The Enlightened Gene: Biology, Buddhism, and the Convergence that Explains the World

by Arri Eisen, Yungdrung Konchok, Dalai Lama XIV (Contributor)

Eight years ago, in an unprecedented intellectual endeavor, the Dalai Lama invited Emory University to integrate modern science into the education of the thousands of Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns in exile in India. This project, the Emory Tibet Science Initiative, became the first major change in the monastic curriculum in six centuries. Eight years in, the results are transformative. The singular backdrop of teaching science to Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns offered provocative insights into how science and religion can work together to enrich each other, as well as to shed light on life and what it means to be a thinking, biological human. In The Enlightened Gene, Emory University Professor Dr. Arri Eisen, together with monk Geshe Yungdrung Konchok explore the striking ways in which the integration of Buddhism with cutting-edge discoveries in the biological sciences can change our understanding of life and how we live it. What this book discovers along the way will fundamentally change the way you think.

Are humans inherently good? Where does compassion come from? Is death essential for life? Is experience inherited? These questions have occupied philosophers, religious thinkers and scientists since the dawn of civilization, but in today's political discourse, much of the dialogue surrounding them and larger issues--such as climate change, abortion, genetically modified organisms, and evolution--are often framed as a dichotomy of science versus spirituality. Strikingly, many of new biological discoveries--such as the millions of microbes that we now know live together as part of each of us, the connections between those microbes and our immune systems, the nature of our genomes and how they respond to the environment, and how this response might be passed to future generations--can actually be read as moving science closer to spiritual concepts, rather than further away. The Enlightened Gene opens up and lays a foundation for serious conversations, integrating science and spirit in tackling life's big questions. Each chapter integrates Buddhism and biology and uses striking examples of how doing so changes our understanding of life and how we lead it.

Genres: Nonfiction, Spirituality

296 pages, Hardcover

Published October 3, 2017

About the author

Arri Eisen is the Nat C. Robertson Distinguished Teaching Professor in Science & Society and Professor of Pedagogy in Biology, the Institute of Liberal Arts, and the Center for Ethics at Emory University in Atlanta. He teaches, writes, and does research in science, science education, bioethics, and science and religion. He earned his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Washington in 1990 and has been at Emory ever since, including two year-long stints as Distinguished Visiting Professor at the United States Air Force Academy.

Reviews

[Katy]

I received my copy free through Goodreads Giveaways

[Fluencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most books that try to bring religion and science together end up rationalizing religion or perpetuating pseudoscience. The Enlightened Gene is an exploration of important concepts in biology like evolution, from the vantage point of Buddhism. The authors are careful not to use biology to merely explain Buddhism, but look at existing concepts in biology in a different light. This is a refreshing read for believers and skeptics alike. This book is a rare accomplishment in that sense.

[Lane · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating and wonderful book about the mixture of religion and science, specifically, Buddhism and biology. The lead author, Arri Eisen, is a biology professor at Emory University, and the secondary author, Yungdrung Konchok, is a Buddhist monk that studied science at Emory with Eisen.

The book highlights how Eisen and his colleagues traveled to northern India to teach Buddhist monks biology, and, overall, the main methods of research and Western scientific thought. In turn, Eisen and Konchok helped bring religious, spiritual, and ethical discussions into the classrooms of science courses at Emory. Their stories highlight the successful mixture of science and spirituality in two vastly different places.

If you are at all interested in science, spirituality, and the mixture of the two, read this book.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not an easy book to read but definitely worth the effort. Not being a scientist, I struggled with the scientific (biological) details but once I got through it (sometimes reading a paragraph multiple times), I finally got the gist of what Eisen (and Konchok) is saying.
“On the large scale, integrating science and faith changes the way we think about science and therefore some of the big scientific questions,” Eisen says.
Read this entire review at https://news.emory.edu/stories/2018/0....
After returning this book to the library, I ordered a copy. This is a book I will re-read and study.

[The Inquisitive Biologist · Rating 5 out of 5]

A remarkable book that convinces that Buddhism, perhaps uniquely amongst religions, can have a dialogue with biology. See my full review at https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2018...

[Gabe Baskin · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insightful exploration of the seemingly dichotomous: science and religion. Particularly compelling for people interested in Buddhism.