics prof. Herbert J. Bernstein has a chapter in a Buddhist book on Sunyata Emptiness

The book deals with expounding the nature of Reality as it is understood in contemporary times in Quantum Physics. It also explains the classical Indian theory of Sunya in its diverse facets. Thereafter it undertakes comparison between the two which is an area of great topical interest. It is a cross-disciplinary study by erudite Indian and western scholars between traditional Indian knowledge system and contemporary researches in Physical sciences. It points out how the theory of 'Sunyata has many seminal ideas and theories in common with contemporary Quantum Physics. The learned authors have tried to dissolve the "mysteries" of Quantum Physics and resolved its "weird paradoxes" with the help of theory of Sunyata. The issue of non-separability or entanglement has been approached with the help of the Buddhist theory of Pratityasamutpada. The paradoxical situation of "wave-particle duality" has been explained with the help of Upanisadic theory of complementarity of the two opposites. The measurement problem represented by "Schrodinger's cat" has been dealt with by resorting to two forms of the calculation of probabilities. Some writers have argued for Sunyata-like non-essentialist position to understand quantum reality. To make sense of quantum theory some papers provide a happy symbiosis of technical understanding and personal meditative experience by drawing multifarious parallels. This book will be of interest to philosophically inclined physicists and philosophers with interest in quantum mechanics.



google book preview - most of his chapter is included in the preview - Herbert J. Bernstein

the whole book as pdf

I did not recall that he practiced Tibetan meditation. Cool.

He goes into his military encounters - a bit. fascinating.

Michel Bitbol lecture here - he has a chapter in the book also

Michel Bitbol hanging out lecture with the Dalai Lama

 (part 1/2) Presentation 2: Michel Bitbol "Quantum Mechanics: A theory with no view of the world?" (What is science? What is a physical theory? ...from Aristoteles to Niels Bohr. How to interprete a theory? What is quantum theory?)
https://docplayer.net/63508776-Quantum-reality-and-theory-of-shunya.html

International Conference - that became the book.

The multifaceted concept of Shunya has been an ingenious thought of fertile and innovative Indian mind. It has been a unique contribution of India to world culture and civilization. This seminal and pivotal concept has its ramifications in various fields like Metaphysics, Cosmology and Cosmogony, Physics. Mathematics, Religion, Yoga etc. In different contexts it has different meaning. It would be a worthwhile and rewarding exercise if it's different facets are attended to and analyzed. They are all correlated and only a holistic and integral approach can bring out their significance and value.

The concept of Shunya has a profound metaphysical connotation which stands for the totality of Reality. In this sense it is equated with “Purna” (completeness, infinitude and boundlessness). The Reality is a Whole which comprehends all iota of the universe as its intrinsic parts. But each part( kosha or khanda)is also a whole (pinda) within this Whole (brahmanda). It is represented as a Supreme Circle and in the cosmos there are circles within circles presenting a picture of concentric wholes. The Ultimate Reality is full circle, an overarching circle. The invocation of Isha Upanishad remarkably puts forth this intuitive vision. It states that the Reality is a whole or totality comprising all that was, that is and that will be, an idea available in the Purusha Sukta of the Rigveda. From this whole only whole can spring forth even though we may not be aware of it. This whole is infinite. Infinite cannot be finitized and therefore the Advaita Vedanta regards all differentiations as finite appearances which are in ultimate analysis infinite only. Bhaskracharya, a later mathematician also avers the same. He opines that no change takes place in the infinite and immutable Brahman when worlds are created or destroyed even though in these processes numerous orders of beings are put forth and absorbed. The equation of 'shunya' and 'purna' was a wonderful feat of Indian logical acumen which could be apprehended only by a 'mantradrshta Rishi'. This concept of 'shunya' is not emptiness or void‐ness but 'devoid‐ness' in the sense that in its proto nature the Reality is devoid of all differentiations. In itself it is emptied of all manifest diversity. It is a non‐dual realm, a quantum vacuum. In logical terms it is referred to as 'null set' but this null set is not devoid of membership but only devoid of manifest membership. It is not to be regarded as 'nothingness' as nothing can come out of nothing. The Nasadiya Sukta of the Rigveda begins with this intuitive realization. All quantum phenomena arise within it and get dissolved in it. The modern Quantum Physics endorses this understanding and it is struggling to explain how this cosmic event takes place. The Big Bang theory is only an indication of this. The search for 'God‐ particle' or 'Boson' seems to be a futile exercise of the western scientists. The impartite approach to Reality is a unique and ingenious gift of the Indian mind and western scientist should pay heed to it.

