Go read this LA Times interview with CalTech physicist Sean Carroll on entropy, time and the multiverse.

Mr. Carroll is saying that time is irreversible and therefore directional; our world has some type of order, a thrust forward. He also says that this order is highly unlikely to arise on its own and would almost certainly have to have come from some previous set of affairs or other universe:

So you think the way the universe began is unnatural?

Low-entropy configurations are rare.

If you take a deck of cards and you open it up, it’s true that they’re in order. But if you randomly chose a configuration of a deck of cards it would be very, very unlikely that they would be in perfect order.

That’s exactly low entropy versus high entropy.

The universe is more than what we see?

The reason why you are not surprised when you open a deck of cards and it’s in perfect order is not because it’s just easy and natural to find it in perfect order, it’s because the deck of cards is not a closed system. It came from a bigger system in which there is a card factory somewhere that arranged it. So I think there is a previous universe somewhere that made us and we came out.

We’re part of a bigger structure.

This is exactly what I have been thinking about lately. The reality that we are able to perceive is something. It has meaning and direction. However, our world arises from and exists in something else. We don’t know what it is, maybe we are some alien child’s science fair project. Even if that is the case, the alien child’s world exists in something which exists in something etc. Turtles all the way down.

But what do the turtles exist in? If you started two points at zero on a number line and sent one up the positives and one down the negatives at the same pace, they would both keep going towards infinity, but their sum would always be zero, right? So regardless of the turtles, alien science projects, or any other nonsense we can think up the answer is always zero, always nothing, always void.

Maybe?

Today’s thought of the day comes from Integral Options Cafe. I find it particularly useful to remember this as I’ve gone from a slower pace life in San Francisco, to the busy student life of my intensive Russian course. Just because I’m “doing” more things in a day, doesn’t mean there’s any less time for reflection and awareness practice.

Stream of Thoughts

We tend to be particularly unaware that we are thinking virtually all the time. The incessant stream of thoughts flowing through our minds leaves us very little respite for inner quiet. And we leave precious little room for ourselves anyway just to be, without having to run around doing things all the time. Our actions are all too frequently driven rather than undertaken in awareness, driven by those perfectly ordinary thoughts and impulses that run through the mind like a coursing river, if not a waterfall. We get caught up in the torrent and it winds up submerging our lives as it carries us to places we may not wish to go and may not even realize we are headed for.

Meditation means learning how to get out of this current, sit by its bank and listen to it, learn from it, and then use its energies to guide us rather than to tyrannize us. This process doesn’t magically happen by itself. It takes energy. We call the effort to cultivate our ability to be in the present moment “practice” or “meditation practice.”

– Jon Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go, There You Are; From Everyday Mind, a Tricycle book edited by Jean Smith

For your reading pleasure:

(In case you didn’t know I’m taking an intensive Russian course, hence the recent emphasis on all things Russian)

The Emperor’s Three Questions By Leo Tolstoy

One day it occurred to a certain emperor that if he only knew the answers to three questions, he would never stray in any matter.

1. What is the best time to do each thing?
2. Who are the most important people to work with?
3. What is the most important thing to do at all times?

The emperor issued a decree throughout his kingdom announcing that whoever could answer the questions would receive a great reward. Many who read the decree made their way to the palace at once, each person with a different answer.

In reply to the first question, one person advised that the emperor make up a thorough time schedule, consecrating every hour, day, month and year for certain tasks and then follow the schedule to the letter. Only then could he hope to do every task at the right time.

Another person replied that it was impossible to plan in advance and that the emperor should put all vain amusements aside and remain attentive to everything in order to know what to do at what time.

Someone else insisted that, by himself, the emperor could never hope to have all the foresight and competence necessary to decide when to do each and every task, and what he really needed was to set up a Council of the Wise and then to act according to their advice.

Someone else said that certain matters require immediate decision and could not wait for consultation, but if he wanted to know in advance what was going to happen he should consult magicians and soothsayers.

The responses to the second question also lacked accord.

One person said that the emperor needed to place all his trust in administrators, another urged reliance on priests and monks, while others recommended physicians. Still others put their faith in warriors.

The third question drew a similar variety of answers.

Some said science was the most important pursuit. Others insisted on religion. Yet others claimed the most important thing was military skill.

The emperor was not pleased with any of the answers, and no reward was given.

After several nights of reflection, the emperor resolved to visit a hermit who lived on a mountain and was said to be an enlightened man. The emperor wished to find the hermit to ask him the three questions, though he knew the hermit never left the mountains and was known to receive only the poor, refusing to have anything to do with persons of wealth or power. So the emperor disguised himself as a simple peasant and ordered his attendants to wait for him at the foot of the mountain while he climbed the slope alone to seek the hermit.

