For Buddhists and Hindus it's a given that rebirth exists, however, the modern world and physical science seems to conflict this belief that has survived for eons. The fact that it has survived deserves a closer look. What is rebirth? The Hindus say it's the say soul that migrates; Buddhists say it is the consciousness; Jains and Sikhs also maintain its a soul. Whatever becomes , let's put it aside and take up the common theme of rebirth.
Quantum physics is very different from the classical physics all of us are accustomed to. The classical version tells us when a ball hits a surface it rebounds, quantum physics tells us that the ball both rebounds and penetrates the wall because it is both a wave as well as a particle since matter is of dual nature! This dual nature was confirmed by the infamous Young's double slit experiment, see this video Double Slit Experiment
If you had watched the video, you would know that the observer plays a crucial role, almost the very essence of the experiment. This baffled physicists and the only possible conclusion that they came up with was the existence of consciousness and we are not just the physical. Consciousness interacts with matter around it and continuously collapses the wave function to a single possibility that we experience. What is the wave function? The wave function are the infinite possibilities that is used to describe an event. An event could be as simple as throwing a ball or as complex as shooting an electron through two slits as in the double slit experiment. But why is it that we don't experience these quantum effects in daily life?
So we have reached the conclusion that the mind is not necessarily an extension of the brain and it can interact with matter around it without having to stay inside the body, so to speak. In Vipassana, one can see that the mind which is rooted in anger, greed and delusion has no reason to stop after physical death.
The videos below show an interesting case of a three year old boy telling his parents about intricate details of airplanes used in the WWII and that he died in a plane crash.
A boy recounting his past life part 1
A boy recounting his past life part 2
Both the videos show that the kid remembered his past life because he died in a traumatic manner and the mind was unable to let go of that event. If this case felt like the parents wanting fame, let us look at something more scientific and formally presented.
Ian Pretyman Stevenson, MD was a Canadian biochemist and professor of psychiatry. Until his retirement in 2002, he was head of the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia, which investigates the paranormal. This is a lecture before his retirement presented to university colleagues. Before watching that lecture take a look at what other scientists had to say about Professor Ian Stevenson.
Robert Almeder, PhD on Stevenson
Professor Ian Stevenson case study presentation
Robert Almeder and other scientists believe that some people undergo rebirth, good thing they believe at least that. But ufff... it is true that everybody who is alive had past lives, even animals. The only reason for rebirth to take place is: ignorance. The Buddha explained it by dependent origination.
'Deep is this dependent origination, and deep its appearance. It's because of not understanding and not penetrating this Truth that this generation is like a tangled skein, a knotted ball of string, like matted rushes and reeds, and does not go beyond transmigration, beyond the planes of deprivation, woe, and bad destinations.'
For more on this important discourse by the Buddha : Dependent Origination
The mind is everything, what you think you become - the Buddha said. Doesn't remind you of something we went through in quantum mechanics, yes, the wave function being collapsed by us at each moment of our existence. The teachings of the Buddha are astoundingly scientific. The Buddha can show only the way, one must walk the path for himself to realize freedom from Samsara- the endless cycle of rebirth which entails birth, aging, death, sickness, pain, anguish, sorrow, lamentation and a huge amount of suffering that we go through. The way out of suffering, for those who are interested of course, is the way of mindfulness that leads to true happiness and freedom from suffering.
Way of mindfulness: How to Meditate (Vipassana)
Please feel free to comment or to ask any question.
Peace to all,
Bharath
Quantum physics is very different from the classical physics all of us are accustomed to. The classical version tells us when a ball hits a surface it rebounds, quantum physics tells us that the ball both rebounds and penetrates the wall because it is both a wave as well as a particle since matter is of dual nature! This dual nature was confirmed by the infamous Young's double slit experiment, see this video Double Slit Experiment
If you had watched the video, you would know that the observer plays a crucial role, almost the very essence of the experiment. This baffled physicists and the only possible conclusion that they came up with was the existence of consciousness and we are not just the physical. Consciousness interacts with matter around it and continuously collapses the wave function to a single possibility that we experience. What is the wave function? The wave function are the infinite possibilities that is used to describe an event. An event could be as simple as throwing a ball or as complex as shooting an electron through two slits as in the double slit experiment. But why is it that we don't experience these quantum effects in daily life?
In quantum mechanics, answers also depend on the way the question is asked; i.e.,on the experiment performed. When physicists asked what light is made of, sometimes it answered that it was made up of particles, sometimes that it was made of waves. But while time-frequency decompositions are different perspectives on a signal that one knows, and that doesn't change, one can't have a perspective on the reality of quantum mechanics without changing that reality. Every time one measures the system, one changes it. So saying that light is made up of particles or of waves makes no sense. It's both at once, in flagrant contradiction with our experience and common sense. There is only one reality, the wave function; trying to understand it with a mentality molded by our deterministic world seems deemed to fail. We don't experience quantum effects in daily life because we are constantly interacting with reality and collapsing the wavefunction as part of our experience. The uncertainty in position and momentum are of the order of 6.632x10^-27 which is practically invisible to us and hence we don't experience quantum effects in daily life. (The world according to wavelets by Barbara Burke Hubbard)
So we have reached the conclusion that the mind is not necessarily an extension of the brain and it can interact with matter around it without having to stay inside the body, so to speak. In Vipassana, one can see that the mind which is rooted in anger, greed and delusion has no reason to stop after physical death.
The videos below show an interesting case of a three year old boy telling his parents about intricate details of airplanes used in the WWII and that he died in a plane crash.
A boy recounting his past life part 1
A boy recounting his past life part 2
Both the videos show that the kid remembered his past life because he died in a traumatic manner and the mind was unable to let go of that event. If this case felt like the parents wanting fame, let us look at something more scientific and formally presented.
Ian Pretyman Stevenson, MD was a Canadian biochemist and professor of psychiatry. Until his retirement in 2002, he was head of the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia, which investigates the paranormal. This is a lecture before his retirement presented to university colleagues. Before watching that lecture take a look at what other scientists had to say about Professor Ian Stevenson.
Robert Almeder, PhD on Stevenson
Professor Ian Stevenson case study presentation
Robert Almeder and other scientists believe that some people undergo rebirth, good thing they believe at least that. But ufff... it is true that everybody who is alive had past lives, even animals. The only reason for rebirth to take place is: ignorance. The Buddha explained it by dependent origination.
'Deep is this dependent origination, and deep its appearance. It's because of not understanding and not penetrating this Truth that this generation is like a tangled skein, a knotted ball of string, like matted rushes and reeds, and does not go beyond transmigration, beyond the planes of deprivation, woe, and bad destinations.'
For more on this important discourse by the Buddha : Dependent Origination
The mind is everything, what you think you become - the Buddha said. Doesn't remind you of something we went through in quantum mechanics, yes, the wave function being collapsed by us at each moment of our existence. The teachings of the Buddha are astoundingly scientific. The Buddha can show only the way, one must walk the path for himself to realize freedom from Samsara- the endless cycle of rebirth which entails birth, aging, death, sickness, pain, anguish, sorrow, lamentation and a huge amount of suffering that we go through. The way out of suffering, for those who are interested of course, is the way of mindfulness that leads to true happiness and freedom from suffering.
Way of mindfulness: How to Meditate (Vipassana)
Please feel free to comment or to ask any question.
Peace to all,
Bharath
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