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The smallest cells weigh about 10-12 grams – each one is like a
miniature factory containing thousands of intricately designed
machinery – consisting of billions of atoms, far more complicated
than any machinery built by man and without any parallel in the non-
living world.
Subatomic particle - From Wikipedia
A subatomic particles are elementary or composite particles smaller
than atoms. Particle physics and nuclear physics are concerned with
the study of these particles, their interactions, and non-atomic matter
composed from them.
Subatomic particles include the atomic constituents electrons, protons,
and neutrons. Protons and neutrons are composite particles, consisting
of quarks. A proton contains two up quarks and one down quark,
while a neutron consists of one up quark and two down quarks; the
quarks are held together in the nucleus by gluons. There are six
different types of quark in all ('up', 'down', 'bottom', 'top', 'strange', and
'charm'), as well as other particles including photons and neutrinos
which are produced copiously in the sun. Most of the particles that
have been discovered are not encountered under normal earth
conditions but are found in cosmic rays and are produced by scattering
processes in particle accelerators. There are dozens of subatomic
particles.
Introduction to particles
In particle physics, the conceptual idea of a particle is one of several concepts
inherited from classical physics, the world we experience, that are used to
describe how matter and energy behave at the very molecular scales of quantum
mechanics. As physicists use the term, the meaning of the word "particle" is one
which understands how particles are radically different at the quantum-level,
and rather different from the common understanding of the term.
The idea of a particle is one which had to undergo serious rethinking in light of
experiments which showed that that the smallest particles (of light) could behave
just like waves. The difference is indeed vast, and required the new concept of
wave-particle duality to state that quantum-scale "particles" are understood to
behave in a way which resembles both particles and waves. Another new
concept, the uncertainty principle, meant that analyzing particles at these scales
required a statistical approach. All of these factors combined such that the very
notion of a discrete "particle" has been ultimately replaced by the concept of
something like wave-packet of an uncertain boundary, whose properties are only
known as probabilities, and whose interactions with other "particles" remain
largely a mystery, even 80 years after quantum mechanics was established.
Dividing an atom
Electrons, which are negatively charged, have a mass of 1/1836 of a
hydrogen atom, the remainder of the atom's mass coming from the
positively charged proton. The atomic number of an element counts the
number of protons. Neutrons are neutral particles with a mass almost
equal to that of the proton. Different isotopes of the same nucleus
contain the same number of protons but differing numbers of neutrons.
The mass number of a nucleus counts the total number of nucleons.
Chemistry concerns itself with the arrangement of electrons in atoms
and molecules, and nuclear physics with the arrangement of protons and
neutrons in a nucleus. The study of subatomic particles, atoms and
molecules, their structure and interactions, involves quantum mechanics
and quantum field theory (when dealing with processes that change the
number of particles). The study of subatomic particles per se is called
particle physics. Since many particles need to be created in high energy
particle accelerators or cosmic rays, sometimes particle physics is also
called high energy physics.
Atom smasher makes weird matter
[http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2005/1348510.htm]
Scientists using a giant atom-smasher say they have created a new state of matter that shows what the early universe
once looked like. The scientist said that for a tiny fraction of a second after the “Big Bang” all was in the form of this
hot, dense liquid made out of basic atomic particles and called a quark-gluon plasma. “We think we are looking at a
phenomenon ... in the universe 13 billion years ago when free quarks and gluons ... cooled down to the particles that we
know today.”
The quark-gluon plasma was made in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, a powerful atom smasher. Unexpectedly, the
quark gluon plasma behaved like a perfect liquid of quarks, instead of a gas, the physicists said. For their experiment,
the researchers smashed two gold ions together at extremely high speeds, very close to the speed of light. The collision
was so intense that the strong force that usually binds quarks into protons and neutrons weakened, allowing the quarks
to roam freely. Normally quarks, the most basic particles that make up matter, are bound together and cannot be
measured directly. At temperatures 10,000 times hotter than those found inside the Sun and with just a few thousand
particles, the nuclear physicists expected the quarks to fly around freely like a gas. Instead, the quarks behaved like a
perfect liquid, flowing together like a school of fish, without turbulence or random motion. In contrast, a drop of water
containing the same number of particles would not behave like a liquid at all, but just fly apart. "This is fluid motion
that is nearly perfect," says Aronson.
