Ever eager to cram together two seemingly highly separate subjects into a profound (or pseudo-profound) blog post, here's my take on relativity theory and Zen.
I got to pondering the connection after two events in my life today tilted me in that direction.
Event #1 occurred when I read an article in the August 6, 2022 issue of New Scientist that I'd dug out of the bottom of a forgotten pile of unread magazines. In it Chandra Prescod-Weinstein, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of New Hampshire, described why general relativity is known as a background independent theory.
In Einstein's special relativity, which came before general relativity, she says that while now space and time were no longer separate, but merged into space-time, "This theory did share something with the Newtonian perspective: while space and time were no longer absolute, they remained a stage on which events unfolded."
Prescod-Weinstein then says that to understand what this means, it's like a ruler that never changes shape. This is because rulers, like other objects in everyday life, are background dependent -- the background being our familiar notion of time and space as the backdrop against which events unfold.
The situation is different in general relativity, which includes gravity in Einstein's more comprehensive theory. She quotes theoretical physicist John Wheeler as capturing the essence of general relativity with "Space-time tells matter how to move; matter tells space-time how to...curve."
This means that general relativity is a background independent theory, for there is no background against which the curvature of space-time occurs. The way I understand it, general relativity is the background of our universe. She writes:
Now imagine if your ruler stretched out when you put it near a more massive object. In other words, how you measure distance depends on where you measure and whether you are near an object that has mass. Your ruler, the metric, now depends on its location in space-time and what is inside of space-time.
This was the radical revision in our understanding of space-time necessitated by the merger of special relativity with gravity, which we call general relativity (or "GR" as physicists call it).
...To make this more concrete, let's return to the stage. It is now very weird! It is no longer fixed and unchanging in the background. The very shape of the stage itself depends on whether an actor is on it, where they are on the stage, and what they are doing -- for example, if they are rotating, walking across the stage or simply standing still.
Their presence shapes the stage and, of course, the shape of the stage will affect how someone or something can move across it. Events now happen to space-time too, not just inside of it. This is the meaning of background independence.
The notions of background dependence and background independence got me to wondering where philosophical, religious, mystical, and metaphysical discussions such as what we engage in on this blog fit in.
Using, or some would say, misusing, the metaphor of general relativity, it seems to me that one reason why discussions of that sort never end up with any firm conclusions agreeable to everybody is that when human thought is divorced from a grounding in the physical world, there's no unchanging background against which the reality of those thoughts can be assessed.
Meaning, it's as if (as in the case of general relativity) the "ruler" used to measure a thought was changed by that very thought. For example, someone's belief that God exists typically leads them to view arguments for God's existence more favorably than, say, an atheist's view that God doesn't exist.
After thirty-five years of embracing supernatural notions about God and higher regions of reality, I've become more and more attracted to meditation approaches that are grounded in actual here-and-now reality rather than hypothesized there-and-then reality.
Which brings me to event #2, my cancellation of the 14-day free trial of Loch Kelly's Glimpses app that I'd downloaded to my iPhone and mentioned in my previous post. After listening to more of what the Glismpses app offers in Kelly's approach to meditation, it struck me as too other-worldly for my taste.
Instead, after reading the third message from Oshan Jarrow's five-day course on deepening one's meditation practice, More to Meditation, I decided to try out an app mentioned in that message, a Zen meditation series called The Way.
It looks enticing. I get twelve free guided meditations before I have to fork out some money for the full deal, which entails about a year's worth of training from Henry Shukman, the Zen teacher who came up with the idea for The Way with help from some talented friends and colleagues.
Check out descriptions of The Way on Reddit, TechCrunch, and Medium. Today I got one day closer to my upcoming Zen enlightenment. And I won't have to be hit on the head with a stick or sit for hours on an uncomfortable cushion. All I need is my iPhone and a VISA card.
"Today I got one day closer to my upcoming Zen enlightenment. And I won't have to be hit on the head with a stick or sit for hours on an uncomfortable cushion. All I need is my iPhone and a VISA card."
This would be funny if it was meant tongue in cheek But to take apps and Henry Shukman (I just read his book and found him thoroughly underwhelming) seriously?
