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Liberation and Enlightenment

Seonaigh MacPherson

Published Apr 29, 2011• 80 citations

Abstract

In 1997, I attended a Mind and Life dialogue between H. H. the Dalai Lama and prominent American and European physicists in Dharamsala, India. Among them was Professor Anton Zeilinger of the University of Vienna, an expert in quantum mechanics who, the following year, oversaw the fi rst successful quantum teleportation experiment. After describing the sequence of experiments that established quantum mechanics as a fi eld, research in which light was found to be paradoxically both a particle and a wave, Professor Zeilinger asked the Dalai Lama if he had any questions. The Dalai Lama, attentive and absorbed in the narrative explanation, nodded and began an intriguing exchange, which went something like this: “This history and these fi ndings confi rm the Buddhist view that if you analyse any phenomenon in search of its essence, as you scientists have done with light, you will arrive at the realization of its ultimate lack of inherent existence: its emptiness. Yet, I am left wondering how this knowledge, these insights about the nature of light, affected you.”

DOI: 10.4324/9780203825723-11

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In 1997, I attended a Mind and Life dialogue between H. H. the Dalai Lama and prominent American and European physicists in Dharamsala, India. Among them was Professor Anton Zeilinger of the University of Vienna, an expert in quantum mechanics who, the following year, oversaw the fi rst successful quantum teleportation experiment. After describing the sequence of experiments that established quantum mechanics as a fi eld, research in which light was found to be paradoxically both a particle and a wave, Professor Zeilinger asked the Dalai Lama if he had any questions. The Dalai Lama, attentive and absorbed in the narrative explanation, nodded and began an intriguing exchange, which went something like this: “This history and these fi ndings confi rm the Buddhist view that if you analyse any phenomenon in search of its essence, as you scientists have done with light, you will arrive at the realization of its ultimate lack of inherent existence: its emptiness. Yet, I am left wondering how this knowledge, these insights about the nature of light, affected you.”

Abstract The morning after our arrival in Dharamsala, India, home to many Tibetans in exile, I made my way by foot along narrow, rutted roads until I came to the Tibetan Children’s Village. Nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas, the orphanage and schools of the Children’s Village make up a small world of some 2,500 refugee children, teachers, and caregivers striving to preserve their ancient culture while simultaneously becoming part of modern civilization. Nearby is the residence and monastery of His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. During the coming week, from October 27 to 31, 1997, five other scientists and I would be conversing with him about our intersecting interests, Buddhist philosophy and modern physics.

Abstract What happens when the Dalai Lama meets with leading physicists and a historian? This book is the carefully edited record of the fascinating discussions at a Mind and Life conference in which five leading physicists and a historian (David Finkelstein, George Greenstein, Piet Hut, Arthur Zajonc, Anton Zeilinger, and Tu Weiming) discussed with the Dalai Lama current thought in theoretical quantum physics, in the context of Buddhist philosophy. A contribution to the science-religion interface, and a useful explanation of our basic understanding of quantum reality, couched at a level that intelligent readers without a deep involvement in science can grasp. In the tradition of other popular books on resonances between modern quantum physics and Zen or Buddhist mystical traditions--notably The Dancing Wu Li Masters and The Tao of Physics, this book gives a clear and useful update of the genuine correspondences between these two rather disparate approaches to understanding the nature of reality.

Abstract Dalai Lama: In Buddhist logic, one commonly speaks of a phenomenon being of one nature but having different terms. For example, Anton may be regarded as a certain woman’s son, and he is a certain child’s father. That certain child’s father and that certain woman’s son have the same nature. But there are two approaches, with different terminologies for the same entity, depending on context. Is there a similar structure or classification within physics? On that basis also, one speaks of mutual exclusivity of two phenomena having their own distinct natures. If something is A, it cannot possibly be B. If it is B, it cannot possibly be A. There is no third option. This runs throughout Buddhist logic and epistemology. In a previous Mind and Life conference, a question was raised as to whether the law of the excluded middle is tenable. At that time, the scientists responded that it was not actually tenable any longer. The grounds given were very different from the ones given today. The discussion so far this morning has not made it clear that the law of the excluded middle is untenable or even that it is being challenged.

本論文は、量子論と仏教を通して得られる実在の視点から、国際移動を取り巻く「現実」という概念について分析する。そこではニュートン物理学が前提とするような強固で確立された世界ではなく、量子論・仏教が前提とするような常に変化し続ける世界を前提とする。この視点に立った時、アクターは本質を持たず常に様々な関係の中で形成されていく。そしてこの形成過程も必ずしも一直線ではなく、アクターのアイデンティティは蛇行・円環を繰り返しながら変化していく。つまり、ここでの実在とは変化そのものなのである。この現実を国際移動という文脈に落とし込んだ時、「難民」「移民」という言葉が当事者を決定していることが見えてくる。つまり、観察者の前に「難民」「移民」がいるのではなく、観察者と彼・彼女たちとの関係が「難民」「移民」を生み出すのである。本稿ではこの視点を活かしながら「難民」「移民」とセキュリタイゼーションの問題に焦点を当てる。