I definitely wanted this to be more in depth about the relationship between science and spirituality than just his interest in science, but I would still rate this 3.5 stars. He obviously is very wise and interested in learning, as well as devout in his faith, and believes that you can invest in both science and spirituality. The line that really resonated with me was fairly early on in the book, when he said "Just as we must avoid dogmatism in science, we must ensure that spirituality is free f...

I've been a Hawking fan for years, but couldn't quite reconcile science with religion till I read this book. This was my introduction to the Dalai Lama, and I felt very comfortable first understanding his background and his curiosity, and, of course, his wisdom, as he explains, explores how empirical science and spirituality can coexist. In fact, one cannot exist without the other. I still have a lot of trouble with the Big Bang Theory, but am able to wrap my head around it a little better when

I was just too confused with the concepts and details in this book. I really gave it an honest effort and read as much as I could. This is probably the first book in 8 years that I have started and not finished. I just didn't have it in me.

This is a brilliant book. The Dalai Lama's theme is that science's emphasis on non-personal, "third-person" study and religion's emphasis on "first person" experience and awareness could be complementary.If you have heard the Dalai Lama speak in his non-native tongue (English), he is a fantastic personality and he smiles a lot, but his communication is limited. It is a pleasure to read his ideas written first and then translated into English. This book reveals a mind that sparkles with wit, inte...

This book might seem a strange reading choice since I am an atheist. During my years of life and travels around the world, I have found that of all the world's multitude of religious beliefs it is generally Buddhism that seems most comfortable with the concept of a coterminous relationship, if not a synergistic symbiosis, with science. This is not meant to imply that Buddhists make better scientists than say a Hindu or a Muslim, rather that the religion itself seems comfortable with the concepts...

I had really, really high hopes for this book, and I feel awful for giving the freaking Dalai Lama a bad book review (of all things), but it was a major disappointment. I couldn’t help but continuously wonder where the narrative was going, the anecdotes and stories weren’t particularly intriguing or compelling, and it was frankly hard to finish. There are other, more interesting books on this and related topics. I hope this assault on the Lama’s writing doesn’t mean that I’m slated to reincarnat...

very few people are able to give me hope about mankind and our future as a species. the dalai lama delivers that and so much more in all his books, but this one stands out to me because of my interest in science, and especially my fascination with (if complete misunderstanding of) the universe and quantum physics, etc. this book contains all those big universe questions that are usually way too scary to ask (where did time begin? how big is space? what existed before the big bang?) but presents

For all my introspection and soul-searching on the subject of how to integrate Western science into my philosophical views of the world, I wish that I had read this book years ago – it would have saved me a lot of hard thinking on my own. Ouch. As it turns out, the Dalai Lama has been on a decades-long campaign to import much of the Western science canon into the training of new Tibetan Buddhist monks. A large part of the book is spent discussing where science fails (reductionism/materialism) an...

The Dalai Lama Discusses ScienceFor many years, I have belonged to a Sutta study group in which we have read many of the key texts of the Pali canon, the earliest of the surviving Buddhist scriptures. We recently read the famous text (Sutta no. 63) in the Mahjima Nikaya, the mid-length discourses, in which the Buddha tried to discourage certain kinds of speculation by offering a simile based upon a poisoned arrow. If someone is struck by such an arrow, the important thing is to have it removed r...

This was a pretty nice exploration of the intersection of Science and Buddhist religion. The Dalai Lama came at this material from a very humble standpoint and makes that his religion could be greatly improved by approaching it from the standpoint of science (e.g. he admits that Buddhist cosmology is hopelessly archaic and should be replaced with current models). Interestingly, he also points to some current research where Buddhist monastic disciplines have made contributions to the science of t...

Basically his ramblings about being interested in science. A good introduction to science/buddhist intertwinnigs.

Maybe my favorite read so far about how science and faith can work together. The Dalai Lama is rapidly becoming one of my favorite religious figures.

A thought-provoking analysis and exposition on why the subjective, first person investigative methodology of spiritual tradition without its fundamentalist trappings and the objective third person investigative methodology of scientific tradition without its reductionist trappings are both indispensable and must go hand-in-hand if we are to fully comprehend reality and genuinely alleviate suffering. The ease and sharpness with which the Dalai Lama draws parallels and acute phenomenological simil...

With this book, the Dalai Lama shows that he is at once the most spiritual of persons, and the most practical. In The Universe In A Single Atom, he shows one possible method for people living in the modern age of nuclear power, quantum physics and genetic engineering to combine the knowlege of science with the wisdom of spirituality. Just as Einstein thought that religion without science is blind and science without religion is lame, the Dalai Lama believes that "spirituality and science are dif...

I really wanted to like this book, but I decided to quit about 50 pages in. I skimmed the rest and decided that I had made the right decision. I found that the majority of this book was a bland and unfocused account of the Dalai Lama's friends who happened to be scientists over the years. It reads more like a biography than an intellectual exploration of the compatability (or lack thereof) between science and religion. I was hoping for a Jared Diamond-like narrative of facts and insights, but I

There is More To Science than Dreamt Of by the Dalai LamaThe Dalai Lama clearly has a long-standing and genuine interest in science. He has access to the best minds in science, and hosts an annual conference on science. To his credit, he is humble about his limited understanding, and does not claim to have divine knowledge about what is true science. While he faithfully records what the scientists tell him in the book, it seems that he does not always understand them.On page 12 he presents a con...

I can't remember the last book I read that so far exceeded my expectations. As soon as I finished the book I flipped right back to the first page and started all over again. I'm about half-way through the second read now, and I still find myself jotting down notes, re-reading passages, and taking long moments to pause and contemplate the profound ideas put forth in this text. I've never read a book by the Dalai Lama before, and to be honest I wasn't expecting him to be all that skilled of a writ...

I find it encouraging that the Dalai Lama is so open to new scientific ideas. Our world is changing at such a rapid rate. The ideas exploding into the field of physics are absolutely revolutionizing the way we view reality. It is interesting to hear some Buddhist commentary on the advancements of our age. I really enjoyed the last bit where he talked about some of the ethical consequences of bio genetic engineering, and was proud that he addressed this issue with such a strong stance for both pl...

As always, the Dalai Lama's synthesis of what appears to be the objective and the subjective, of science and spirituality is thought-provoking, uplifting and leads us to places where only someone with his extraordinary perspective is able to go. Brilliant and highly recommended!

I liked the premise of the book - it's refreshing to see a major spiritual leader challenge religious folks to look at science. He proposes that in order to get the "whole picture" you've got to look at both sides - science and spirituality. But I slogged through the first few chapters, then just skipped right to the conclusion. Some of the sciency parts were over my head (and apparently over his head too). Perhaps I'm just not enough of a "thinker" (or wasn't in a thinking mood when I tried to