I don't know if you remember the Marvel movie "Doctor Strange", which was popular at the box office in previous years?
It is also a fantasy film made in the West, but "Doctor Fantasy" is the first film to introduce many elements of Oriental culture into the film.
Professor Jia Xudong once talked about the connotation and significance of philosophical and scientific elements involved in this film. This article is republished today for the benefit of readers.
Recently, the sci-fi blockbuster "Doctor Strange" has exploded at the box office, attracting a movie boom.
After watching "Doctor Strange", you will find that many of the ideas and bridges are familiar, such as the questioning of reality in "The Matrix", the exploration of space and cognition in "Inception", the time loop in "Edge of Tomorrow", and so on.
But there is no doubt that Doctor Strange does not completely copy these elements, but plays and innovates, the most impressive thing is the addition of many oriental cultural elements, such as chakras, meridians, acupuncture, soul detachment... and so on.
The positive representation of these elements that Western civilization has regarded as "Eastern mysticism" in the past is the breakthrough and alluring point of this blockbuster.
“what is the real?”
In the film, when Strange's soul is knocked out of his body by Master Gu Yi and travels through different spaces in the universe, Gu Yi's question rings in his ears: "What is the real?" ”。
In fact, this is not a new question, Morpheus has already asked Neo in "The Matrix"; "Doctor Strange" asks this question because it is too important.
The questioning of this question is the driving force for the development of modern cognitive science, and Oriental culture has already explored this in depth.
Human beings cannot understand the world without their own senses:
The eyes allow us to see the colors of the world;
The ear allows us to hear the noise or beauty of the sound;
The nose allows us to smell the smell of incense or stink;
Tongue and mouth allow us to taste the delicious taste of the diet or difficult to swallow;
The internal and external nerves of the body allow us to experience various sensations such as cold, heat, acid, numbness, softness, hardness, slippery, astringent;
And the core organ that makes these five senses work is our brain.
All the organs of human cognition of the world are exactly what the Buddhists call the "six roots": eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind;
And what these six senses can perceive is exactly what the Buddhists call the "six dusts": color, sound, incense, taste, touch, and law;
What enables us to produce these perceptions is exactly what the Buddhists call the "six consciousnesses": eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, body consciousness, and consciousness;
The "six roots", "six dusts", and "six consciousnesses" add up to the "Eighteen Realms", which is the world as we know it.
Modern brain science research has been able to fully interpret the physical mechanism of all our physiological feelings: all the perceptions produced by the five senses are actually fed back to the posterior occipital part of the brain, the bioelectric signals in the cerebral cortex, and the brain is only a CPU that we use to process these bioelectric signals!
In fact, since the day we were born, we have never been able to truly contact and recognize the world;
We can only interpret these bioelectrical signals through the brain within the scope of these senses, so as to construct a "real world" in the brain that we think;
But the real question is: Is this the true face of the universe?
The answer, of course, is no!
Seeing is not necessarily true, let alone all, and the non-visible light that the eye cannot see also exists around us? The other senses are the same.
Further, scientists, while already able to decipher almost all the physiological mechanisms of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling, and thinking, have not been able to give the answer to the following question:
Who is the "perceiver" who perceives these bioelectrical signals?
If you want to understand Chinese Zen Buddhism, you will know that the question that Zen masters refer to is, "Who is the one who recites the Buddha?" ”
There is a discovery that the Eastern and Western civilizations are actually studying the same problem! Of course, the research method is different!
Master of "Ancient One"
In the film, Strange's teacher is the supreme mage who is highly powerful and protects the earth from evil demons, called "ancient one", which Chinese translated as "ancient one". Obviously, in this master who has reached the supreme realm, the name already embodies the meaning of Chinese culture.
The so-called "ancient one", "eternal and one", which has never changed since ancient times and has always been the "Tao", "Wuji", and "Self-nature" in Chinese culture; it is "not born and does not perish, does not scale and is not pure, does not increase or decrease", in fact, this is the origin of the universe.
When one knows this source, goes straight to this source, and returns to this source, which is what Zen Buddhism calls "clear mindfulness", one can obtain endless cosmic energy, and naturally becomes a master who seems to be omnipotent.
In fact, the omnipotence displayed by the masters and enlightened beings is an instinct that all of our lives have, that we recognize falsehood as true, that we lose our true self in the psychedelic world shaped by our senses, and of course we cannot recognize the truth of life in the universe, so we are limited everywhere, and we cannot get true freedom, equality, and independence.
That's why Lao Tzu said, "My great affliction is in my body, and I am in trouble without my body."
Dr. Strange at the beginning of the film is a representative of the modern intellectual elite: intelligent, competent, with enviable occupations and professional skills; self-proclaimed omnipotent, able to control everything, scornful of ancient Oriental wisdom such as "chakras", "energy", "faith" and so on;
The reason is that they are not only fascinated by their own senses, but also by science, and regard science as the truth, so they cannot break through the limitations of their cognition and realize a richer, more comprehensive and real world, which is what the Buddhists call "the obstacle of knowing."
Therefore, enlightened people will say that such people are "confused", which is the real "superstition"!
