day & night and Schrödinger’s cat [1]
I am very pleased that my postings on this topic are so well received and thank you for the general interest!
After this posting today, one more on this topic will follow, but it will be easier to understand. Today it gets a little more complicated.
When I present “day” and “night” in my metaverse today, it doesn’t seem like a big deal. And yet it is – a very large one, in fact.
Because the first question that arises is: is there even day and night in a metaverse?
For a westerner anchored in dualistic thinking, there are only 3 possible answers. A: Yes. B: No. C: Maybe – in certain parts of a metaverse where there are solar systems like ours. Each of these answers would meet our expectations.
Quantum physics would answer differently. Schrödinger (the father of quantum mechanics, Austrian roots BTW) would have seen it like this: simultaneously both alive and dead as a result of its fate being linked to a random subatomic event that may or may not occur. They exist and at the same time, they don’t exist with Schrödinger until someone has provided solid evidence for one or the other assumption. This is certainly a qualitatively better answer than in the first case.
But how would the same question be answered from a Zen Buddhist point of view? Day and non-day, night and non-night exist at the same time.
Again, this answer is qualitatively better in my view. In a footnote, I would like to quote the Zen master Shunryu Suzuki. [2]
What Schrödinger’s cat meowed in 1932 is an old hat in Zen Buddhism.
I have emphasized this aspect mainly because it not only occupies a prominent part in my personal thinking or in my painting but in my understanding of our being in general.
Einstein called quantum physics “spooky”. Niels Bohr wrote: “Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real“. (One would assume that this postulate should have found its way into our thinking 60 years after the death of this eminent scientist.)
How far am I with quantum physics myself? To put it in the words of Isaac Newton: “What I know is a drop, what I don’t know is an ocean.” And what do I “know” about Zen Buddhism? In the best case, 2 drops come together. [3]
How do I even dare to touch on this subject matter? Then why do I paint or show such subjects? Of course, when I tackled the topic of the metaverse, one of my first questions was, what does it mean to me? After some thought, I decided to use the term metaphor.
But that also means that if this giant construct metaverse is a metaphor, then everything contained in it is also a metaphor. Day and night become a metaphor and I no longer have a problem picking up on these topics. More on this in my next posting.
However, if I now write a few lines about the pictures presented today, it should not be taken too seriously. Zen Buddhism always comes with a wink and has the rogue in the neck. Hint if you are new to Zen-Buddhism. [4]
A typical morning scene in my metaverse would look like this. You get the impression that with the first rays of morning, the souled elements of the metaverse are frolicking in these rays of light and filling up with energy for the day. But what do I know?
night
The evening-night period looks a little like what we’re used to. The last bits of thought of the day clear the way for the hours when we are closest to ourselves and entertained by our subconscious. (The original looks better, some nuance and depth are missed on screen)
To better illustrate my experiments, I would like to single out 1 detail. IS and NOT-IS are quite close. Now is that a bird and that a fish? It’s fish and non-fish at the same time. The same goes for the birds.
Now someone might say: “That’s old hat, that’s what abstract painting is about!” And I would answer, yes, but my paintings are abstract and non-abstract at the same time :).
Didn’t quite get it? Please don’t worry, it’s not your fault. Probably none of us left a big question mark in our brain ganglia when we first stumbled across Schrödinger’s cat. And Zen Buddhism is certainly not something to be “learned” at a few weekend seminars. Not to mention understanding.
bonus material
With my metaverse project, I thought a lot about the “Begin” area and painted a few versions. As an “illustration” I chose dragon/chaos in my last posting.
One of the previous versions was this one, which has some merits, but didn’t seem suitable to me. Too abstract, even the dragon wouldn’t necessarily be recognized.
In another attempt, I wanted to show the beginning as a rather ecstatic event. But there is already too much recorded that could not have been there at a real beginning.
extra bonus material 🙂
Of course, it would also be interesting to compare how Zen Buddhism sounds acoustically. This acoustic treat was one of my all-time favorite records for many years: Tony Scott with Japanese musicians: Music for Zen Meditation And Other Joys. Give your soul a treat 🙂
footnotes
[1] In quantum mechanics, Schrödinger’s cat is a thought experiment that illustrates a paradox of quantum superposition. In the thought experiment, a hypothetical cat may be considered simultaneously both alive and dead as a result of its fate being linked to a random subatomic event that may or may not occur. Schrödinger’s famous thought experiment poses the question, “when does a quantum system stop existing as a superposition of states and become one or the other?”
[2] “….Our body and mind are two and one. We usually think that what is not one must be more than one. But in actual experience, our life is not only plural but also singular….” And a few sentences later: “In a few years, we will die. If we just think that this is the end of our life, that is a wrong understanding. On the other hand, if we think we’re not going to die, that’s wrong too. We die and we don’t die. That is the right understanding.”(Shunryu Suzuki: Zen-Geist Anfänger-Geist. Theseus 2016, p 26)
[3] When I came across a Zen Buddhist painting for the first time around 50 years ago, it hit me like a blow and wouldn’t let me go. But I wouldn’t say I’m a Zen Buddhist. Naturally, if you think about it long enough, it all becomes less of a mystery, and suddenly former paradoxes become natural wisdom. It just doesn’t work as long as we stick to dualistic thinking.
[4] A fun way to approach Zen Buddhism is with Zen-Buddhist jokes like these ones on psychologytoday.com If you can laugh about those jokes, you understand more about Zen Buddhism than you originally thought 🙂
More of this: metaverse
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