Deriving inspiration from this intuitive realization the Indian mathematicians like Bodhayana, Brahmagupta and many others have invented the idea of Zero ( cipher) and the decimal system . The mathematical zero has its obverse as infinity. All numbers or numerical signs act as tangible reference to finite but zero represents the non‐dual realm, the infinity. The western mind has adopted zero only functionally for practical utility, it could not grasp its deeper metaphysical meaning. The concept of zero did have tremendous impact on western science and mathematics in terms of 'decimal system' and 'quantum vacuum' but they could not reach to its metaphysical heights and depths because of the limitations of their empirical methodology. Only through ''ritambhara
 pragya', to use Indian terminology, this realization is possible in a state of 'samadhi'. 

Apart from metaphysics, physics and mathematics this concept of Shunya has been profitably utilized by schools of Shaivism wherein Lord Parama Shiva is referred to as Shunya' or 'Bindu'. The Shunya is described as Ashunya which means that it is beyond one and many but supreme source of one and many. The worship of Lord Jagannatha in Puri and the text Shunya Samhita followed by the Mahima school advocated by Panchasakhas of Orissa are the elaborations of this idea synthesizing it with the Buddhist concept of shunyata. Their concept of 'Shunya Brahma' or “Shunya Purusha” is a remarkable idea, the implications of which need to be brought out shorn of its religious connotation. Shunya Purusha is 'Anadi mandala', also described as ' 'Shunya Mandala' which is the source of all creation. It is proto cause as well as the effects. The Buddhist concepts of 'dependent origination' and 'interdependent existence' coupled with this idea of shunya can help in revealing the nature of empirical and trans‐ empirical Reality as Nagarjuna has pointed out. Nagarjuna avered that there are two levels of Reality. There is transcendental Reality underlying the world of phenomena. A depth analysis of this seminal concept of shunya can open up new horizons and intellectual vistas and help in enriching improvised western science and mathematics. Indian contributions in terms of place value decimal system, domestication of fire, invention of wheel and original gifts to science and mathematics are certainly recognized but they have not been adequately utilized. Now that Indian contributions are gradually appreciated and the saturated western mind is looking towards India for newer insights and fresh approaches in depth delineation of this concept will go a long way in spiritualizing science and making Indian spirituality more scientific. The initiative taken by Indian Council for Cultural Relations under the Presidentship of Prof. Lokesh Chandra is a welcome step in right direction. Hope it will lead to some positive results.

theoretical physicist Alex hankey 

Alex Hankey lecture in India

 yes Penrose says time is highly asymmetrical at the origin of creation and so the expansion of the universe is feeding back into before the big bang and also as along as it's faster than time-frequency uncertainty of Planck's Constant (average energy of light) - which is from the asymmetric time. So he promotes noncommutative geometry now.

OK yes you really have to think outside the box. So with relativity in the 5th dimension with quantum as the foundation - this means that the "reference frame" is light that does not experience spacetime so everything is happening at the same time. Yet since "light is heavy" meaning that all matter is made of light but light still have supermomentum or "relativistic mass" - this means that there is an eternal quantum time from the future that is "guiding" the light. So this is a negative frequency energy or anti-gravity - and it has zero dimension of geometry but it has positive volume. So it's a phonon acoustic oscillation so it's not bound by Pauli Exclusion Principle - and since it is noncommutative phase then it's an eternal energy from the future. Alain Connes has done the best work on noncommutative geometry. Most scientists know nothing about it. Sir Penrose is just recently getting into noncommutative geometry along with Professor Basil J. Hiley. de Broglie did have his model of reality correct - he called it the Law of Phase Harmony. So reality is non-local but we can't "see" it or observe it but we can logically infer it or listen to it (via meditation). Quantum biology goes into this - and that's why Penrose collaborates with Dr. Stuart Hameroff who also considers meditation and other altered states like extreme sports or psychedelics or near death

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