Reality Is Not What It Seems

Joshua D. Howgego

Graham P. Smetham

The seemingly solid entities that sentient beings experience as the ‘truth’ or mode of apprehension of the everyday world can, seemingly, be broken down into increasingly small particles. The ‘ultimate’ truth, or ‘ultimate’ level of reality, would, perhaps, be found when there is a ‘particle’ which can no longer be divided, if such things ‘exist’ ultimately. If they do not … well then we arrive at the quantum level, or what Buddhist metaphysics calls ‘emptiness’. In this paper I will use the Buddhist philosopher Dharmakirti’s imaginative deconstruction of reality, in the context of quantum theory, to try to answer the question which seems to be posed by quantum theory: Is ‘Reality’ really real? In our search for the ultimate nature of reality we have to leave behind the ‘seeming’ appearances of the everyday world, however persuasive the appearance may be, and break through to a more ‘ultimate truth’ concerning the nature of reality. We shall discover that Dharmakirti’s philosophical analysis, alongside other Buddhist insights, which lead to the ‘ultimate’ realm of ‘empty’ Mindnature, prefigures modern quantum discoveries, particularly the notion of an ‘Epiontic Universe’ which derives from the ‘quantum Darwinism’ perspective suggested by Wojciech H. Zurek.

Bernard d’Espagnat

Bernard d’Espagnat

Graham P. Smetham

The seemingly solid entities that sentient beings experience as the ‗truth‘ or mode of apprehension of the everyday world can, seemingly, be broken down into increasingly small particles. The ‗ultimate‘ truth, or ‗ultimate‘ level of reality, would, perhaps, be found when there is a ‗particle‘ which can no longer be divided, if such things ‗exist‘ ultimately. If they do not … well then we arrive at the quantum level, or what Buddhist metaphysics calls ‗emptiness‘. In this paper I will use the Buddhist philosopher Dharmakirti‘s imaginative deconstruction of reality, in the context of quantum theory, to try to answer the question which seems to be posed by quantum theory: Is ‗Reality‘ really real? In our search for the ultimate nature of reality we have to leave behind the ‗seeming‘ appearances of the everyday world, however persuasive the appearance may be, and break through to a more ‗ultimate truth‘ concerning the nature of reality. We shall discover that Dharmakirti‘s philosophical analysis, alongside other Buddhist insights, which lead to the ‗ultimate‘ realm of ‗empty‘ Mindnature, prefigures modern quantum discoveries, particularly the notion of an ‗Epiontic Universe‘ which derives from the ‗quantum Darwinism‘ perspective suggested by Wojciech H. Zurek.

Daniel Cossins