Curious Similarity between Buddhism and Particle Physics

第10話 File10. Buddhism is the Science of “Force”

Physics is sometimes called like Mechanics or Dynamics which means Physics is the science of “Force”. Particle Physics says that there are 4 forces in the Universe, strong force, weak force, electromagnetic force and gravity. Each force has its own gauge boson to carry respective interaction. Gluons for the strong force, W or Z bosons for the weak force, photons for the electromagnetic force and graviton for the gravity. And Particle Physics expects that these 4 forces would be basically same and could be unified. Superstring Theory is regarded as the nearest one to the Final Goal.

Then what is “Force”? Hearing this word, we soon remember the US popular SF movie “Star Wars”. In the movie Jedi Knights are using “Force” like magic. Jedi can get such abilities through efforts. To tell the truth, the original idea of Force was coming from Buddhism. But its real meaning is a little different from that of Star Wars. In Buddhism Buddha is said to use various Forces to save citizens. There are many types of Buddha and each Buddha uses his or her own Force depending on various kind of difficulties. There is no other religion which frequently mentions about the Force. Therefore I would like to say “Buddhism is the Science of Force”.

Let us show the closest example, “Kannon Sutra”. In the Kannon Sutra we sometimes see a phrase “If we wish Kannon’s Force”, then Kannon appears and saves us. For example, when we want a light in deep darkness, if we call Kannon and turn on a switch, then the light is illuminated. In this case Kannon Force is the very “Electromagnetic Force”. This is only a simple example. We humanity is using a lot of forces to make our life convenient. The Kannon Sutra repeatedly teaches us that only thing we need for using Kannon Force is “Wisdom” and it also teaches us do not use Kannon Force thoughtlessly.

It is very important that even if we can use Kannon Force, we ourselves cannot be Kannon. That means we can use the electromagnetic force in various ways but we can never change the Physical Mechanism namely carrying interaction by photons. Photons can never been replaced by other gauge particles. Only we can do is processing powers.

Kannon Force is a very trivial example, and we should see the most important Force which is used by “Amida=Amitabha”. Buddhism tells us that Amida is the Top of Buddha and saves all humans and other everything which was already explained as “DAIJYO=Mahayana”. How will Amida use its Force? Buddhism expects that Amida will use its Force to achieve the Original Vow of Saving everything.

If I boldly interpret the Prophecy, Amida will appear on the Doomsday of Universe and unify all Forces into one which enable to annihilate all matters and anti-matters into Energy. But it will not be the end of Universe but the step to move to the next Universe. If we have material bodies we cannot move to another Universe. But if we abandon our bodies and become soles namely energy, we will be able to move to the new world. That is the very Original Vow of Amida.