The Silence
Nature of Silence, Nothingness or Completeness
Something from Nothing
Can something emerge from nothing? Alternatively, you may ask, can space-time arise from spaceless and timeless universe?
As hard it is to believe, nothing has produced all that we see around us!
Yes. Today’s science implies that our visible universe has evolved from nothing.
It is contrary to our normal instincts. What about the laws of conservation of mass, energy, and information? You may ask. The answer may lie in the mystery of nothing! What is nothing? Is it spaceless, timeless, beyond space and time, zero, silence, or something else? As mysterious as nothingness is, it is all around us in our physical universe, in our mental world of understanding, and in our mathematical world of formulas and functions.
Hindus have been credited with the invention of zero, a number that was perhaps the first attempt to quantify nothingness. It turned out to be a number that changed human history. In fact, it will not be an exaggeration to describe modern era for humans as post-zero era. In a computational space, zero is easily defined and useful. Mathematically, zero is easy to understand. It is such an integral part of our modern lives that it is impossible to imagine our modern lives without the number zero. In our number system, zero is a count that means no value or quantity. If I have zero money, that means I have no money. It sounds easy. What does zero mean in a physical universe? It gets harder and harder to define. As the physical size of an object gets smaller, our ability to make the observation of its dimension, location, and momentum gets harder. As the timescale of an event gets smaller or vibration frequencies approach zero, once again our capacity to be able to make measurements diminishes. In a physical universe, zero space-time, vacuum, and zero molecular motion all represent physical barriers, all of which seem unattainable. In thermodynamics, zero becomes uncrossable barrier, the coldest possible temperature.
For matter, the journey down the temperature scale is a story that involves losing energy and increasing internal order. As one cools the matter, it becomes quieter, condenses or solidifies. For example, the molecules in liquid water are free to move around in the liquid phase but freeze or organize in ordered crystal lattice when liquid water turns in solid icy state. At lower temperatures, even more ordered states of matter evolve. The superconductivity and superfluidity are two of the most observed states. These states are possible as atomic particles coordinate their motions at quantum levels. The coordination at this level results in extraordinary properties. For example, electric current flows with little or no resistance in superconductive solids. In superfluids, liquid flows up, defying gravity.
At root, these behaviors are the result of groups of particles at the quantum level behaving as one.
The holy grail of ultralow temperature physics is the absolute zero temperature. Absolute zero itself is unreachable. We can get infinitely close to it but can never reach. It would take a cooling machine of the size of our universe and infinite time to reach absolute zero. Even if we get there, some energy will stay in the system. It is known as “zero point energy.” The uncertainty built into quantum mechanical behavior of the universe would ensure this infinite, omnipresent energy exists, even in the deep vacuum, and results in a force exerted by nothing at all!
Very close to this state, groups of atoms will condense into a single entity known as Bose-Einstein condensate, named after two physicists Satyendra Nath Bose and Albert Einstein, who theoretically predicted this exotic state of matter in 1924. At these low temperatures, the wave function of many particles merge into one wave function and the group of many particles behave as one entity.
The closer one gets to absolute zero, the harder it is to get any colder. The atoms tend to grab pockets of energy from just about anything in their immediate environment. It is only reasonable, for most of us, to expect the coldest spot in the universe to be somewhere in the vast emptiness of space between galaxies. This is perhaps not true. Scientists are within a millionth of a degree of absolute zero, closing in this unreachable thermodynamic barrier. The coldest spot in the universe lives very likely here on this earth, perhaps in the laboratory of a mad cold temperature physicist.
What happens when we heat up the states of matter? Yes, quite opposite to what happens to the states of matter when we journeyed down the temperature scale. Instead of removing energy, we are adding energy to the system. The matter states of decreasing order result, as it journeys up the temperature scale, or more energy is added to the system. Let us examine what happens when we heat up ordinary water. It, first, changes to vapor, a gaseous state. In comparison to the liquid state, the water molecules have greater freedom to move about in gaseous vapor state. If we heat it even more, the water molecules dissociate into oxygen and hydrogen atoms. A life-giving liquid, wet and inert, is now two highly reactive gases.
If we heat this atomic soup some more, the atoms no longer exist; they split into smaller constituents, the electrons and the nuclei. This mixture is called plasma. It is electrically charged, and under the right conditions, it would glow. Of course, one can continue in a particle accelerator and split the nuclei into protons and neutrons. Depending on how far one is able to go, one can, perhaps, disassemble the protons and neutrons into even smaller constituents called quarks. According to some, disconnected quarks may form the matter at the very top of the temperature scale. It has been named quark matter, a sea of quantum entities that are so weird that no one has been able to estimate their properties.
The electroweak unification has been demonstrated at a temperature equivalent to 1015 K. The wavelength of the equivalent particle would be 10-16 cm. To probe, at shorter and shorter distances, we need even higher energy per particle, since distance probed depends on the wavelength of the particle, which depends inversely on its energy. At distances of 10-30 cm, the strength of electroweak and strong nuclear forces becomes equal. Finally, at Planck’s dimensions of 10-46 cm the gravitation force becomes equal to other three fundamental forces. At the dimensions of Planck’s scale or beyond, space-time does not exist, and a unified field is present everywhere in the universe.
