[Buddha-l] Energy

[Bernie Simon]

> Matter is obviously "a substance" - and matter and energy are
> interchangeable, as has been known since 1905. Therefore at the very
> least energy has the potential to become "a substance" (which makes it
> "potentially substantial") - and in fact we know that energy does do
> this all the time.

It's mass that is convertible to energy, not matter. The concepts of  
mass and matter should not be conflated. After all, there are massless  
subatomic particles, just as there are chargeless particles. Are they  
not also matter?

Physics rests on a base of conservation laws, but conservation of  
energy is no more basic than conservation of momentum. The two are  
equivalent, only differing in the mathematical formalism, Hamiltonian  
versus Lagrangian. Saying that momentum is eternal sounds silly to my  
ears. Why is saying energy is eternal any less silly?

> Mahavairocana is 'Great Sun' or 'Great Brilliant Shining One'. What  
> is a sun
> or a 'Great Brilliant Shining One' if not energy?

The concept of energy in its modern scientific sense is unknown in  
Eastern philosophy. The law of conservation of energy was first  
developed by the Dutch surgeon Julius Robert Mayer in the Nineteenth  
Century. Instead of being taken seriously, he was thrown into an  
insane asylum.