The Cosmic Symphony of Zero: Why Modern Physics and Ancient Mysticism Agree the Universe is a Process, Not a Thing

1. The Question Left by Vanishing Energy

When we gaze up at the night sky, we are easily overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the stars and galaxies filling the endless void. Armed with the “Law of Conservation of Mass-Energy” — perhaps the most robust common sense we learned in school — we tend to believe that the universe is a solid fortress of matter, a permanent stage where energy, once born, endures forever merely by changing its form. Yet, the frontier of modern cosmology ruthlessly shatters this intuition.

When we look at the macro-universe governed by Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, we encounter a phenomenon known as “cosmological redshift,” where the wavelengths of light stretch like rubber bands as space expands. Because the energy of light is inversely proportional to its wavelength, when space expands and wavelengths lengthen, the energy carried by photons physically decreases. This lost energy does not heat surrounding matter, nor does it transform into another form of energy. It is a physical “absolute annihilation” — energy simply being diluted and erased amidst the geometric expansion of spacetime. For energy to be conserved, an absolute mathematical prerequisite is required: spacetime must remain still and fixed as an unchanging background (time translation invariance). However, because our universe is a dynamic entity whose very stage moves over time, the law of conservation fails to hold at a cosmic scale.

At first, the physical reality that matter and energy could vanish without a trace was difficult to accept. As long as one views energy as a collection of fixed particles, this annihilation remains an eternal mystery. However, by shifting our perspective slightly, this phenomenon meets a breathtaking reversal when aligned with “A Universe from Nothing,” a cutting-edge hypothesis in modern cosmology. When physicists audit the balance sheet of the entire universe, they designate all visible matter and dark energy as positive (+) and the gravitational energy — which warps spacetime to pull matter together — as negative (-). The conclusion they reach is astonishing: the net energy of the entire universe is exactly zero, both at the moment of the Big Bang and right now. In other words, when positive energy decreases due to redshift, the negative gravitational energy decreases by the exact same amount to maintain the balance of zero. Ultimately, the universe is not a chunk of matter with a fixed bank balance; it is a grand “processual entity” that dances, expanding the scales of both positive and negative values, precisely to maintain a perfect equilibrium of zero.

2. A 40-Year-Old Note and Eastern Intuition

Pondering this precise mathematical conclusion of modern physics, a series of brief jottings from my early twenties during my undergraduate years suddenly overlapped in my mind. Though it was a somewhat naive description written more than forty years ago, it remarkably contained the pristine blueprints of the thought framework I am refining today.

“Life, it is the communication of information. The communication of information is the interference effect of wavelengths. The secret of life lies in ‘interference.’ … Qi (wavelength) inherently encompasses both materiality and spirituality. … Perception is not a privilege exclusive to humans. Perception is shared by all matter. Perception is not merely an operation of reason; it is a bodily sense (Mom-gak).”

Though I had compressed it at the time using the rather raw and natural-philosophical language of Qi (氣), wavelength, and interference, the essence was crystal clear. I refused to view existence as a fixed substance or a particle; instead, I saw the universe as a stage of wavelengths and interferences, constantly vibrating and interacting in real-time. This youthful intuition aligns with absolute precision with the summit reached by the great sages of the ancient East across time and space.

Zhou Dunyi of the Northern Song Dynasty declared in his Taijitu Shuo (Discussion of the Supreme Ultimate Diagram), “Wuji and yet Taiji” (無極而太極). This is a declaration that the ultimate state devoid of any attributes or bias (Wuji) is inherently coupled with the primordial energy that births all things (Taiji) as two sides of the same coin. The opening line of the Cheonbugyeong (Scripture of Heavenly Code), a sacred text of Korean indigenous philosophy, flows along the exact same vein: “The cosmic beginning has no causal beginning” (一始無始). It is an insight that the concrete phenomenon we call a beginning actually originates from a state of “nothingness” (無) that lacks a causal first point.

