Quantum Physics may seem complicated to understand. It is. The reason is not because of the math or science involved (even though that could be hard to grasp), it’s because of the unbelievable philosophical implications that arise out of understanding it. Niels Bohr, a renowned physicist and author of Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics once said, “Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it.”

One of the basic premises of the quantum theory of light, is that it is dual in nature. Light sometimes behaves as a wave and sometimes as a particle (or photon).

What does this mean and why is it important?

Before quantum theory, the understanding of the universe was that it was made of both solid particles and waves. The particles were the building blocks of solid objects; the very smallest units of matter (like electrons) were particles. Waves, on the other hand, were not solid. Waves were what “sound” and “light” consisted of.
Scientists then discovered subatomic particles. Subatomic particles were known to be part of a wave packet. A wave packet looks like a wave, but it is more concentrated, like a little ball of energy. Then physicists tried to ask questions about the wave packet or wave-particle.

They wanted to know:

• Where is it?
• What is its momentum?

They realized they could not ask both questions at once.

A Wave

A Wave-Particle

So, when they measured the wave-particle’s location, it became a particle in a fixed place. When they measured the wave-particle’s momentum, it became a wave moving through space, with no fixed location. Light is an example of a phenomenon that behaves this way.

This confused the scientists and they did many experiments to learn more. They found that until someone decides to measure a wave particle, it is both a wave and a particle simultaneously.

A famous thought experiment, created by physicist Erwin Schroedinger, illustrates the point. Imagine you have a closed box. The box contains a cat, a bottle of cyanide held by a lever, and a wave-particle. If the wave-particle becomes a wave, nothing hits the lever and the cat is fine. If the wave-particle becomes a particle, then the particle will hit the lever and knock the cyanide bottle over, where the hungry cat will eat it and die. Quantum physics tells us that before we look in the box to see what happens, the cat is simultaneously dead and alive. It is the observation alone that causes one or the other possibility into reality.

Time and Space

Quantum physics tells us that two events in separate locations, may actually be the same event. Einstein was concerned by the implications of the wave-particle theory of quantum physics. He devised his own thought experiment (which has now been confirmed mathematically and experimentally). It should be noted that Einstein was so disturbed by the implications of his thought experiment, he concluded that quantum theory must be incomplete.

Einstein Podolsky Rosen Paradox

Imagine that two identical wave-particles are sent off in opposite directions. What will happen if we try to measure the location of the first wave-particle and the momentum of the second? Remember, the wave-particles are identical, so the measurement for one wave-particle will be the same for the other. If we measure the location for the first wave-particle, it immediately collapses the second into a particle as well.

Ok, why is this amazing?

If observing wave-particle 1 (measuring it’s location) affects wave-particle 2, then there is some communication or connection between the particles. This communication is occurring faster than the speed of light and without any energy transfer. This is goes against all common sense views of the world. Even Einstein couldn’t believe it.

The Spiritual Connection

Quantum physics shows that there is “something more” than what we can see and touch. It shows that the reality we can perceive with our five sense is incomplete. There is something more at work.

Man is a product of his thoughts. Thoughts grow well in silence. Thoughts mature in silence. Thoughts become creative in silence. Clarity and brevity of thoughts are attained through silence. Unhealthy and unwanted thoughts are flushed out in silence like a drainage. “They never taste who always drink. They always talk who never think.
- Matthew Prior

The words on this screen are merely signposts for what lies deep within you. It seems that we have abused words by making them all there is in this world. They are not the message, they simply point to the message. The message itself can only be heard by spirit/stillness.
- Laura

Finding Silence

Prompted by this science post I referenced before and by my recent silent meditation retreat, I feel moved to write about silence.

I am constantly trying to find ways to grow. The main course I’ve stuck with is to look within. But relentless, self-absorbed introspection can be unhelpful and certainly tiring. As soon as one begins to look at one’s mind it becomes so clear how noisy and frantic our thoughts are. They’re a constant barrage containing memory wisps, emotion, grasping, imagination, speculation, fear, control and who knows what else. Learning to find space and silence in our mind is just as important as learning to find it in our lives.

