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Buddhism and Quantum Mechanics |
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Jeffrey Grupp |
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A few of the primary areas of my academic research involve in-depth study of the following three areas:
My academic research specifically focuses on the similarities between 1, 2 and 3—between Indian Buddhism and modern quantum physics. Much has been made of the similarities between physics and Buddhism. My research specifically focuses on the nature of the particles (which are infinitesimal bits of instantaneous energy) that make up reality, according to early Indian Buddhists (Dharmakirti, etc.) and according to quantum physicists. In the end, the comparison of 1 - 3 leads to the philosophy of Buddhist atomism (which I also call abstract Buddhist atomism), which has been a widely discussed philosophy in India since the time of the Buddha. In my recent article, "The R-Theory of time, or Replacement Presentism: The Buddhist Theory of Time," Published in The Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies, I show how reality is composed of irreducible, unconnected and unattached, indistinguishable, non-physical atoms of energy that are momentary and instantaneous (flashing in and out of existence) (these points have been argued for by Buddhists before me, but in my article there are novel and contemporary descriptions and arguments given for abstract Buddhist atomism). I discuss in the aforementioned article how this view of reality is astonishingly similar to the model of the universe and reality discovered by physicists. Also, I discuss that early Indian Buddhists, who maintain that all of reality is perpetually changing, it is by this changing that reality is vibrating (flashing in and out of existence), due to the vibrating of the atoms of energy. But both quantum theorists and Indian Buddhists both have not shown precisely why reality is composed of atoms of energy that flash in and out of existence. Why do they flash in and out of existence? Could it not have instead been the case that they just exist eternally, or that they exist through a perduring set of temporal parts? Also, reality could be composed of no-change, just as philosophers of Brahman have argued, as Parmenides argued, and just as a few physicists have suggested. In "The R-Theory of time, or Replacement Presentism: The Buddhist Theory of Time" I show precisely why the irreducible particles that compose reality must be momentary (i.e., exist for only a durationless instant, before being replaced). [More will be online in the next few days... Sorry for the delay. For now, you can read more about physics and Buddhism at another page on this site: Buddhist Atomism]
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