With successful coitus the woman becomes pregnant, but what does that mean? In Buddhism the transmigrant from one life to the next, vijñāna (consciousness) is described as a stream (santāna) but also as something that “descends” (paṭisandhi-vijñāna). It is also important to keep in mind that both sperm in the egg have DNA which is an antenna—they can both send and receive. Instead of imagining a ghost flying down, hovering over the couple, flying into the womb, imagine this:
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Vijñāna in the bardo is like a nonlocal excitation of the karmic field.
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It exists as a vibratory pattern (spanda) seeking a resonance in the material world.
In QFT terms, this is like a nonlocal mode coupling into a local field because their frequencies match. Only when the resonance is achieved does the “linking” occur—a successful conception. When the sperm successfully penetrates the egg this is the link the consciousness is looking for to tune into becoming re-embodied.
This mirrors quantum entanglement too:
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Two systems (bardo consciousness and embryo field) become correlated beyond classical locality.
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The act of “linking” is not a physical movement but a collapse into mutual resonance.
🌱 The Growth of the Embryo
Once linked, the local field (embryo) grows like a standing wave in the uterus. But the wave is still “fed” by the nonlocal excitation of vijñāna. This explains why, in Buddhist cosmology, the body is seen as a nāmarūpa (name-and-form)—a pattern that arises from consciousness rather than the other way around.
🪷 “Vijñāna finds its footing in name-and-form; name-and-form finds its footing in vijñāna.” (MN 38)
🜂 In Summary (the analogy)
Quantum Field Theory | Buddhist View |
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Local bio-electric fields | Sperm/egg as “antenna” |
Nonlocal excitations | Vijñāna in the bardo |
Resonance and field coupling | Paṭisandhi-vijñāna (linking) |
Wave pattern in a field | Nāmarūpa (embryonic development) |
Entanglement (nonlocal correlation) | Karma drawing consciousness to rebirth |