I agree completely that zen meditation is an effective technique for integrative mind and boy training. If I were in charge I'd have zen meditation part of every grade school curriculum. It's that practical.
But what in the world is this affinity for books and apps as a substitute for sitting? Everybody can sit for at least 15 minutes a day. Sitting is everything. The practice of zazen requires a bit of austerity. But here's a cosmic rule of the universe: You can't get something for nothing. Time on the cushion is the price for integrating the mind.
By the way, the stick only strikes the shoulder area, not the head. And contrary to what it might look like, it's not even a little painful.
Posted by: sant64 | January 14, 2025 at 08:28 AM
@ Sant64
>> By the way, the stick only strikes the shoulder area, not the head. And contrary to what it might look like, it's not even a little painful.<<
Hahaha ..read the report of the former agerman abot of Antaiji Soto Zen centre about his experiences in a Rinzao monatery ... hahahaha
[cit]
Then in zazen you are always sleeping because you’re so tired. Everything is so surreal that you pass out the minute the bell strikes. But there’s always one person patrolling with a stick. And when you sleep, you get hammered on. Usually, it’s four strikes in the summer, and eight in the winter. Half on each shoulder. People take pride in how many of these sticks they can break. In sesshin, it could be five or six sticks they break.
For the people that get beaten it means that after a while, the shoulders swell up and the skin breaks and you start to bleed. When you bleed, it means they don’t hit you on the shoulders anymore, they hit you in the belly. You sit facing the room and the guy is hitting you in the belly like he’s playing baseball.
At first, I thought this can’t be real. It was like some crazy movie. But after six months, I was still alive – surprised but happy to be alive. It was an experience that was completely new to me because I was always a melancholic depressive when I was young. I was like, why did my mother have me? How much less suffering would it have been if she had aborted me when I was born?
After six months at that place, I realised it is actually a miracle that I am still alive. Wow it is great; there’s the sun out there and I can breath. I have to ask my senpai each day if I can take a pee but, at the end of the day, I can even take a pee here. Isn’t that wonderful?
[cit]
Posted by: um | January 14, 2025 at 09:23 AM
@ Sat 64
The whole story:
https://antaiji.org/en/essays/1-13/
Zen is the Japanese interpretation of the Chinese Chan ... It is in their culture to go to extremes, in whatever they do.
It is doubtfull if people outside Japan get the gist of zen.
Zen is in and out japanese culture like Bhakti is typical Indian.
We do not have these things in our culture to practice them properly.
We are calvinist christians
Posted by: um | January 14, 2025 at 09:39 AM
Hi um. Interesting, I am a student of Chan and have to say that it only seems like extremes for anyone entrenched in western type meditation.
Chan was introduced by Chen Yen and uses silent elimination and koans.
It easily transfers to the west - but perhaps difficult if one is mentally conditioned in the Christian traditions.
Posted by: Ron E. | January 14, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Um. Sorry, should be illumination and Sheng Yen.
Posted by: Ron E. | January 14, 2025 at 10:08 AM
@ Ron E.
What I wanted to convey was that after Buddhism was introduced in China as Chan, it was not copied so to say but complete change or adapted to the Japanese culture..
It has been a pleasure to read about the two former abots at Antaiji Monastery, Uchiyama and Sawaki, an approach to zen brought down to is very essence ..just sit to sit.
What writers on Chan could you recommend?
Posted by: um | January 14, 2025 at 10:17 AM
@ Ron E.
By the way Uchiyama and also his German successor Mungo wrote in great detail about the, i believe, two schools in China, related to zen but I did not pay much attention to that story ..it is two directions, one using koans and the other not.
Posted by: um | January 14, 2025 at 10:22 AM
@um….you nailed it like a Bull’s Eye on the Target about us Westerners, when you wrote,….” We do not have these things in our culture to practice them properly.
We are calvinist christians”.
I was already a Member of the Christian Elect, when I came to the Sant Mat Path, but wasn’t sure I was Marked by any Sant Mat Master, until I was accepted by Charan Singh and initiated.
