Because phenomena seem, even to our senses, to exist from their own side even though they do not, we mistakenly accept the view that phenomena exist more substantially than they actually do.
- the Dalai Lama
6th Century BCE Quantum Physicists
I think the Buddhists (and Taosits...maybe all philosophies that arose from those 6th century BC thinkers) understood the rational behind the Double Slit Theory before it was even proposed. lol
I have been subliminally pulled towards Quantum physics again in the last couple of days. I went from studying some of the Buddhist doctrine to re-reading the Tao to listening to Jon Kabat-Zinn to watching videos where Shantena Sabbadini discusses the connection between quantum physics and Lao Tzu's wisdom and most recently to listening to some old lectures from David Bohm . I was pointed there, then there, then there and then here lol.
Why Physics?
Being math and 'physics' challenged to the core...I mean absolutely stupid in those areas...I cannot understand why I was led back to it. Maybe to realize that all things I was pointed to were connected. (If only by a conceptual map in my mind. :)) If they are connected, maybe all things are and if all things are connected maybe they were never separated in the first place by anything other than thought or a name.
What is in a Name?
What I have realized once again was the power that exists in a name or category. When we name something we specify it from the general, we dissect this something from the whole, we abstract it in part, leaving most of what it actually is behind, we then define it, limit it, categorize and group it based on its similarities with other phenomena, and therefore we make distinctions.
10,000 Things
We make what Lao Tzu referred to as the 10,000 things out of one thing. What this naming does is divide the whole into parts...into what many translations refer to as "10,000 things" and what Legge refers to as "all things" .
(conceived of) as having a name, it is the mother of all things
and in other translations:
The name, once introduced, becomes the mother of 10,000 things. (http://www5.csudh.edu/phenom_studies/laotzu/taoteching.htm)
Before the naming all so- called things, which were actually no-thing, were one and after the naming they were many.
Names, Thoughts and Concepts
Naming is what thought does, right? It is a form of judgment and labelling we do to make sense of our world. We name to group and categorize...make sense of our perceptions and therefore our thoughts about what we are perceiving. Then when we are confronted with something we seen or heard before... the name calls upon the concept related to that thing. The name brings us back to thought. It take us out of the actual experience back to the thought of it.
Helen Keller
Bohm describes this conceptualization tendency of the human mind beautifully when he explains the Helen Keller story. How she, without having the usual means of perception (sight or hearing) was introduced to the idea of concepts ( advanced thought) through names scratched onto her palm by her teacher. At first the scratching made no sense to her at all because she had no idea what a concept was. Eventually, however, she connected that the water in whatever form she was experiencing it was still water. It had a name.
Prior to that 'understanding' she seemed feral, disconnected, alone in her experience. Everything, to her, would have been One dark and silent thing...without distinction. She did not understand "10,000 things" but with the understanding of a relatable concept through naming water, she was removed from her isolation. Now that is a good use of naming right?
Division
Yet what also happened was she was removed from understanding the wholeness of who she was. The Universe she knew was suddenly divided as separate parts of it were abstracted to form scratches on her hand. If things around her were separate, there had to be an "around" her and there had to be a her. She herself became a separate thing with distinct borders that separated her from everything else...a "me", an "mine", a "I".
As soon as she formed that "little me" she would have become lost like the rest of us...endlessly searching for more 'things'. The story depicts her running around excitedly after coming to terms with conceptualization...looking for the names of other things, looking for more physical world knowledge. She wanted a name for every one of those 10,000 things. She began to strive. :)
The Down Side to Naming
I have to wonder if she, as an expression of Life, would have become lost in the naming, the thoughts and the concepts. Did those names scratched on her hand , rather than the experience of wholeness, become her reality? Did phenomena became substantial for her as the Oneness of all things slipped away? Did the scratches on her hand become her reality instead of what they pointed to? Did naming the water become more important than experiencing the water?
Do you see what I am getting at?
Pointing Fingers
I wrote about the Zen student's confusion with the pointing finger and about the student getting reprimanded by his teacher for speaking during a beautiful sunset in previous entries. Sabbadini, to make this point, refers to a picture of a pipe with the caption translated form French to mean, "This is not a pipe".
If you ask a viewer what that is , they will likely say it is a pipe. But it is not a pipe. It is a picture of a pipe. It is a small abstraction of what a pipe actually is. You cannot pick it up and hold it in your palm. You cannot feel the smoothness of it, or smell the sweet tobacco or taste it. It is just a picture symbol...like a name...only depicting a small portion of what that something is. In itself, like a name or a thought, it is so limited. But maybe, if it is a good representative, like a good ad would make it, it will lead you to go to a real pipe. It points the way.
Names, thoughts and words are just pointing fingers ...advertisements that call upon thoughts and concepts. They take us from 'experience' back into the mind. They serve a purpose. They allow us to understand each other and make some sense of our physical world but we have to be very, very careful with them.
We can get lost in them. We can see them as our reality. We can stop at them instead of going to where they are pointing to. We can strive and cling and hold onto them at the expense of our own wellness. We can defend and attack because of them. We can isolate, separate and segregate because of them. Names can do damage if we invest too heavily in them. This is what the Buddha refers to in his teachings. Thinking can be the source of our suffering both individually and globally.
Does that make sense?
I hope so because I can not say any more on the subject and I definitely cannot scratch it on the palm of your hand.
All is well.
References
Bohm, David. (June, 2018) David Bohm: Thought is an Abstraction. David Bohm Society. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_fbK2E0XEc
Legge, James (1891) Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu. Retrieved from https://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/taote.htm
Science and Non-duality (July, 2015) Laotzi and Quantum Physics-Shantena Augusto Sabbadini. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcKbpMIelMo
Shimomissi, Eiichi(1998) Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching. Retrieved from http://www5.csudh.edu/phenom_studies/laotzu/taoteching.htm
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