"That the new state of matter created in the collisions of gold ions is more like a liquid than a gas gives us a profound
insight into the earliest moments of the universe," he says. The unexpected results have a link to another field of
physics, called string theory. String theory attempts to explain properties of the universe using 10 dimensions, instead of
the three space and one time dimension that humans commonly perceive. The string theory calculation describing how
gravity behaves near a black hole can also explain how quarks move in a quark gluon plasma, experts say.
Energy
Matter can be austerely denoted in terms of energy – only two mechanisms
in which energy can be transferred have been discovered: particles and
waves. Light can be expressed as both particles and waves. This paradox is
known as the Duality Paradox.
Particles are discrete - their energy is centralized into what appears to be a
finite space, which possesses absolute boundaries and its contents are
considered to be homogenous - the same at any point within the particle.
Particles subsist at a particular location. If demonstrated on a 3D graph,
they have x, y, and z coordinates. They can never exist in more than one
location at once, and to travel to a different place in space, a particle must
move to it under the laws of kinematics, acceleration, velocity and so forth.
Interactions between particles have been scrutinized for many centuries, and
a few simple laws dictate how particles proceed in collisions and
interactions. The most angelic of these are the conservation of energy and
momentum which help to explain calculations between particle interactions
on scales of magnitude which diverge between planets and quarks.
Molecules of Positronium Observed in the Laboratory for the First
Time:
- (http://www.newsroom.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/display.cgi?id=1662 - September 12, 2007):
Neutrinos are elementary particles of low-energy matter that have no electric charge and very little
mass. They are created and emitted in vast numbers by the thermonuclear reactions that fuel our
Sun, and are known to exist in three types, related to three different charged particles — the electron,
and its lesser known relatives, the muon and the tau. The Sun should only emit electron neutrinos.
But previous experiments have found fewer electron neutrinos than scientists expected, based on
calculations of how the Sun burns.
These neutrinos are uncharged elementary particles that are blasted out in vast amounts from the
sun as a result of thermonuclear fusion, and come in a wide range of energies. Until now, detector
technologies were able to spot high-energy neutrinos, particles with a kinetic energy of more than 5
million electron-volts. But detectors were, until now, not sensitive enough for low-energy neutrinos,
which have less than a million electron-volts.
The total number of all three types of neutrinos agreed with theoretical calculations, showing that
electron neutrinos emitted by the Sun have changed to muon or tau neutrinos before they reach
Earth. The experiment was based on the difference between neutrino rates during the day compared
to the night. "The oscillation of the neutrinos can be enhanced by passage through matter,"
explained Dr Thornton — in this case, the amount of the Earth between the detector, which lies
underground, and the Sun. During the day, with the Sun on the same side of the Earth as the
detector, the neutrinos must pass through two kilometers of dirt. At night, the rays must come all the
way through the Earth. The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory detects neutrinos at a rate of about one
per hour.
The Quark
In particle physics, the quark is one of the two basic constituents of matter
(the other is the lepton). It is quarks that make up protons and neutrons,
with there being exactly three quarks within each kind of particle.
There are six different types of quark, usually known as flavors: up, down,
charm, strange, top, and bottom. (Their names were chosen arbitrarily
based on the need to name them something that could be easily
remembered and used.) The strange, charm, bottom and top varieties are
highly unstable and died out within a fraction of a second after the Big
Bang; they can be recreated and studied by particle physicists. The up and
down varieties survive in profusion, and are distinguished by (among other
things) their electric charge. It is this which makes the difference when
quarks clump together to form protons or neutrons: a proton is made up
of two up quarks and one down quark, yielding a net charge of +1; while a
neutron contains one up quark and two down quarks, yielding a net charge
of 0.
Quarks are the only fundamental particles that interact through all four of
the fundamental forces.
The six flavors of quarks and their most likely decay modes. Mass
decreases moving from right to left.
Fundamental interaction/force
A fundamental interaction or fundamental force is a
mechanism by which particles interact with each other,
and which cannot be explained in terms of another
interaction. Every observed physical phenomenon can
be explained by these interactions. The apparent
irreducible nature of these interactions leads physicists
to study the properties of these forces in great detail. In
modern physics, there are four fundamental
interactions (forces): gravitation, electromagnetism, the
weak interaction, and the strong interaction. Their
magnitude and behavior vary greatly.
