Quantum

2025, December, Issue 178

Quantum

Quantum enigmas

becoming apparent in our observation

of reality, of reality,

neither coming nor going,

not appearing nor not not

appearing, neither here

nor there, nor everywhere,

without a space or time,

not not all at once, nor

specifically any sort of, sort of

specific thing, not the same, not

the same way from the last,

not predictable,

not not predictable,

not unpredictable,

this quantum gobbledygook

is not what you think,

is everything that you think,

from now on

is a reflection of what you thought

you thought,

is this incredible wave exploding

from waves, from waves

from waves reverberating

echoing throughout all eternity

in your bright awareness

that knowledge you did not know from the start,

before there were beginnings,

before before quantum,

before there was anything

that you know, this self that never

really existed in all this

chaotic turbulent mayhem

before beginningless

beginnings.

A poem by Robert Aho © 2025

When I came back from the death bardo in 2016, I seriously considered writing about my experience utilizing the vocabulary and perspective of quantum physics. I said so at the beginning of my book Timeless Luminosity. Unfortunately, I found that, as mystifying and mind-boggling as quantum physics actually is, especially as it has been furthered in recent years, I found it to be lacking in some very major ways that could not be overlooked.

The teachings of Padmasambhava many centuries prior to our modern sciences, as illustrated in the Bardo Thödol, or The Tibetan Book of the Dead, provided a much better vocabulary. I needed to be able to explain a few things that were completely lacking from a Western perspective. Primarily, and rather prominently, was this understanding of mind and the Nature of Mind. Having some idea about the various kayas, Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya and Nirmanakaya, were also essential, because my experience traversed all of that, going from complete awareness, back into this miniscule place we call the universe.

Quantum physics, on the other hand, seemed to range from the microscopic to some acceptance of the macroscopic as a noteworthy part of reality that had already been explored through Newtonian physics, among other schools of philosophy and scientific inquiry. Discussions about how particles in one part of the universe could become entangled with particles from another part of the universe, how particles came and went throughout a theoretical multiverse, how spacetime fell apart and came back together, as well as other truly amazing things that boggle the mind, so many fantastic observations and mathematical models abound in quantum physics. That wasn’t nearly enough of a range for my purposes. I needed a vocabulary that touched upon much more than anything yet devised by quantum physicists.

When the quantum is investigated, the observation quickly turns to the infinite, as well as something that changes with the observation. This overwhelms the investigator, as it then becomes apparent that it is too much to fathom. The next step, which seems to be a mistake to me, is to create smaller observations within limited boundaries, looking at local phenomena, rather than the expansive eternal reality of how everything everywhere, beyond time and space is connected. I do understand that this is much too much for the human mind to fathom; however, by creating finite observations within an infinite field of chaotic entanglements, the quantum investigator is missing an infinite field of appearances.

When I became the light of Dharmakaya for an eternity, I remained in a condition that has not been observed by Western science. When I returned through the energetic condition we refer to as the Sambhogakaya dimension, taking a hundred years to do so, I remained in a state that has only been observed a little bit at a microscopic scale by Western quantum physicists. When I entered the dimension of our physical existence, the Nirmanakaya, I found myself in a place that is barely understood by Western scientists in general, even though Western scientists place their own knowledge above all other human knowledge. In this, they could do better by looking into Buddhism, as well as ancient Vedic and Bön investigations into reality.

Utilizing the vocabulary of quantum physics, we can break everything down, our physical reality, really all of our material paradigms, into particles and waves. We see a world that is coming and going, neither existent nor nothing, something where voids form boundaries, where particles never stay in one universe for long, everything spinning, everything in motion and entangled with everything everywhere all at once. Then we also see a world that has varying levels of entanglement where gravity is greater, and only diminishing entanglements as we move off into infinity. Even though these explanations sound reasonable and familiar, it quickly starts to resemble absurdity and nonsense. It’s not easy to imagine descriptions of such a universe!

I truly hope that all these magnificent minds keep exploring the quantum; however, I also hope that they take a close look at other sources of knowledge. It might help them to discover new frontiers into this very strange thing that we call reality. Theoretical investigation of the quantum, as much as it seems like the lunatic fringe, is really extremely valid and important work.

If we wish to awaken, then we must certainly discover reality.

Blessings in Light,

Robert Aho