“Ardently do today what must be done. Who
knows? Tomorrow, death comes.” (Bhaddekaratta Sutta). The Buddha taught that
everything in the physical world, including mental activity and psychological
experience, is marked with three characteristics: impermanence (anicca),
suffering (dukkha) and no-self (anatta). The three marks of existence is known
as tilakkhana. Can the ancient teaching be connected with modern science? Here are some opinions where the concept of
impermanence and emptiness meets modern Physics.
Impermanence and Time
Impermanent truly are compounded things, by
nature arising and passing away having arisen, when they are extinguished,
their eradication brings happiness (Mahaparinibana Sutta). There is a strong
connection between impermanence and what physicists have come to call the arrow
of time. The fundamental laws of physics are time symmetric, i.e. they have no
directionality with respect to time. If we had a movie of the earth rotating
around the sun and we ran it backwards, we would not be aware of any
fundamental laws being violated. If we observe an excited atom decay and emit a
photon, that process is no more valid than if we observed a photon being
absorbed by an atom and exciting it. Yet our lives are full of irreversible
processes. We watch as people age – we never see people resume their youth.
Stones are eroded by water in our rivers, they are never built up by the
process! Despite the time symmetry of the fundamental laws, decay is all around
us. This is captured by the Second Law of Thermodynamics which tells us that
the entropy (fundamentally a measure of disorderliness) of the universe must of
necessity increase over time.
Emptiness and Particles
“Form, monks, is not self. If, monks, form were
self, then form would not lead to affliction, and one might be able to say in
regard to form, ‘Let my form be thus, let my form not be thus.’ But since,
monks, form is not-self, form therefore leads to affliction, and one is not
able to say in regard to form, ‘Let my form be thus, let my form not be thus.”
(Anattalakkhana Sutta). There are some connections between the concept of no
self and particles. Particles cannot function as stand-alone entities. They can
only interact with the rest of the universe by exchanging something of themselves.
Their properties can only be known by their interactions with other particles,
and thus cannot be completely accurately established. Particles are brought
into existence by energetic events. The mother of all energetic events was the
Big Bang, which brought most of the existing particles into existence. But
natural energetic events such as cosmic rays and beta decay continue to produce
particles. The tiniest particles do not have parts because they are physically
indivisible. If even these smallest forms have parts, it follows that all gross
forms that are composed of them also have parts.
Conclusion
The concept of tilakkhana, especially
impermanence and no-self, have some connections with modern physics. Long time
before scientist found out the quantum physics, relativity, and particles,
Buddha had taught the essential truth about the nature of things. So, there is
no contradiction between Buddhism and science on the concept of impermanence
and no-self.
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