Buddhism and Science

Columbia Series in Science and Religion

by B. Alan Wallace (Editor)

Buddhism and Science brings together distinguished philosophers, Buddhist scholars, physicists, and cognitive scientists to examine the contrasts and connections between the worlds of Western science and Eastern spirituality. This compilation was inspired by a suggestion made by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, himself one of the contributors, after one of a series of cross-cultural scientific dialogues in Dharamsala, India, sponsored by the Mind and Life Institute. Other contributors such as William L. Ames, Matthieu Ricard, and Stephen LaBerge assess not only the fruits of inquiry from East and West but also shed light on the underlying assumptions of these disparate worldviews. Their essays creatively address a broad range of from quantum theory's surprising affinities with the Buddhist concept of emptiness, to the increasing need in the West for a more contemplative science attuned to the first-person investigation of the mind, to the important ways in which the psychological study of "lucid dreaming" maps similar terrain to the cultivation of the Tibetan Buddhist discipline of dream yoga.

Reflecting its wide variety of topics, Buddhism and Science is comprised of three sections. The first presents two historical overviews of the engagements between Buddhism and modern science or, rather, how Buddhism and modern science have defined, rivaled, or complemented one another. The second describes the ways Buddhism and the cognitive sciences inform each other; the third addresses points of intersection between Buddhism and the physical sciences. On the broadest level this work illuminates how different ways of exploring the nature of human identity, the mind, and the universe at large can enrich and enlighten one another.

Genres: Buddhism, Science, Psychology, Spirituality, Religion, Philosophy, Nonfiction

432 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 2003

Reviews

[Darcy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was dense. A series of essays on the subject, some far more interesting than others. Some of them read way smoother than others, so I found myself skimming through to find the less enjoyable chapters.

[Elizabeth]

from the library



List of Contributors
ix
Preface xv
Introduction: Buddhism and Science--Breaking Down the Barriers 1 (30)
B. Alan Wallace

Part 1 Historical Context
31 (56)
Buddhism and Science: On the Nature of the Dialogue
35 (36)
Jose Ignacio Cabezon

Science As an Ally or a Rival Philosophy? Tibetan Buddhist Thinkers' Engagement with Modern Science
71 (16)
Thupten Jinpa

Part 2 Buddhism and the Cognitive Sciences
87 (194)
Understanding and Transforming the Mind
91 (16)
XIV Dalai Lama

The Concepts ``Self,'' ``Person,'' and ``I'' in Western Psychology and in Buddhism
107 (38)
David Galin

Common Ground, Common Cause: Buddhism and Science on the Afflictions of Identity
145 (50)
William S. Waldron

Imagining: Embodiment, Phenomenology, and Transformation
195 (38)
Francisco J. Varela

Natalie Depraz

Lucid Dreaming and the Yoga of the Dream State: A Psychophysiological Perspective
233 (28)
Stephen Laberge

On the Relevance of a Contemplative Science
261 (20)
Matthieu Ricard

Part 3 Buddhism and the Physical Sciences
281 (136)
Emptiness and Quantum Theory
285 (20)
William L. Ames

Time and Impermanence in Middle Way Buddhism and Modern Physics
305 (20)
Victor Mansfield

A Cure for Metaphysical Illusions: Kant, Quantum Mechanics, and Madhyamaka
325 (40)
Michel Bitbol

Emptiness and Relativity
365 (22)
David Ritz Finkelstein

Encounters Between Buddhist and Quantum Epistemologies
387 (12)
Anton Zeilinger

Conclusion: Life As a Laboratory
399 (18)
Piet Hut

Appendix: A History of the Mind and Life Institute 417 (6)
Index 423

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for a class many years ago. I remember that some of the writings changed the way I thought about my christian faith. One in particular made me rethink the doctrine of the fallen nature of humanity in a much more extreme way (they were speaking in terms of attachment and comparing it with survival on a cellular level). Most of the book I have forgotten but I think there was some notions of a connection between physics and consciousness that I wouldn't agree with now (I would have to go back and double check).