Multidimensional space
The dazzling multidimensional space in the film is impressive, but how to understand the multidimensional space? Let's think of the following ant:
Imagine that you are an ant that can only perceive one-dimensional space, which means that your senses can only perceive "front and back", and there will be no concept of "left and right" or even "up and down".
What would you think if one day, you suddenly found that the friend who walked in front of you disappeared in an instant? Wouldn't it be hell? In fact, people are a two-dimensional creature, people just turned a corner...
Two-dimensional space constitutes a surface, and now suppose we have evolved into a two-dimensional ant, which means that your senses can perceive "front and back" and "left and right", but there is no concept of "up and down".
If you suddenly find that the friend who walked in front of you disappeared in an instant, would you feel hell again? In fact, people are a three-dimensional creature, people just go upstairs or downstairs...
If you can understand a low-dimensional life, with poor low-dimensional senses, the experience and feelings after coming to the high-dimensional space, you can slowly understand the high-dimensional space.
The limitations of human senses allow us to perceive only every moment in the time dimension, but in fact, this is only a projection or tangential aspect of the four-dimensional space at the current point in time.
Suppose, you see that the friend in front of you suddenly disappeared again, and you can't find it all over the place, and guess what the possible answer is?
By the way, similar to the previous logic, he may be a higher dimensional life, from the day before yesterday or the day after tomorrow, haha...
As the forefront of modern physics, string theory tells us that there could be 12 dimensions in the universe.
Therefore, we do not live in three-dimensional space, and the higher dimension of space is all around us, but our poor senses have constructed a three-dimensional world for us, and at most a time dimension that can only be felt but cannot be used to take it, making us think that this is the whole world.
Actually, it's just an illusion! From the perspective of the higher dimensional world, our level of perception is actually not much higher than that of ants in the two-dimensional world...
Time and parallel universes
The film also makes people think about the meaning of time.
Doctor Strange eventually relies on time magic to save the world, while Master Gu Yi can't predict all this at the moment when he is about to leave, but only sees "countless possibilities". Here lies the secrets of multidimensional space-time and parallel universes.
In fact, the ultimate mystery of the universe is contained in time and space, and the mystery of time and space has been solved, and it is not far from understanding the truth of the universe!
According to the parallel universe theory, our choices at each point in time will actually occur in a certain universe, producing a line of destiny, and I in each universe experience different fates on different timelines.
Any decision we make in each moment leads to different outcomes, causing our destiny to travel along different timelines.
And in this so-called "real world" as we know it, we, who are bound by our super-limited senses, can only follow one of them to the end of this life.
In fact, in different spaces, in higher dimensions, we can have many kinds of lives.....
The past and future of Eastern and Western science
After watching "Doctor Strange", if you can make your brain open and truly understand multidimensional space-time, you can understand Einstein's famous saying: "Time, space and matter are the illusion of human cognition"!
In fact, in Eastern cultures, the truth of this universe has long been revealed in different languages.
Diamond Sutra Cloud:
"The past mind is unattainable, the present mind is unattainable, the future mind is unattainable", "everything has a way, such as a dream bubble, like dew is like electricity"!
If you look at the endless Huayan world in the Huayan Sutra, from the "realm of law and matter", "the realm of reason and law", "the realm of law without hindrance to the realm of law" to "the realm of law without hindrance to everything", and imagine the magnificent universe of "seeing the treasure king brake at the end of the millimeter", you will know how great and advanced the cosmology of Eastern science should be!
With our as limited senses and thoughts as ants, how can we truly understand the truth of the universe that those enlightened beings of great wisdom have painted for us?
For a long time, Westerners, like The Strange, were superstitious about science based on mechanical materialism, believing that man had mastered the truth of the universe.
But with the progress of modern science, they have increasingly discovered the limitations of their own understanding;
The emergence of blockbusters such as "The Matrix", "Inception", "Superbody", "Interstellar", "Cloud Atlas", "Doctor Strange" and so on reflects the Western thinking on these issues and the depth and height to which Western science has progressed.
Unfortunately, when the Chinese people lament the "brain-burning" of these imported blockbusters and are fascinated by their plots and special effects, they forget to think deeply about the scientific problems behind them and ignore the cutting-edge achievements of modern science. In fact, it has already subverted our worldview of scientific knowledge built on the first half of the 20th century!
Moreover, due to the long-term ignorance and misunderstanding of traditional Chinese culture, we have forgotten that our ancients have actually conducted in-depth exploration and profound answers to these questions!
From cutting-edge sciences such as quantum mechanics, holographic universe, and string theory, as well as from China's traditional culture with Confucianism and Taoism as the core, we can get profound enlightenment:
Uncovering the answer to the ultimate question of the universe requires the study of consciousness!
In the traditional Chinese culture with "Zen" as the core, peak and essence, it contains a large number of achievements of the ancients' painstaking research and exploration of the spiritual and material world.
"Meditation" is not as simple as "I want to be quiet", let alone "superstition" that many people think, but it is actually the most important research method for human beings to explore the spiritual world and even the material world!
With the development of science, the science that used to take matter as the core will inevitably turn to consciousness as the core or combine matter and consciousness, and physics and psychology will inevitably merge into one!
Mankind will surely discover and accept this truth: spirit and matter are inseparable, and the worldview of mind and matter will be replaced by the worldview of mind and matter!