The scientific approach to Buddhist study ─

Principle of Universe (III)

THE MYSTERY OF TIME AND SPACE IN THE BLACK HOLE

Lecturer / Sun Don Lee (Leader of Forshang Buddhism)
Compiler / Li-Kang Ho (Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Secretary General, National Yang-Ming University)
Translator / Helena Chou (Resident Instructor of Forshang Buddhism World Center, LA Branch)

Everything has it own life. This is a generally accepted belief. Will the sky fall down? "Groundless worries that the sky might fall." People in the ancient times seem to have provided a sensible remark to this question. Then would something burning suddenly die out or eventually burn out? Both the questions and the answers to these questions seem silly. How about the Sun? What is the fuel of the Sun? Why can it keep burning for so long? Will it explode someday? If the Sun explodes or burns out, will the sky of the Earth fall down? An ocean then is a plantation now; the cycle of life always goes through formation, duration, deterioration, and extinction. Then may we ask how long the life of the Earth is left? If the Sun does not shine any longer, can humans still survive? The black hole is fascinating and having life. Can black holes do Buddhist practice? Humans of the 20th century have spent tremendous efforts in exploring the black hole, but how is the black hole, far and remote, related to humans? What is the significance of understanding the black hole?

The internal world being the external world, the valley of shadow of death, the tunnel of life and death...how are these things related to the black hole? What is the scientific definition of "leaving the three realms?" Is the past, the present and the future unattainable? Is the answer yes or no to this question of Zen school from thousands of years ago? What is the scientific perspective to this question? In the time that knowledge explodes, not knowing anything about death cannot satisfy the needs of people in a modern world. The questions may be ridiculous, however, as long as they contribute to the cultivation and the understanding of the reality of the universe, Master Sun-Don Lee of Forshang Buddhism always brings out his answers with incredible patience. The following are some of the questions and answers:

Student：I watched a program on the DISCOVERY channel that said the Sun will explode about 5 billion years later. Can any living thing survive on the Earth at that time?

Master：If the Sun dies, the Earth will not be destroyed. Humans can live without sunlight because there is geothermal energy. As long as there is geothermal energy, plants will grow. Though plants need sunlight, they depend 90% on geothermal energy. If geothermal energy runs out, plants will not grow no matter how much sunlight they can get. Besides, if the Earth dies, humans will not expire. However, if the Sun explodes, the entire solar system will end. I really doubt the assumption that the Sun will explode after about 5 billion years. To calculate roughly, the Sun should have at least another 20 billion years of life. It is very difficult for the Sun to explode because it is mostly made up of water. Do you know the reason why we should not pour water over the fire when it burns very intensely? If you do, the fire will burn even harder. Water will be immediately decomposed into hydrogen and oxygen, to cause a chain reaction because hydrogen burns up spontaneously while oxygen helps the burning. Therefore, if you add water to intensely burning fire, it will not stop but only help the burning instead. Chinese people call this phenomena: the complementing of fire and water. There are times when water and fire conflict with each other; there are also times when water and fire complement each other.

Ninety percent of the Sun is water. The high energy combustion causes nucleus fission and nuclear blast, turning the contained water into fuel that keeps burning. That is why the Sun burns for such a long time. It is still too early to talk about burning up all the water in the Sun. The Sun has yet probably used up half of its water. If the Sun has existed for 15 billion years, according to my evaluation, it has at least another 15 billions years of life. Therefore, we are here talking about an incident that will occur 20 billion years later. That is something we need not to worry about at present.

Student：Master, did you design the four Forshang Dharma Marks?

Master：I didn't design them. I saw them in deep meditation.

Student：Are these marks related to the Taichi Yin-Yang mark in any way?

Master：No, they are very different! This has much to do with science. The Taichi mark is not a meaningful scientific symbol and is no real interpretation of the universe. It is only a patchwork. Let's look at the third mark, in which the four quadrants represent time, respectively as positive time, negative time, real number time, and imaginary number time. These are domains that current human science still cannot comprehend.

Student：Is time, space, and the beings in this quadrant the same as in the other three quadrants?

Master：As I said, there is positive time and negative time. Since time has 1 second, 2 seconds……1 year, 10 years, it must have a corresponding －1 second, －2 seconds……－1 year, －10 years. This is what current human science cannot accept. Human science may accept at most that we are able to go back to the past that has already happened, which is called "reversed time." But humans have never had the concept of negative time. Stephen Hawking admitted only until last year the possibility of time travel, going back to the past, and reversed time. However, the concept of going back to the past refers to the time that has already happened, but not to the past that has not yet happened. The "－1 second" is a scientific concept that has never occurred to humans. For example, time has passed 10, or 20 seconds, going back from 20 second to 10 second is today's scientific concept. However, the farthest point you can go back would be 0 second. Then, what is －1 second? The concept of －1 second has never occurred to humans. In fact, behind infinite second is －1 second. －1 second is the time after infinite positive time. Therefore, what is the meaning of "the unity of time and space?" From the scientific perspective, it means standing at the point of 0 second and being able to look at "1 second" and " －1 second" at the same time. Human mathematics has not yet to discuss the state of －1 second.

