"...
T:
"Physics says that the potential for manifestation lies in the vacuum's
energy. But we are still left with the question: How was the vacuum created?
Was there nothing, then a sudden rupture, with the appearance of a vacuum full
of energy, and simultaneously of time and space?
M:
"A causeless rupture, making nothing become something---that is quite a
way to start! The big Bang, or any other "beginning" of a given universe,
can't happen without a cause and conditions. The world of phenomena can't have
come from nowhere. One of Buddhism's essential ideas states that because
things have no independent reality, they can't really "begin" or "end" as
distinct entities. When we speak of a "beginning," our mind immediately
pictures "something." The idea of the universe beginning and ending belongs to
relative truth. In terms of absolute truth, its' meaningless. When you
consider a castle seen in a dream, for instance, you don't need to worry about
who actually built it. All religions and philosophies have come unstuck on the
problem of creation. Science has gotten rid of it by removing God the Creator,
who had become unnecessary. Buddhism has done so by eliminating the very idea
of a beginning.
T:
"Do you remember the story about the great eighteen-centruy French
mathematician and physicist Pierre-Simon de Laplace"? When he gave Napoleon a
copy of his great book on celestial mechanics, the emperor scolded him for not
once mentioning the "Great Architect." Laplace replied: "But, Your Highness,
I have no need of that hypothesis." Questions still remain, however: Why is
there a universe? Why are there laws? Why was there a Big Bang? We return to
Leibniz's famous question: "Why is there something rather than nothing? For
nothing is both simpler and easier than something. Moreover, assuming that
things must exist, there must be a reason why they exist thus and not
otherwise."
M:
"One reply would be the famous dictum of the second-century master
Nargarjuna: "Since all is empty, all is possible." And the famous scripture
Perfection of Wisdom says specifically, "Though phenomena appear, they are
empty; though empty, they appear." In Buddhism, emptiness isn't just the true
nature of phenomena, it's also the potential that allows the propagation of
infinite variety of phenomena. To use a simple metaphor, If the sky were made
of rock, nothing much would happen. In the same way, if reality were
permanent, and its properties too, then nothing would change. Phenomena could
not appear. But because things have no intrinsic reality, they can have
infinite manifestations.
"When you understood that everything is intrinsically empty, it's easier
to understand how things work in relative, or conventional, truth. Even though
phenomena lack realty, they don't happen random. This is the emptiness of
Buddhism. It isn't nothingness, but rather the absence of any permanent and
autonomously existing phenomena.
T:
"Yes, but many people associate emptiness with nothingness. In the
nineteenth century, Buddhism was accused of being nihilistic.
M:
That was a serious mistake. We consider that there are two opposing and
erroneous points of view: nihilism and materialistic realism. The latter,
which Buddhism calls "eternalism," reifies the world by postulating the
existence of immutable matter made of solid parts. What is more, when Leibniz
wondered why there is "something rather than nothing," he presupposed that
there really is _something_. In Buddhism's Middle Way, there is neither
nothing (nihilism) nor something (materialism or realism). We could now ask
Leibniz, "Why should there be nothing, since phenomena are possible?" The true
nature of interdependent phenomena goes agains common sense because these
phenomena can't be called either existent or nonexistent. The intellect has
its limitation, and we can't grasp the true nature of reality just by means of
ordinary conceptual processes. Only direct knowledge that transcends
conventional thought can see the world of phenomena in a nondual way, in which
su
bject and object have become meaningless."
'Mathieu Ricard & Trinh Xuan Thuan, 'The Quantum and the Lotus: A Journey to
the Frontiers Where Science and Buddhism Meet',pp.31-32)
p.s. To be fair to the authors, I am only posting bits and pieces of the
text. This book is well written, The material is logically presented in
plain-spoken English, and extremely interesting.
Also, I'd like to repeat the last three sentences: "The true nature of
interdependent phenomena goes agains common sense because these phenomena can't
be called either existent or nonexistent. The intellect has its limitation,
and we can't grasp the true nature of reality just by means of ordinary
conceptual processes. Only direct knowledge that transcends conventional
thought can see the world of phenomena in a nondual way, in which subject and
object have become meaningless."
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