Rough Outline

• Personal Reason for Starting Mentorship (particularly on Buddhism)
• Give some details regarding Buddhism --> What is the point of practicing Buddhism?
• Mindfulness -- How that has played a major role in not only my understanding of Buddhism, but also my understanding of the way we should approach understanding everything.
• Relationship between Buddhism and Physics - We cannot see the world as it is. (why?)
• Buddhism: The practice of seeing the world as it is
• The one obstacle that we face is that of suffering
• The Noble Eightfold Path is the way in which we can access this "true"/"real" world
• Not really a path, but rather a pattern. Each individual component is what we could call a phenomenon. 
• We can observe phenomenon (in other words: an actually defined event)
• A phenomenon is one piece of the large puzzle of reality --a drop in the ocean
• Physics: The study of the way things are 
• Humans have issues studying quantum mechanics because we have very little access on the quantum level. 
• Once again, what we observe are phenomenon (patterns) that are manifested.
• These phenomenon are only a piece of the puzzle, however they help us understand the larger context.
• We are not limited by only our perception, but our perception is a limitation (an idea I still need to work on) -- that's not a great explanation. 
• Explain double slit experiment in detail
• The Big Bang is just one phenomenon that we could observe, but it is just one event in the scheme of reality.
• Although it might seem like a paradox (science and religion) this paradox is only a phenomena, not the entire picture. As physics and buddhism shows, both relating to the nature of reality, that reality involves science and religion to work together. 
• Ideas to work with:
• Observations create phenomenon, which play a part in the grand scheme of reality
• Are observations limitations (meaning that there is more we can see, but choose not to see) or are we limited by observations (meaning that were are only one small part of the universe, and there is no way for us to truly understand the nature of reality because we ourselves are just a phenomenon)?
• There is nothing outside of the universe because the universe is expanding into empty space -- therefore we have to be a part of the universe -- observation from the inside
• "We are the universes way of experiencing itself..."

Mapping out a Presentation

It has been much since long since I have posted anything on here, and that is completely my fault. However, that is not the source of my worries as the source of my worries lies with the impending presentation which I have to make in about 3 weeks, to present the finding of my research for this project. Needless to say, there is still so much for me to explore and I believe that I have fragments of the big picture, but I need to string these fragments together somehow in order to coherently present it. The aim is not to come to a conclusion of the nature of reality, which I can assure you, that I do not know. 

Let's start with how this project came about. Completely independent of the relationship between science and religion, I simply wanted to learn more about the religious tradition which I have been brought up in. I recently learned that the Buddhist traditions that I have grown up with is heavily, heavily influenced by Hinduism, and does not mirror the Buddhism that directly relates to Physics. Yet, I find that I gravitate towards the more classical version of Buddhism that I have been investigating since the beginning of the year. There is much more simplicity in this Buddhist tradition, and simplicity is something that we has functioning members of society today can use much more of. One useful piece of information that I have learned from this experience is that of the concept of mindfulness. I now understand that in life, there will always be sources of suffering and that source could be something massive that is hard to control such as desire, but on a more applicable scale, I have learned to weed out unnecessary hardship. There are times when I consciously decide not to worry about something knowing that it will significantly reduce my stress level-- a very valuable lesson in my opinion.

Now, to the heart of this project. There is most definitely a connection between Buddhism and Physics, a connection unlike the constant opposition that seems to accompany the idea of religion and science. This connection comes about because Buddhism and Physics have the same goal, and both are focused on the same thing. Buddhism is the practice of seeing the way things truly are, and physics is the study of the way things truly are. They both attempt to get to the heart of the nature of reality (so, so vague). I should mention that the reality that we are so familiar with is all perception. In physics, the only thing we know about reality are the models that us humans have created. No one has actually seen an electron, and likewise, very few have experienced Nirvana. We somehow need to accept that we are part of the Universe... the way that we are approaching observation is by taking ourselves out of the Universe in order to observe it. Is it possible to observe our universe from the inside, and is that how we can come to the understanding of the nature of reality?

I definitely want to reference paradoxes in my presentation.

Life Gets in the Way of Mindfulness

At this time of year with exams and the holidays looming in the future, being mindful is practically impossible. I can barely go an entire two seconds without rattling off the assignments that I have yet to do, and then stressing about how I am going to do said assignments in a timely manner. Essentially, that means that I life completely in the future. Unfortunately, living in the future does not allow me to make time to sit and focus on being in the present. Obviously this is still something that I have to work on, and I have no doubt that I will speed a lifetime being more mindful. I just so happens that I am still not there yet, and I have a long ways to go.