Student：Has not the Impulse Response in mathematics discussed that?

Master：No! It only mentioned the point of "0." In Stephen Hawking's theory, the shortest length of time is 10^-57 second and there is no time shorter than that. He does not think that there is "0" second in time.

(Excerpted from Master Lee's 5-11-99 class lecture at Taipei)

Student：Is the life and death tunnel somehow related to the black hole?

Master：The life and death tunnel and the black hole are standing at the different levels in their significance; however, there is a 90% similarity between these two. As long as you have enough wisdom, you will be able to see all the records of the universe once you enter the black hole because the entire Milky Way originated from the big bang. In the unity of time and space, the most benefit you can get out of the black hole is that once you enter it you can go back to the energy state before the big bang which contains all the records of all the planets that were sucked into it. If your spiritual body enters the black hole, in less than a split second you will be able to examine all of the energy state in there, including all the "forms", galaxies, stars, and lives that can possibly be derived and their development tens of billions of years later. All of these are recorded in there! The big bang is only the conversion of mass and energy, a process of transforming all the energy into forms. The time and space warp and the time and space condensation is quite complicated!

Student：What is the relation between the black hole and the internal world?

Master: The gravity and the density of the black hole is so high that it sucks in even the light. This is a common sense in basic science, right? Light is time. If the black hole can suck in light, that means it can suck in time. The most advanced human science today thinks that time warps in the black hole. This phenomenon exists because light can be absorbed and warp in the black hole. Time is space; therefore, space also warps in the black hole. Therefore, they assume that another world can be reached in a moment through the black hole and the points of penetration are called "worm holes." These are O.K., right? All right! The gravity of the black hole is so strong that it sucks in light and warps light. Light is time and light can be sucked in; therefore, space can also be sucked in and become warped. Let me ask you this question: "What do you think is the 'Universal Energy Absorption Doctrine' of Forshang Buddhism? Whatever sucks in light is capable of warping time and space. This is a secret!"

Student：The big bang happens in all time and space as well as all moments, from the past to the future, including everything we have experienced and done. Is everything the continuation of the big bang?

Master：Because of the unity of time and space, all things that happened exist permanently. The original big bang exists and continues to exist in every moment. Such a big wave and vibration in the universe has some impact on us. Yet, how do we come to understand these impacts? In fact, we can fully utilize this energy vibration except that we have not found ways to make full use of it. Therefore, what is the black hole? Simply put, the black hole is the best way to absorb the energy for the spiritual body. In other words, whether you can cultivate your spiritual body very well, or whether you can cultivate the first level of Bodhisattvahood very well is determined by whether your spiritual body can penetrate the black hole. If you can penetrate without being sucked into it, you excel above the three realms. Therefore, the black hole itself is a threshold over which to leave the three realms.

(Excerpted from Master Lee's 7-5-98 class lecture at Los Angeles Branch)

Student：Master, you instructed us on your theories about the black hole in July. (see the 16th issue of The World of Forshang magazine.) The January, 1999 issue of Science magazine reports a revolutionary idea on the universe, which is totally different from what was stated before by Christianity. This idea brought out daring assumptions as well as analysis, stating that the time and space of the universe has an expansion, contraction, and flat state. There are all kinds of possibilities! Another thing it brought up is the idea of multiple universes.

Master：Multiple universes? I remember that I have already mentioned that concept the first time I taught a class in LA. I am not quite sure how far humans have gone in the studies of multiple universes. I believe that studies would still be very primitive. Let's take a look at the third Dharma mark of Forshang Buddhism: it is the multiple universes in a single universe, or the four quadrants of a single universe. The space in this mark represents the possibility of infinite expansion. These four quadrants are balanced. As any of the four expands, the other three will also expand outwardly. However, none of these four areas will ever reach the outer circle unless this circle contracts inwardly. None of the beings in any of the four quadrants will ever penetrate this enormous energy field. The only way is to go back to the origin of the big bang - an area through which we can go into another universe of the same shape. To string all the points of this kind you will get a line, of which every point is an enormous system of multiple universes. To link the infinite points up to N points you get a line. To link the infinite lines you get a plane, a whole plane adding to an infinite amount of planes. To link all the planes you get an unbreakable surrounding that looks like a sphere.

Student：Isn't that Superstring Theory?

Master：It is deeper than Superstring Theory. Superstring Theory traces back only up to the point of the big bang. This point does exist theoretically; however, the human understanding of it is still not complete. This point is called a "worm hole." The existence of a worm hole helps penetrate time and space. At present, humans only talk about going through a worm hole to reach other universes in each of the multiple universes in a single universe (the four quadrants.) Humans have never thought of going from one system of multiple universes to another system of multiple universes. The passage that connects the four quadrants of a single universe to another system of multiple universes is called the passage connecting the single universe and the multiple universes. That is the real multiple universes.

