Introduction to The Quantum Bodhisattva

Welcome

Welcome to the Quantum Bodhisattva.  My name is Cate.  I am neither a Quantum Physicist nor a Bodhisattva by definition.  However, the subject matter I am covering began with a link between Quantum Physics and Buddhism.  I am studious by nature and a big picture person.  For the last 20 years, I have been seeking answers to questions I thought no one could answer.  I’d like to begin by explaining what lead me on this quest for answers. What follows is the introduction to The Quantum Bodhisattva.

The lotus flower is symbolic in Buddhism

The Subject Matter

The world as we know it in this day and age has become unnatural in every way.  We are so separated from nature and the earth, we have become disconnected with our spiritual selves.  While the industrial revolution made many of the comforts we enjoy possible, our economic system, a system that requires scarcity to function, has created imbalance.  Though there is plenty for everyone, capitalism and money withhold an even distribution.  Only those who can pay for it may enjoy the true benefits of this system.

Dystopian themes have become quite popular in our current culture.  But the idea of dystopia is not a new one.  In 1931 the author Aldous Huxley penned Brave New World.  Published in 1932, Brave New World was meant to be a parody of the H.G. Wells Utopian themed novel, Men Like Gods.

Brave New World describes a futuristic world society where humans are genetically engineered.  The nuclear family has become unnatural and babies are born in an artificial womb and programmed and sorted into castes, based on intelligence and attributes.  They are essentially bred to be sociopaths.  The society is controlled by a pleasure inducing manufactured drug called Soma.

The society at large is pleasure seeking.  They perform their assigned jobs, but in their private lives are very promiscuous.  They are constantly distracted by the news and the media.  They sneer at the misfortunate or anyone who does not conform to their way of life.

17 years later, George Orwell’s 1984 was published.  Another example of an imagined dystopian future, the book is set in the year 1984.  This story explores a future built on authoritarian socialism, deeply controlled schedules and activities, loyalty to the ruling political party, mass surveillance, and blind obedience and adoration of Big Brother, the ruler of it all.  No one has seen Big Brother, he is only ever observed and referred to on a view screen.

Society is split between the uneducated proletarians and those loyal to the party.  For those belonging to the party, any deviance from the programming is dealt with harshly, with torture and brainwashing tactics.  Every word is recorded, every action is watched closely and corrected if it does not conform to the programming.  War is celebrated and privacy is suspect.

The proletarians are deliberately kept uneducated and are left to survive in poverty.  They drink and gamble and are crass.  They do not realize that they are also being watched and controlled.

In 1985, Neil Postman published a book called “Amusing Ourselves to Death: Discourse in the Age of Show Business”.  In this book, he expressed concern over the decreasing attention span and seriousness of our culture.  He worried that sound bites and distraction would degrade to a society focused on entertainment.

Postman brought up the aforementioned books and contrasted their view of the future.  What follows in quotation is what Postman observed:

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books.  What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information.  Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism.  Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us.  Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.”

And also quoted from Postman:

“When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people become an audience, and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk; culture-death is a clear possibility.”

These three vastly different books became prophetic in their nature.  What we have is not just what Orwell or Huxley predicted, not what Postman feared would come to pass, but a combination of the three.

We have become a distracted people, focused on entertainment and self-medication.  We have become so arrogant that we no longer care about our environments or the other beings of this earth. We are controlled and manipulated to argue amonst ourselves. We are closely watched and observed.

Many question what this world is:  Is it God’s world?  Or is it a simulation?  Does religion describe it?  Does science get to the bottom of the question?  Who is right?  Who is wrong?  Is this just the Matrix?

Those are the questions that I would like to answer.  Those are the questions I asked long ago, when I began this journey of discovery.

What Makes Me the Right Person for This?

I read all three of those books 20 years ago.  They were recommended to me by my mother and stepfather when I tired of reading modern fiction.  Those three books set the tone of how I would approach the world for the next 20 years.

My childhood was an environment of heavy trauma, most of which I dissociated until much later in life.  To cope with memory holes and lack of affection from my parents, I began to read heavily.  Throughout my life, books have been the companion no one else could be.  What happened to me made me different, un-relatable.

Unable to connect with others, I became the target of abusers.  Born into abuse, I sought to make what happened to me right by trying fix the abusive men who targeted me.  I was unsuccessful in my venture and only managed to deepen my trauma.

Decades passed and I wondered why I wasn’t happy.  I wondered how I could be happy.  What kept me from being content in my life?  What was enough?  What was the truth of it all?  A door cracked open and I began to search for an explanation.

