Unexpected Wisdom I Learned On The Job
Feel free to accept it for whatever it’s worth to you.
My agency created a digital marketing campaign for Mid-America Buddhist Association, a monastery dedicated to promoting Buddhism in the Midwest.
We closely collaborated with the organization’s Sangha throughout a year’s time. For this project, I studied Buddhism and practiced meditation. Meanwhile, I was studying quantum physics recreationally.
The most interesting lessons I learned…
Our greatest power lies in our awareness
We are all creative masters on some level—perhaps a subatomic one. We have the power to impact, create and rule the world through self-expressions.
Before we get spiritual though, let’s cover what we know through the exploration of science — that humans are multi-cellular biological organisms living in environments loaded with mixed stimuli, comprised of all the same molecules, and at a subatomic level, we are made of the same energy.
Energy in physics is the capacity for doing work.
The first law of thermodynamics states that energy can be transformed from one form to another, but never created nor destroyed.
Energy—or consciousness as Buddhists call it — is a universal essence of which we are all a part.
This primordial energy is considered a blank slate of pure awareness from which all phenomena experience and express itself as inherent to a greater macrocosm, like a drop in the ocean.
Meditation expands our consciousness, allowing us to obtain sharp perceptions and accept truth more clearly without the typical interpreting, identifying, labeling and judging of our surroundings.
Buddhists call this discerned mental state mindfulness — when we can recognize our thoughts and emotions as self-created mental constructs being experienced within our field of awareness — ephemeral and ultimately, illusory. Mindfulness helps us transcend a conditioned level of consciousness where we identify with all our convictions.
This realization empowers us to direct our attention where ever we want — as to become more efficient in life. Where attention goes, energy flows.
All humans have this power. The difference is how awoken we are to this power and what we create with it.
The World Is As Infinite As We Are
Core concepts in Buddhism include non-duality—a theory of intrinsic oneness, meaning things don’t exist in opposite extremes, but as infinite possibilities, and dependent origination — meaning all phenomena are dependent on their constituent conditions and each entity affects the interconnected whole.
Similarly, in the world of physics, theories of non-locality and quantum entanglement explore the phenomenon by which measurements made at a microscopic level contradict a collection of notions known as local realism that are regarded as intuitively true in classical mechanics.
Through meditation, we discover that mental phenomena arise and fall in the mind — and has the power to create what is.
‘Mind’ refers to a person’s experience — perceptions, thoughts, emotions, memories, desires, beliefs and sensations.
Contrary to popular belief, science can best locate the mind throughout the body — not just in the brain.
For example, hormones circulating the body shape our thoughts and emotions. Intestines have neurotransmitters that respond to and remember experiences, providing a physiological basis for intuition and gut feelings. Further, our immune systems act as an extension of our minds, responding to psychological stress and influencing our moods.
Since the body and mind are inextricably connected, every time we have a thought, we set off a cascade of cellular reactions in our nervous system that influence all the molecules in our body. Our cells are constantly observing our thoughts and being changed by them.
Coming to terms with this knowledge, we must acknowledge the amazing potential we have to transform ourselves and impact the world through our own thoughts.
‘God’ Is a Word Representing Our Common Ground
Upon deep self-reflection, we see that we are not what we think we are, per se — our personalities, job titles, gender roles, culture or nationality — but rather, those are circumstances we are experiencing within our field of awareness. What we really are is far deeper. In meditation, we realize the presence within us that is always observing activities of the mind.
Albert Einstein — a famous mystic as well as scientist — recognized a need for science to establish a unified model of Nature. He created a model known as the unified field theory, which the name itself reflects the connectivity pervading the universe.
Physics has recognized that when matter is reduced to its subatomic components, the apparent solidity of material existence is actually not solid at all. The subatomic realm consists of quantum energy which forms into waves and/or particles.
A wave is an oscillation followed by a transfer of energy.
A particle is what we perceive as matter.
Subatomic waves and particles are extremely interactive with one another.
The Double Slit Experiment is known in quantum physics for revealing a mind-altering view of the world — a mysterious phenomenon that everything we perceive as matter is actually just waves of information (potential energy) until it is observed by an outside force.
The Double Slit Experiment suggests that humans create reality on a subatomic level because each of our billions of cells are constantly observing the contents of our minds and surroundings, then adapting accordingly.
Comparing the basis of general Eastern and Western thought, I’ve found the diversity to be only an illusion. Those who speak of ‘God’ in the West (Christianity) as well as those who speak of ‘Consciousness’ in the East (Buddhism) — are referring to the same essence.
Attributes of God (In Western Thought)
- All creation is of God.
- God is aware of all existence.
- God is all-pervading.
- God has specific purposes and direction.
- Natural order is the result of God.
- God possesses will and power to carry it out.
- God is eternal.
- God is the source of all intelligence and wisdom.
- Knowledge of God is to know universal order and purpose.
- Look within to find God residing there.
Attributes of Consciousness (In Eastern Thought)
- All creation is of Consciousness.
- Consciousness — or awareness — is present in all of existence.
- Consciousness is all-pervading.
- Consciousness has specific purposed and direction.
- Natural laws are a result of Consciousness.
- Consciousness possesses intent and energy to manifest it.
- Consciousness has and always will exist.
- Consciousness generates intelligence and wisdom.
- Knowledge of Consciousness is to know universal order and purpose.
- Look within to find Consciousness residing there.
God (ɡäd) noun: the creator and ruler of the universe and source of all moral authority; the supreme being.
It seems the main difference among people’s views of Nature — as well as spiritual and scientific approaches to ideology — is linguistics.
We share a common essence. The terms “soul,” “energy,” “consciousness” and “God” are synonymous.