Reaching the holy man’s dwelling place, the emperor found the hermit digging a garden in front of his hut. When the hermit saw the stranger, he nodded his head in greeting and continued to dig. The labor was obviously hard on him. He was an old man, and each time he thrust his spade into the ground to turn the earth, he heaved heavily.

The emperor approached him and said, “I have come here to ask your help with three questions: When is the best time to do each thing? Who are the most important people to work with? What is the most important thing to do at all times?”

The hermit listened attentively but only patted the emperor on the shoulder and continued digging. The emperor said, “You must be tired. Here, let me give you a hand with that.” The hermit thanked him, handed the emperor the spade, and then sat down on the ground to rest.

After he had dug two rows, the emperor stopped and turned to the hermit and repeated his three questions. The hermit still did not answer, but instead stood and pointed to the spade and said, “Why don’t you rest now? I can take over again.” But the emperor continued to dig. One hour passed, then two. Finally the sun began to set behind the mountain. The emperor put down the spade and said to the hermit, “I came here to ask if you could answer my three questions. But if you can’t give me any answer, please let me know so that I can get on my way home.”

The hermit lifted his head and asked the emperor, “Do you hear someone running over there?” The emperor turned his head. They both saw a man with a long white beard emerge from the woods. He ran wildly, pressing his hands against a bloody wound in his stomach. The man ran toward the emperor before falling unconscious to the ground, where he lay groaning. Opening the man’s clothing, the emperor and hermit saw that the man had received a deep gash. The emperor cleaned the wound thoroughly and then used his own shirt to bandage it, but the blood completely soaked it within minutes. He rinsed the shirt out and bandaged the wound a second time and continued to do so until the flow of blood had stopped.

At last the wounded man regained consciousness and asked for a drink of water. The emperor ran down to the stream and brought back a jug of fresh water. Meanwhile, the sun had disappeared and the night air had begun to turn cold. The hermit gave the emperor a hand in carrying the man into the hut where they laid him down on the hermit’s bed. The man closed his eyes and lay quietly. The emperor was worn out from a long day of climbing the mountain and digging the garden. Leaning against the doorway, he fell asleep. When he rose, the sun had already risen over the mountain. For a moment he forgot where he was and what he had come here for. He looked over to the bed and saw the wounded man also looking around him in confusion. When he saw the emperor, he stared at him intently and then said in a faint whisper, “Please forgive me.”

“But what have you done that I should forgive you?” the emperor asked.

“You do not know me, your majesty, but I know you. I was your sworn enemy, and I had vowed to take vengeance on you, for during the last war you killed my brother and seized my property. When I learned that you were coming alone to the mountain to meet the hermit, I resolved to surprise you on your way back and kill you. But after waiting a long time there was still no sign of you, and so I left my ambush in order to seek you out. But instead of finding you, I came across your attendants, who recognized me, giving me this wound. Luckily, I escaped and ran here. If I hadn’t met you I would surely be dead by now. I had intended to kill you, but instead you saved my life! I am ashamed and grateful beyond words. If I live, I vow to be your servant for the rest of my life, and I will bid my children and grandchildren to do the same. Please grant me you forgiveness.”

The emperor was overjoyed to see that he was so easily reconciled with a former enemy. He not only forgave the man but promised to return all the man’s property and to send his own physician and servants to wait on the man until he was completely healed. After ordering his attendants to take the man home, the emperor returned to see the hermit. Before returning to the palace the emperor wanted to repeat his three questions one last time. He found the hermit sowing seeds in the earth they had dug the day before.

The hermit stood up and looked at the emperor. “But your questions have already been answered.”

“How’s that?” the emperor asked, puzzled.

“Yesterday, if you had not taken pity on my age and given me a hand with digging these beds, you would have been attacked by that man on your way home. Then you would have deeply regretted not staying with me. Therefore the most important time was the time you were digging in the beds, the most important person was myself, and the most important pursuit was to help me.”

“Later, when the wounded man ran up here, the most important time was the time you spent dressing his wound, for if you had not cared for him he would have died and you would have lost the chance to be reconciled with him. Likewise, he was the most important person, and the most important pursuit was taking care of his wound.”

“Remember that there is only one important time and that is now. The present moment is the only time over which we have dominion. The most important person is always the person you are with, who is right before you, for who knows if you will have dealings with any other person in the future? The most important pursuit is making the person standing at your side happy, for that alone is the pursuit of life.”

As you probably know, Emily and I lived in Georgia. We like to keep up with the latest geo-political chess games played by all the former soviet block countries, but we’re especially interested in Georgia and Russia. My friend recommended this lecture given by Edward Lucas at Google’s Mountain View, CA headquarters to discuss his book, “The New Cold War.” Lucas discusses changes in Russia’s policies under the Putin regime and the effect that has on countries like Georgia as well as western Europe and the U.S. The lecture was thought provoking.

