Protons, Neutrons, and Quarks

Trying to find new ways to explain what I’ve tried to explain before is always an interesting challenge. In this morning’s online class with some good friends back in Indiana, I was struck by another way to think of how we are not separate.

One of the main teachings in Buddhism is that there is no independent self, we are in actuality, all one. This is one of the most difficult principles to grasp because our eyes tell us we are separate. I’m inside my skin and the rest of you are outside of me and inside your own skin. So we certainly all appear to be separate. And we do look quite different.

But if we think down to the basic building blocks of say protons and neutrons, or even quarks, those are in each of my cells. They are also in the air around me, they are in the window I look through, in the trees beyond the window, in the clouds, and even in the stars that I know are there even if I cannot see them during the day.

The same particles that make up my body are in everything around me. They take different forms: me, the window, the trees, and the sky. But inside of me, my skin that encloses me, and the air next to my skin are all made of the same atomic particles: quarks, neutrons, and protons. So there really is no separation. What comprises me, comprises everything in the universe.

I truly am one with everything.

In the Eye of the Beholder

Ordinary people see everyone as ordinary.

Arhats see everyone as arhats.

Bodhisattvas see everyone as bodhisattvas.

Buddhas see everyone as Buddhas.

Wise people see everyone as teachers.

Pure Land practitioners should see everyone as Amitabha Buddha.

So if we look down on anyone,

we look down on Amitabha Buddha.

If we have conflict with anyone,

we have conflict with Amitabha Buddha.

~ Ven. Master Chin Kung

Linear or Cyclic?

In the East, people have largely thought of time as cyclic. We are born, we die, and we are reborn. What we think, say, and do will come back to us. A cause leads to a result that in turn becomes a new cause.

Viewing life as cyclic, the interconnectedness of everything becomes apparent. What I do here impacts what happens there. So before I say or do something, I need to first consider what I am about to do. To do this, I need to know what my intentions are. To know my intentions, I need to know my “self,” who I am. Such introspection lends itself to reflection, reflection to realization, realization to awakening, awakening to joy.

In the West however, we think of time as linear, a forward progression. People such as economists, politicians, scientists, and corporate executives have usually interpreted that to mean that our civilization will progress into a future that stretches endlessly before us. A future of more—more economic growth, more power to influence the lives of others, more scientific advancement and technology, and more unwitting customers.

We in the developed countries who enjoy some degree of good fortune also have our vision of more—more income and anticipated wealth, more living space to store more possessions, longer vacations to destinations farther away from home, new technologies to solve any problems we encounter, and medical advancements to cure diseases and the problems we bring upon ourselves by ill-chosen habits, to name just a few.

We have envisioned ourselves moving along an imaginary highway that stretches out into the future. We have seen ourselves as always advancing faster and higher. Any problems along the way would be handled by those economists, politicians, scientists, and corporate executives.

But with such forward-focused thinking, we have missed the interconnectedness. We have often distanced ourselves from our parents and grandparents, thinking them old-fashioned, so we cut off our past. We have used not only our fair share of what the Earth offers but our children’s share as well, so we have cut ourselves off from our children. We have seen ourselves as individuals apart from the world, so we have not realized that the suffering of others is also ours. We have immersed ourselves in self-indulgence, so we have suppressed our innate goodness that seeks awakening and perfection.

We have advanced more in the past one hundred years than at other such time in history. But we advanced in only one direction, and an unsustainable one at that. We haven't paid near enough attention to the inner advancement. And so it is hardly surprising that many are looking around and saying "This needs to change. We need to change. I need to change. Now."

Reaping What We Sow

Cause and effect is a natural, universal law; as natural as a leaf floating down from a tree, as universal as night following day. Since causality is a natural law, there is no judge or ruling body that determines our consequences. Neither is there blame or anger.

Simply put, we reap what we sow. The seeds we sowed with our past thoughts, speech, and actions determined our lives today. And just as our lives today were caused by those seeds, what we think, say, and do today will shape our future.

Understanding this, we can more wisely understand our world and those who inhabit it. Those who suffer misfortune as well those who enjoy good fortune are reaping the results of their past thoughts and actions. Lest we think we can dismiss the suffering of others as their own fault, we need to understand that each of us has planted similar seeds. It could just as well have been we who were trapped in poverty or consumed by illness. Just as easily we who watched home and means of livelihood washed out to sea.

Knowing we too have planted the seeds for hardship and suffering what can we do?

We can look around and decide what we want to continue and what we hope to never see again, and then determine the seeds for both. And we can understand that while we may not be able to change everything we wish; it is the right thing to do. We can then work to plant the good seeds as we create the conditions that enable those seeds to flourish and our bad to lie dormant.

By understanding that everything, even a careless word or unkind look, is subject to causality, we can ensure that all our thoughts and actions arise from the wish to behave virtuously and live compassionately.

Souls Separated by Phantoms

There are those who would quickly love each other

if once they were to speak to each other;

for when they spoke they would discover

that their souls were only separated by phantoms and delusions.

~ Ernest Hello, 19th century French philosopher

Student Raj Dhillon in conversation with a homeless woman in Toronto. Researching a project on transient housing, he wanted to know more about her circumstances.

Phot by James Scott

Poster by Yes! Magazine