Universe as a hologram?

Casual conversation between friends. Anything goes (almost).
Post Reply
User avatar
Sherab
Posts: 1375
Joined: Mon Jul 12, 2010 6:28 am

Universe as a hologram?

Post by Sherab »

More possible weirdness of the universe:

"New work gives credence to theory of universe as a hologram" - http://phys.org/news/2013-12-credence-t ... ogram.html
User avatar
kirtu
Former staff member
Posts: 6997
Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2010 5:29 pm
Location: Baltimore, MD

Re: Universe as a hologram?

Post by kirtu »

Haldane : "The universe is not only stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think,"

Although Mahayana Buddhism (esp. Vajrayana) clearly also views the universe as holographic.

Kirt
“Where do atomic bombs come from?”
Zen Master Seung Sahn said, “That’s simple. Atomic bombs come from the mind that likes this and doesn’t like that.”

"Even if you practice only for an hour a day with faith and inspiration, good qualities will steadily increase. Regular practice makes it easy to transform your mind. From seeing only relative truth, you will eventually reach a profound certainty in the meaning of absolute truth."
Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.

"Only you can make your mind beautiful."
HH Chetsang Rinpoche
User avatar
reddust
Posts: 761
Joined: Thu Nov 14, 2013 7:29 am
Location: Oregon

Re: Universe as a hologram?

Post by reddust »

I read this article, I absolutely love this kind of science. I totally freaked myself out when I was studying anatomy in college and found out how the senses worked. At the time I was learning my basic meditation and grid of Buddhism. We see everything from the inside out! The brain takes energy waves our senses pick up and filters them through memory. I wondered what the world would look like if I had no conditioning or filters to look through?
Mind and mental events are concepts, mere postulations within the three realms of samsara Longchenpa .... A link to my Garden, Art and Foodie blog Scratch Living
User avatar
padma norbu
Posts: 1999
Joined: Sun May 29, 2011 1:10 am

Re: Universe as a hologram?

Post by padma norbu »

I have been reading that the universe looks like a hologram now for over 20 years. It seems strange that this news is everywhere now, but I guess it's just more confirmation that it really does appear that way (for now, anyway). I watched a video on the HuffPo channel on my Roku box the other day about this. They were saying it's the latest theory, as String Theory is a theory, and though both might ultimately be wrong, it doesn't mean that they are not useful to keep probing and discovering. The numbers work out for now, anyway.

I'm not sure what this sort of thing does to my "faith," if I have any. Does it affect you guys negatively at all to see so much coming and going that doesn't really change anything? For me, I have already been through so many beliefs that I started out skeptical way back as a teenager and now, as someone who went through a couple decades of what appeared to be mind-bending awakening on the cusp of something really big, I find myself not very convinced of anything anymore. I still believe in bodhicitta, thankfully, but sometimes I do wonder why I do. By that I mean that we really have no idea what enlightenment is and have no real verifiable proof of what Buddhahood in fact is. If it's kind of a "magical act" we will through our thoughts and actions by dropping our layers of karmic obscurations, well these obscurations are the only world we know, so whatever is left after they're gone (ie. the deathless state of Buddhahood) is really a leap of faith that it's something good. Buddhism, at times, seems suicidal to me; it's like saying we don't know what it is, but it's got to be better than this... and so, for that reason, we are willing to annihilate our entire existence including the possibility of rebirth and, for renunciates, even this very life itself.

Oh well, sorry for a derailing, but these thoughts in paragraph 2 hardly seemed worthy of a new thread.
"Use what seems like poison as medicine. We can use our personal suffering as the path to compassion for all beings." Pema Chodron
User avatar
Sherab
Posts: 1375
Joined: Mon Jul 12, 2010 6:28 am

Re: Universe as a hologram?

Post by Sherab »

kirtu wrote:Haldane : "The universe is not only stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think,"

Although Mahayana Buddhism (esp. Vajrayana) clearly also views the universe as holographic.

Kirt
I don't think vajrayana actually views the universe as holographic in the sense of it being a projection from a lower dimension space to a higher dimension space.
User avatar
dharmagoat
Posts: 2159
Joined: Mon Oct 19, 2009 8:39 pm

Re: Universe as a hologram?