Silence is of four kinds. Silence of speech, Silence of the eyes, Silence of the ear and Silence of the mind. Only the last is pure silence and is the most important. Silence is the only Eternal Speech- the one Word, the Heart to Heart talk. Silence is like the even flow of electric current. Speech is like obstructing the current used for lighting and other purposes.
- Maharishi Raman

Silence is a method that helps to free our minds. If practiced thoughtfully, we can make space for reflection before defensively responding to another. We can notice fearful thoughts, actions and words that arise withing ourselves. We can use silence to face situations of mental and physical stress or emotional upheaval. Often our most powerful expressions of anger or hatred come through speech. Silence is a requirement for meditation and mindfulness practice. Silence increases our will power and sharpens our minds.

Silent is the meek, humble, noble, powerful. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words, than words without a heart.
- Gandhi

Idle chatter may seem harmless enough, but I would recommend we all take a closer look. Often unrestrained talk-fests lead to insults, judgment, ridicule and just general negativity. This isn’t beneficial for anyone involved. Our unruly minds surface and present to us some of the darker aspects of our psyche. By creating space, observing mindfully our silent times (and times when we aren’t silent) we can gain great insights into the workings of our mind and self. How often does random chatting lead to futile arguments, that leave us feeling drained and uneasy? It’s so easy to speak the first thing that we think of and so hard to stop, restrain ourselves and think about what we are saying. Looking within to find where this speech has come from is difficult. Is it an automatic response, an old habit? A societal rule you’ve bought into subconsciously? Something you feel uneasy about? An ego judgment? A justification of past actions? A response to unreleased emotional pain?

Next time you find yourself in the midst of a diatribe, stop and ask yourself what is really going on. Take a few moments during your day to just breathe. Look at the trees. Calm your noisy thoughts. Find your inner silence and enjoy it.

Inner voice is heard in silence. Truth is revealed in silence. Divinity of the Self is unfolded in silence.

All these fellows were there inside when she entered
utterly naked.
They΄d been drinking and began to spit at her,
recently come from the river, she understood nothing.
She was a mermaid who had lost her way,
the taunts flowed over her glistening flesh
Obscenities drenched her golden breasts.

A stranger to tears, she did not weep,
A stranger to clothes, she did not dress.
They pocked her with cigarette ends and with burnt corks
And rolled on the tavern floor in raucous laughter
She did not speak, since speech was unknown to her
Her eyes were the colour of far away love
Her arms were matching topazes
Her lips moved soundlessly in coral light
And ultimately she left by that door
Hardly had she entered the river than she was cleansed
Gleaming once more like a white stone in the rain
And without a backward look, she swam once more
Swam towards nothingness, swam to her dawn.

-Pablo Neruda

Messenger
by Mary Oliver

My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird —
equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all ingredients are here,

which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
that we live forever.

I just returned from a seven day meditation retreat. It was an experience that I whole heartedly encourage everyone to undertake. During my time, sitting in meditation and walking in meditation (and eating in meditation) I considered my Grandparents. I went to visit them in early April in Alabama. They are both in their eighties and doing fairly well, but the signs of some troubles were clear. They were a little to isolated, had a little too much pain and need just a little bit more help then they had. With some attention on a semi regular basis their quality of life would be greatly improved. However, they live in Alabama, their children live in Minnesota and Oklahoma (and I live in California). The questions about what to do in this situation are hard. It’s not clear what path to take, how to best help and what to do. It’s especially difficult on the children, who may have old wounds or painful patterns they find themselves repeating when they are around their parents. This kind of pain often clouds the children’s judgment when deciding what path to take. I don’t have any answers or sage advice, but I do want to acknowledge this issue and am writing this post as a way to invite a dialouge from the readers and as a reminder to myself to really consider what I can do. As well, I offer this comment from the Dali Lama on the subject (thanks to Integral options Cafe)

…This samsaric body keeps us running all of our lives. We have to run to fulfill its endless needs, to keep it away from things that may harm it, and to protect it from anything unpleasant. We have to give it pleasure and comfort. We become ordained, and at first this is very satisfactory; but soon our body makes it so difficult for us that we think our practice would be less disturbed if we were to live as a layperson. So we give up and return to ordinary life; but then we end up with a family to support, leaving us with no time or energy for meditation. We have the pressing tasks of feeding, clothing, and sheltering our children, and of arranging their education and so forth. Our lives are spent alternating between work and worry, with occasional short periods of pleasure, and then we have to die; but even this we cannot do in peace, for, when we lie down to die, our last thoughts are worried ones concerning the family we are leaving behind. Such is the nature of worldly existence

….To care for our old people–these ones who have given us our body, our life, and our culture–is a sacred duty of humanity. But most humans act more like animals than people, and often we see old people who have been abandoned by their families. Family units were very strong in Tibet, and old people were usually cared for directly by relatives. The national care for the old that we see in the West is something very good, a healthy sign, although perhaps here the spiritual and psychological basis is somewhat lacking.

