Here You Are...Wondering...Where Do I Come From...Branes Before The Big Bang

I love Branes - and these great BBC videos of them. 

As a child, whenever I had a high fever and was lying in bed almost unconsciously - just when I knew in my feverish head "one more step and I'm dead" - or, nowadays, when I meditate - I "experience" these branes, or maybe, what these physicists call, the 11th dimension. The floating into "each other" and around each other feels very, very strange and pleasurable in a hard to explain brain and upper spine related way - both vacuously nonresistant and "thick" at the same time.

I have wondered about them for many decades and tried to describe the experience to people over the years to see if anyone could relate. Now, all I have to do is show them these videos and encourage them to somehow identify with and "become" the branes they are watching.

"Who lives in the 11th dimension?"

We do! - whether we know it or not.

M Theory works for me in terms of finally explaining a familiar meditation experience - and the physicists make me chuckle when they look so serious and surprised - with just as much trouble trying to explain what they have discovered.

Before the Big Bang - Branes!

And before Branes?

It's a Koan with a definite answer beyond words or formulae.

It's where we came from. How? You'd have to go to the "God Dimension" to find out. That dimension is beyond thought, feeling, or experience - pure, crystal clear consciousness - and "there" it becomes obvious who we are, where we came from and where we'll go. Once physicists discover this dimension they will again ask "who lives in the God dimension?" and the answer will again be: "We do! Whether we know it or not." Much like people lived in the solar system in this galaxy long, long before they knew it.

Here You Are...Wondering... How Everything Appears Out Of Nowhere ... Lawrence Krauss Lecture

...Like The Waves Rise Up From The Sea...

Lawrence Krauss is one of our brilliant physicists. Brilliant physicists can make you laugh like Buddhist masters can, as they try to put into words the nature or existence. Why we even try to do this for each other is the mystery of love - mutually "destructive" enlightenment to balance the constructs of our minds.

Here You Are...With The Wind Blowing In Your Hair...William Kamkwamba And His Windmill

Easily the best story I have come across in a long time!!! Sure makes it seem silly we can't solve the energy problem in the US. All we need are some smart and crazy boys and girls.

Entanglement And Pointlessness

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ja0UUKbVlhA

When scientists are lost for words like the enlightened ones because their discoveries are close to impossible to describe - we are on to something - even if it is ancient news. The outer reflects the inner. Ancient texts and sages describe all of these things in detail, and it is exciting to see Western scientists catching up.

Entanglement is still an idea suggesting time and space, even though the idea of instant information over significant distances starts to hint at the truth of stillness and oneness where time and space only exist as potential. When a meditation student gets to this point he usually exclaims. "Well, now what?!" - which always gives the master a good belly laugh. Or, as a Berkeley Physics Professor friend asked me a bit annoyed once: "Well, what would be the point?"

There is no point to the truth. That is why it eludes us for so long, because we like there to be a point. The truth that sets us free from all questions is pointless, or it would not be the final truth.

BBC Documentary On Physics

The Scientists are catching up with the mystics - with M-Theory. The past resistance amongst physicists to infinite parallel universes surprised me. It would seem obvious. Thinking we are the only universe seems childish - equal to our past, in which we thought we were the only "world", and flat at that.

If truly in touch with infinity, eternity and stillness - as possible through meditation - the idea of constants for example, like the speed of light, the magnetic force, the nuclear force etc., are a dead give-away that this can only be one version of an infinite variety of universes.

As recommended - when one does not understand something - as in how could scientists be so blind for so long - one needs to follow the money trail. Physics is subject to fads and fashions, and funding that follows them, determined by "gurus who dictate the direction in which new ideas grow" quoting super gravity theorist and defender of the 11th dimension and infinite parallel universes, Micheal Duff of the University of Michigan.

The following clips are a nice summary of physics so far. But - even after all this work, we are thrown back into cause and effect thinking - as now we have a cause for the Big Bang. Now we need to find out how membranes are created - when and out of what. Even if we create universes in our basements in the future, as suggested by one of the scientists whose name is not given in the videos, it still does not explain much, except maybe who we think God might be from then on - just a kid in a basement feeling creative. No question this could make us feel a bit more significant in our infinite insignificance.