Post by dharmagoat »

reddust wrote:I wondered what the world would look like if I had no conditioning or filters to look through?
"Everything and nothing" is my guess.
User avatar
Sherab
Posts: 1375
Joined: Mon Jul 12, 2010 6:28 am

Re: Universe as a hologram?

Post by Sherab »

reddust wrote:I absolutely love this kind of science.
Me too. I've always been fascinated by science since I was little and has this curiosity of wanting to know how things are and how they actually works and ended up reading stuff that were beyond my grade. Not sure if I really understood what I read though.
User avatar
Sherab
Posts: 1375
Joined: Mon Jul 12, 2010 6:28 am

Re: Universe as a hologram?

Post by Sherab »

dharmagoat wrote:
reddust wrote:I wondered what the world would look like if I had no conditioning or filters to look through?
"Everything and nothing" is my guess.
Ya, I think so. I think there will be no act of seeing and yet "everything" is "seen".
User avatar
Sherab
Posts: 1375
Joined: Mon Jul 12, 2010 6:28 am

Re: Universe as a hologram?

Post by Sherab »

padma norbu wrote:By that I mean that we really have no idea what enlightenment is and have no real verifiable proof of what Buddhahood in fact is. If it's kind of a "magical act" we will through our thoughts and actions by dropping our layers of karmic obscurations, well these obscurations are the only world we know, so whatever is left after they're gone (ie. the deathless state of Buddhahood) is really a leap of faith that it's something good. Buddhism, at times, seems suicidal to me; it's like saying we don't know what it is, but it's got to be better than this... and so, for that reason, we are willing to annihilate our entire existence including the possibility of rebirth and, for renunciates, even this very life itself.
This is exactly why I find having a master that one can really trust and have confidence in is very useful. I know that my master is different from the ordinary and it is on that that I felt that there is hope yet for me to be get out of the "ordinary".
User avatar
padma norbu
Posts: 1999
Joined: Sun May 29, 2011 1:10 am

Re: Universe as a hologram?

Post by padma norbu »

Sherab wrote:
padma norbu wrote:By that I mean that we really have no idea what enlightenment is and have no real verifiable proof of what Buddhahood in fact is. If it's kind of a "magical act" we will through our thoughts and actions by dropping our layers of karmic obscurations, well these obscurations are the only world we know, so whatever is left after they're gone (ie. the deathless state of Buddhahood) is really a leap of faith that it's something good. Buddhism, at times, seems suicidal to me; it's like saying we don't know what it is, but it's got to be better than this... and so, for that reason, we are willing to annihilate our entire existence including the possibility of rebirth and, for renunciates, even this very life itself.
This is exactly why I find having a master that one can really trust and have confidence in is very useful. I know that my master is different from the ordinary and it is on that that I felt that there is hope yet for me to be get out of the "ordinary".
I have every confidence that no master could stop my brain from working the way it does. Namkhai Norbu is great, imo, and I am happy with him. I am analytical by nature and nothing is going to stop me from considering the possibility of being wrong except possibly the development of siddhis with which I routinely see the truth of all things just as sure as I am sitting here now (although I have been known to question whether or not I am really sitting here!). Long ago, I realized, for example, that if some magnificent and seemingly benevolent being appeared before me and by some sort of darshan filled me with confidence and love and knowledge that he was a benevolent deity, unless he replaced my 'self' with something else, he could not stop me from skeptical thoughts like "sure, he seems nice, but is he really Satan? An alien?" Etc. It could be a classic Fireclown scenario.

I realize all of this sounds very negative, but I don't mean it to be. This is just how I think and I am quite honest about what I think.
"Use what seems like poison as medicine. We can use our personal suffering as the path to compassion for all beings." Pema Chodron
User avatar
padma norbu
Posts: 1999
Joined: Sun May 29, 2011 1:10 am

Re: Universe as a hologram?

Post by padma norbu »

I don't know why I referenced Fireclown. Clearly, very few people have read that book.
"Use what seems like poison as medicine. We can use our personal suffering as the path to compassion for all beings." Pema Chodron
Post Reply

Return to “Lounge”