What does this have to do with Buddhism?
There are four primary elements in Buddhism: Earth,
Fire, Water, Air…
…and secondary elements like: color, sound, smell,
taste, gender, nutriment…
Even further, there are minute, elementary particles:
kalapas – forming all animate and inanimate material
composed phenomena
A life-span of a kalapa can last about 17 mind-moments
Kalapas originate from: kamma, citta, temperature
[fire], and nutriment
Elements as University Subjects:
•Rebirth-linking •Investigating
•Life-Continuum •Determining
•Adverting •Javana [the 7 mind-moment processes to
•Senses actively-comprehend phenomena]
•Receiving •Registration
•Death
Abhidhammic Time:
Samaya: time, occasion or a conjunction of
circumstance; duration…
Samayo [in the Chattha Sangayana CD-Rom]:
Agreement, combination; multitude; season, time;
custom, rule, religious obligation; order, precept;
religious belief, doctrine
The word samaye is used 2297 times in fourteen
Abhidhamma texts – 1612 times inside the
Dhammasangani
SAMAYA
Atthasalini - Samaya as:
Occasion
Harmony in antecedents
‘there is but one moment, one samaya for the practice of the
holy life’
A ‘season’ [fever-season]
“a large samaya in the great forest” – assembly
Also can mean: opinions, acquisition
Therefore:
Atthasalini – The Expositor
Commentary on the
Dhammasangani
Five Aggregates
Consciousness:
Four Classes of Consciousness [Mundane and Supramundane]
Wholesome or unwholesome
Cognitive Process Six Senses; processes, presentations, modes, great/slight objects, absorption, registration, attainment processes, planes
Matter Elements, Concretely produced matter [senses], Non-concrete matter [characteristics], origination of matter, smiling, occurrence of matter, Nibbāna
Unwholesome: taints, floods, bodily knots, clingings, hindrances, latent dispositions, fetters, defilements; mixed: roots, jhāna factors, path factors,
faculties, powers, predominants, nutriments; requisites of Enlightenment: four foundations of mindfulness, four supreme efforts, four means to
Categories accomplishment, five faculties, five powers, seven factors of Enlightenment, eight path factors, states and occurrences; the whole: five
aggregates, twelve sense bases, eighteen elements, four noble truths
Conditionality Method of dependent arising [12 links], method of conditional relations [24 conditions]; analysis of concepts
Calm; 40 Meditation Subjects; Analysis of Development; Analysis of Terrain; Attainment of Jhāna; Insight; Purification; Emancipation; Individuals;
Meditation Subjects Attainments
The Seven Sarvastivadin Texts:
Sangitiparyaya ('Discourses on Gathering Together')
Dharmaskandha ('Aggregation of Dharmas')
Prajnaptisastra ('Treatise on Designations')
Dhatukaya ('Body of Elements')
Vijnanakaya ('Body of Consciousness')
Prakaranapada ('Exposition')
Jnanaprasthana ('Foundation of Knowledge')
Contact Concentration
Energy
Volition
Confidence
Reasoning
Self-possession
Reflection
Understanding
Joy
[above: five faculties]
Dhammasangani:
Enumeration of Phenomena
Other Sankhara/Forces: life, right speech, right action, wrong
theory, wrong intentions, self-respect, fear of blame, lack of
self-respect, lack of fear-of-blame, desire, aversion, delusion,
non-desire, non-aversion, non-delusion, vanity, uncertainty,
assurance, lightness, suppleness, malleability, effiency,
straightness, being conscious, calming, insight, intention to
find out something, four influences [opinion reduces delusion
and ignorance; pleasure reduces desire which desires existence
to form], and other reducible factors
Dhammasangani:
Enumeration of Phenomena
Vinnana [consciousness]:
Thought [citta]
Mind [base but reduced to a thought]
Sight
Hearing
Smelling
Taste
Touch
Mind [thought of the previous moment]
Dhammasangani:
Enumeration of Phenomena
Unsynthesized base:
Extinction: Nibbana – because it cannot be classified under
any groups
descriptions of personality-types.
ultimate realities.
conditions/consciousnesses, etc…
Kathavatthu:
Points of Controversy
Contains the questions and answers that were compiled by
Moggaliputta Tissa in the 3rd century BCE, in order to clarify
points of controversy that existed between the various
“Theravada” schools of Buddhism at the time.
