What is Buddhism? Applications 1 - Multiple Paths to Liberation

    In the basic section, I provided an overview of the basic teachings expounded by Shakyamuni Buddha. From here on, I would like to explore how these fundamental teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha have been received and practiced subsequently.

As explained towards the end of the basic section, those trapped in ignorance, unaware of the Middle Way, establish a single perspective of themselves. By setting up this perspective of self, they construct numerous others apart from themselves. Since all these others are fabricated by the delusion of self-other separation, they inherently entail division and conflict. Love and separation, hatred and friction are inevitable, and the suffering persists until the realization of the Middle Way.

However, even if one were to say they do not know the middle way, aside from the Buddha who fully realized the middle way, neither humans nor any other living beings know the middle way. Therefore, the delusion of self-other separation due to ignorance, which does not understand the true nature of this matter, is not just a superficial issue like a human misunderstanding. Instead, it is a matter of a fundamental delusion that leads to the creation of the world we experience.

As the most important premise, Buddhism does not consider the existence of a creator in this world or universe. This is because the world and universe are not singular, and each of our minds projects its own world outward like a projector. In other words, each of our minds is the creator of each of our own worlds.

As explained earlier on this site, in the Buddhist worldview, this world is not conceived as an objective material realm external to oneself, as commonly perceived. Rather, the world that seems to extend outward is actually an inner world, and information originating from within is projected outward through individual consciousness.

Moreover, modern physics also acknowledges the decisive role of human consciousness in the state determination of subatomic particles. If we assume that the material world exists external to humans, then subatomic particle states should have been determined before reaching human consciousness. However, according to quantum physics, it's understood that until human consciousness is involved, the state of subatomic particles remains indeterminate. This fact negates the assumption that the state of elementary particles is already determined before they reach human consciousness, which means that it also negates the assumption that the material world exists in an objectively determined state from the beginning, independent of human consciousness. Delving deeper into this topic would lead us to discussions of quantum theory's observation problem and the multiverse interpretation in modern physics. Interested readers are encouraged to explore these topics further referring to the related books and papers.

Moreover, according to the Buddhist worldview and referencing the forefront of modern physics, it can be assumed that the information originating from within is not uniformly shared among all individuals. Rather, it includes all possibilities, and each person's consciousness selects one of these possibilities every moment, projecting it as their external world.

Thus, the unfolding of the world projected outside each person's consciousness is influenced by the state of that person's consciousness. It implies that humanity does not universally share the same future. In extreme terms, each individual's future unfolds differently. Furthermore, the world seen by each person varies.

Until recently, it was common sense to think that we, humanity, and all life share one universe, one history, and one future. However, according to the latest quantum theory and cosmology, the probability of the universe randomly creating conditions suitable for human survival is one part in 1,200 power of 10. If there were only one universe, such an event with such a probability could never occur by chance. However, since humanity exists, the only rational explanation is that there are 10 to the 1200th power different parallel universes.

In other words, in most of these universes, there may not even be an Earth, let alone human beings. (However, if we apply the principle of quantum mechanics that the state of matter cannot be determined without the involvement of human consciousness, we may not be able to say that these human-less universes exist in a determined state.) If all possibilities are realized as separate universes, however, the universes in which the earth and human beings appear will always exist. Likewise, there may be countless universes with different human histories.

When humanity looks back on its past from such universes, it may seem like a miraculous coincidence that humanity was born. However, in reality, it's because we happen to exist in a universe where humanity was born among countless universes. Thus, one can conclude from the latest cosmology that the existence of humankind is not miraculous, but rather a matter of course.

Our universe, where we reside, appears to branch out into countless possibilities every moment. Each person's consciousness seems to select one of these possibilities every moment and project it onto their surroundings.

Thus, it's considered that each person's consciousness selects one possibility from countless possibilities every moment and projects the world around them based on the accumulated memories of their past actions. Therefore, everything one perceives is a result of their own choices and cannot be blamed on anyone else.

In the end, we've strayed quite a bit into cosmological discussions, but what I wanted to convey this time is that to transcend the delusion of self, which arises from fundamental ignorance, there are several methods.

Buddhism presents various methods, ranging from those that can be immediately practiced depending on the individual to those that require an incredibly long time and thorough dedication. I will explain this further in the following sections.