I never felt marked by Thakar, as I didn’t take any Vows to be initiated by him, or asked for any, by him, other than being asked to Tithe my wealth to him,…AFTER I was initiated, of which I obviously ignored.
Charan never asked me for any thing, other than to do my best to follow the Sant Mat Path in the Application forms we all filled out and accepted, before being considered and accepted for Initiation, which included all of our warts, blemishes and dirty laundry we admitted to .
Which after giving nothing to Charan, while receiving his All,…..is why I have been extremely honest, and comfortable about considering my self as a Member of The Marked Elect,….which I proudly , and unashamedly mention in many of my blog comments.
WE Are Very few,…among the many, and shrinking in numbers rapidly, in this present Woke culture of depravity and immoralities.
The Apostle Paul clearly , in his New Testament Epistles, laid out what John Calvin understood, and grabbed, and presented as Calvinism, the Doctrine of Predestination, Total depravity of man, and the difference between Members of The Elect,….and members of the Reprobate losers.
I even unwrap it further, and more clearly, using Bible Verses only, in the early section of my blog, in my Master’s Degree Theses.
As it says in the Christian Hymn,…..”Amazing Grace, How Sweet The Sound,…..I Once Was Lost, But Now I’m Found”.
I know how it feels, and is how I felt totally lost as a Reprobate, before my Born Again experience in April 1977, when I became a Member of The Elect, then Marked in Feb. 1990 by Charan, which sealed my Destiny.
You are the Shrink who should take careful notice and document Testimonies similar to mine, to share with those you encounter who feel as I did as a lost Reprobate. Then, Link them to my Blog to discover how to be set free!
😇
Jim Sutherland
Posted by: Jim Sutherland | January 14, 2025 at 10:27 AM
Um. I'd reckon that Zen teacher Steve Hagen's books 'Buddhism is Not What You Think' and Buddhism Plain and Simple' are good reads. He explains the present moment or 'Just This' quite well. Also, Rebecca Li has a good book out on Silent illumination.
Posted by: Ron E. | January 14, 2025 at 10:43 AM
@ Ron.E
Thank you
Years ago I found a Chan book by the name of:
"The chan Handbook 1"
The learners guide to meditation.
by:
Chan Master YongHua
Maybe it were the pictures in the book, or my projections upon them, that made me lay the book aside. It made a cultish iimpression ..maybe right so mayne not.
Posted by: um | January 14, 2025 at 10:58 AM
@ Jim S.
It has made a lasting impression on me when the late MCS, with a forceful voice made A clear to an Indian Gentleman in the audience of the guesthouse, they had was NOT to supposed to educated his children as and into Sant Mat
I never suggested anybody to follow a spiritual practice and will not do it in the future.
I was not asked to be a missionary ...neither to become a coffee drinker ...hahaha
Posted by: um | January 14, 2025 at 11:06 AM
@ Jim S.
coincidence?
Answering the Hon. Ron. E., , I leafed through the book I mentioned to him. On Page 219 I says:
Question:
How can I teach my son Chan?
I got so much out of meditation practice. How can I teach my son to meditate and practice Buddhism in general?
Aswer [Chan Master YongHua]
STOP!
Do not try to teach ypur son to meditate, or about Buddism
Please leave him alone.
This is a rather common mistake that most people make.
You should not try to teach others unless they ask you. Those who try to "concert"others to their faith are making a bad name for their faith. Live and let live. Respect others, including their beliefs or lack thereof.
I do not believe in converting others to Buddhism. Let them decide for themselves. I'd rather concentrate on being a good, decent and moral being. If our loved ones see that we are winners, they too would like to be as us There is no need to try to force our way on others.
>>End quotation.<<
Missionary tendencies are typical christian ..as I said there are Christian Satsangis, both Rk and Protestant style and all other religions as well ..they are bound to that cultural identification.
Posted by: um | January 14, 2025 at 11:36 AM
You never hear much about female Buddhas. What's up with that? Do they stay home raising the kids and cooking while their Buddha husbands are off to work?
Posted by: umami | January 14, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Umami. Actually according to Zen/ Chan, we are all Buddha's. Zen/Chan practice is to help recognize that.