How did these ancient Eastern sages find the beginning of the universe in “nothingness” without modern observational equipment like telescopes or particle accelerators? Instead of turning their gaze outward, they pushed the cyclical patterns of nature to their logical extremes to realize the paradox of causality, and above all, they experienced it firsthand through Suyang (修養) — the cultivation of the self. By erasing all desires, distractions, and ego-consciousness through profound meditation, they arrived at a mind like a empty mirror (the state of Mibal, or unaroused emotion). They realized with their entire being that this empty mind, while seemingly nothing (Wuji), was a state of infinite potential capable of birthing the phenomena of joy or sorrow (Taiji) at any moment. Thus, though the perfect symmetry of zero is broken and ten thousand things come and go (萬往萬來), the root that sustains the system always holds its center quietly (用變不動本).

3. The Veil of Maya and Spinoza’s God

This intuition is by no means exclusive to East Asia. The ancient gurus of India arrived at the exact same cosmic summit through Advaita Vedanta philosophy, calling the ultimate reality of the universe Nirguna Brahman (Brahman without attributes). Because Brahman is a perfect state of equilibrium without shape, name, or boundary, it maps with absolute precision to the “net energy zero” vacuum of modern physics. The multifaceted world of phenomena we witness before our eyes is merely a misinterpretation born of Maya — the cosmic illusion that makes us perceive the fundamentally one as many. From the gurus’ perspective, even the titanic expansion of the cosmos and the Big Bang observed by modern science are merely grand waves (misinterpretations) stirred up by the wind of expansion upon the serene ocean of Brahman.

Furthermore, Baruch Spinoza, the most solitary philosopher of modern Europe, fractured the rigid Western concept of a transcendent, anthropomorphic deity through his pantheism, encapsulated in the phrase Deus sive Natura (God or Nature). He defined God not as a dictator sitting outside the universe judging humanity, but as the immanent cause of all things — the unity of Natura naturans (naturing Nature, the creative ground) and Natura naturata (natured Nature, the sum of manifested phenomena). His declaration that matter and spirit are not separate substances but merely two different attributes of a single, immense reality (Nature) resonates powerfully with my youthful assertion that “Qi simultaneously harbors both materiality and spirituality.”

Process theology in the 20th century, led by thinkers like Alfred North Whitehead, similarly redefined the God of Christianity. God was no longer a fixed noun (Being) but a dynamic verb (Becoming) — a grand cosmic process that constantly interacts with the universe in real-time to realize itself. When ancient humans lacked a sophisticated understanding of the physical structures of the cosmos, they used terms like “personal God” or “monotheism” to capture the intimate, real-time reciprocity they experienced with this ultimate reality. It was an anthropomorphic translation. Once we peel away that outer shell, the God of Christianity can legitimately be viewed as the dynamic reality that relentlessly drives and pulls the universe to converge back toward its primordial harmony and equilibrium: zero.

4. Resonance Ontology: Toward a Symphony of Zero

The cold mathematical equations of modern physics, the insights of Neo-Confucianism and the Cheonbugyeong, the spirituality of Indian Vedanta, the rationalism of Spinoza, and the dynamic deity of process theology — the master key that can tune these vast, fragmented streams of human intellect into one magnificent chord is what I propose as “Resonance Ontology”.

Within the framework of Resonance Ontology, the universe is not a warehouse of static “Beings”; it is a “Process of Becoming,” constantly tuning its frequencies toward the ultimate peace and equilibrium of zero. Everything within the cosmos shares an identical ontological origin: the vacuum of zero net energy. There exists only one immense sounding board (God/Nature), and the ten thousand things before our eyes are merely temporary vibrational nodes atop that single chamber.

The process of the universe erasing energy and generating dark energy as it expands, the stellar fusion of stars burning hydrogen into helium, and the intricate neurological vibrations occurring within the human brain — all of these are part of a majestic symphony performed by the cosmos in real-time, matching its frequencies so as never to break the ultimate symmetry of zero.

More than forty years ago, a young student’s raw intuition whispered that “perception is not a human privilege, but a cosmic sharing through the interference of wavelengths.” Today, after a long detour, that intuition has finally clothed itself in its rightful, mature language at the summit of modern science and metaphysics. Upon this grand, pantheistic ocean of resonance where the world is God and God is the world, we are no longer lonely, isolated fragments. We are all beautiful variations of the cosmos, vibrating together toward the magnificent silence of Zero.