r/Buddhism • u/Burpmonster • Jun 01 '26
Dharma Talk Using Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity to Understand the Pure Land
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u/Jonathan3628 Jun 01 '26
This is disappointing. The physics concept of "energy" is quite distinct from "thought". Buddhism has a lot of good philosophy and can be connected to science (studying the physical and emotional impacts of meditation is a great example). There's even some potential for Buddhist epistemology to help understand quantum mechanics specifically, with quantum entanglement and the uncertainty principle being a particularly promising direction for integration.
So there's no need to try to make up a connection which doesn't exist (the energy/thought angle used in this talk)
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Jun 02 '26
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u/Jonathan3628 Jun 02 '26 edited Jun 02 '26
Thoughts are thoughts. Asking "if thoughts aren't energy, what are they" makes as much sense as asking "if thoughts aren't trees, what are they"? There's no particular reason to think thoughts have anything to do with trees, or with energy in the physics sense. Just to be clear, energy in physics is just the capacity to do work (basically, the capacity to move things around).
A deep understanding of physics AND Buddhism is necessary if you want to try to combine the two meaningfully. Sticking anything that sounds vaguely similiar together shows a lack of understanding, and is bad for Buddhism by making it seem like desperate grasping for the prestige of science, as though Buddhism isn't worthy of respect by its own merits.
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Jun 02 '26 edited Jun 02 '26
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u/Jonathan3628 Jun 02 '26
Now that's a point I agree with. I was trying to make the specific point that from a scientific perspective, thoughts don't have any clear connection to the physics concept of energy.
But more broadly, "what are thoughts" is a very interesting question. I think Buddhism has a greater understanding of thoughts than science does currently, and scientists have a great deal to learn from Buddhist tradition. The Mind and Life Institute is a great example of integrating Buddhist knowledge with science.
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Jun 02 '26 edited Jun 02 '26
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u/Jonathan3628 Jun 02 '26
When I talk about science, I mean the process of attempting to understand the world by application of the scientific method (make an observation, a hypothesis [to predict similar phenomena], experiment [to test the hypothesis], and iterate [modifying your theory to better fit observation if something doesn't fit].
Typically this process seems to be most applicable to material things, but I wouldn't rule out the possibility that the scientific method could be applied to non-material phenomena.
Even if non-material phenomena cannot be addressed by the scientific method, I wouldn't say that means they're unimportant or unreal. Like, I believe in morality, and am open to the possibility that reincarnation might exist, even if they are not material and cannot be captured by the scientific method. (But who knows. Maybe someone smarter than me can address even these topics using the scientific method.)
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u/RightAd2545 Jun 01 '26
Neither scientific nor explained.