What the Mystics Knew All Along

Yesterday the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to two eminent physicists. Never mind that three others had published the same findings beginning in 1964 but got short shrift due to Swedish "rules" - the way of the world.

I quote the New York Times below out of sheer malaise; my espresso machine broke this morning and black tea isn't cutting it.

"According to the award-winning scientific model called the Higgs field, the universe brims with energy that acts like a cosmic molasses, imbuing the particles that move through it with mass, the way a bill moving through Congress attracts riders and amendments, becoming more and more ponderous and controversial...without the Higgs field, all elementary particles would be massless (sic) and would zip around at the speed of light. There would be no atoms and no us... this invisible ocean of energy suffusing space is responsible for the mass and diversity of the universe, a crowning recognition for the scientists who came up with what is now known as the Higgs boson." 

Now on to something you won't find in the mainstream media: anyone properly schooled in Buddhist philosophy could tell you that yogis, gurus and mystics dating back more than 5,000 years knew about the Higgs field from direct meditative experience a.k.a. that the foundation of all matter comes from a powerful energized void, from which infinite varieties of forms are manifested in an awe-inspiring display of appearances. The void is potential and absolute, while its materialization is varied and relative.

Once that vast energy comes into material form, watch out. The laws of our particular planet will take over and every single conglomeration of molecules that form a "something" will have a beginning, middle, end and rebirth. And so goes the wheel of existence, better known as samsara in the East.

Think of it another way: waves rise out of the ocean and each one has a unique form and a distinct impact depending on causes and conditions. Yet the wave is never apart from its source, the ocean, and recedes back into its watery basis once the energy propelling it to arise has passed through it.

The Dalai Lama has long sought to bridge western science and meditative awareness, as he noted the quantum physics was coming up with similar conclusions as the sages of old. For those who enjoy building multi-billion dollar particle colliders and other mega-machines that stare into space, knock yourselves out. As for me, I think that I will follow the Dalai Lama's teachings and simply sit under a tree. It's a bit more convenient and cost-effective for this mathematically challenged average Jane.