Mystics are hard to impress. A mystic does not try to describe the physical universe or explain its cause with logical math equations, which is what physicists and cosmologists try to do. A mystic may resort to poetry, but mostly only tries to remind people to be still long enough to remember for themselves. This is another law of existence - that this knowledge is available to anyone regardless of material resources for discovery.

The nature of existence - all of existence including infinite universes - is stillness. We can unite with this stillness and know! One tiny step out of that stillness, in other words, the tiniest movement imaginable, creates time and space in which all universes and all infinite variety grows, and from which everything eventually again returns home. This home is beyond cause and effect, time, space or movement. It is nothing but infinite potential. The empty moment before creation is not the cause of creation but its origin and its destination, much like the emptiness in a teacup is not the cause of the tea one drinks from it.

My Baby's Universe And Symmetry

My "baby" (a Mom's relative term) is nine years old, and he is very interested in the Universe lately.

As I read about the Physics Nobel Prize going to Makoto Kobayashi, Toshihide Maskawa, and Yoichiro Nambu recognizing their work on the hidden symmetries of elementary particles today in the New York Times, I realized I better figure out how to explain quarks to my little scientist. I managed to explain the basic Atom to him the other day, but quarks are a different story. And symmetry - well...you can get a feeling for it in the above picture of the Golden Rock Kyaiktiyo Pagoda.

In 1972 three kinds of quarks were known - the up, and the down and the strange quark. In 1974 charmed quarks were discovered, and then in 1977 and 1994 bottom and top quarks. It made me laugh when I read this. This would make a cute children's book. Quarks are the constituents of protons and neutrons which make up the nucleus of an atom.

That which holds together the nucleus, is the pion, which is the carrier of the strong nuclear force. The lightness of the pion is its magic and gives the nuclear force it's reach to hold together elements that are constructed in many different size configurations. Pretty cool stuff.

Then there is the mystical Higgs-Boson - the hidden molasses and stubbornness of the universe that theoretically gives everything its mass. We may find out soon how this works, but then - we'll have to find out what the Higgs-Boson is made of and to do that we usually think we have to take things even further apart.

When I was nine, my universe was much more manageable, made up of the Sun, the Moon, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter, stars, the Milky Way, and space - lots of space!!! - and everything I knew here on Earth was made of invisible, small atoms. God knew all , and I knew somehow that I would too, when dead.

My son on the other hand- as a fan of the Science Channel, "bets" there is life in the ice covered oceans of Europa, and in the lethal clouds of opposite-to-Earth-spinning Venus. He bases his guesses on the thriving life in the lethal environments of our deep sea volcanic vents. As far as everything here on Earth is concerned - atoms to him will be tiny, gigantic things made up of whole universes (once I explain them properly). And God - just seems to be known to him. No explanation needed. Here You Are may have something to do with that, without me ever having had to explain much.

The world of atoms and subatomic particles he is not yet very impressed with - because the eternal question: "And what are those then made of?" - no matter how many times we split nothing into nothing, cannot be answered by me, at least not in terms of physics. The truth that we don't exist at all and that all this matter is an illusion, is no fun for a nine-year-old, and simply annoying to almost everyone else. It can put a knowing smile only on the face of an old sage.

In meditation there is also a point of perfect symmetry.The way I usually explain it is with the image of standing under the sun at noon at which point the shadow matches the soles of one's feet. It appears and disappears according to the balance of two things. Once they are out of perfect alignment "the third" appears, in this case the shadow, and takes on infinite forms and shapes. The koan to contemplate is: "Is there a shadow under your feet?"

When you are nine, your shadow (thought) is still small and you are very busy growing it. Only later in life do you start longing for the days of small or absent shadows and try to find your way back. Meditators find their way back to this original state of union - that perfect symmetry - through love, trust , infinite patience and courage. Those are the same qualities required of parents.

The God Particle

The Dalai Lama is trying to bring science and religion together by especially working with brain researchers as described in "The Destructive Emotions". So are some other theologians. We should take notice.

Science and religion seem to be at war the same way the Democrats and Republicans are at war. A whole new approach is needed to our search for truth. An approach that does not have power or profit as a motive, and that doesn't suffer from mutual disdain. A Buddhist monk may just be a good leader in this endeavor.

