We need to be really careful with the words we use here. The words Buddhists use to describe the world are very accurate. In the micro-world, nothing is really moving, moving is only illusion of our senses.

An example is when an electron moves around the nucleus from one location to another. On the conceptual level, there is movement. However, there is not a single electron that is moving because when the electron shifts to a different location, at the same time this particular electron diminishes from its original location. This also means that the previous electron vanishes once the present one is generated. After the electron moves to another location, at that spot another new electron appears, then disappears. If we look with our naked eyes, what we see is one electron moving from one location to a second, then to a third and fourth location, and so on. The first electron actually has no correlation to the second or the third one, but is separate from them. On the micro level, we see the illusion of a moving electron, but nothing is truly moving. Although the individual electrons have some certain similarities, they are not the same. Buddhism calls this “arising and ceasing”.

[Excerpt from Luminous Wisdom Book Series ~ The Illusory World]

 

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