Form is Emptiness, cont.

The old Buddhist maxim: Form is Emptiness, Emptiness is form. Its one of the foundational concepts of Buddhism, and can be difficult to fully grasp. I'm not sure I do, even to this day, even after decades of thinking about it.

But look at this here picture of a Helium atom. Some key concepts to realize, about our reality: According to quantum physics, there are no concrete and tangible "things" in this picture. There are just probabilities that a molecule will be in a certain place at a certain time - witness the "cloud" around the central nucleus - it's not an electron shell or wall, but rather a range of electrically charged orbits.

Consider also the vast emptiness contained within each atom -- atoms are, by far, mostly empty space. That is, the very thing that builds up everything we are and see around us are by far, empty spaces. This vast emptiness is mirrored on the macro scales in the distances between stars, between galaxies, between galaxy clusters, and so on till no doubt we're talking about vast, vast, vast distances between different universes.... and this is all within our "dimension" - there could be many, many (infinite?) more.

Finally, consider that matter is simply highly compacted energy (E=Mc2). 


I could go on and on and on, and even then I know I'm missing something. To wit, however: Some 2500 years ago, The Buddha and his Buds somehow understood the very foundations of physics, of our reality, and our place in it. 

It's inspiring.