From Lucas’ biography:

Edward Lucas has covered Eastern Europe for The Economist for over twenty years. He witnessed the end of the last Cold War, the parting of the Iron Curtain, and, as the Moscow bureau chief, covered Boris Yeltsin’s reign and Vladimir Putin’s rise to power. He lives in London, England.

Yesterday at OneTaste were talking about why we come together in community. It got me thinking about the One and the Many.

The One is Source or Non-Being. It is the Void from which the material realm arises. The Many is this material realm. It is the individuation of the One. We are the Many. You and I are tiny points of infinity made manifest in matter. As such we are not only connected to Source, we are Source. We are made of it, it courses through us, through us Creation creates.

Imagine you have a finger puppet on each finger. There is a rabbit and a monkey and a bear and whatever else you’d like. It looks like five distinct creatures going about their business, but take off the puppets and look: one hand, made of distinct but connected fingers, each with a role to play. The One and the Many, hand and finger puppets.

Community feels good because as we join with others, we gain a broader picture of the One. The more inclusive view we can take of the Many, the closer we are to seeing the One. I am one unique bit of infinity (and so infinite myself, but that’s a post for another day). When I join with others, suddenly I see more perspectives, more ways of being, more of the One. As I am able to take on those perspectives, I expand toward infinity myself. Community feels warm and vibrant because we are taking each of our limited views and creating a bigger picture.

Think of community as a stained glass window. How much light can enter through one tiny pane alone? Together not only can a whole room be lit, but a beautiful mosaic arises.

I’m in an uncharacteristically collectivist mood right now. For the first time I’m seeing the value of the group, not just individual participants. It’s a refreshing change for me.

From Catherin Ingram’s Dharma Dialogues via our new friend at An Expedition to Find the Edge of the Earth:

Question:

You say that this divine is playing itself out, but let’s look at the suffering on this planet. For instance, there is an ecological destruction that is creating a living hell for people and other beings who are not awake in this dream, as we can easily see here in India. We are creating a desert of this Earth and poisoning our land, waters, and air. Many more people will face starvation and live in degraded circumstances. Worldwide tensions will increase, and so on. People who are primarily interested in spiritual matters, at this particular point in history, are sometimes accused of being selfish. What do you feel about rendering service to the world, and from where does the passion arise for service if this manifestation is seen as a dream?

Answer by Poonja:
Having known the supreme state, our own Self, from inside there arises compassion. Automatically we are compelled. It’s not service. Service has to do with somebody else. When the command is compassion, there’s no one doing any service for anybody else, as when you are hungry you eat. You are not in service to the stomach, nor are the hands the servant when they are putting food into the mouth. Like this we should live in the world. Service is the responsibility of the Self. Otherwise who is doing this service? When the action is coming from the ego, there is hypocrisy, jealousy, crisis. When the doer is not there, then compassion arises. If a person is realized, then all his actions are beautiful. (Formatting mine.)

Laura and I have a lot of animosity towards Peace Corps. I will speak for myself in saying that my motivation for service was exactly as Poonja describes. There was very little compassion in it, but plenty of hypocrisy, jealousy and crisis. I’d say this is common among Peace Corps volunteers and in the organization itself.

Although it’s relevant to our time in Peace Corps, I’m actually posting this in response to a conversation that Laura and I had yesterday. The difference between service and compassion is the difference between why I joined the Peace Corps and why I helped a friend figure out some tough personal issues this weekend. For me Peace Corps was all about sacrifice, helping my friend was about abundance. Service is sacrifice, a reassignment of deficits. Compassion is abundance, an overflowing of love and understanding. Service is a battle to vanquish suffering, compassion is a channel for life to heal itself.

“Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play”

Emily just posted a beautiful retrospective of our time in SF and wrote quite a touching post. I’m feeling all squirmy and don’t know what to do. I’m really touched.

I called a friend a couple of nights ago in hysterics. Through my sobs I confessed, “I don’t want to move. I miss Emily already. Who will go to Trader Joe’s with me? What about when it’s time to do laundry or go to the dry cleaners? Who will patiently explain to me about ‘cool things’ that I don’t understand, like gangster rap, California slang and steam punk? Who will try to convince me to go dancing? Who will I run errands with?” My list went on and on. Even now when I think about leaving I feel overwhelming emotion.

