Brahman: Zero and One; Existence and Non-Existence
[...Continued from Chapter 1 & Chapter 2...]
Chapter 3. Brahman: Zero and One; Existence and Non-Existence
Stunning was yet another Bhūtasaṃkhyā word used for zero - Brahman (ब्रह्मन्). The word refers to the highest metaphysical concept as per Saṃkhya Yoga (Number-Yoga). [1] [2] As per Harvard-graduated Carthage College professor Lochtefeld, it is the ultimate reality of this universe. [3] [4] Major publications relate the meaning of the word “brahman” to the “...immaterial, efficient, formal and final cause of all that exists…”! [5] [6] Harvard seems to agree. [7]
Former University of Wales professor JD Fowler and California State University professor J Brodd identify Brahman as that which does not change and is the cause of all change, and therefore creation. [8] Similar is zero. It cannot multiply, nor can it divide. But by adding 1 to 0, one at a time, you can make anything. Zero is the basic additive identity. [9]
Professor Brodd goes on to observe that Brahman is not something that can be even thought about by mere intelligence. It comes from a higher level of consciousness - much like what zero was before someone (an individual or a collective consciousness) defined and propounded the concept. By Brodd’s take on the monistic nature of the divine, Brahman is immaterial, and so is zero. [10]
Amusingly, the Bhūtasaṃkhyā notation system also uses Brahman for one. This evinces that zero and one are the same - existence and non-existence ironically co-exist. This is exactly what modern-day Quantum Mechanics has evolved to find out. Matter comes into existence and goes non-existent so frequently that the frequency of the incident(s) cannot be measured. [11] [12]
Gluons are massless particles that bind the fundamental matter particles called quarks to make hadrons like protons and neutrons. As many modern scientists, particle physicist Dr. DL Smith states in his write-up “Like Chocolate for String Theory” gluons do this job by existing virtually. He asserts that “...a triple-gluon swap between two particles that aren’t there…” and that “...particles pop into being from nothingness and promptly disappear again…” [13]
Gautama the Buddha is said to have told his disciples that matter disappears and reappears over 10 million times in the blink of an eye. This is in agreement with the virtual triple-gluon concept. Thai-based professor Yupapin published in the International Journal Science World in 2015, a correlation between Buddhism and Quantum Physics. The paper posits how Buddhism predicts that everything will come to a zero again. [14] Brahmā is the godhead of Buddhism. [15]
“Brahman” is the source of everything, which everything eventually will fall into [16] - much like the number zero and the unified concept of Big Bang-Big Crunch.
Zero is essentially the only additive identity in mathematics. [17] It may be noted that Srinivasa Ramanujan used the tenets and axioms of zero to teach the world about the properties of infinity. [18]
As for the Big Bang-Big Crunch concept, it merely suggests that the Universe begins from nothingness - a singularity; creation will also return to it. Four physicists from Iran, India, and Italy jointly revised the concept in 2023 only to reassure that singularities (in Bianchi models) that are relevant to the Big Bang hold true for the future or Big Crunch. Their studies also prove that time is symmetric and that this symmetry applies to both the singularities (zeroes) of the Big Bang and the Big Crunch. [19]
What is Zero a Symbol of?
There is no way the symbolism of zero is not connected to ancient ideas of the primordial. It could be symbolic of the very primordial. Indians identified that there was something in the beginning that caused creation. The empty primordial was not truly empty - it is what propagates creation to infinity. It had to be the closest two-dimensional representation of existence as a whole.
Prominent Ancient Ovoids
This is in line with the ancient concept of the Primordial Egg in the Proto-Indo-European cosmogony. [20] Indian philosophies equate the Cosmic Egg (brahmāṇḍa, hiraṇyagarbha or aṇṭakādaha) to Brahman [21] (which we saw is zero). The Greek “Orphic Egg” is the primordial deity. [22] Egyptian culture reveres the “Ogdoad” egg from which all comes. The Chinese analog is “Pangu”. The Dogon culture of West Africa celebrates the tale of Amma, Ogo, and Nommo, which involves a primordial egg.
Prominent Contemporary Analogs
Science is still studying spherically symmetric gravitational collapse in space-time. [23] Black holes are considered either the shape of a single point (non-rotating black holes) or ring-shaped (rotating back holes). [24] [25] [26] The ring shape is observed or theorized for several other gravity-related phenomena like gravitational lensing and wormholes, etc. [27]
These are only phenomena or cosmic objects still under study, let alone the Universe as a whole. Cosmological ventures unto this day assay the shape of the Universe.
Shape of the Universe
There are three chief parameters to study the shape of the universe.
1. Boundedness, or finding if the universe is finite or infinite.
2. Curvature, or whether the universe is flat or curved (negatively or positively).
3. Connectivity, or if the universe is a manifold (a simply connected space or a multiply connected space). [27]
Several probes into the matter give interesting results.
1. The density parameter (Ω) of Friedmann’s equations, when given a value greater than one, gives an elliptical universe that expands. [29]
2. English physicist Paul C. W. Davis examines the topology to give two possibilities. If the universe is simply connected, the strongest possibility is a sphere. If it is multiply connected, it could easily be a torus. [30] Look at both these three-dimensional shapes, and at least two observations give us a two-dimensional ellipse.
