Where Does A Wave Go?

I was watching a program on TV in which a scientist was using laser beams in a very clever way to bring a gaseous element down to absolute zero (-273 degrees Celsius). As a particle physicist he assumed he was working with tiny bits of matter and using the lasers to slow the bits down. As particles of matter slow down, according to this theory, they get colder and colder until they reach a point of no movement called absolute zero, the coldest it is possible to get. However, in the above experiment, when the particles reached absolute zero they were no longer there. The scientist theorized that his "trap" for holding the particles had a hole in it and they slipped out. But there is another possibility.

What if the scientist is not dealing with particles at all, but waves of energy? In that case, instead of particles mysteriously disappearing from a trap, perhaps the waves simply stopped waving. Where does a wave go when the wind stops? It doesn't go anywhere. It just ceases to be. Perhaps absolute zero is where the wind stops, where there is no movement, where matter no longer materializes.

In the esoteric Huna knowledge, experience comes from the interaction of Hu and Na, chaos and order. Where there is absolute chaos - continuously random movement - there is no organization that could produce a distinct experience. Where there is absolute order - no movement at all, and equivalent to absolute zero - there is no change, and therefore no experience. By this way of thinking, the basic requirement for experience is some kind and some degree of orderly change.

As humans we experience life primarily through sight, sound and touch. To see, hear and feel there has to be a particular kind of phenomenon existing at a particular range of frequencies that can be perceived by specially organized receivers. In other words, seeing, hearing and feeling require a nervous system that can process information from eyes, ears and skin. Of course, it's more involved than that, but those are the basics.

If we assume that all experience consists of organized waves of energy, then to perceive experience we need to be aware of waves. It follows, then, that to change experience we need to generate waves. Or, sometimes, to stop generating them.

A number of esoteric traditions speak of thoughts as forming waves. In Hawaiian there is a word, nalu, which means both "to form waves" and "to think deeply" or "to meditate." Out of this we get the idea that thoughts are like the wind that forms waves. If the winds are steady, like the trade winds, then you get steady, repetitive waves. If the thoughts are steady, like beliefs and habits, then you get steady, repetitive experience. If the thoughts are strong, like storms and high emotions, either positive or negative, then you get strong, impressive experience. If there are no thoughts of a particular kind, like an area of no wind, then the seas of life are calm and ready to be moved in a new direction.

The practical side of all of this is that it makes sense to assume that your thoughts affect your experience because, if you do assume that, you can change your life. Just as the physicist can produce physical effects by assuming the existence of particles, so you can produce life changes by assuming that thoughts generate waves. You are not bound by the winds of the past, not locked into any experience by what has gone before in this life or any other. Destiny is not fixed, any more than the weather is. When you think differently today than you did yesterday, when the winds begin to change, tomorrow's weather will not be the same.