IT IS NOW STRONGLY BELIEVED that the strings, the basic indivisible unit of the universe, are not one-dimensional, but exist in multi-dimensions, confined within an indivisible unit of space, having a diameter of Planck length -- a unit of measure so short that if a hydrogen atom was the size of the known universe, the Planck length would be no longer than a mature oak tree.

Some things remarkable are now being studied. The last half of Greene’s book ventures beyond what is now known to hot areas of physics research including the following:

• Can it be that a black hole, one of the most massive things in the universe, and an elementary string, the smallest, are the same? [Physicist John Wheeler remarked that “black holes have no hair,” meaning little distinguishes one from another]. Remarkably, two black holes having the same mass, charge and spin are completely identical, as are two elementary particles with matching mass, charge and spin.
• How are tears in the fabric of space self-repairing? [Remarkable properties of Calabi-Yau spaces act to always heal the constant puncturing of space.]
• What do we now know about the beginning of the universe? [Greene writes “String theory modifies the standard cosmological model (a.k.a. The Big Bang)” and these implications are now “an active and fertile arena of research.”]
• What is the principle that underlies String Theory? [In all ways, nature appears to be governed by symmetry, thus the universe is elegant.]
• What are space and time, really? [Writes Greene: “...cutting-edge research on aspects of M-theory, spearheaded by (top physicists including Witten) ... has shown that something known as zero-brane ...may give us a glimpse of the spaceless and timeless realm.”]

Can it be, as Greene writes:

“... In the raw state, before the strings that make up the cosmic fabric engage in the orderly, coherent vibrational dance we are discussing, there is no realization of space or time. Even our language is too coarse to handle these ideas, for, in fact, there is even no notion of before. In a sense, it’s as if individual strings are ‘shards’ of space and time, and only when they appropriately undergo sympathetic vibrations do the conventional notions of space and time emerge.”

How chillingly close those words are to the metaphor of Indra's Net in the Avatamsaka Sutra. Wrote Charles Eliot in his 1969 book "Japanese Buddhism:"

"In the heaven of Indra there is said to be a network of pearls, so arranged that if you look at one you see all the others reflected in it. In the same way, each object in the world is not merely itself but involves every other object and in fact is everything else. ‘In every particle of dust, there are present Buddhas without number...’"

Is Buddhism at the core in all this!?

The last word goes to Zen master Dogen (quoted by Philip Kapleau Roshi):

“Man disposes himself and looks upon this disposition [as the world]. That man is time is undeniably like this. One has to accept that in this world there are millions of objects and that each one is, respectively, the entire world--this is where the study of Buddhism commences. When one comes to realize this fact, [one perceives that] every object, every living thing is the whole, even though it itself does not realize it. As there is no other time than this, every time-being is the whole of time: one blade of grass, every single object is time. Each point of time includes every being and every world.”

A quick footnote: An article in the August 2000 issue of "Scientific American" prompted front-page stories in the nation's major newspaper. Titled “The Universe’s Unseen Dimensions,” the article suggests that experiments may yield proof of the extra dimensions predicted by M-theory. It may also be the case that gravity, uniquely, “propagates through all the dimensions,” thus solving some of the problems physicists have in understanding its behavior. Most tantalizing of all, the article suggests the possibility that a near-infinite number of universes exist like a stack of slices of cheese, no further apart, one from the other, than a millimeter.

The “Scientific American” article refers to Brian Greene’s "The Elegant Universe" for further information. A web site introducing readers to string theory can be found at:
http://superstringtheory.com/
For a primer on gravity go to:
http://mist.npl.washington.edu/eotwash/

Tom Armstrong is a frequent contributor to Hundred Mountain and other online Buddhist magazines. He was the editor of the late, great Zen Unbound web magazine, which he says will rise again someday. He is an accountant for an investment consulting firm and lives in San Francisco where he practices Zen.