The Dalai Lama reconciles science and spirituality

The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality is the most recent book by Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama. This isn't a treatise on Buddhism per se, as some of his former publications have been. Instead here he tackles the broader question of how people of religion should view scientific data, and how scientists might broaden their views regarding spirituality and the unmeasureable.

The Dalai Lama is not a prophet, and his words are not scripture or received wisdom. He is, however, a remarkably well-educated and deep-thinking man who has had the opportunity during a remarkable career, of meeting and speaking at length with the leaders of the world's religions and with the world's most eminent scientists. In this book he offers his thoughts on the interface of these two disciplines. Herewith some excerpts with page notations:

"In Buddhism the highest spiritual ideal is to cultivate compassion for all sentient beings and to work for their welfare to the greatest possible extent." (10)

"I have noticed that many people hold an assumption that the scientific view of the world should be the basis for all knowledge and all that is knowable. This is scientific materialism… It assumes that the data being analyzed within an experiment are independent of the preconceptions, perceptions, and experience of the scientist analyzing them.

Underlying this view is the assumption that, in the final analysis, matter, as it can be described by physics and as it is governed by the laws of physics, is all there is… My concern here is not so much to argue against this reductionist position... but to draw attention to a vitally important point: that these ideas do not constitute scientific knowledge; rather they represent a philosophical, in fact a metaphysical, position. The view that all aspects of reality can be reduced to matter and its various particles is, to my mind, as much a metaphysical position as the view that an organizing intelligence created and controls reality." (12)

"Although Buddhism has come to evolve as a religion with a characteristic body of scriptures and rituals, strictly speaking, in Buddhism scriptural authority cannot outweigh an understanding based on reason and experience. In fact the Buddha himself, in a famous statement, undermines the scriptural authority of his own words when he exhorts his followers not to accept the validity of his teachings simply on the basis of reverence to him. … Therefore, when it comes to validating the truth of a claim, Buddhism accords greater authority to experience, with reason second and scripture last." (24)

"The twins paradox, in which if one twin were to fly aboard a spaceship at near the speed of light to a star say twenty light-years away and then return to earth, he will find his twin to be twenty years older than he is, reminds me of the story of how Asanga was taken to Maitreya’s Heavenly Realm, where he received the five scriptures of Maitreya, a significant set of Mahayana texts, all in the time frame of a tea break. But when he returned to earth, fifty years had passed.” (59)

This book quite obviously not be of interest to everyone. I hope the excerpts above will guide you as to whether you would enjoy venturing further into the book (it's short - 200 pgs - and not a difficult read).

Here is the one passage that absolutely blew me away:

My confidence in venturing into science lies in my basic belief that as in science so in Buddhism, understanding the nature of reality is pursued by means of critical investigation: if scientific analysis were conclusively to demonstrate certain claims in Buddhism to be false, then we must accept the findings of science and abandon those claims. (3)

I doubt the leader of any other religion would have enough trust in his own faith to make such an assertion.

About 50 more reviews at Amazon, most of them 5-star.