Buddha and the Quantum

Summary

Buddha and the Quantum is about the connection between meditation and physics. Many books show parallels between consciousness and physics; a few of these attempt to explain consciousness in terms of the physics of everyday experience. This is the only book on the market that explains physics and the everyday world in terms of consciousness alone. Space and time – and the physical world they define – are a structure of consciousness. We can only understand the motion of the planets by putting the sun at their center; similarly, we can only understand modern physics if we put space and time within consciousness.

Buddha and the Quantum is also unique in that it shows why we think there is a world independent of consciousness. The concept of material substance is explained in terms of the same structure of consciousness that explains quantum mechanics and relativity theory.


Kalapa is a Buddhist term for a subtle sensation: a point of consciousness in the body. Barely noticeable most of the time, it fills awareness during meditation. It is the voice of a cell. This book shows that it is also the quantum. Quanta arranged in space-time – photons – are visual consciousness: the experience of cells in the retina. This explains why modern physics has had so much difficulty understanding light. Light is not in space; space is in light.


Buddha and the Quantum describes how experience in the physical world is built not from objective reality, but from experience within. Avery’s brilliant model of consciousness makes difficult and subtle ideas understandable, with surprising implications.