Let's assume these four quadrants of a single universe as round thin pancakes. These round thin pancakes twist and spin flexibly. Upon twisting and spinning, the connecting lines from the central point at all degrees make a sphere. Therefore, from the central point you can go into any quadrants of any other universe. From the perspective of Buddhist doctrines, the phenomena of the universe fit into one characteristic of Buddhist doctrines, according to which we can thoroughly understand the phenomena of the universe. Take "the revolution of the ten great characters" in Forshang Buddhism as an example. No matter how far you revolve, the essence is always the same. As long as you go back to the essence at any point of revolution, it is the same as going back to the original essence. This is "one is infinity; infinity is one."

Just like any form of life, as long as you understand the center of the sphere, you can penetrate into any time and space. As it is spinning itself, it is not only a single line. It is twisting and spinning entirely, like a ball that keeps turning. At the moment of the big bang, warp, split, and phenomena of the black hole, the central point remains the same. Because it is in balance, it will not move around. It only keeps spinning at the same place. It can spin at least 360 degrees in all angles in a sphere.

(Excerpted from Master Lee's 12-26-98 class lecture at Los Angeles Branch)

Student：Can we look at the four symmetrical quadrants of a single universe formed after the big bang of the black hole from the negative time scales?

Master：After all the big bangs, the two universes, four universes or four quadrants thus formed belong to the universe of the positive time scales. What is the reversed phenomena? The 1 second has the same meaning as －1 second: "the very first second" when the universe begins and "the very negative first second" when the universe ends. Therefore, when time comes to the infinite negative seconds, it is the 1st second of the universe. That is to say, the universe is the －1 second after infinite time. Therefore, counting forward from this point to infinite time becomes the －1 second if counting backward from this point.

The spiritual body is capable of examining everything all at once. The second Patriarch was thus deceived by the Primary Patriarch. The Primary Patriarch asked him whether he wanted to see all his life from birth to that very moment, how the solar system was formed, how the entire universe was formed, and what the universe will become to the end. He said yes! The Primary Patriarch indeed showed him everything. How did the Primary Patriarch do that? How could he have done it in one second? As long as he shows the state of 1 second and －1 second at the same time, he is able to show all the states of being. He needs 1 second and －1 second. He needs only to spend this much time to make it. Then, what is the time of "1 second" and "－1 second?" That is no time. The phenomena of 1 second and －1 second coexisting is the state of no time, which is called the unity of time and space. Why can the spiritual body understand so much of the universe? Why is the past, the present and the future unattainable? Why is the past, the present and the future attainable upon understanding one's own Buddha nature? That is because all time, "1 second" and "－1 second," exist instantaneously. From the scientific perspective, being able to control "1 second" and "－1 second" means to know everything from the beginning to the end instantaneously. To know everything instantaneously means to know very well all the changes and all the processes in the middle. For example, a glass bead. If you see that it rolls on the left side of the table now and that it falls down from the right side of the table later, you know for sure that it rolls from the left side to the right side of the table before it falls down. He sees "1 second" and "－1 second" all at once. He sees everything all at once in a state of no time. It is as simple as that.

Why can someone understand the phenomena of the universe so much once he reaches a certain stage? That is because he understands the beginning and the ending. As he dwells in his own Dharma nature, or Buddha nature, every change in the middle becomes inevitable. Just like a tilted table. A glass bead put on the left side of the table will certainly roll to the right and fall. What he understands is the law of cause and effect. Therefore, 1 second and －1 second is an issue of cause and effect. The biggest problem of Stephen Hawking's and Einstein's theories in physics is that they did not explore the spiritual parts or consider the philosophical aspects.

Student：If we testify the truth and understand the beginning and the ending, then why do we still have the compassion to deliver all beings?

Master：Let's say, if you don't move in meditation, no matter what, even if mosquitoes bite you, for fifteen minutes, you will testify to the highest level of preliminary spiritual body, for thirty minutes, you will testify to the entering of the Dharma nature, for an hour you will testify the spiritual body, will you do it or not? Of course, you will, right? Coming to and leaving the earthly world is just like a moment of adjusting the seat and closing the eyes. A lifetime seems long to us! However, to Bodhisattvas in the holy state, the moment they close their eyes, they have already reincarnated for infinite lifetimes! It is worthwhile, no matter what. Besides, they gain a lot in their achievements, in their virtues, in their experiences of being treated unfairly, while people in the three realms owe them a lot, right? (all the people laughed)

(Excerpted from Master Lee's 5-8-99 class lecture through Los Angeles to Taipei ISDN conferencing)

Figure 1. Ninety percent of the Sun is water. The high energy combustion causes nucleus fission and nuclear blast, turning the contained water into fuel that keeps burning. To calculate roughly, the Sun should have at least another 20 billion years of life.

Figure 2. You will be able to see all the records of the universe once you enter the black hole because the entire Milky Way originated from the big bang.

Figure 3. The four quadrants of a single universe. The four spindle-shaped quadrants are in equilibrium. The space represents the possibilities of infinite expansion, but is circumscribed by the circle in the outside. The central point stays fixed.

Figure4. The central point of the single universe extends outward to form a line on which are numerous single universes.

Figure 5. From the single universe, point turns into line, line turns into plain, plain turns into bigger sphere, which is the multiple universes. This is also the fourth mark of Forshang Buddhism.