Information

          In the jargon of modern physics virtually all configurations of matter and energy are simply referred to as “information”. There is physical information which refers generally to the information that is contained in a physical system. An embodiment of information is the thing whose essence is a given instance of information. A subject of information is the thing that is identified or described by a given instance or piece of information And so on and so forth. So as we move our minds along the time line we find that in physical systems according to modern quantum physics, we must distinguish between classical information and quantum information. But all things that were, have been and will be are information.

           You are information, a frog is information a rock or a sun is information. When I was born and set in my crib I was information. Years later as I stood shivering in the snow at a bus stop waiting to go to school I was information surrounded by information as far as the universe extended.
          When I was but a child my teachers taught me “the law of conservation of matter and energy.” Please repeat after me children, Conversion of one type of matter into another are always accompanied by the conversion of one form of energy into another. How comforting it was to know that The Law of Conservation of Energy states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, but can change its form. The total quantity of matter and energy available in the universe is a fixed amount and never any more or less. If they did not teach you I can only say you should have gone to better schools or perhaps opened a book.
         So many years ago I can not remember the exact year I was told that “information” is never lost it can only be converted. I was told that scrambled as it might become it was always still there. That jerk that used to pick on me in grade school is still there. All the oysters in the sea are all still there no matter how many you may eat. Of course there was those twenty years or so when Stephen Hawking Claimed that Black holes destroyed information. But after twenty years he has finally admitted he was wrong.
           I have listened to Thich Nhat Hạnh ‘s teaching on death and it is simply the same old song, “No Information is ever Lost”. I will give it a 65 Dick, it has a beat and you can dance to it. After all wasn’t American Band Stand information and were we all not convinced that Dick Clark was immortal and had made a deal with the devil to stay forever young. He is not dead yet, maybe he is immortal.
              I know all the analogies like waves on the ocean and clouds in the sky. While I think a thousand years of living with myself might quickly turn into hell I can not help but feel this kind of immortality, you will be wind and rain and perhaps in a billion billion years you may reoccur in fact there may be an infinite number of almost or sort of you over eternity is in the end more than a bit dissatisfying.
          We are certainly all born with the potential to be countless men and women and as each instant arrives we are certainly born again and again as sort of who we once were and all of who we will ever be. Born as many but finally ending as one for the observable instant and then some information are certainly stripped from the body. So Dogen was right, there are no prophets in Zen.
          Wake up little Suzy we are late.
         When I was much older than I am now I was told by men in orange robes that this was the version of Buddhism for smart people. (I will let you guess what version it was.) All my life I have wondered what real advantage there was to being a “smart” person. If my vanity lets me believe I am a smart person then I must admit being smart has made me more miserable than happy for many years.
          Taking comfort in the fact that no information is ever lost is a task I am still working on. Some days I would trade 40 points in IQ for a simple blind faith belief ...