Aurora Borealis

(Niwano – 3)

All things are equal

produced from the same energy or force.

Buddhism for Today, A Modern Interpretation of the Threefold Lotus Sutra, Nikkyo Niwano; John Weatherhill, Inc., New York and Tokyo; and Kosei Publishing Company, Tokyo. Copyright 1961, 1976 by Kosei Publishing Company.  [Kojiro Miyasaka’s English translation very slightly amended] – from Chapter 16, The Life of the Tathagata:

  [Most people today] are apt to doubt such concepts as the Law and “that which causes everything to live” as mere ideas produced by religious leaders. But they should think of the composition of  all physical substances as elucidated by nuclear physics: all substances in this universe are composed of electrons, protons, neutrons, and other subatomic particles, and the differences between various substances are caused by different combinations of these basic particles.

  Granted that subatomic particles are regarded as the minimum units of matter, so long as such particles exist as matter, as things, they should be still further divisible. However, modern science cannot do this, so scientists say that these elemental particles are produced by “energy.”

  Energy is generally considered as “the force through which matter functions.” But before matter can function there must already exist the energy that produces matter. . . .

  We cannot see energy with our naked eyes or otherwise discern it as a physical entity. Energy seems at first to be “nothingness,” but it does exist and it is a kind of matter. The accumulation of this “kind of matter” produces such particles as electrons, protons, and neutrons. The accumulation of these particles produces various kinds of atoms. The accumulation of these atoms produces such elements as hydrogen, oxygen and carbon. The accumulation of these elements produces air, water, minerals, plants, and the human body. Thus, matter is originally produced from a kind of energy, or force.

. . . [paragraph about time . . .]

  Shakyamuni Buddha however taught about matter correctly more than two thousand years ago. He proclaimed it as “emptiness” or “void.” This does not mean “nothingness” but “equality”- [even as] “phenomenon”  indicating the idea that all things, including matter, the human mind, and events, originate from the same foundation. Though these things seem to be different from one another in the eyes of humans, their real state is equal.

  When analyzed to the utmost possible limit, all things are equal because they are energy (force) of some kind. . . In short all  phenomena are produced from an equal kind of energy or force.

Next – Evolution caused by the urge to live – life had mind through which it desired to live.