WHITE CLOUD BUDDHIST SOCIETY
The Heart Sutra, Quantum Physics and Ecology
Bill Hirsch (Xiaobaiyun)
White Cloud Buddhist Society
Are there, in the ancient Heart Sutra as
well as in the modern theories of quantum
physics, important implications for an understanding
of ecology?
Let’s first look at the Heart Sutra, specifically
its most famous statement:
"Form is Emptiness, Emptiness is Form"
This simple, yet seemingly contradictory
assertion, as we’ll see, presages the findings
of quantum physics by over two thousand years.
So it behooves us to start by trying to make
sense out of this potentially baffling phrase.
Probably the easiest way is to start with
a form, something common that we’re all familiar
with. How about a large, wood dining room
table, so common in American homes. Virtually
any urban dweller from any part of earth
will recognize it immediately as a table.
But now let’s place it out in the middle
of a South American jungle, in a clearing
covered by thick vines and creepers, surrounded
by lush foliage. A member of an Amazonian
tribe softly steps out of the bush into the
clearing -- and sees the object. But what
is it? A shelter? A giant raised bed? A monument
left by some even more ancient race of people
.... or a sign from the gods?
Instantly this form, which our experiences
and cultural training make it impossible
to think of as anything other than a dining
room table, is shown to be actually TOTALLY
EMPTY OF A FIXED AND INTRINSIC NATURE. In
other words, this form is actually emptiness.
OK, so form may be emptiness, but how can
emptiness be form? The answer is really quite
simple: because of its ability to become
anything. Taking again the example of the
dining room table, let’s think about it.
The table is wood. It comes from a tree.
So, it could have remained a tree; the wood
could have been pulped to become paper; the
wood could have been used to build a house;
or the wood could have been burned to produce
heat and energy. By the same token, the soil,
water and sunlight that made the tree could
have combined in other ways to create different
life forms. The possibilities are infinite.
So, we are really talking about emptiness
and its ability to become any form.
Now, where did this emptiness, which has
the mysterious ability to take on any form,
come from? Science tells us that we all,
earth, rock, tree, even humans, are made
from the same cosmic stuff, the basic building
block of the atom, a bit of vibrating energy
that physicists refer to as strings, known
to the Chinese as qi (Japanese ki.). [Note
1] The frequency at which this energy vibrates
determines what form it will become: rock,
water, wood or human flesh. All beings share
and exchange this material. Our bodies are
constantly exchanging with the environment
around them. With each breath we take in
atoms from all that surrounds us. In fact,
according to astrophysicist Trinh Xuan Thuan,
each of us is presently carrying around about
a billion atoms that once belonged to the
tree under which the Buddha was enlightened.[Note
2]
Quoting again from Trinh Xuan Thuan, “Made
of stardust, we share the same cosmic history
as the lions on the savannas and the lavenders
in the fields. We are all connected through
time and space, and thus interdependent.”
[Note 3]
Quantum physics discoveries in particular
have revolutionized our concept of the universe
and our place in it. We and our world interact
with each other in ways never before imagined
by science. The act of observing a phenomenon
is found to change its nature and outcome
(the Buddha: “with our minds we make our
world”). Actions in one part of the universe
affect objects in another -- with no physical
connection between them. The list goes on
and on, even dealing with the possibility
of infinite parallel universes (Buddha realms?),
with a version of all of us living in each.
Indra’s net, with its myriad of jewels each
reflecting all of the other jewels, is an
image often invoked by the new physicists.
Physicist David Bohm wrote, “One is led to
a new notion of unbroken wholeness which
denies the classical idea of analyzability
of the world into separately and independently
existing parts. . . . We have reversed the
usual classical notion that the independent
"elementary parts" of the world
are the fundamental reality, and that the
various systems are merely particular contingent
forms and arrangements of these parts. Rather,
we say that inseparable quantum interconnectedness
of the whole universe is the fundamental
reality, and that relatively independently
behaving parts are merely particular and
contingent forms within this whole.” [Note
4]
Although many quantum physicists have remarked
on the relationship of religion, physics
and environment, Fritjof Capra perhaps expressed
it best: “At this deep level, ecology merges
with spirituality because the experience
of being connected with all of nature, of
belonging to the universe, is the very essence
of spirituality. [Note 5]
And at the Bottom of it All is……………….
“The electron-scanning microscope, with the
ability to magnify several thousand times,
takes us down into a realm that has the look
of the sea about it…….
In the kingdom of corpuscles, there is transfiguration
and there is samsara, the endless round of
birth and death. Every passing second, some
2 1/2 million red cells are born, every second,
the same number die. The typical cell lives
about 110 days, then becomes tired and decrepit.
As the magnification increases, the flesh
begins to dissolve. Muscle fiber takes on
a crystalline aspect. We can see that it
is made of long spiral molecules in orderly
array. And all of these molecules are swaying
like wheat in the wind, connected with each
other and held in place by invisible waves
that pulse many trillions of times a second.
And what are the molecules made of? As we
move closer, we can see atoms, the tiny shadowy
balls dancing around their fixed locations
in the molecules, sometimes changing position
with their partners in perfect rhythms. And
now we focus on one of the atoms: its interior
is lightly veiled by a cloud of electrons.
We come closer, increasing the magnification.
The shell dissolves and we look on the inside
to find… nothing.
Somewhere within that emptiness we know is
a nucleus. We scan the space, and there it
is: a tiny dot. At last, we have discovered
something hard and solid, a reference point.
But no! – as we move closer to the nucleus
it, too, begins to dissolve. It too is nothing
more than an oscillating field, waves of
rhythm. Inside the nucleus are other organized
fields: protons, neutrons, even smaller particles.
Each of these, upon our approach, also dissolve
into pure rhythm.
Of what is the world made? It is made of
emptiness and rhythm. At the ultimate heart
of the body, of the world, of the universe,
there is no substance. There is only the
dance.”
(Adapted from George Leonard, "The Silent
Pulse," quoted in Mu Soeng Sunim,
The Heart Sutra, Ancient Buddhist Wisdom
in the Light of Quantum Reality)
NOTES
1. See Gary Zukav, The Dancing Wu Li Masters, an Overview of
the New Physics (New York, William Morrow & Co., 1979).
For a fairly straightforward explanation
of string theory, see the web site: http://superstringtheory.com/index.html
2. Matthieu Ricard & Trinh Xuan Thuan,
trans. Ian Monk, The Quantum and the Lotus (New York, Crown Publishers, 2001) p.73
3. The Quantum and the Lotus, supra., p.280
4. D. Bohm & B. Hiley, “On the Intuitive
Understanding of Nonlocality as Implied by
Quantum Theory,” Foundations of Physics, vol. 5 (1975), p. 96.
5. Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics, Fourth Edition (Boston, Shambhala Publications,
2000) p.7
WHITE CLOUD BUDDHIST SOCIETY