[Buddha-l] Emptiness

[Curt Steinmetz]

Erik Hoogcarspel wrote
>>   
>>     
> That's my understandig of it anyway. Mind you, it's not as unreasonable 
> as it seems. From what I read from modern hyperphysics it seems to be 
> the general idea nowadays too. Of course this is stuff for specialists, 
> but when people talk of things like antimatter, unparticles with 
> variable mass, mini black holes, etc., arising from nothing seems to be 
> not very far fetched. The structure of the world is however not lost: 
> not anything can arise at any time. The human imagination is very rich, 
> if you want more stuff like that: try the Kaalacakratantra, that 
> mentions even spaceparticles.
>
>
>   
I don't think that there is anything in "modern hyperphysics" that 
violates the conservation of mass and energy. Matter and energy are 
interchangeable - this has been known since 1905. Matter can change into 
energy and vice versa - but there is nothing in physics that supports 
the idea that either matter or energy simply disappears or arises out of 
nothing. Whenever there is an apparent loss of matter it has just been 
converted into energy - and vice versa. The total amount of 
matter+energy in the universe is a constant. Therefore it is "uncreated" 
- eternal and unchanging.

The human imagination is rich - and so is human language. It is possible 
to say "something is created out of nothing" - but that is not the same 
thing as "imagining" it in the sense of actually having an idea of how 
that happens.

Curt Steinmetz