On that note, I found some inspiration to live in the moment in a relatively unexpected place. This week, along with The Dancing Wu Li Masters, I started reading Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. There is a thread in the plot line regarding the main character in which he visits another planets and communicates with extraterrestrials called Tralfamadorians. The moment the man steps on the space ship, he is inclined to ask as to why the aliens had chosen him to enter their world. The aliens reply, "'That is a very Earthling question to ask, Mr. Pilgrim. Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because this moment simply is" (Vonnegut 97).

I find that I am constantly asking questions, which means I am not focusing on whatever it is I'm doing. I am however focusing on what I am about to do. I find that this quote seems to express something which goes against the study of physics and at the same time, is what the study of physics is all about. Here we go again with the paradoxes. First of all, there would be no such thing as physics because the goal of physics is to study how the world and universe around us works. We have to ask questions in order to get answers. However, sometimes questions can get in the way of observing. Scientists are essentially asking what is going to happen next? They aren't asking about what is happening right now?  Hypotheses and theories try to predict and explain patterns, things which will happen again and again, but does that necessarily mean that that thing is happening right now? Something to think about.

I'm Back

Guilty as charged. I haven't been blogging as regularly as I am supposed to, but just about everything I do somehow manages to find its way back to this mentorship. Since I last posted, I was able to practice sitting once more. However, this second experience was peculiarly different than the first. Perhaps I have to be in a specific mindset to be able to bring myself to the level of awareness I desire. Unfortunately, I have yet to figure out what that mindset is. Furthermore, I hope to reach a point in which I can achieve mindfulness regardless of how I'm feeling. This time, I just struggled to ignore the urges to think, and give into my thoughts as opposed to simply letting them go. Enough about my sitting practice for now. 

During my last mentorship meeting, I believe that I have arrived at the beginnings of the core of this project. The initial inception of this project stemmed from my desire to explore how two fields, science and religion, which have typically not seen eye to eye, can have such a cohesive relationship. A paradox if you will. It turns out, just about every detail of both Physics and Buddhism is a paradox in and of itself. For instance, the goal of the practice of Buddhism is to achieve enlightenment, but no one truly knows what enlightenment feels like unless they've been enlightened. The same goes for physics on both the minuscule and massive scale. Humans can only speculate what they believe to be happening of the atomic level and on the larger universal scale, but it is practically impossible to ever know what is actually going on. 

I have also started the unit on Cosmology in my Physics class and hopefully that will lead to some great observations. Thus far, I have concluded that the Big Bang Theory is very similar to the practice of sitting in that you have to be in the present moment. The mind has to be in a state where time does not exist before and after that moment, much like some insist is what happened when the Universe began. There was no such thing as time before the universe was created. Further, an article that I recently read for class very briefly mentions the relationship between science and religion where both science and religion strive to answer the same sorts of questions. However, I find it interesting that Buddhism is not truly concerned with some of the questions that other religions seem to want to answer. There is very little said in Buddhism about how the world came to be or what will happen to the Universe in the future. Perhaps, the key to understanding this relationship is understanding that Buddhism and Physics are NOT out to answer the same questions. In actuality, are the facts of one discipline, the answer to the other discipline's questions. This is definitely an idea that I think is worth pursuing. 

Let's Try Just Sitting

It all began as a typical friday at school. I woke up. I went to school. I went to classes, and all of a sudden, 4th period roles around. I couldn't help but feel slightly excited. After having two weeks of pure stress, I looked forward to my mentorship meeting in which I would be sitting for the first time. The Zen practice of sitting, is exactly what it sounds like. I had to will myself to fit still, and more importantly not think. How many times a day can I tell myself to stop thinking? With an incredibly busy schedule, finding time to do necessary things such as eat and sleep are hard. Know, I have the opportunity to work doing absolutely nothing into my schedule without feeling guilty about it.