…The suffering of old age is something we all must face, unless we die prematurely. There is nothing we can do about it. Gone will be that false sense of personal ability and strength that made us so proud when we were young. Instead, helpers or friends will bathe us, dress us, spoonfeed us, and have to take us to the toilet. Rather than live under the delusion of permanence, we should engage in spiritual training so that we can enter old age at least with the grace of wisdom.

~ From The Path to Enlightenment by H.H. the Dalai Lama, edited and translated by Glenn H. Mullin, published by Snow Lion Publications

Here’s a classic:

Wild Geese
by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

From Dogen (a Soto Zen Master)

Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken. Although its light is wide and great, the moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide. The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in dewdrops on the grass, or even in one drop of water. Enlightenment does not divide you, just as the moon does not break the water. You cannot hinder enlightenment, just as a drop of water does not hinder the moon in the sky. The depth of the drop is the height of the moon. Each reflection, however long or short its duration, manifests the vastness of the dewdrop, and realizes the limitlessness of the moonlight in the sky.

This past weekend I was happily able to attend a two day retreat given by Jigme Tromge Rinpoche. The retreat contained a series of meditations and contemplations based on an 18th century Tibetan text by Drimed Khakyod.  As the flyer advertising the retreat explains:

Broadly described as instruction on shamatha (‘calm abiding’ meditation), these practices have considerable range and profundity. Each technique, clearly and succinctly explained, focuses on a different aspect of practice – for example, one-pointed concentration, compassion, understanding of relative and absolute reality and so forth – and as we progress through the teachings, our foundation is strengthened and we learn which tools to apply to counteract specific pitfalls.

This was my first experience with this particular form of meditation. I found it profound and ritualized. The teachings were specific and detailed. I was surprised how different the methods involved in this retreat were from methods I’ve experienced before; there were many visualizations and exact techniques. However, I left the retreat feeling as if this was essentially touching on the same truths that other methods touch on. The forms may be different, but inherent reality isn’t.

I shall leave you with the Red Tara Dedication Prayer

Dedication

Throughout my many lives and until this moment, whatever virtue I have accomplished including the merit generated by this practice, and all that I will ever obtain, this I offer for the welfare of all sentient beings. May sickness, war, famine and suffereing be decreased, for every being while their wisdom and compassion increase in this and every future life. May I cleraly perceive all experiences to be as insubstantial as the dream fabric of the night and instantly awaken to perceive the pure wisdom display in the arising of every phenomenon. May I quickly attain enlightenment in order to work ceaselessly for the liberation of all sentient beings.

Prayer of Aspiration

Buddhas and bodhisattvas altogether:
whatever kind of motivation you have,
whatever kind of beneficial action,
whatever kind of wishing prayers,
whatever kind of omniscience,
whatever kind of life accomplishment,
whatever kind of benevolent power and
whatever kind of immense wisdom you have,
then similarly I, who have come in the same way to benefit beings,
pray to attain these qualities

The Auspicious Wish

At this very moment, for the peoples and the nations of the earth, may not even the names disease, famine, war and suffering be heard. Rather may their moral conduct, merit, wealth and proseperity increase, and may supreme good fortune and well-being always arise for them.

We often talk about meditation here at Considering the Universe, but what about other methods that connect us with our inner selves? My dad just sent me this documentary about using arousal or spontaneous movement as another means for spiritual transformation.

The complement to relaxation is arousal, or the arousal response. And heightened arousal – whether through wild movement, spontaneous jumping, or body shaking – is a valuable, healing and transformative practice

I encourage you to check out the 10 minute documentary here about using arousal and ancient shamanic techniques to transform your self.

So cold, so icy that one burns one’s fingers on him! Every hand is startled when touching him. And for that very reason some think he glows.

– Friedrich Nietzsche

Jarrod Toombs, a friend of Emily and I just passed away. He was 25.

Jarrod introduced me to Modest Mouse and The Fiery Furnaces. I’ve always thought of him when I hear these bands. But I most often think of Jarrod when I am reading or talking about Nietzsche.

Jarrod loved all things Nietzsche. In his honor I have recreated part of an introduction to Nietzsche I previously wrote.

