..续本文上一页e move closer,

　　we see atoms, the tiny shadowy balls dancing

　　around their fixed locations in the molecules,

　　sometimes changing position with their partners in

　　perfect rhythms. And now we focus on one of the

　　atoms; its interior is lightly veiled by a cloud

　　of electrons. We come closer, increasing the

　　magnification. The shell dissolves and we look on

　　the inside to find...nothing.

　　Somewhere within that emptiness, we know is a

　　nucleus. We scan the space, and there it is, a

　　tiny dot. At last, we have discovered something

　　hard and solid, a reference point. But no! as we

　　move closer to the nucleus, it too begins to

　　dissolve. It too is nothing more than an

　　oscillating field, waves of rhythm. Inside the

　　nucleus are other organized fields: protons,

　　neutrons, even smaller "particles." Each of these,

　　upon our approach, also dissolve into pure rhythm.

　　These days they (the scientists) are looking for

　　quarks, strange subatomic entities, having

　　qualities which they describe with such words as

　　upness, downness, charm, strangeness, truth,

　　beauty, color, and flavor. But no matter. If we

　　could get close enough to these wondrous quarks,

　　they too would melt away. They too would have to

　　give up all pretense of solidity. Even their speed

　　and relationship would be unclear, leaving them

　　only relationship and pattern of vibration.

　　Of what is the body made

　　 It is made of emptiness

　　and rhythm. At the ultimate heart of the body, at

　　the heart of the world, there is no solidity. Once

　　again, there is only the dance. (At) the

　　unimaginable heart of the atom, the compact

　　nucleus, we have found no solid object, but rather

　　a dynamic pattern of tightly confined energy

　　vibrating perhaps 1022 times a second: a dance...

　　The protons--the positively charged knots in the

　　pattern of the nucleus--are not only powerful;

　　they are very old. Along with the much lighter

　　electrons that spin and vibrate around the outer

　　regions of the atom, the protons constitute the

　　most ancient entities of matter in the universe,

　　going back to the first seconds after the birth of

　　space and time.[7]

　　It follows then that in the world of subatomic physics there are no objects, only processes. Atoms consist of particles and these particles are not made of any solid material substance. When we observe them under a microscope, we never see any substance; we rather observe dynamic patterns, continually changing into one another--a continuous dance of energy. This dance of energy, the underlying rhythm of the universe, is again more intuited than seen. Jack Kornfield, a contemporary teacher of meditation, finds a parallel between the behavior of subatomic particles and meditational states:

　　When the mind becomes very silent, you can clearly

　　see that all that exists in the world are brief

　　moments of consciousness arising together with the

　　six sense objects. There is only sight and the

　　knowing of sight, sound and the knowing of sound,

　　smell, taste and the knowing of them, thoughts and

　　the knowing of thoughts. If you can make the mind

　　very focused, as you can in meditation, you see

　　that the whole world breaks down into these small

　　events of sight and the knowing, sound and the

　　knowing, thought and the knowing. No longer are

　　these houses, cars, bodies or even oneself. All

　　you see are particles of consciousness as

　　experience. Yet you can go deep in meditation in

　　another way and the mind becomes very still. You

　　will see differently that consciousness is like

　　waves, like a sea, an ocean. Now it is not

　　particles but instead every sight and every sound

　　is contained in this ocean of consciousness. From

　　this perspective, there is no sense of particles

　　at all.[8]

　　Energy, whether of wave o…

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