Does Life Need a Multiverse to Exist?

:thinking:

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Seems like the buddha may have under-estimated the likelihood of being born as a human :wink:

“Mendicants, suppose the earth was entirely covered with water. And a person threw a yoke with a single hole into it. The east wind wafts it west; the west wind wafts it east; the north wind wafts it south; and the south wind wafts it north. And there was a one-eyed turtle who popped up once every hundred years.

What do you think, mendicants? Would that one-eyed turtle, popping up once every hundred years, still poke its neck through the hole in that yoke?”

“It’s unlikely, sir.”

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I still remember the day I realized this metaphor borrowed into the Lotus Sutra was originally in an EBT and started reading Agamas.

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Tangentially related (for all the geeks :grin:)

Laws of physics, space / time and the Buddhas laws of causality
@Brahmali

Firstly, Causality = Reality

Followed by, The speed of light, has nothing to do with light - it is actually the speed of causality. Enjoy!

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Yep. And the video’s point is aligned with that, as it explains how unique this universe setup is in the first place…
:anjal:

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Indeed :slightly_smiling_face: and that is why I posted it :smiley::+1:

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Thanks, @Viveka. But if you want something truly thought-provoking, and probably even closer to the Buddhist outlook, I would recommend this:

And this:

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Ha! :grin: before I found the words of the Buddha, this is the direction I came from (including the background in Mental Health/altered mind states) :joy: so it is less :exploding_head: than the former for me. The idea of subjectively perceived experiences/events, forming reality (nothing else), and which can be represented mathematically as space/time, and that the speed of light, the cosmic constant, is actually the fastest ‘speed’ between cause and effect, and the resonance of this with issues of consciousness and perception - is amazing.

I feel there are large overlaps from both of the presentations, but described from several different frames of reference… each of which is equally ‘real/true’, but neither giving the full picture. Think blindfolded people describing the elephant. This was the problem I had in my thesis, in that so many disciplines work to describe these things, but they operate as silos, making sense within their own frame of reference, but the frames of reference can’t be transferred onto each other… so what in effect can look like lots of solid evidence, ends up being subjective :rofl: :roll_eyes:

Still what the Buddha brought to the equation is the explanation of specific causes and effects for the human experience of suffering - ie the practical application of all of these things to our Samsaric existence. Turned theory into a road map. Fantastic!

I’m waiting for my copy of Carl Jungs ‘Red Book’ to arrive, just to throw into the mix…

I know it is all just spinning ones wheels, and any conclusions are completely inconsequential - but I suppose that this is what brains want to do…

So time to get back to the present moment on planet earth… or maybe - Jhana ? … :smile:

:relieved: :thaibuddha: :upside_down_face:

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Thanks Bhante :anjal:

I ve never heard about Dr. Bernardo Kastrup before watching the two videos you shared. I found his input to be quite interesting. I also watched many episodes of the old Thinking Allowed series but did not know that Dr. Jeffery produced new ones, so knowing this comes as a nice surprise. I have plenty to watch in the coming few days :hearts:

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If you go by Donald Hoffman’s theory of conscious agents; that the underlying reality is networks of conscious agents, and that spacetime is not the stage on which life unfolds, but rather a spiecies specific interface that actively hides true reality to enable reproduction, then the premise of the video that ‘the universe is capable of producing life’ is mistaken, it should actually be ‘consciousness agents are capable of producing a universe’ :mindblown: :stuck_out_tongue:

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Perhaps all these theorists should adopt and practice Buddhism and then report back after a few years :rofl:

Or we could nominate Ajahn Brahm to participte in a panel discussion with them - Now that would be something…

Thanks @Erika_ODonnell :slight_smile:

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There is actually an interview with Ajahn Brahm conducted in Sept 2019, that covers some of this material, already posted here :slight_smile: Enjoy :slightly_smiling_face:

https://discourse.suttacentral.net/t/podcast-ajahn-brahm-letting-go-stillness-and-vanishing-6-sept-2019-127/13817

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