What is Rocket Science? A Dhamma Teacher’s Perspective on Knowledge and Understanding

I want to explain to you what “ rocket science” truly means, not just in the conventional sense, but through the lens of how we understand knowledge itself—both worldly (လောကီ) and ultimate (ပရမတ္ထ) understanding.

When people say “ it’s not rocket science,” they mean something is not extremely difficult or complex. But let me share with you what I have come to understand about this phrase and what it reveals about how we acquire knowledge. Rocket science refers to the highly technical field of aerospace engineering—the study of how to design, build, and launch vehicles that can travel through space. It involves complex mathematics, physics, chemistry, and engineering principles. The term has become a metaphor in everyday language for anything extremely complicated or requiring exceptional intelligence.

However, I want you to understand something deeper here. When I look at rocket science—or any science for that matter—I see it as a particular dimension of knowledge (ဉာဏ်). You see, the Buddha’s teaching is not just religious consultation; it is a technology of the mind (စိတ်နဲ့ပတ်သက်တဲ့ Technology). I came to realize this when I studied how scientists like Newton, Archimedes, and Einstein gained their insights. They observed ordinary phenomena that everyone else saw but failed to understand deeply.

Let me give you an example I often use. When Archimedes stepped into a bathtub filled with water, the water overflowed. What happened? Nothing special, right? We all experience this. But Archimedes saw something profound in that simple event—he discovered the principle of displacement and buoyancy. Similarly, when Newton saw an apple fall from a tree, everyone had seen this countless times before. But Newton asked: “ Why does it fall?” and discovered the law of gravity. These scientists possessed wisdom (ဉာဏ်) that transformed ordinary observations into systematic knowledge—into laws that we can apply universally.

This is exactly what I want you to understand about the Buddha’s teaching. The law of cause and effect (အကြောင်းအကျိုး) is not just ordinary cause and effect—it is a law, a systematic principle that can be applied to understand all phenomena. The Buddha took what everyone experiences—suffering, impermanence, non-self—and revealed the ultimate reality behind these experiences. He created a technology for understanding the mind, just as rocket scientists created technology for space travel.

Now, when I examine rocket science from the ultimate reality (ပရမတ္ထ) perspective, I see something fascinating. Rocket science deals with materiality (ရုပ်)—with heat (တေဇောဓာတ်), motion, energy, and physical laws. But here is what modern science still does not fully understand: ultimate materiality does not transfer from place to place. When fire heats water, the heat element (တေဇောဓာတ်) in the fire does not actually move into the water. Rather, the cold heat element in the water ceases, and hot heat element arises in its place. The fire serves as the cause (အကြောင်း), but the cause and effect are separate (သပ်သပ်စီ)—they do not connect in the way we conventionally think.

This is extremely difficult for us to accept. We think the heat “ transfers” from the fire to the water, but this is our conventional perception (လောကအမြင်), not the ultimate reality. Science has not yet discovered this level of truth. They still believe in the permanence of the smallest particles, but nothing is permanent (မြဲတဲ့သဘောဆိုတဲ့ဟာက ဘယ်နေရာမှ မရှိဘူး). This is what I call the limitation of current scientific understanding.

Let me explain this through another analogy. When you see an electric fan spinning, what do you actually see? You see the characteristic (လက္ခဏာ)—the spinning motion, the light reflecting off the blades. But the electricity itself? You do not see it with your eye-consciousness (စက္ခုဝိညာဉ်). You can touch the fan and feel it vibrating through body-consciousness (ကာယဝိညာဉ်), but you still do not directly perceive electricity. Only through mind-consciousness (မနောဝိညာဉ်) and reasoning do you infer: “ Because the fan is spinning, there must be electricity flowing through it.” This is how we know ultimate reality (ပရမတ္ထ)—not through direct sensory contact, but through wisdom and inference.

Similarly, in rocket science, engineers work with elements (ဓာတ်)—with fuel combustion (which is heat element), with structural materials (which involve earth element or solidity), with propulsion (which involves motion and energy). But they work primarily with conceptual materiality (ပညတ်ရုပ်)—with rockets, engines, fuel tanks—not with ultimate materiality (ပရမတ္ထရုပ်). They measure, calculate, and predict based on observable characteristics, but they have not penetrated to the level of understanding how these elements arise and cease moment by moment according to natural law (နိယာမ).

I want you to see that knowledge (ပညာ) comes in different forms. Rocket science is a highly developed worldly knowledge (လောကီပညာ)—it is systematic, it can be taught, it can be applied to achieve specific results. But it is still bound by conventional perception. The Buddha’s teaching offers something beyond this: supramundane knowledge (လောကုတ္တရာပညာ)—wisdom that penetrates through conventional reality to see the ultimate nature of all phenomena.

