Twelve is an appropriate esoteric number on which to complete this series of posts. It is the complete circle of the zodiac, the fullness of the heart’s sacred energy offered through its chakric petals, and twelve is the year in which the old was completed and the new begun with 2012. Therefore in this post, my intention is to connect spaces instead of dots and talk about the emptinesses.
In quantum mechanics emptiness is exhibited by particles blinking in and out of existence. It is expressed as the background vibration of everything that is the not-yet-thingness becoming anything in cosmos of string theory, and emptiness is the anti or dark therefore unknown of anti-matter, dark energy and dark matter. One wonders if three words are three different things or just three blind phrases touching an unknown elephant.
Similarly so with gluons, muons, bosons, and quarks of all different natures and sizes. All, of course, are thought-conjectures describing apparent phenomena that have left traces of light-energy for us to see. But are these any different than annual crops circles left in English fields? Not really. We collectively chose not to meditate or be inspired by this blinking-in massive quantum display, that is all of us except the “croppies.” The main difference between the trails and random expression of particles and crop circles is that the particle trail is less exact, but no less beautiful or enigmatic. Both are born from an emptiness: crop circles from the emptiness of intra-stellar beings who understand that form is a state of mind-awareness, and particles are born from the freedom within matter itself.
What is emptiness? First, it is not empty but it is void. It is not a thing, nor nothing. Emptiness is a state, a condition, and neither at the same time. It is not gained because everything already is empty, which is not a lack but is not an increase either. Sounds like a zen koan or a Buddhist tantric rant. Maybe, but is a discussion of particle physics much different?
One of the clearest explanations that I have for emptiness is that emptiness is the perfect need being perfectly met instantaneously. Which says more about when that perfect invocation-evocation is not expressing. During that majority of eternity, there is no thing, there is emptiness. This is why most of the universe (99%) is dark matter/dark energy – empty. Of course, it is not empty as in not full – it is completely full, rich, and perfectly still which is profoundly dynamic. The vacuum of space is void of friction and that’s the point. Emptiness is perfect need being perfectly met instantaneously – big bang on any scale – no friction, nothing out of place because the perfect meeting means nothing can be out of place – therefore there is no place there is only meeting-met. Emptiness.
Yes, of course, emptiness is also a state of meditation, and an understanding of ego-less-ness; it is the non-conditioned truth of everything when we no longer label as a mind or every thing by mind’s limitations. That state is naked, unadorned, unaccompanied by dualistic observer and frames of reference or the need to be anything. Thus any need can be perfectly met as that need perfectly arises from and yet into the void of no-thingness. Riddles again. Not really, just a hint of emptiness.
We might have read that the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are expressions of the Emptinesses. You might ask, “emptinesses? There’s more than one?” Yes. The Dharma says there are many. And particle physics has come to a similar statement though less spiritual in its language and less metaphoric in presentation. In fact, we might lose sight of the Emptiness that is being “discovered” through quantum mechanics because of the non-spiritual context and the algebraic equations. Nonetheless, emptiness and various expressions of it have come to light since the late 1800’s, and I believe Faraday’s discovery of electro-magnetism is the first in this milieu.
I suggest that Planck’s constant was next, signifying the constant of the first aspect within consciousness driving the intended purpose and program for all cosmos in this cycle of maha-cosmic expression. Translation: the Will to BE is the will that drives all relatedness, and at essence that’s what consciousness is. Relatedness is chemical bond, perfect ratio required for nuclear fusion, as well as the common ways that everyone would use the term, then add all the levels of consciousness from the average to the profoundly enlightened. At the root of this emptiness is what is constant: energy. Here is the still, dynamic always present yet presently unnoticed energy that Wills ALL to BE. Shape, form, time, or duration, when or how they happen don’t matter because the constant is constant thus empty.
Einstein’s equation of special relativity is next, and not just because of the elegance of the ultimate equation (E = m c2) but because of all that comes before the equation. Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity gave the world the perfect inter-relatedness of space to time, of gravity to space, thus gravity to time, thus energy to matter. These are consorts expressing emptiness – in fact, expressing a few emptinesses. And the C of celeritas as the very fast “constant” of the speed of light is what underlies it all. Light and consciousness are One, not the same anymore than electricity is the same as magnetism but they are inseparable thus One. Equally, the other pairs (consorts) that Einstein’s intuition and meditations illumined are one as well.
The winking and blinking of particles out of the wave of seeming existence or seeming non-existence is the next emptiness: build it and they will come. Need being perfectly met instantaneously. Particles know what we want. They are empty of any agenda. They exist as required, and don’t (and therefore seem to disappear) when we are not looking for them.
The last quantum example to offer in this list of emptinesses is string theory. Cosmic strings of pure stillness ultimately dynamic in the purity of their readiness to BE yet completely content in “their” Being. They are non unless necessary, then they are creation and the laws and principles and designs of all creation that they big-bang spark into being. Perfect need perfectly met – emptiness.
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