Nothing changes

In one of my Buddhist books, the author quotes a story of a group of monks who are mourning the impending loss of their Abbot. He looks up that them and smiles. "Nothing changes."

It occurred to me that this story relates to something I heard on Science Friday the other day. In an interview with Ira Flato, Roger Penrose, the famous mathematician, who has written a book about the history and state of physics today called, "The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe,"(NY Times Review - http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/27/books/review/27JOHNSON.html?)was describing Schrodinger's famous thought experiment of the dead/live cat in the box. What occurred to me at that moment is an idea that maybe we have been barking up the wrong tree (sorry for the pun) - maybe the Buddhist view is really the perfect description of the universe. Maybe nothing changes - in other words, maybe the concepts of "dead" or "alive" are wrong. Maybe there is no "dead" or "alive?" Maybe it is our perception that is flawed and that if we just understood that nothing changes, we would understand that there is no state of being dead or alive. It is only our perception that tricks us into thinking that there are states of being dead or alive.

I don't know why I thought of this at the moment, but when I was listening to Mr. Penrose talk, I just couldn't help but think that somehow scientists with their great minds are still looking at things that way they always have, and for all intents and purposes, they are still finding the same kinds of answers- but never really move into the realm of really understanding the universe. I don't understand the universe either, but I don't think it can be found purely in this dimension or perhaps a better way to say it, is that it cannot be found entirely through our minds. It is the place of no mind that holds the key.

Somehow I am beginning to believe that our minds are getting in the way of understanding the universe.

Just a theory and I'm sticking to it - for now.