After finding a spot to sit on the front lawn of my school, I took off my shoes and sat like a pretzel. Closing my eyes, i directed my attention to my breaths. I began to count each breath as they went in and out. I found that simply counting one's breath is not exactly easy. I found myself getting to about 3, when I could no longer count and returned back to one. The goal is to expel all thoughts from the mind and to me, counting was just too much to handle. During this exercise, I experienced a rather foreign feeling. Once my eyes were closed, I felt completely alone. All of this regardless of the fact that my history teach/mentor is sitting right across from me, and traffic was passing by as usual. To be alone, truly alone with oneself, as I have discovered, is actually terrifying. I actually don't think that until that point, I had ever truly been alone with myself, as cliché as that sounds. If you could imagine that the mind expands in all direction and there is absolutely nothing in that space, that is what it feels like. 

One of the goals of this exercise is to center the body and mind. While I had my legs crossed only in half lotus, and not full, I began to feel that an imbalance was looming. After sitting still for sometime, I could feel my body physically lean to one side, not at center where I was aiming to keep it. In this exercise, the mind and the body come together as one, and therefore, because I was not physically aligned, my mind had a larger margin to wander of, which is what happened. Nonetheless, being centered can only come with practice. 

After a whole twelve minutes, my little sitting session came to an end. Twelve minutes of doing nothing felt much closer to thirty. I can honestly say, that relieving the mind of all of the pressures of everyday life is an exercise that I fully intend to keep up. It might actually be the key to saving me from insanity.  

What is it About Physics?

As I mentioned in my last post, The Dancing Wu Li Masters by Gary Zukav is the simplistic break down of quantum physics into terms that the average person can understand. Luckily for me, in order to attempt the piecing together of the relationship between Buddhism and Physics, I need a foundation of the physics aspect also. Very early on, Zukav makes it clear that physics is not some mystical, complicated force that only "scientists" can understand, but it is an explanation of how the world around us works, even if, on a microscopic level. There is something to be said about the natural order of things, and there is a correlation between the natural order and Buddhism. Even though Buddhism is a relatively established religion, the goal which many serious Buddhist set for themselves, such as reaching Enlightenment and finally Nirvana is technically unknown to everyone that hasn't accomplished this task, and yet they are still pursued. Zukav, in trying to define  Wu Li masters, states, ". . . we will use the word 'physicists' from now on to mean those physicists who are also scientists, that is, those physicists (people) who are not confined by the 'known'" (17). Therefore, like Buddhist, Physicists are also out to understand that which is beyond ordinary knowledge.

Zukav also attempts to briefly explain the core of this book stating that, "This book is about physics. Therefore, all it contains is a description. It cannot contain the experience itself" (17).
Like Buddhism, physics can be described, but until the person goes out of their way to experience physics or Buddhism first hand, there is no way to truly know the essence of each. There is a reason why Buddhism is a practice. It is something which requires action, and without action, one can not hope to achieve relief from suffering. I think this is one of the reasons why sitting would be a good idea. I could read about sitting and study sitting, but I will not be able to experience the relief first hand otherwise.

Mindfulness Continued

This morning, as I began to listen to On Being with Krista Tippet, Tippet mentions Thich Nhat Hanh's collection on meditative calligraphy in her introduction, an idea that came into my mind's view yesterday as I was wandering around the Tulane University Bookstore. The bookstore sold an item, brought to my attention, which is called a Buddha Board. The Buddha Board is apparently a board that can be drawn on with water, and as that water dried, the image goes away, leaving the artist with a blank slate once again. 

At first, I did not think much of this product until realizing that maybe, it could be a highly effective way of clearing the mind of that which causes us to suffer. I believe that the intention is for the artist to enjoy that particular moment of painting, but I see it differently. I see the product as a way to express something which could be bothersome and then watch that particular something just disappear, leaving you feeling like your troubles just floated away. I've heard this process described as "ritualistic", and for Thay, he has developed this particular method into a form of effective meditation. 

It is interesting that one of the people who were interviewed by Tippet is a police officer in Wisconsin. After going on a retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh, this particular police officer realized that to do her job effectively, she needed to do it mindfully. There is a possibility that there can be a balance between being fierce and at the same time compassionate, two qualities, that in their own ways, are called for in her occupation yet unexpected. I think that this woman's story goes to show that the practice of mindfulness is not only for those seeking Enlightenment, but also beneficial to ordinary people doing ordinary things, even if it is just walking or breathing. Mindfulness is a path that leads one to do the things that they normally do, better. 

Note: I have been feeling incredibly uninspired and hopefully my next reading adventure, The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics by Gary Zukav will inspire me to be more reflective.