Many Buddha statues we see are androgynous figures. A little research will come up with many
Prominent women in Buddhism.
Posted by: Ron E. | January 14, 2025 at 01:11 PM
@um,….regarding Missionaries, we are all Missionaries, of various persuasions, including YOU!
Here is a short 9 minute podcast I had just posted on my blog that addresses your comment that we should leave each other alone, and not share our beliefs, I could answer that on my blog. In fact, I did already, years ago. He ha
https://notebooklm.google.com/notebook/5d6e49ca-d6a5-4ab0-9038-2ea0dcdd206d/audio
Jim Sutherland
Posted by: Jim Sutherland | January 14, 2025 at 01:14 PM
@ Jim S.
To think that one has the key to another persons happiness and it is ones mission in life to open that door to happiness for that person, is not a thought I allowed ever to linger in my mind,
Nor the tree, nor the crow needs anybody to live their life and so is the human.
Whatever that is alive is born with inborn tools to live that life without the help of anybody else.
I do not need to teach, or show anybody what it means to be human...they all know.
Posted by: um | January 14, 2025 at 01:32 PM
What is encouraging with regard to meditation is that various branches of science are broadly supportive of the practice. From my point of view, Zen/Chan (among other Buddhist schools) have a science basis if only in philosophy and psychology.
From the perspective of a naturalist, Taoism and Buddhism suited my temperament rather than the Abrahamic teachings. Zen in particular presented a way of enquiry into one's self without the need for beliefs - which is becoming more suited to many in the west.
There is room on this Earth for all approaches without the need to wage wars about them and really, in the name of compassion and tolerance to not look down on the multitude of different mind sets.
Posted by: Ron E. | January 14, 2025 at 01:50 PM
#um,….Oops! My 9 minute podcast obviously was not done yet, when I posted the link. It’s now 24 minutes. But it really addresses some of your prior comments.
If Members here don’t like my podcasts, then Osho and Brian will have to share my Karma for either the positive, or negative , they will have on listeners that listen to them.
They introduced me to NotebookLM. I never had heard of it before, and never had a morsel of thought , or desire in my old decrypted mind to use it, or even figure out how.
But through trial and error, and perseverance, I now have a small number of my podcasts in my Notebook Library.
Watching how Osho is growing on YouTube with his Oneness Videos, I might exercise my crusted brain a little further, and open a YouTube account as Osho has, and post my Audio postcasts an YouTube, as Osho did with one of mine where I challenged Advaita.
It’s only a thought form, presently, before I wake up senile, with out notice. But every action starts with a thought.
Jim Sutherland
Posted by: Jim Sutherland | January 14, 2025 at 02:13 PM
umami, you wrote,….” You never hear much about female Buddhas. What's up with that? Do they stay home raising the kids and cooking while their Buddha husbands are off to work?”
When I was in Bhutan and Tibet, visiting Monks and Nuns, and meditating, I was told that in order for Nuns to be liberated , and become Monks and Lamas, they would need to be first, reincarnated as Males.
My Wife had just started to be interested in Buddhism, …..but that’s when she quickly abandoned lookin g any further in to Buddhism Teachings.
Jim Sutherland
Posted by: Jim Sutherland | January 14, 2025 at 02:21 PM
@ Ron E.
I don't know how to phrase it properly but since I "woke up in the cinema" I often, while walking outdoors, have the feeling that humans can but need not to meditate or folow any practice.
While walking I ask myself, or try to find an answer to the question ..."How came the habit of meditation into existence"
As far as now, I believe that any form of manipulation of the body, of which m,meditation is just an expression, came in reaction to those that had spontaneous experiences and talked about it. ...Those that had these spontaneous experiences, themselves never practiced anything ... their brains reacted to this or that TRAUMA, be it from the body or the mind in terms of thoughts and feelings.
So it seems to me that OTHERS wanted to have what was told to them, without having the slightest clue of what that was ..they just had the words.
That is the reason why I now and then write about starting the search inside and figuring out what is the source of that desire to meditate, instead of discussing teachers and teachings.