I understood society well enough, I had already studied those subjects to death.  I studied geology and environmental sciences.  I studied currency - I never cared for money and I didn’t understand its purpose.  It only ever seemed to bring pain and disparity.  I read utopian novels and wondered why that never managed to manifest in this world.  Why did we choose to prolong suffering?

But now I wondered why the world existed.  What was it for?  Who made it?  Why did humans exist?  What made us the way we were?  I started to look for books to answer those questions.  I was brought up in the front row of a Lutheran church, but the Christian God did not answer those questions for me.  Who could?

I started with science.  How would the scientists describe the world?  I picked up a book called “The Holographic Universe” by Michael Talbot, as an afterthought, really.

It was “The Holographic Universe” that swung that door wide open.  All of a sudden those vague questions became a burning need to understand it all.  This book brought up viewpoints I had no prior knowledge of.  I needed to know if it was true, so I began to study.

I started with science.  I trusted science.  But then I moved on to Quantum Physics and I realized that quantum physics really becomes philosophical when it comes to the end of it.  It described life at the micro level, but it didn’t come close to answering my questions.

A friend pointed out that there was a link between quantum physics and Buddhism, so I went to a Buddhist zen center and learned to meditate.  I began working with a Buddhist teacher.  She said that we would begin to strip away the layers between my consciousness and my true self.

As I began to unwind the many layers, I meditated on Loving Kindness with the Metta Sutra.  The version I used went like this:

May I be happy

May I be peaceful and at ease

May I be safe and free from harm

May I be filled with joy

May I experience love

As I meditated, I continued my search for answers.  I read all about Buddhism and searched for what linked it to Quantum Physics.  All the while, I continued to meditate.  My life began to change.  At first the change seemed profound.  But then it took a nasty turn.

One day as I meditated, I lost time.  I lost 30 minutes and I had no memory of what transpired in that time.  My inner voice awakened and said “You have started something you cannot stop.”  That was all.  I had no clue.

My life began to fall apart on every level.  Six months later, I finally began to fill those memory holes from childhood.  I unlocked a cascade of horrible memories of a depraved father who stole my innocence at the age of 5.  He then sold me to others until I was old enough to break away.  His network was vast. I was overcome by disgust and shame, fear and sadness.

I sought out a counselor.  I began to study trauma.  Why hadn’t I remembered this before?  I learned that I had dissociated these memories.  The trauma had been so great, that my tiny mind could not handle or understand what was happening to me.  This level of damage can kill you, so your body blocks it out and creates a memory hole.

I realized that I had three choices.  I could kill myself and end the cascade of memories that flowed without respite.  I could numb my pain with alcohol or pharmaceuticals.  I could heal.  I realized that for others, a forth option existed:  Become the monster.

I chose to heal.  I healed in every way I could.  In the process of healing, I understood some of those other viewpoints that Michael Talbot had explained in the Holographic Universe.  The process of healing was ugly and my life reflected my pain.

One day, as I meditated, I visualized picking up my tiny little self and holding that sweet child as tight as I could.  I told her that if she was my child, I would have loved her the right way.  I told her I would have believed her.  I told her I would have given her every bit of love I held in my heart and do the very best job I could to raise her.  I told her to give me her pain, to let me take it on.

I felt her pain.  I felt the breaking bones, her gasping for breath.  I felt her fear.  I felt her despondence.  I felt her confusion.  We cried together and then I let her rest.  I laid her down and tucked her in and kissed her forehead.  I told her to sleep now, that I would keep her safe.

My life continued to be hard.  I put my past behind me and I began a new life.  I learned to stand alone and take care of my household.  I learned to be confident.  I learned to be calm.  I learned to exist in the moment and use mindfulness to get from one challenge to the next.

But still the challenges became more brutal.  I began to understand that the universe wanted me to share what I had learned.  The universe was asking me to fulfill my purpose on Earth.  Long ago, I had been called to do something so big, that I couldn’t fathom it.  Now the universe wanted me to live that life, to be that person.

The more I resisted, the worse things got.  The universe brought me to my knees and I begged for release.  I was being lead down a path that I feared to traverse, but I knew that it was my only path.

So today, I accept the challenge.  I will do my very best to help you understand all that I’ve learned about this world.  Then I will show you how to change it.

All that I ask in return is to for you to be kind.  Be kind to me, be kind to yourselves, be kind to others.  We are all on this journey together.  Let us begin to change the world by changing how we treat one another.

Thank you so much for your time.  I appreciate your patience.  I hope that you will follow along on this collective journey we can traverse together.  Thank you.