Science describes everything it sees, then formulates laws which it tests through predictions and verifiable experiments. Since all those laws are bound to hit "horizons" where they no longer apply, science then looks for more insight in the far, far away in time and space all the way back to the big bang, both in the macro and micro cosmos. Thus science is endlessly fascinating. But not as much as meditation, and much slower and more expensive.

Experiments typically try to split matter into tinier and tinier units, using stronger and stronger colliders. You don't need to be a physicist to realize that no matter how often you split matter you will never get to nothing or zero. We are trying to find the Ur-Particle, presently called the Higgs Boson - a no-mass, no-spin "particle".

Here is how Brian Greene, professor of math and physics at Columbia, puts it this morning in the New York Times:

"Perhaps space is pervaded by a field...that acts like invisible molasses. When we push something to make it move faster, the Higgs molasses would exert a drag force - and it's this resistance, as the Higgs theory goes - that we commonly call the object's mass."

Meditators - and that is where we need the brain scientists to join the party - would call this hypothetical molasses field "thought". Everything we know comes out of nothing and returns to nothing by the mystery of thought. Meditators know both the most subtle levels of thought, and - if they have experimented long enough - the realm of no thought, where there simply is no physical phenomena or mass of any kind. Thought, not as words but as subtle movements of mind, creates the resistance needed for matter to appear in time and space. We also know of supersymetry were every such movement has its exact opposite - together they can annihilate the universe.

The physicists have baptized the Higgs Boson the God Particle. Are physicists prepared to be in the presence of a God particle? I can't wait to see this - it will be amusing.

The fact that physicists may know nothing of meditation, may not understand thought and its origin, or how it creates and destroys the universe, is of some concern when they go to great length at smashing particles in an effort to discover the secret of the universe. Hopefully they aren't even close to the "answer" or ancient history might repeat itself where curiosity killed the cat. The fact that religious people have, and are still stoning people, has made us overlook some of the warnings in religious texts about trying to discover "the secret of the universe" and acquiring "God power". One aspect of God's infinite power is his infinite powerlessness. Are we prepared for such powerlessness?

A meditator knows that the secret of the universe is revealed in its annihilation - and we are wondering how this will turn out in the physics lab. To a meditator, the physicist is someone who is standing in front of a mirror studying every movement, color, shape etc., with ever more precision and complicated math, making predictions and designing experiments to test his theories - without ever realizing he is looking in a mirror. He needs to wake up to this fact or his more and more intense efforts are going to shatter the mirror. Which may be one way - and hopefully a harmless way - to this discovery,a s well.

Physicist look down on people who don't understand their elusive math and their sophisticated machines, while we look down on their attachment to the mind and its infinite illusions. They think we are fooled by our stupidity, we think they are fooled more dangerously by their intelligence. If we don't come together we may indeed destroy our world. The wisdom of smashing two tiny particles together at a velocity or violence level of twice the speed of light is at first thought, frightening. It seems that only the speed of light, is the level of violence natural in this present universe. Then again - doubling it would be a natural next step for universe dwellers to try out. Hopefully it is built into the universe's plan for us. That would indeed be very exciting.

Meditators would be well prepared for infinite and eternal existence outside of time and space, and to them it would be pure bliss - while to physicists the same realm would be eternal and infinite boredom, because there is no thought. Physicists are very attached to thinking but don't know what it is, because they have never stopped it long enough.

Hopefully the experiments in Switzerland will not mean the end of the material world. Here is a video of Brian Greene explaining things, which makes it easy to jump on the excitement wagon. We are still hoping for logic in a final, elegant, unified theory. The final truth can only be expressed in a paradox, so it will be a while before we'll get there, if at all, in physics. Jesus said:"You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free." We all long for this truth and freedom. For a scientist this freedom means no more questions. What scientist may not know is that the final answer will be a question that dissolves into omniscient not-knowing.

In this video, notice the physicist who studied swimming by reading a book - those are the folks who tell us we won't sink - even though we are swimming in the water waiting for them to jump in. Hopefully they won't drain the pool. Physicists and meditators have one thing in common - they love experiments and danger, and are willing to risk all - for truth.

While some scientists are still worried about the experiments scheduled at the LHC in Switzerland, most scientists are as excited as this guy - Brian Greene, mentioned above. We live in interesting times...