3. The Hubble Sphere of Causality gives a spherical observable universe, bound by the “microphysical horizon” model of the cosmological horizon. [31] [32] The Hubble parameter used for the calculations is not the same for the different cosmological models (e.g.: decelerating Friedmann universe, and non-Penrosean expanding cyclic cosmology) we have today. Yet, the shape of the Hubble Volume is spherical i.e. giving the Hubble Sphere of the observable universe. [33] [34] [35]
4. Signally, in her Introduction to Cosmology, American astrophysicist Barbara Ryden assigns the Big Crunch - the reduction to zero - as a characteristic of the closed universe. In the model, gravity prevents the universe from expanding beyond a point. Then it collapses into a singularity or the Big Crunch. Ryden notes that this is diametrical to the Big Bang. [36]
5. Research studies in 2023 still take a spherical observable Universe of diameter estimated as 90 billion light years to arrive at credible findings. [37] Some observe that “if the cosmic triangle is spherical, then the universe is closed.” [38]
[...to be continued in Chapter 4...]
References and Citations:
[1] Fowler, J. D. (2002). Perspectives of Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Hinduism. United Kingdom: Sussex Academic Press, pp. 49–55 (in Upanishads), 318–319 (in Vishistadvaita), 246–248 and 252–255 (in Advaita), 342–343 (in Dvaita), 175–176 (in Samkhya-Yoga).
[2] Bhūtasaṅkhyā • List • (iitk.ac.in)
[3] Lochtefeld, J. G. (2002). The illustrated encyclopedia of Hinduism. New York: Rosen Publishing Group.
[5] Francis X. Clooney (2010), Hindu God, Christian God: How Reason Helps Break Down the Boundaries between Religions, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0199738724, pages 51–58, 111–115.
[6] B. Martinez-Bedard (2006), Types of Causes in Aristotle and Sankara, Thesis – Department of Religious Studies (Advisors: Kathryn McClymond and Sandra Dwyer), Georgia State University, pages 18–35.
[7] Brahman and atman: That art thou. The Pluralism Project. (n.d.). https://pluralism.org/brahman-and-atman-that-art-thou
[8] Fowler, J. D. (2002). Perspectives of Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Hinduism. United Kingdom: Sussex Academic Press.
[9] Additive identity - Wikipedia
[10] Brodd, J. (2003). World Religions: A Voyage of Discovery. United States: Saint Mary's Press.
[11] Joad, C. (1928). The Non-existence of Matter. Philosophy, 3(12), 495-504. doi:10.1017/S0031819100027832.
[12] Abdulelah Younus Al- Kashab, Hiba. (2020). Existence and Non-Existence in the Philosophy of Martin Heidegger.
[13] Covers 2003 number 3.indd (caltech.edu)
[14] Yupapin, P. P. (2015). Buddhism and quantum physics: Generality. International Journal Science World, 3(2), 221-222.
[15] Krishan, Y. (1996). The Buddha Image: Its Origin and Development. India: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers.
[16] Brodd, J. (2003). World Religions: A Voyage of Discovery. United States: Saint Mary's Press.
[17] Additive identity - Wikipedia
[18] Ramanujan, S. (2015). Collected Papers of Srinivasa Ramanujan. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press
[19] Allahyari, A., Ebrahimian, E., Mondol, R., & Sheikh-Jabbari, M. M. (2023). Big bang in dipole cosmology. arXiv preprint arXiv:2307.15791.
[20] Leeming, David Adams (2010). Creation Myths of the World: An Encyclopedia, Book 1. ABC-CLIO. p. 144. ISBN 9781598841749.
[21] The Philosophy of the Upanishads, by Paul Deussen, Alfred Shenington Geden. Published by T. & T. Clark, 1906. p. 198.
[22] West, M. L. (1983) The Orphic Poems. Oxford:Oxford University Press. p. 205.
[23] Goswami, R., & Joshi, P. S. (2007). Spherical gravitational collapse in N dimensions. Physical Review D, 76(8), 084026.
[24] Carroll, Sean M. (2004). Spacetime and Geometry. Addison Wesley. ISBN 978-0-8053-8732-2.
[25] Sukys, Paul (1999). Lifting the Scientific Veil. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 533. ISBN 978-0-8476-9600-0.
[26] V. Frolov; I. Novikov (December 6, 2012). Black Hole Physics: Basic Concepts and New Developments. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 978-94-011-5139-9.
[27] Kip S. Thorne (1994). Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy. W.W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-31276-8.
[28] Tegmark, Max (2014). Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality (1 ed.). Knopf. ISBN 978-0307599803.
[29] Ryden, Barbara. Introduction to Cosmology. The Ohio State University.
[30] Davies, P. C. W. (1977). Space and time in the modern universe. cambridge university press. ISBN 978-0-521-29151-4.
[31] Edward Robert Harrison (2003). Masks of the Universe. Cambridge University Press. p. 206. ISBN 978-0-521-77351-5.
[32] N. Carlevaro & G. Montani (2009). "Study of the Quasi-isotropic Solution near the Cosmological Singularity in Presence of Bulk-Viscosity". International Journal of Modern Physics D. 17 (6): 881–896. doi:10.1142/S0218271808012553.
[33] TM Davis & CH Linewater (2003). "Expanding Confusion: common misconceptions of cosmological horizons and the superluminal expansion of the universe". Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia. 21 (1): 97–109. doi:10.1071/AS03040.
[34] John L Tonry; et al. (2003). "Cosmological Results from High-z Supernovae". Astrophys J. 594 (1): 1–24. doi:10.1086/376865.
[35] Edward Robert Harrison (2003). Masks of the Universe. Cambridge University Press. p. 206. ISBN 978-0-521-77351-5.
[36] Ryden, Barbara. Introduction to Cosmology. The Ohio State University. p. 56.
[37] Sicilia, Alexander. (2023). The Black Hole Mass Function: From Stellar to Supermassive.
[38] Sennimalai, K. (2023). Mathematical Proofs for the Shape of Our Universe. Available at SSRN 4331380.
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