March 23, 2013 Einstein and Buddha (English version of February 15, 2013 written in Japanese)
In the article dated April 19, 2012, I wrote that Buddha taught us that regarding our beings, they are at the center of a circle with an infinite length of radius and a moment they disappear and a moment later regenerate ever changing and this concept is very similar to the world of Einstein's theory of relativity.
A Malaysian friend of mine read my article written above, and notified me that an American named Thomas McFarlane wrote Einstein and Buddha have many concepts in common. He found it out while browsing in website.
I browsed website and found it out that he issued the book titled "Einstein and Buddha:The Parallel Sayings"(paper backs) in 2002.
Sample parallels from the above book are as written below.
(His career is written at the bottom.)
Einstein
According to general relativity, the concept of space detached from any physical content does not exist.
Buddha
If there is only empty space, with no suns nor planets in it, then space loses its substantiality.
Einstein
Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world.
Buddha
All such notions as causation, succession, atoms, primary elements...are all figments of the imagination and manifestations of the mind.
Einstein
Time and again the passion for understanding has led to the illusion that man is able to comprehend the objective world rationally by pure thought without any empirical foundations? in short, by metaphysics.
Buddha
By becoming attached to names and forms, not realizing that they have no more basis than the activities of the mind itself, error rises…and the way to emancipation is blocked.
Einstein
In our thinking...we attribute to this concept of the bodily object a significance, which is to high degree independent of the sense impression which originally gives rise to it. This is what we mean when we attribute to the bodily object "a real existence." ...By means of such concepts and mental relations between them, we are able to orient ourselves in the labyrinth of sense impressions. These notions and relations...appear to us as stronger and more unalterable than the individual sense experience itself, the character of which as anything other than the result of an illusion or hallucination is never completely guaranteed.
Buddha
I teach that the multitudinousness of objects have no reality in themselves but are only seen of the mind and, therefore, are of the nature of maya and a dream. ...It is true that in one sense they are seen and discriminated by the senses as individualized objects; but in another sense, because of the absence of any characteristic marks of self-nature, they are not seen but are only imagined. In one sense they are graspable, but in another sense, they are not graspable.
Einstein
The belief in an external world independent of the perceiving subject is the basis of all natural science. Since, however, sense perception only gives information of this external world or of "physical reality" indirectly, we can only grasp the latter by speculative means. It follows from this that our notions of physical reality can never be final. We must always be ready to change these notions?that is to say, the axiomatic basis of physics?in order to do justice to perceived
facts in the most perfect way logically.
Buddha
While the Tathagata, in his teaching, constantly makes use of conceptions and ideas about them, disciples should keep in mind the unreality of all such conceptions and ideas. They should recall that the Tathagata, in making use of them in explaining the Dharma always uses them in the semblance of a raft that is of use only to cross a river. As the raft is of no further use after the river is crossed, it should be discarded. So these arbitrary conceptions of things and about things should be wholly given up as one attains enlightenment.
Thomas J. McFarlane was raised in rural Oregon. He studied liberal arts at the University of Oregon Honors College, physics at Stanford University and mathematics at the University of Washington, philosophy and religion at the California Institute of Integral Studies . The essays in this book are based on his talks he has given over a decade, and on his writing on science and religion in journals and conference proceedings.
He is a senior partner at a patent firm in Palo Alto, California. This career of his is only upto the year,2002 when the book "Einstein and Buddha" was issued.
I thank AMIDA BUDDHA and SHAKA BUDDA and vow to spread Buddhism.
NAM AMIDABUTSU NAM AMIDABUTSU
In the article dated April 19, 2012, I wrote that Buddha taught us that regarding our beings, they are at the center of a circle with an infinite length of radius and a moment they disappear and a moment later regenerate ever changing and this concept is very similar to the world of Einstein's theory of relativity.
A Malaysian friend of mine read my article written above, and notified me that an American named Thomas McFarlane wrote Einstein and Buddha have many concepts in common. He found it out while browsing in website.
I browsed website and found it out that he issued the book titled "Einstein and Buddha:The Parallel Sayings"(paper backs) in 2002.
Sample parallels from the above book are as written below.
(His career is written at the bottom.)
Einstein
According to general relativity, the concept of space detached from any physical content does not exist.
Buddha
If there is only empty space, with no suns nor planets in it, then space loses its substantiality.
Einstein
Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world.
Buddha
All such notions as causation, succession, atoms, primary elements...are all figments of the imagination and manifestations of the mind.
Einstein
Time and again the passion for understanding has led to the illusion that man is able to comprehend the objective world rationally by pure thought without any empirical foundations? in short, by metaphysics.
Buddha
By becoming attached to names and forms, not realizing that they have no more basis than the activities of the mind itself, error rises…and the way to emancipation is blocked.
Einstein
In our thinking...we attribute to this concept of the bodily object a significance, which is to high degree independent of the sense impression which originally gives rise to it. This is what we mean when we attribute to the bodily object "a real existence." ...By means of such concepts and mental relations between them, we are able to orient ourselves in the labyrinth of sense impressions. These notions and relations...appear to us as stronger and more unalterable than the individual sense experience itself, the character of which as anything other than the result of an illusion or hallucination is never completely guaranteed.
Buddha
I teach that the multitudinousness of objects have no reality in themselves but are only seen of the mind and, therefore, are of the nature of maya and a dream. ...It is true that in one sense they are seen and discriminated by the senses as individualized objects; but in another sense, because of the absence of any characteristic marks of self-nature, they are not seen but are only imagined. In one sense they are graspable, but in another sense, they are not graspable.
Einstein
The belief in an external world independent of the perceiving subject is the basis of all natural science. Since, however, sense perception only gives information of this external world or of "physical reality" indirectly, we can only grasp the latter by speculative means. It follows from this that our notions of physical reality can never be final. We must always be ready to change these notions?that is to say, the axiomatic basis of physics?in order to do justice to perceived
facts in the most perfect way logically.
Buddha
While the Tathagata, in his teaching, constantly makes use of conceptions and ideas about them, disciples should keep in mind the unreality of all such conceptions and ideas. They should recall that the Tathagata, in making use of them in explaining the Dharma always uses them in the semblance of a raft that is of use only to cross a river. As the raft is of no further use after the river is crossed, it should be discarded. So these arbitrary conceptions of things and about things should be wholly given up as one attains enlightenment.
Thomas J. McFarlane was raised in rural Oregon. He studied liberal arts at the University of Oregon Honors College, physics at Stanford University and mathematics at the University of Washington, philosophy and religion at the California Institute of Integral Studies . The essays in this book are based on his talks he has given over a decade, and on his writing on science and religion in journals and conference proceedings.
He is a senior partner at a patent firm in Palo Alto, California. This career of his is only upto the year,2002 when the book "Einstein and Buddha" was issued.
I thank AMIDA BUDDHA and SHAKA BUDDA and vow to spread Buddhism.
NAM AMIDABUTSU NAM AMIDABUTSU