In quantum theory, all quantum units are dimensionless points. For example, height, depth, and width of a quantum entity will be assigned only three numbers. By contrast, if you consider any physical object with its own height, width, and depth, you would have to assign coordinates to describe each edge of the object. In other words, you would need more than three numbers to describe the object. Quantum “particles” are designated as
simple points, without size and thus without edges. There seems to be no clear way for physicists to determine coordinates for their outer edges or to determine if, in fact, they even have any outer edges. The three coordinate numbers are assumed to be sufficient to locate them as a single point in space. If precise quantum calculations are carried out all the way down to an actual zero particle size that is zero height, zero width, and zero depths, the quantum equations return meaningless results. As the matter is squeezed into a dimensionless zero point state, as described in Einstein’s theory of general relativity, a zero becomes a black hole further intensifying the mystery of nothingness or emptiness. What is emptiness then?
Emptiness
The empty space is actually not empty at all. It is a state that reflects infinite, dynamic quantum fluctuations and computation. A mathematical theory of such grand unified state is still to be worked out; however, it is becoming clear that it is a state that even though beyond space and time, it is teaming with communication signals. It is a state of existence where all dualities merge into one and a state of being where signals travel beyond the locality, at potentially infinite speed. Such quantum physical nature of nonlocal action suggests that information can be exchanged without any energy exchange. It is a form of inaction which is beyond action or energy. It is the inaction that also leads to silence, a state of pure observation and awareness, a stillness that surrounds all there is.
In Buddhism, emptiness forms the core of its philosophy as described in the ontology of Mahayana Buddhism. The maxim “form is emptiness; emptiness is form” is perhaps the supreme mantra, the most illustrious duality, linked with Buddhist way of life. The oldest of the Mahayana texts perhaps originated in India, around the time of Jesus Christ, and describes the emptiness as the key concept to understand its foundational values.
The Buddhist notion of emptiness or Hindu term sunya or zero is often misunderstood as nihilism. According to nihilism, emptiness means that nothing exists or reality based on emptiness is unknowable. It will have nothing meaningful to say about our reality and the universe. The Buddhist notion of emptiness, on the other hand, arrives at just the opposite. It claims that ultimate reality is knowable. We can communicate with emptiness and receive useful guidance, knowledge, and wisdom from it about our own reality and the universe around us.
How is that possible? Let us further try to understand the Buddhist meaning of this term with an example of an empty cup. We often say a cup to be empty if it does not contain any liquid or solid. How is this emptiness different from the Buddhist meaning of emptiness described earlier? Of course, it is the ordinary meaning of emptiness. But is the cup really empty?
You may say that it is really not empty as it is still full of air. Can a cup be empty of all substances? Imagine a cup in deep space surrounded with vacuum. It is clear that it does not contain any air, but it may still contain space it occupies. Hence, one may conclude that the cup may never be empty and may always be full of something.
However, from the Buddhist point of view, the cup may be empty. Not only that, a cup full of liquid may also be empty. How is it possible? It is because the Buddhist understanding of emptiness differs from the physical meaning of emptiness. In Buddhism, we need to be precise and state what the cup is empty of. If the cup is empty, in Buddhism, it means that it is devoid of its separate self or existence.
In Buddhism, emptiness, silence, or nothingness all represent a way one looks at what is experienced. It is ones mode of perception. It is called empty if it adds nothing or takes away nothing. This means acceptances of the raw data, of physical and mental events, and the way it truly is; no thoughts or interpretation are added. This mode of witnessing the reality is called emptiness because it is empty or devoid of the presuppositions we usually attach or add to experience, sometimes simply to make sense of it.
We all have experienced silence as a contrast to noise. “Please, do not make that noise. I would like some peace and quiet.” Does it describe the nature of silence adequately? Is there a deeper nature of silence, emptiness, or zero state of being? What is the true nature of silence? This is where our scientific understanding falls short. It is also where another understanding begins. Throughout our human history, silence has played a critical role in almost all spiritual practices.
Are we aware of the silent observer within us? What happens when we are truly silent? What happens when, within my body, all my life systems scramble to achieve a natural state of silence while I am being alive and silently aware? We are aware of silence in spiritual practices like meditations or Samadhi. Is it the goal of these practices to arrive at a state of stillness where only energyless or actionless information exists and can be felt? Can one be still or perfectly silent and experience information exchange?
Is silence a potential grand unifying physical state of the universe? Is silence a state where all dualities merge? According to some, it is in this mystery of nothingness where our search truly begins.
An excerpt from the book Road to Digital Divine, Computational Nature of Mind and Matter
For More Information please visit
http://www.roadtodigitaldivine.com
http://www.joyfromdeepwithin.com
Buy Joy from Deep Within Please visit http://www2.xlibris.com/bookstore/bookdisplay.asp?bookid=82193
Buy Road to Digital Divine Please visit http://www2.xlibris.com/bookstore/bookdisplay.asp?bookid=79861
Key Words
Does GOD exists, The silence, Meaning of Life, The self, True Self, Digital Divine, Divine Meaning, Feel The Joy, Joy and Happiness, Life meaning, My Stress Relief, Stress Causes, Where is GOD, Joy, Divine, God, Quantum, Stress, Depression, Meaning, Life