The text utilizes indirect logic during questioning:
Is A, B?
If A is B, then C is D
If D is denied of C, then B should be denied of A
If C is not D, then A is not B
But sometimes there is ill-logic which is refuted also
Kathavatthu: - Points of Controversy
Logical techniques found:
Definitions
Distribution of terms
Classification
Relations between propositions as bi-conditionals or
‘ponentials’, quantifications, and the use of logical words to
give a standard formal presentation of all the arguments, etc…
[Please recall: the Buddha insists on the empirical
verification of his teachings – See the Anguttara-
nikaya’s Kesaputta Sutta]
Yamaka - The Book of Pairs
This book is a logical analysis of many concepts
presented in the earlier books. It is also called the
‘Clarification of Expressions’. The Yamaka is for
advanced students who already comprehend the
Abhidhamma system – and endeavor to become
completely competnent in order to defeat or not
fail in debates against opponents.
Yamaka - The Book of Pairs
Buddhagosa’s Introduction to the Atthasalini states
that this text is divided into ten parts:
Roots, aggregates, sense-organs, elements, truths,
coefficients [body, speech and mind], latent biases,
consciousness, doctrine and controlling faculties.
Patthana: The Book of Relations
The largest single volume in the Tipitaka – [over 6,000 pages
in the Thai version] [English Version – Pali Text Society, Two Volumes,
over 1000 Pages- not fully translated due to redundancies in analysis] –
describing the 24 paccayas or laws of conditionality -
through which dhammas interact. These laws when
applied variously, describe every possibility of the
dhammas described in the Dhammasangani –
demonstrating the complete knowable experience.
Patthana: The Book of Relations
Cause [root] Action [kamma]
Support [object] Result [resultant]
Dominant [predominance] Food [nutriment]
Immediate [proximity] Faculty
Quite-immediate [conascence] Meditation [Jhana]
Simultaneous origin [mutuality] The way [Path]
Reciprocal [dependence] Conjoined with [association]
Dependence [strong-dependence] Disjoined from [dissociation]
Immediate dependence [prenascence] Existing [presence]
Produced before [postnascence] Not existing [absence]
Habit [repetition] Without [disappearance]
Not without [non-disappearance]
The body is like a car body; the brain is the engine, and the mind is the driver. We
know that if the car body is in good condition, the engine is perfect and the driver is
there and ready to drive – the car is sure to move to the destination. But if the care is
in good condition but there is engine trouble, the car cannot move, although the driver
is there and ready. In the same way, without a driver, even though the car and engine
are perfect – the car cannot move – or if there is a defect with the driver – a crash
results. Humans are like this.
Definition of Development:
To grow
To increase
To make prosperous
To expand
To advance
To improve
To enlarge
To mature
Citta-Bhāvanā
Citta: Bhāvanā:
Mind Cultivate
Has the nature of thinking or Prosper
responding to stimuli Train
Has the nature of cetasikas –
Practice
to be aware of what comes
from the sense-doors
Has the nature of
diversification and
refinement
Mahasaccakasutta [about citta-bhavana]:
Attainable goal
Blistful achievement
Group of breaths
Group of postures
Group of repulsiveness
Groups of corpses
7. Cultivation of Divine Abodes of Mind
Brahma-viharas:
Loving-kindness – the wish to see others happy
[meditatively extend to all]
Compassion – the wish to help others out of misery
[characteristic of great people]
Sympathy – the capacity for understanding and
appreciating or sharing the happiness of others [ an act of
merit]
Equanimity – the feeling of an understanding calmness of
mind – when the previous three are inappropriate [a virtue
of perfection]
8. Psychic Experience
Nimittas – signs or visions:
Inner Vision: created by one’s own mind
Outer Vision: by those who have cultivated clairvoyant powers or
minds that are profoundly tranquil – bringing celestial realms into
view
Yugaladhamma [Pairs]:
• Tranquility of the body and mind
• Lightness of the body and mind
• Suppleness of the body and mind
• Maneuverability of the body and mind
• Agility of the body and mind
• Straightness of the body and mind
Abhinna – Psychic Powers:
Direct Knowledge - after emerging from jhana and averting to
the resolution from preliminary work, thus:
Psychic feats
Clairaudience
Telepathy or mind-reading
Recollection of former lives
Clairvoyance
Knowledge of the destruction of the taints from insight
Chapter Break
Patisambhidamagga – The Path of
Discrimination [Comprehension]:
…because the text was originally ‘Abhidhamma’ [p. xl] – I examine it!