Before 1970, just to set a date, nobody knew even the word meditation..meditation sometimes appears to me as something that is put in the market as a product for some to gain wealth of sorts.
They come with narratives that explains the need for meditation but if I focus on myself I never could find a reason why I should...people are born with a desire to eat etc but not with a desire to meditate.
Posted by: um | January 14, 2025 at 02:27 PM
@ Jim S.
Years ago, to a youth that had lost his way in life and that wanted to turn me into an lifebuoy of sorts, i said ...look I am not a savior, I am not Christ, I have enough problems to deal with my own life, I have not the power to carry you on my back.
He used his intellect and emotional aggression to corner me and force me to accept that role but had to leave me empty handed ...it reminds me of that beautiful story in Rumi's Masnawi about a father walking with his son and a donkey ...
Here is one of the many versions of the storry
https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/type1215.html
Posted by: um | January 14, 2025 at 02:49 PM
um. it has been said that as you walk the path to realsation, it broadens until there is no path to follow. But, perhaps one has to start walking initially.
And meditation, well, there probably is no desire to meditate initially (which is a good thing). After all, with a normal interest and curiosity in life maybe meditation arises naturally.
Nice chat - bedtime now.
Posted by: Ron E. | January 14, 2025 at 02:58 PM
@um,….I am no one’s Savior either, and never wanted to be. But I feel obligated to at least, lead others, to the Savior I found, when ever given the chance, or planting a seed now and then, in possible fertile ground that has chances of producing a bountiful Harvest. But it’s all I have ever been able to do.
It’s like leading a horse to water, but we can’t force the horse to drink. Only thirsty houses will drink, as only the Marked Elect will respond to the Call of the Savior,
As for when and where, Meditation first started, just search Bible Verses with the word Meditate. It becomes obvious of WHO meditation is directed at, and why it’s done.
Posted by: Jim Sutherland | January 14, 2025 at 03:32 PM
@ Ron E.
Having read your soft spoken words several times, they do ring different bells.
The idea of a path broadening is appealing but I cannot bypass the word "realisation". without asking myself ..what is there to realize? ...and gone is the path.
The same is with the option of meditation arising naturally. It is also appealing and attractive but then I stumble over my own concept of meditation as an artificial, more or less formalize manipulation of the body/brain..As a youth I loved to listen to the "white noise" of a large air compressor in our basement and hear upon the rim of the sound all sorts of funny harmonies. These sounds created goose skin upon which I would enter what I would call a deep, very refreshing sleep. With some fantasy, that could be labeled as natural meditation ..I do not know ..could be.
Posted by: um | January 14, 2025 at 03:43 PM
@ Jim S
For you, with your background that is probably the right thing to do. You have that faith and conviction about life that allows you to act as you do.
Personally what ever I "know" about the purpose of life etc, is all a matter of "hearsay"
But even If I had that inner conviction as to where to go and how, I wonder if I would tell others. Yes, of course if somebody would ask, I would answer what I was up to and even with pleasure but more than that I cannot imagine myself doing.
Posted by: um | January 14, 2025 at 03:51 PM
@ Jim S
About saviors
https://www.africanstorybook.org/reader.php?id=31947
The version In Rumi's Masnawi ends much more funnier ... the father and the son decided to carry the donkey together.
So I am not a donkey nor willing or able to carry one. and the donkey is not made to carry me ...that is what we as humans made him do.
Posted by: um | January 14, 2025 at 03:59 PM
@um,….Smart Donkey submit to carrying their Masters,,,
John 12:12-15
“The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt!”
Posted by: Jim Sutherland | January 14, 2025 at 04:13 PM
More donkey stories! When the donkey carrying your expectations arrives at the door - leave the donkey outside. (a Sufi tale).
Posted by: Ron E. | January 15, 2025 at 06:11 AM
My podcast on the Christian Tongues Controversy, that was in my Doctoral Theses.
https://notebooklm.google.com/notebook/3053891c-124c-44aa-bce5-4582b0030e0e/audio
Jim Sutherland
Posted by: Jim Sutherland | January 15, 2025 at 07:53 AM