Week Four Assignments: Energy, Matter and the Four Forces

E=mc2 and me:

So, I have never really spent a significant amount of time pondering the meaning of this equation, since it IS an equation and I generally avoid anything mathematical as much as humanly possible (with the exception of say recipe conversions, cocktail measurements, etc…). The idea of wondering how it has affected me is also pretty alien to me, but I will give it a shot.

I think the one thing that jumped out at me during our discussion of this concept was that essentially mass (or matter) and energy are the same thing. What occurs to me, again, is that this is another example of the yin/yang principle that keeps coming up for me as I study TCM. To digress, the single most compelling thing that I learned about yin and yang is that they are constantly in motion and constantly becoming each other. I had always visualized yin and yang as being static, as they appear in the universal symbol of the black and white circle; it was really amazing to find that this representation of the two forces was indeed an idealized concept – it illustrates that the ultimate goal of the two forces is to be in this balanced state – and yet, the dynamic reality of the energy is something quite different.

I guess the way that I apply this to myself, is that I am always in motion, always becoming something different, and that my ultimate goal is to someday become balanced and static; perhaps I will never achieve that in this lifetime, or perhaps that is when I will die????

Comparing the Four Forces:

It seems to me that a study of the inter-relationship between the four forces is in some ways an expansion of the same concept above – but with more than just two elements striving for some sort of balance.

It also strikes me that the attempt by Western science to in some way explain the forces in some sort of organizational structure that in some way equalizes them is again an illustration of the difference between the western and eastern mindset. If one were to consider each of the forces as a person existing in a societal construct, say a community – then one would automatically allow for individual differences in each of those persons; while still acknowledging the intrinsic value of each of those individuals. The contribution that each of these people would make to the whole of the community might easily appear to be disparate in nature, because each person would possess their own unique skills and gifts that would be of use to the community as a whole; and yet the mere fact that each of these persons contributed those skills and gifts to the community equalizes them and renders them useful and indeed necessary to the whole.
In the same way, each of the four forces is necessary to the whole of the way that our world works – despite the obvious differences in quantifiable properties existent in the forces individually.
Function of Gravity:

Well, it seems to me that a genuine and thorough definition of the function of gravity is beyond my simple mind; after all, physicists and greater scientific minds than my own seem unable to really get their heads around it.

However, simply speaking, I would say that the function of gravity is to keep everything in some sort of order and relative control – while at the same time providing the environment necessary for change to occur. What I mean is that gravity seems to be the force that keeps humans and everything else on this planet from floating off the planet and out into space. At the same time, it appears that gravity exerts this same control on the planets as they go through their cosmic dance with one another; and indeed apparently gravity maintains this order in some way or other throughout the universe. In some majestic way, gravity maintains things in their place and space in time, while those same elements are busy moving about and evolving and doing whatever else they do. In a way, gravity is there doing its job, so that those other elements don’t have to worry about doing it – it facilitates whatever processes are taking place and keeps those elements safe while they are doing it….