The introduction states that the term ‘patisambhida’ does not
appear in the Digha, Majjhima, Samyutta nikayas… but
appears several times in the Anguttara Nikaya – and appears in
the Abhidhamma and other later texts.
Believed to be attributed to the Venerable Sariputta – under the
concept that if the Buddha went into a retreat somewhere, he
might have produced this sort of text.
The Path of Discrimination
The discriminations are:
Attha – meanings
Vyanjana – expressions
Dhamma – principles/ideas [hetu: causes]
Nirutti – language
Pubbāpara – context
Mahāniddesa states: possessing intuition: three kinds – in
learning [simply], in inquiry [into meanings, definitions,
causes, etc], and in acquisition [the 37 Enlightenment
Factors, etc.]
The Path of Discrimination
The Parivāra states that a monk should not be elected to a
committee if he is not skilled in:
Meanings, Principles. Language, Context
Intro suggests to see the Potthapada Sutta – where a leading wander states: “…
the ascetic Gotama teaches a true and real way of practice which is consonant
with Dhamma and grounded in Dhamma. And why should not a man… express
approval of such true and real practice, so well taught by the ascetic Gotama.”
Key statements from the Potthapada Sutta:
One’s perceptions arise and cease owing to a cause and conditions. Some
perceptions arise through training, and some pass away through [moral]
training.
Whenever the gross acquired self is present, we do not at that time speak
of a mind-made acquired self, we do not speak of a formless acquired
self. We speak only of a gross acquired self [this very one that you can
see!].
Citta states: “My past acquired self was at the time, my only true one, the
future and present ones were false. My future acquired self will then be
the only true one, the past and present ones were false. My present
acquired self is not the only true one, the past and future ones are false.
[other self’s: mind-made acquired self/formless acquired self]
The Path of Discrimination
[p. xxiii-xxiv] - The Patisambhidāmagga as the Sastra
[textbook] of Theravāda:
Composed during the period of the great schisms, and is a
positive counterpart to the Kathavātthu. Whereas the Points
of Controversy refute the doctrines of others, the Path of
Discrimination illustrates the accepted Theravada Doctrine.
A student of Theravada doctrine and the Visuddhimagga may
not notice anything controversial – being practical and
straightforwardly outlining the truths of Buddhism.
The Path of Discrimination
Impermanence, or the momentariness, of all dhammas
is one of the main themes of the text – again, stressing
impermanence and emptiness.
Chapter
Break
ABHIDHAMMATTHA SANGAHA:
Kammatthanasangahavibhaga
Everyone needs a field of action or a workplace to
perform or attain
Sensuous-Blissful 9. Tusita – Delightful Realm of Bodhisatta 10. Nimmanarati – Gods with Creation Power
Plane
[rebirth here due to
11 Sense- generosity] 8. Yama – Realm of Great Happiness 7. Tavatimsa – Realm of 33 Gods [Indra]
ABHIDHAMMATTHA SANGAHA:
Kammatthanasangahavibhaga
[MN24 – The Relay of the Chariots] - Seven
Stages of Purification:
Of virtue [sila] [mundane]
Of mind [samadhi] [mundane]
Of view [panna] [mundane]
By overcoming doubt [panna] [mundane]
By knowledge and vision of path and not path [panna] [mundane]
By knowledge and vision of the way [panna] [mundane]
---[change of lineage]---
By knowledge and vision [panna] [supramundane]
ABHIDHAMMATTHA SANGAHA:
Kammatthanasangahavibhaga
Virtue For Monks - Analysis of Purification:
Restraint through the Patimokkha/precepts
Restraint through the sense-faculties/doors
Purity in terms of livelihood
Purity in connection to the four requisites
Devas by Birth:
Commencing with Catumaharajika Devas
Devas by Purification:
Noble Ones