September 10th Particle Collision at LHC

On September 10th, we start experimentation with a whole new level of particle collision in Switzerland at the Large Hadron Collider. You can find a lengthy discussion about this project by what seems to be physics students and lay people, here, or if you can make sense of actual physic go here to Tommaso Dorigo of the University of Padua.

The bottom line is, that it is an Experiment. Experiments by their very nature have predictable AND un-predictable results. Governments and scientific organizations have been suing each other for years arguing about its safety. The problem here? Black holes. Tiny ones that are expected to disappear instantly, or fall off into space for others to deal with - or - suck up the whole universe. It is definitely beyond my ability to assess whether I should worry. Skeptical scientists used to worry that people would explode in fast moving trains. And yes, trains have exploded but not because of science, but because of religion and politics - when motivations of power and greed were combined with fast moving trains. There-in lies the danger.

We used to think that we were the center of the universe, with the sun orbiting our enormous world, and the sky surrounding us with millions of little lights to make things sparkle. Suddenly we were just one planet of many, in a mediocre solar system. Then even our solar system was just a tiny spec of dust in a gigantic galaxy, and after that even our galaxy turned out to be nothing much among a sea of far more gigantic galaxies. Now superstring theory is talking about infinite universes, so even our universe is no big deal. If we take this to its logical conclusion - we don't exist at all. This final leap into this paradoxical realization may be the hardest one to accept. Of course it is possible that in higher physics circles they already know this, the same way this is known to the enlightened ones.

There is the chance that through this kind of experiment at the LHC, our non-existence will become clear or at least something to consider and build into the physics equations, as well as into our religious understanding. The annihilation of the universe may indeed turn out to be the result of this experiment - not literally, but in our understanding of things - or better - our realization of Nothing, meaning our infinite and eternal existence outside the realm of time and space.

May we have the required humility and grace to handle such knowledge.

String Theory

I love math and physics the way men love women - it's all so mysterious and irresistible, and can drive you out of your mind. Yet those sweet moments of inspiration make it all worth while. String theory is definitely irresistible. You don't have to understand it all to notice its beauty. To fully appreciate it, you would need the discipline required by a mathematician or physicist. In the end, all math and physics is but a koan, as in - "what is the sound of one hand clapping?". Or, my husband's favorite: "If a man speaks in the woods, and there is no one there to hear him, is he still wrong?"

String theory's hadrons, and friends like leptons, quarks, and my favorites - gluons, I am getting very fond of - maybe because of the names, or maybe just because they are so very, very little - the inherent virtue of smallness. String theory even has kaons - which are not koans, but something small enough to blow your mind anyway.

Interestingly, as we consider the smallest of the small, our sense of the infinite vastness of the universe expands. Maybe when we get down to nothing - God will become clear. Atheists will be right - "there is no God" - and Muslims, too, when they add..."but God". There is no place where God is not, yet there is no God. His very non-existence makes God omnipresent. This may drive a mathematician out of his mind. Then again, maybe not - they are used to logic problems like this.

God's infinite powerlessness is his infinite power. If you don't understand the power of powerlessness, you haven't spent much time with a baby. The power of small things is very clear to mothers and physicists.

Stretch Your Mind, Then Drop It

The answer to all the questions anyone could ever come up with - the final answer - is found in deepest stillness. This sounds "silly and simple" in direct proportion to a person's perception and experience of stillness and silence. Once this infinite and eternal stillness is known, there is no need to know anything else, yet infinite things can be studied for fun and in order to change whatever one would like to change - be it for survival, pleasure or just because it would be interesting.

It is like the "needs versus wants" thing. We want to know a million and one things about the universe and beyond, but we only need to know one thing. This one thing is accessible to all through meditation and stillness. The depth possible of this stillness and meditation is in direst proportion to a person's lack of fear and ability to trust and love. This may sound easy - and it is - but it can be as impossible as the professor trying to find the glasses that are sitting on top of his own head.

So here is an interesting video. It is an attempt to understand with the mind what ultimately is inaccessible to the mind. To have some fun with the mind, though, this one is a nice yoga stretch into the ninth and tenth dimension. Don't hurt yourself! Don't worry if you don't get it one or two dimensions past the fourth or fifth. It's OK. You'll want to understand all the dimensions, but you only need to understand the dimension before the first, and after the last.