To be ashamed of one’s immorality-that is a step on the staircase at whose end one is also ashamed of one’s morality.

Nietzsche was a late 19th century German philosopher. His writings are basically a challenge to traditional morality and Christianity. He affirmed life and argued against waiting for life affirming realities until after death. He advocated questioning of all doctrines that drain life energies.

What destroys more quickly than to work, to think, to feel without inner necessity, without a deep personal choice, without joy? As an automaton of “duty”?

It is virtually a recipe for decadence, even for idiocy.

He can be considered one of the first existentialist philosophers. His style and radical questioning of the value and objectivity of truth, raise cause problems when attempting to interpret him. There is much scholarly speculation about his work. Nietzsche’s later writings are comprehensive and coherent expressions of his philosophy.

Even the bravest of us rarely has the courage for what he really knows.

My favorite story of Nietzsche, which Jarrod once told to me in the remote village in southwestern Georgia where he lived, was of the moment Nietzsche went insane. After distinguishing himself as a scholar and quickly becoming a professor, he spent ten years in his late thirties wandering around Europe with no real home. During his wanderings he found himself in Turin and witnessed a horse being whipped. He ran to the horse and threw his arms around the horse’s neck and collapsed. He never returned to sanity. There are many speculations about what happened; he had syphilis, he had a brain tumor, he reached a higher state of consciousness. My personal favorite is postulated by Colin Wilson in The Mind Parasites, Nietzsche was investigating his inner mind to such a degree the mind parasites feared he would learn of their existence so they drove him insane.

Incresucnt animi, virescit volnere virtus. The spirit grows, strength is restored by wounding.

Jarrod, we will miss you. R.I.P.

:: Jarrod, thanks for sitting next to me on hub day. Thanks for the talks about Nietzsche. Thanks for appreciating my art. Thanks for bonding with me over Mattafix. Thanks for keeping him company. Even though he would never admit it, I know it helped.  - Emily ::

We’ll all float on alright. 

So yesterday I attended an all day training at the Zen Hospice Center in San Francisco. The training introduced me to different ways of providing practical, emotional and spiritual support to people who need care. We learned about ways to be supportive of the person in need and about our own relationship to caring, suffering and service. It was an awesome training, and our teacher, Jennifer Block, was inspiring and unbelievably funny.

We were also introduced to the 5 precepts. The precepts were created by Frank Ostaseki, the founding director of Zen Hospice. They are designed as “companions on the journey of accompanying the dying.”  But they can also be helpful in our daily life. As Frank writes, “I think of these as five bottomless practices that can be continually explored and deepened. They are not linear and have no value as theories or concepts. To be understood and realized, they have to be lived into and communicated through action.”

Welcome Everything. Push Away Nothing: We don’t have to like what’s happening. We don’t have “to approve or dissaprove. It’s our task to trust, to listen, and to pay careful attention to the changing experience.”  Learn to cultivate “fearless receptivity.” We don’t know what is going to happen or how things will turn out.

Bring Your Whole Self to the Experience: This precept is encouraging us to be real, authentic people. We don’t have to be the expert or the one with all the answers. “In the process of healing others and ourselves we open to both our joy and fear. In the service of this healing we draw on our strength and helplessness, our wounds and passion to discover a meeting place with the other. Professional warmth doesn’t heal. It is not our expertise but the exploration of our own suffering that enables us to be of real assistance. That’s what allows us to touch another human being’s pain with compassion instead of with fear and pity. We have to invite it all in.”

Don’t wait: “Patience is different than waiting. When we wait, we are full of expectations. When we’re waiting, we miss what this moment has to offer. Worrying or strategizing about what the future holds for us, we miss the opportunities that are right in front of us. Don’t wait.”

Find a Place of Rest in the Middle of Things: This means learning to look for a place of rest right in the middle of chaos– not something that happens after all of our errands and chores have been completed. We can experience this type of rest when we bring, “our full attention, without distraction, to this moment, to this activity. This place of rest is always available. We need only turn toward it.”

Cultivate Don’t-Know Mind: Also known as “beginner’s mind” this describes a mind that is open and receptive– not one that is limited by agendas, roles and expectations.  As Frank writes, “We realized that ‘not knowing is most intimate.’ Understanding this we stay very close to the experience allowing the situation itself to inform our actions. We listen carefully to our own inner voice, sensing our urges, trusting our intuition. We learn to look with fresh eyes.”