It is quite clear that the new quantum perspective indicates that all sentient beings carry a small part of the infinite awareness-consciousness which lies within the heart of reality. This also means that, as John Wheeler in the twentieth century and Buddhist philosophers for at least the last two thousand years have suggested, sentient beings are the agents through which the epiontic ground of the process of reality creates the dualistic world of experience. In fact it seems as if we live in an Epiontic Universe within which the perceptions and activities of all sentient beings determine how, within the limits of the available potentialities, the universe actually manifests. Furthermore human beings, because of their greater sphere of free-will are primarily responsible for the fate and nature of the universe on all levels of manifestation. And, as Stapp, Wheeler, Zurek and others indicate, the intentions and perceptions of sentient beings have a universal impact upon the quantum ground, vanishingly tiny though it may be for any particular individual being. This impact of the intentionality and perceptual activities of sentient beings upon deep levels of the quantum Mindnature universe is such that, as Wheeler and others have clearly indicated, the actual fabric of the appearance of the material world is produced, over vast time scales, by the quantum epiontic mechanism.
It is quite clear that the new quantum perspective indicates that all sentient beings carry a small part of the infinite awareness-consciousness which lies within the heart of reality. This also means that, as John Wheeler in the twentieth century and Buddhist philosophers for at least the last two thousand years have suggested, sentient beings are the agents through which the epiontic ground of the process of reality creates the dualistic world of experience. In fact it seems as if we live in an Epiontic Universe within which the perceptions and activities of all sentient beings determine how, within the limits of the available potentialities, the universe actually manifests. Furthermore human beings, because of their greater sphere of free-will are primarily responsible for the fate and nature of the universe on all levels of manifestation. And, as Stapp, Wheeler, Zurek and others indicate, the intentions and perceptions of sentient beings have a universal impact upon the quantum ground, vanishingly tiny though it may be for any particular individual being. This impact of the intentionality and perceptual activities of sentient beings upon deep levels of the quantum Mindnature universe is such that, as Wheeler and others have clearly indicated, the actual fabric of the appearance of the material world is produced, over vast time scales, by the quantum epiontic mechanism.
Some of Zurek’s remarks seem to indicate that he thinks that his analysis undermines the ‘ultimate evidence’ that the classical world is entangled and dependent upon consciousness. However, a rigorous analysis shows that the opposite is the case; Zurek’s epiontic quantum Darwinian classical universe is ultimately dependent upon consciousness. It would seem that the entire epiontic process of the evolution of reality is geared towards the production of ever greater levels of sentient awareness and the material world is an ‘advertising billboard’ for a realm of solidity amidst the ‘unreal’ ‘dream stuff’ of the quantum realm within which individualized consciousness can grow to fruition. And the reason that the apparent solidity of the apparently material universe comes into being is because the universe is nothing more than an enormous and multitudinous ultimately immaterial epiontic information exchange which takes place within the quantum ‘dream stuff is made of.’
In this paper I shall argue that the notion of the ‘existence’ of a ‘Mind Independent Reality’ (MIR) is ill conceived if one understands this concept as indicating that there is some ‘ultimate’ or final aspect of reality which is absolutely and totally beyond the mind’s com-prehension or experience. By elucidating the central features of the Buddhist Mind-Only metaphysical account of the operation of the ‘three natures’ of fundamental Mindnature in the context of modern quantum physics and quantum field theory I set out to show that a ‘Metaphysics of Nondual Epiontic Quantum Mindnature’ provides a comprehensive and exhaustive account of the process of reality; an account which has no room or necessity for a mind-independent reality (MIR).
A recent encounter with a quantum physicist has prompted me to examine the claims made by some interpreters of the work of Wojciech H. Zurek, and perhaps by Zurek himself – he does not seem to be clear on this point, that the quantum Darwinian approach to decoherence provides a means to establish the ‘objectivity’ of the classical world through the quantum ‘epiontic’ mechanism. A detailed and rigorous philosophical analysis of Zurek’s perspective indicates that the kind of objectivity provided by the quantum Darwinian physical-metaphysical perspective corresponds to what Bernard d’Espagnat terms ‘weak objectivity’, which is in fact a mixture of objectivity and subjectivity. Some of Zurek’s remarks seem to indicate that he thinks that his analysis undermines the ‘ultimate evidence’ that the classical world is entangled and dependent upon consciousness. However, a rigorous analysis shows that the opposite is the case; Zurek’s epiontic quantum Darwinian classical universe is ultimately dependent upon consciousness. I also indicate some remarkable points of contact with Buddhist metaphysics.
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.
What quantum theory has revealed about the nature of reality has remained hidden in plain sight for almost one-hundred years because what quantum theory has revealed about the nature of reality cannot be comprehended in the context of the materialist model and conception of reality in which science presently operates, which materialist model places physical reality at the center of reality and Consciousness at the periphery, as a secondary or derivative reality. What this work will demonstrate, by explaining the heretofore inexplicable basis of the phenomena that lie at the heart of quantum theory, is that it is Consciousness (God) rather than physical reality that lies at the center of reality, and that it is physical reality rather than Consciousness that is a secondary or derivative reality. Specifically, wave-particle duality, quantum uncertainty, quantum non-locality, the probabilistic nature of the wavefunction, and the collapse of the wavefunction, will all be shown to be phenomena that have as their basis the way in which the fundamental Reality of Consciousness (God), through relation to Itself, creates what it apprehends as physical reality. One of the most important things the phenomena that lie at the heart of quantum theory will be shown to reveal about the nature of reality is that the nature of physical reality is like that of a reflection, and like a reflection, physical reality is able to obscure from view what is actually there, as long as it is mistaken for what is actually there. Thus, in revealing the reflection-like nature of physical reality, the phenomena that lie at the heart of quantum theory indirectly reveal that what is actually there, underlying the reflection that is physical reality, is the non-physical, non-experiential Reality of Consciousness (God) that is, through relation to Itself, both creating and apprehending experiential reality in general and physical reality in particular. Ultimately, understanding the reflection-like nature of physical reality should make it possible for Individuals to understand that what actually Exists directly where they are, where their physical bodies appear to be, is not different in Nature than what actually Exists everywhere else as well, where the rest of physical reality appears to be, thereby disabusing them of the notion that what they are is a physical reality, while at the same time revealing to them their true Nature as part of Consciousness (God), which, through relation to that which is also Consciousness (God), creates what they, as Individual points of Consciousness (God), apprehend as experiential reality in general and physical reality in particular. Part I of this series of three articles includes: Background; Introduction; and 1. Building a new model of reality.
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.