1, time and space are illusions.
It is not easy to prove this phenomenon in physics. Although mathematical derivation is not overemphasized here, it is necessary to explain this idea with Einstein's theory of relativity. Relativity is a theory of uniform acceleration in "non-Newtonian system" put forward by Einstein at the beginning of the 20th century. Physics was founded by British physicist Newton from the middle of17th century to the beginning of18th century. It is suitable for the movement of objects in three-dimensional space, especially the movement of small and slow objects on the earth, such as cars, trains and planes in our daily life. Einstein's theory of relativity is a completely different system. In Newton's theory, space and time are absolutely constant, while in Einstein's theory of relativity, space, time, mass and energy are relatively variable. This theory has completely changed the direction of modern physics and laid a theoretical foundation for the exploration of the universe. Einstein himself won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922, and was later named as "the great man of the 20th century" by American Time magazine. He was honored as "the father of modern science" by later generations. (Note: He won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his contribution to the photoelectric effect. )
Relativity has two levels of theories: special relativity and general relativity. Special relativity applies to objects moving at a uniform speed, and general relativity applies to objects moving at an accelerated speed. Einstein's first paper on the theory of relativity was published in 1905 in the academic magazine Yearbook of Physics. In the same issue, he also published a paper on Brownian motion and photoelectric effect, which won him the 1922 Nobel Prize in physics.
Einstein and several other scholars found that when an object moves at a speed close to the speed of light, many physical properties will change, such as the length and volume of the object. The relationship between the length and speed of an object can be explained by the following mathematical formula:
Lv is the length of the moving object.
Lo is the length of a stationary object.
V is the speed of a moving object.
C is the speed of light, which is about 300,000 kilometers per second.
This formula tells us that when an object moves at a high speed (close to the speed of light), its length will shrink in our eyes. The following figure describes the functional relationship between the length and velocity of an object.
Figure 1: the relationship between the length and speed of an object.
Therefore, when an object moves at the speed of light, then v = c → v ∕ c = 1, then. At this time, we will see that the object has no length and volume (LV = 0). That is to say, according to Einstein's formula, the size, length and distance of an object disappear at the speed of light. For example, under certain conditions, you can see that there is no distance between Australia and the United States. To put it another way, under certain conditions, you can appear on the Earth and Mars at the same time, because under such conditions, the distance between the Earth and Mars will be gone! As Dr Stan Ottonwald, a space physicist at NASA, said, objects can appear in different places at the same time. So the distance between far and near is not absolute, it depends on the state of the observer. Therefore, absolutely independent space and distance do not exist, it is just an illusion.
In the eyes of observers, when an object is at the speed of light, its volume, space, length and distance will all break through. If the observer is in a state of deep meditation, the space and distance in his eyes have also broken through. According to records, in modern China, there was an old monk named Xu Yun, who gained great success in meditation and listened to Maitreya's lecture. This true record has become a much-told story of Buddhism in contemporary China. Since ancient times, many people have broken through space and distance in meditation.
Both the Buddha and the Great Bodhisattva have this ability. Bodhisattva samantabhadra said in "Hua Yan Pu Jing Xian Wish", "I made a wish with Pu Xian, so the Buddhist temple has nothing to say, and the Buddhist temple is extremely dusty." Buddha Sakyamuni said in the Sutra of Mahayana, Eternal Life, Solemnity, Cleanliness and Equality that "Buddha (Amitabha) comes but does not arrive, and he also said:" The temples of all buddhas can manifest themselves and are different. "As can be seen from the above, breaking through space and distance is no longer a myth, which depends entirely on the state of the observer and can be explained by the theory of modern physics. So the Buddhist said, "This shore is pure land. The pure land is this shore, and the western paradise is now, which is completely understandable.
What is discussed above is that space distance is an illusion, and time is also an illusion, which is also well demonstrated in the theory of relativity of physics. A key assumption in Einstein's physics is that the speed of light is the highest in the universe and will never change. That is to say, in any case, light travels at a speed of 299,792 kilometers per second (about 300,000 kilometers per second), which is the highest speed that an object can reach. The special theory of relativity was put forward under this premise.
So, let's consider an example from everyday life. Suppose we are pacing on a fast-moving train now. We feel that we are walking slowly in the train because we take the train as a reference. And an observer outside the train sees that we are overtaking him quickly, because we are slower than the train, but faster than the observer outside the train.
Now let's consider another example. Suppose we board a spaceship, which is flying away from the earth at a speed close to the speed of light. Suppose now we use a special time instrument on the spacecraft to send optical signals to the earth observers once every second. In the eyes of us astronauts, the relative speed relative to the earth observer is extremely fast (close to the speed of light). In the spaceship, we saw that the light signal emitted by the clock signal meter per second was normal, and the length of time per second did not increase or decrease. For earth observers, the optical signals they receive are relatively slow, because it takes some time for light to return to earth from the spacecraft flying at high speed. In other words, the interval between each signal received by the earth observer is longer than one second on the spacecraft (that is, one second plus the time required for light to return to Earth). In this case, the time interval observed by earth observers per second is longer and the time goes slower. This phenomenon is called "time dispersion". In theory, you can extend a short moment to a very long time, and your own body is hardly aging. It is easy to understand what is said in the Infinite Life Sutra: "If you come to enlightenment, your wisdom is unpredictable and there is no obstacle. He can live in an endless space, and his body and roots will not increase or decrease. So what? If the Buddha comes to know wisdom, he will learn infinity and all methods will win. " So if we can prove the wisdom of the Tathagata, this ability to transcend time is natural.
Another famous example of time diffusion effect is Einstein's "twin brother". The spaceship mentioned just now should be running at a high speed far away from the earth for 20 years. Of course, these 20 years are counted according to our Earth Day. Suppose two twin brothers were born on the same day, and they were divided into two lifestyles. One stayed on the earth and lived an ordinary life, the other was put on this high-speed spaceship and returned to the earth twenty years later. What will happen in twenty years? We see that our brother on earth has become a young man of twenty years old, and the twin brother who returned from the spaceship is still very young, for example, maybe only three years old. This is because for twin brothers flying at high speed in space, 20 years has been shortened to 3 years, and the growth of physical function is relatively slow.
Furthermore, the return of space pilots to Earth is actually an act of entering the future (that is, from the age of three to twenty). On the other hand, for a space pilot, if the time can be further slowed down or even reduced to a negative number, then the space pilot can go back to the past from now on.
Buddhas and Bodhisattvas have this ability to go back to the infinite past and enter the infinite future at the same time. "Hua Yan Putin's Immortal Wish" says, "I (Samantabhadra Bodhisattva) can go deep into the future and rob for one thought. The robbery of the third world is all for me to enter one thought. 」