Buddhism and Science
Breaking New Ground
Edited by B. Alan Wallace
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"My brief remarks
cannot do justice to the wide-ranging sweep of these papers and their
thoughtful treatment of often difficult concepts. Wallace's volume is an
important contribution to the emerging dialogue between Buddhism and
science, and to the larger rapprochement between science and
spirituality."
–Arthur Zajonc, Professor
of Physics, Amherst College Buddhadharma
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 topics: 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.
Contents
Introduction: Buddhism
and Science--Breaking Down the Barriers B. Alan Wallace
Part 1 Historical
Context
Buddhism and Science:
On the Nature of the Dialogue Josc Ignacio Cabezon
Science As an Ally or a
Rival Philosophy? Tibetan Buddhist Thinkers' Engagement with Modern
Science Thupten Jinpa
Part 2 Buddhism and the
Cognitive Sciences
Understanding and
Transforming the Mind His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama
The Concepts "Self",
"Person'', and "I'' in Western Psychology and in Buddhism David Galin
Common Ground, Common
Cause: Buddhism and Science on the Afflictions of Identity William S.
Waldron
Imagining: Embodiment,
Phenomenology, and Transformation Francisco J. Varela and Natalie
Depraz
Lucid Dreaming and the
Yoga of the Dream State: A Psychophysiological Perspective Stephen
LaBerge
On the Relevance of a
Contemplative Science Matthieu Ricard
Part 3 Buddhism and the
Physical Sciences
Emptiness and Quantum
Theory William L. Ames
Time and Impermanence
in Middle Way Buddhism and Modern Physics Victor Mansfield
A Cure for Metaphysical
Illusions: Kant Quantum Mechanics and Madhyamaka Michel Bitbol
Emptiness and
Relativity David Ritz Finkelstein
Encounters Between
Buddhist and Quantum Epistemologies Anton Zeilinger
Conclusion: Life As a
Laboratory Piet Hut
Appendix: A History of
the Mind and Life Institute
About the Author
B. Alan Wallace, founder
and director of the Institute for the Interdisciplinary Study of
Consciousness, studied physics as an undergraduate at Amherst College and
received his Ph.D. in religious studies from Stanford University. Wallace
trained for many years as a monk in Buddhist monasteries in India and
Switzerland and has taught Buddhist theory and practice in Europe and
America since 1976. He also served as interpreter for numerous Tibetan
scholars and contemplatives, including the Dalai Lama. His other published
works include Choosing Reality: A Buddhist View of Physics and the Mind,
The Bridge of Quiescence: Experiencing Buddhist Meditation, and The Taboo
of Subjectivity: Toward a New Science of Consciousness.
Buy this book, email to
Columbia University Press
:
cup_book@columbia.edu
or check out the website: http://www.columbia.edu
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Update: 01-09-2003
