Avalokiteshvara and Einstein Theory (2000 years before)

Some interesting speculations propose that Einstein Matter/Energy equivalence present in his Theory of Relativity was not an Einstein own Idea, but something he took from a his parents’ friend Olinto del Pretto.

I don’t know if it’s true, but surely both are not the first to realize the equivalence between Energy and Mass. Really! Because, for sure, the writer of Heart Sutra (I Century) was concious of mass-energy-equivalence.

What is Heart Sutra? A buddhist text where Avalokiteshvara explains to Shariputra the nature of reality.

The first thing we have to do when we read a real spiritual text is to understand that is not write in a logic way, but in a overlogical way, or talking easier in a simbolic way. What does it mean? It means that a word don’t stay for one single thing only, but is a variant, a symbol that can take different meaning as X in a equation.

When 4 year ago I wrote a commentary on Heart Sutra on this blog. Reading Avalokita reapeting four time the word form, and the word void I propose four different meaning for this sentence. As if Form could have two meanings as X2 and void two meaning as Y2.
Probably there are many others meaning but that’s not the point. Now I want to mark how Avalokiteshvara talks of mass-energy-equivalence, if we read the Heart Sutra in a right way.

When Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara practised the deep Prajnaparamita, he saw that the five skandhas were empty; thus he overcame all ills and suffering. 



"O Shariputra! Form does not differ from the void, and the void does not differ from the form. Form is the void, and the void is form.

Now you could say : where Avalokita said that Matter and Energy are equivalent?

Ok, we start with the word void. Void can have two meanings. The first Void as Nothing. The second Void as Energy. Because in Oriental Alchemy Void stay for Ether, Energy. And Form have also two meanings. The first is form as shape, the second is form as matter. As I explained in the commentary (that is in italian) they are all corrects.

So if we read Form as Matter, and Void as Energy, what we find?

"O Shariputra! Matter (Form) does not differ from the Energy (void) , and the Energy (void) does not differ from the Matter (form). Matter (Form) is the Energy (void), and the Energy (void) is Matter (form).

These verses wrote about 2000 years before Einstein theories sound really interesting. Don’t you find?