When I was on an airplane and encountered an air pocket, the plane suddenly dropped. Other passengers screamed, calling out to the Buddha in fear. But I experienced something different. My mind caught only the present moment (ပစ္စုပ္ပန်)—the sensation of the jolt. I did not create the concept “ the plane is falling” or “ I am in danger.” The subsequent mind (နောက်စိတ်) simply knew: “ There was a movement.” Because mindfulness (သိ) was present, defilements (ကိလေသာ) did not arise. There was no fear, no panic—just clear knowing of the present phenomenon.

This is what I mean by the technology of the mind. It is not about believing in something; it is about training (အလေ့အကျင့်) the mind to see reality as it actually is. Just as a rocket scientist must practice and develop skill through repeated application of principles, we must practice seeing the difference between worldly perception and Dhamma perception (လောကအမြင်နဲ့ ဓမ္မအမြင်).

Let me give you a practical example. When someone offers you coffee, you might think “ the person offered me coffee.” This is worldly perception—you see a person, an action, a relationship. But from the Dhamma perspective, it is not the person who offers—it is volition (စေတနာ) that offers. Without volition, even if the person and the coffee are both present, no offering occurs. When you understand this, you see that there is no person, only mental and physical phenomena (နာမ်ရုပ်) arising according to causes and conditions.

This understanding frees you from creating problems. If you think “ I offered you coffee, so next time you must offer me coffee,” you create expectations and resentment when those expectations are not met. You create the duality of “ I” and “ other” (ငါနဲ့သူ), which leads to conflict. But when you see that it is simply volition arising due to causes, there is no “ I” who did something deserving repayment, and no “ other” who owes something. This is the profound freedom that comes from understanding non-self (အနတ္တ).

So, to return to your question: What is rocket science? It is a highly sophisticated form of worldly knowledge that allows humans to achieve remarkable feats—to escape Earth’s gravity, to explore space, to understand the physical universe. But it is still operating within the framework of conventional reality (သမုတိ). It deals with concepts—with rockets, trajectories, fuel efficiency—not with the ultimate nature of the elements themselves.

The Buddha’s teaching, on the other hand, is the science of liberation (ဝိမုတ္တိ). It is the systematic method for understanding how greed (လောဘ), hatred (ဒေါသ), and delusion (မောဟ) arise, and how to abandon them. This is the only true wholesome action (ကုသိုလ်)—not accumulating merit through rituals, but directly uprooting the causes of suffering.

I have come to see that both types of knowledge—worldly and supramundane—require the same fundamental quality: the ability to see what others overlook. Newton, Archimedes, Einstein—they all saw ordinary things with extraordinary clarity. They asked questions no one else asked. They challenged assumptions everyone else accepted. This is exactly what the Buddha did, but at a much deeper level. He questioned the assumption of self (အတ္တ), the assumption of permanence (အမြဲ), the assumption that happiness can be found in sensory pleasures.

You must understand that wisdom (ပညာ) is not about accumulating information. I can explain rocket science to you in great detail, but unless you practice (အလေ့အကျင့်လုပ်) the principles, unless you work through the mathematics and physics yourself, you will not truly understand it. Similarly, I can explain non-self and cause and effect to you, but unless you observe (ကြည့်) your own mind, unless you see how perception (သညာ) creates the illusion of self, you will not penetrate to the truth.

This is why I emphasize practice over belief. The Buddha did not ask us to believe in non-self; he showed us how to see it directly. When you observe carefully, you will notice that when someone calls your name, perception (သညာ) arises so quickly that you do not even notice it. You think “ I heard my name,” but actually, there was just sound, then perception, then the concept “ my name,” then the thought “ someone is calling me.” All of this happens so fast that it seems instantaneous, but with mindfulness and concentration (သမာဓိ), you can see the process step by step.

This is what I call mind-tight—the way ignorance (အဝိဇ္ဇာ) seals off our understanding so completely that we do not even know we are ignorant. It is like a stealth aircraft that does not appear on radar—you can see it with your eyes, but the detection system cannot find it. Ignorance is so powerful that it makes itself invisible. We live our entire lives under its influence without ever suspecting it is there.

So when you ask “ What is rocket science?” I answer: It is impressive worldly knowledge, but it is still bound by ignorance of ultimate reality. The true science—the true systematic knowledge—is the Buddha’s teaching, which reveals how to see through the illusions created by perception, mental formations (သင်္ခါရ), and consciousness (ဝိညာဏ်). This is the knowledge that leads to liberation (နိဗ္ဗာန်), which is the highest goal.

I encourage you to develop both types of understanding. Study worldly sciences if you wish—they are valuable and useful. But do not stop there. Go deeper. Question your assumptions. Observe your mind. See how cause and effect operate not just in the physical world, but in your own mental and emotional life. This is the path to true wisdom, and it is available to anyone willing to practice with sincerity and diligence.

Dr. Soe Lwin (Mandalay)