Emily is the most generous, warm hearted and kind person I’ve met. She has taught me how to look truthfully and kindly at myself and others. She has embodied generosity– being willing to give honestly and freely without a second thought. She has an infectious curiosity that takes her to all sorts of little known areas of her inner and outer life. Emily often embodies compassion. But she doesn’t embody some weak form of compassion that just tries to sooth all pain. She is deeply truthful and uses her compassion to point out the truth. Truth is often painful and it takes a strong and spiritual person that is willing to speak honestly with us, to pay attention and to not let us get away with not seeing. Emily always challenges me to be sincere, especially when I use some vacant spiritual-sounding quip to justify my less than ideal actions. A friend who is willing to be so compassionate, truthful, generous and loving is extremely rare.

I’ll miss you.

“I just ate something off the table. I wasn’t sure what it was, but I thought it was chocolate. I was correct, so it was successful.” - E

“You are not cool. You have other redeeming qualities, you are just not cool” - E to Me

“The Buddha?! You’re gonna listen to him? What does he know?!” -E

“You can be my Peace Corps colleague/roommate/business co-owner/best friend/blogging associate/lesbian lover. Whichever you like best. Ha!” - E

• Laura : you know what Emily just said?
• Laura : she said “i’ve got to hurry up and eat all the mochis I just bought, so J won’t know that I bought them and ate them all already”
• J: i knew it

“It is pretty whimsical. I am sitting on a tall chair, with a giant pink cake wearing overalls” - E

The Way is a limitless vessel;

Used by the self, it is not filled by the world;

It cannot be cut, knotted, dimmed or stilled;

Its depths are hidden, ubiquitous and eternal;

I don’t know where it comes from;

It comes before nature.

Emily Says: Jury Duty - Day 2

Still no jury selection…

I am very proud of myself for completing my first set of work for the new top secret business. Mwahahaha! Taking over the world!

“I’m sorry I am going to have to quit my job. I’m moving into a commune with my lesbian lover. Those capitalist dollars have blood on them.” -E

• Tim: What is the power exchange?
• JS: It’s where one person has the control and then the person who has the control gives the control to the other person who then has the control

“It’s like a dystopian war zone in my room” -E

Today I introduced L to the Flying Kick.

The Flying Kick is a special fighting technique that allows you to attack your opponent without touching him or her.

When you are wearing your Vans with the backs pushed down as slip-ons, you motion a kick at your enemy’s bottom and the shoe will fly off and kick them. It is very effective and hilarious. There is no defense for the Flying Kick.

However, your enemy may retaliate by stealing your shoe.

The Last 12 Hours

• Watched The Office. What up m’nerds?
• Tried to sing Arash to the cabbie
• Went to Bootie which was super fun. Bee Gees+Montell Jordan = Genius
• Slept for 3 hours

I love you buddy. Lush and Grumps forever indeed.

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.

I often have to remind myself that we are all One. Each a unique manifestation of the infinite. Chris at Blogging the Singularity has some touching words on this subject:

The Earth is a single organism of which we are a part. You are the Earth, we ARE the Universe. You are Korean, You are African. You are the rivers, the trees, the galaxies, and the fire. You are every animal, every burning star and every square inch of the vastness of space. You are the most beautiful thing because existence is beautiful and enchanting.

Lonely it may be,
confined within our nervous systems
remember,
communication binds us
and extends your reach and understanding
to the vast corners of existence.

Do not feel lonely,
for you are One
with all things
small and large
alive and dead
and connected
with understanding
to all.

We are One, All
travelers
wherever time takes us.
A Universe alive.
A fate unfolding.

Toward only
God knows what.

It certainly can feel lonely to be bound up in our little cages of flesh and bone. We are so much more than our shells indicate. Not only bound by body, but by our expectations, assumptions, roles, and history. Remember to stretch your own boundaries each day. God is creation, expansion and your own growth is divine.

(Just another thing we talked about in Istanbul.)

Integral loves perspectives. So let’s look at God from three places:

I - This is the perspective of Buddhism. I can realize my own Buddha-nature. I am all. I am God. Nice!

You - Most popular religions take this perspective: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, etc. I can pray to God and have a relationship with him (or her). I can know God and connect with him. God loves me and I love God.

It - Taoism and nature mysticism take this perspective. The Tao, the Way, the Universe is divine. When you see the Infinite in a beautiful sunset or the night sky, you are taking this perspective.

Most people naturally gravitate toward one of these perspectives. All three are valid paths, but its important to realize that there are other dimensions to the divine. Infinity is multi-faceted, to say the least.

Learning about the three faces of God was very helpful for me. I have always leaned toward the third-person perspective, which is woefully underrepresented in Western culture. Consequently, I’ve never been able to get into mainstream religion and thought I was an atheist for a long time. Now I can see that my perspective is just another way of looking at God and it is just as valid as the first and second-person perspectives. Hooray!