19/11/2015 - Dalai Lama: Religion Without Quantum Physics Is an Incomplete Picture of Reality19/11/2015 Written by DANIEL OBERHAUS November 17, 2015
Ever since Copernicus published On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres in 1543 to outline his heliocentric cosmology and thereby kick start modern scientific inquiry, an uneasy truce has existed between science and religion. Although Copernicus wasn’t persecuted for his views by the dominant religious authorities (in fact, Pope Clement VII expressed great interest in Copernicus’s work, and the latter would end up dedicating his Revolutions to Pope Paul III), his intellectual heir Galileo was not so lucky when he faced down the Roman Inquisition in 1633, a testament to the fragility of this philosophical truce. This either/or approach to the world, where one considers phenomena through either a scientific or religious lens, has colored scientific inquiry ever since Galileo was placed under house arrest for his heretical (but scientifically accurate) views. Its legacy can still be seen today in the vehement spats between religiously motivated climate deniers and the militaristic guardians of science known as the New Atheists. more...
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BY JOSH BARTOK AND CHÖGYAM TRUNGPA RINPOCHE NOVEMBER 6, 2015
In Zen’s famed 10 oxherding pictures, the ox is enlightenment and the herder is you, the meditator. Created by 12th-century Chinese master Guo-an Shi-yuan, the oxherding pictures have mapped the path for Buddhist practitioners ever since, inspiring countless commentaries and new renderings. Here is a contemporary take by graphic artist Mark T. Morse, with commentary by Boundless Way Zen teacher Josh Bartok and a Vajrayana perspective from the late Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. more... BY STEPHEN MORGAN JUN 3, 2015
An experiment by Australian scientists has proven that what happens to particles in the past is only decided when they are observed and measured in the future. Until such time, reality is just an abstraction. Quantum physics is a weird world. It studies subatomic particles, which are the essential building blocks of reality. All matter, including ourselves are made up of them. But, the laws governing the tiny microscopic world seem to be different to those dictating how larger objects behave in our own macroscopic reality. Quantum laws tend to contradict common sense. At that level, one thing can be two different things simultaneously and be at two different places at the same time. Two particles can be entangled and, when one changes its state, the other will also do so immediately, even if they are at opposite ends of the universe – seemingly acting faster than the speed of light. more... BY ROD MEADE SPERRY NOVEMBER 3, 2015
“He was a bestselling author and rising star of the Buddhist world, but one day Mingyur Rinpoche just walked out and left it all behind.” That’s how Andrea Miller’s fascinating 2012 Shambhala Sun feature about Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche began. Now, via the Tergar Learning Community, comes the news that Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche has resurfaced: […] Mingyur Rinpoche was on an extended solitary retreat in the Himalayas for the last four years. In the tradition of the great meditation masters of times past, he spent his time wandering freely with no fixed plan or agenda, meditating in caves and hermitages in remote places. more... Physicists have spent decades trying to reconcile two very different theories. But is a winner about to emerge – and transform our understanding of everything from time to gravity?
Corey S Powell Wednesday 4 November 2015 It is the biggest of problems, it is the smallest of problems. At present physicists have two separate rulebooks explaining how nature works. There is general relativity, which beautifully accounts for gravity and all of the things it dominates: orbiting planets, colliding galaxies, the dynamics of the expanding universe as a whole. That’s big. Then there is quantum mechanics, which handles the other three forces – electromagnetism and the two nuclear forces. Quantum theory is extremely adept at describing what happens when a uranium atom decays, or when individual particles of light hit a solar cell. That’s small. Now for the problem: relativity and quantum mechanics are fundamentally different theories that have different formulations. It is not just a matter of scientific terminology; it is a clash of genuinely incompatible descriptions of reality. more... By Jonathan Davis on Thursday August 6th, 2015
Does Science And Mysticism Agree That Reality Is An Illusion? This week, a team of Japanese scientists announced they have found ‘clearest evidence yet’ that the universe is a hologram. While this may be the most recent effort to prove the holographic universe theory among numerous others, science has been perplexed by the insubstantial nature of reality since well before holographic theory existed – not to mention the mystics and philosophers who have been suggesting the same thing (in less reductionist terms) for thousands of years. more... |