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A Buddhist who became a scientist (Trinh Xuan Thuan) and a scientist who became a Buddhist (Mathieu Ricard) sit down and talk about science and spirituality: the result is a dialogue rich with insight and information on both astrophysics and Buddhism - all in a fairly accessible language. I was very interested in reading this, both because of an interest in physics (though I am a hopeless dilettante) and because a lot of the so-called “big questions” looked at by science often open interesting c...
Oh Augusta baby that was so dense and hard to get through. I ultimately enjoyed it pushing me to think about quantum physics and meditation, amoung many other scientific theorems and philosophical principles. But it is not for the faint of heart.
Absolutely loved this book! While I didn't necessarily agree with everything presented here, it's a great dialogue between two of my current interests - science and Buddhism. An excellent read. This book made me want to be a better person.
This is pretty much what you'd expect. The only unexpected thing for me was the Q/A format.
This is one of the most important books I have ever read in my life. The correlation between quantum physics and Buddhism is astounding and was very eye-opening for me. It really helped me to gain a new perspective on life, and helped me get over some of the disconnect a lot of North Americans can feel every day, simply from how our society is set up. I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone that wants to feel a little more connected with everything.
My kind of philosophical discourse...the intersection of buddhism and science. As told by a buddhist monk and an astrophysicist. Highly recommended. I read a lot of it in the car today on a massive road trip, and I have to admit, it helped put some of my recent life changes into perspective. The part on time actually blew my mind, and re-encouraged me to get my future tattoo.
I have been reading many books recently exploring quantum physics, consciousness, Vedanta and fundamental questions. So-called "Science" and so-called "Spirituality" alignments, complementarity and conflicts.This book has been an important segment of this exploration. Definitely recommended.This is a very fascinating discussion for me because usually, you would see people debating or discussing things but each of them is only exposed to one side of the topic. For example in the case of science a...
The fact that science is ever approaching but never truly reaching reality is exactly what buddhism advocates. The quantum and the lotus reveals this beautifully.
I really enjoyed this read. Lately, the discussions in my Buddhist class have inspired me to brush up on my physics/neurobiology knowledge. When we talk about the mind and Emptiness, there's a lot of assumptions that people throw about the classroom - not realising that these assumptions don't agree with the current findings of modern science. I wanted to clear up my own doubts and confusion. The Quantum and the Lotus really revived my love of science & philosophy. Both have a lot to offer and a...
This one was a doozy.I went into it not knowing a lot about the philosophical underflows of Buddhism, and quite literally nothing concerning quantum physics. Except I watched the Ant-Man movies and its in there, does that count?I’m really curious about them both, and felt compelled to learn about them, due to the fact I’m living in countries where Buddhism is the main religion, and living in a world where quantum physics is becoming more prominent thought about. Also, its such an interesting app...
Buddhism And The Discussion Between Science And ReligionThe nature of the relationship, and the compatibility, between the scientific and the religious outlook continues to fascinate scientists, religious people, and philosophers. Most of the many books on this subject deal with religion in general terms or concentrate on Western theistic religions (primarily Christianity and Judaism.)"The Quantum and the Lotus" is a fascinating discussion of Buddhism and science told through articulate and inte...
Matthieu Ricard is a Buddist monk of the Tibetan tradition who serves as the Dalai Lama's official French translator. Trinh Xuan Thuan is professor of astronomy at the University of Virginia. This book is framed as a conversation between the two about the areas where Buddhism and science converge, as well as where they part ways."The Quantum and the Lotus" is steeped in theory and philosophy, but guides the reader through most of the concepts adroitly via examples that are enumerated as part of
Couldn't finish. This was written as a conversation between a Physicist and a former scientist who rejected western society to become a Buddhist monk. The Physicist, T. Thuan, was a good read. He was clear, explained concepts well and behaved like a professional. The monk, M. Ricard, came across as having an agenda to discredit and/or take credit for scientific work. My view is he used any unknowns (a scientist isn't going to spout unknowns as facts) as the anvil for his hammer.I'm exaggerating
Insightful discussions on science and spirituality.
Of all the books I've read about Buddhism and science (most especially Physics) this may be the most useful and accessible. I was delighted to sit in on the conversation between this monk and physicist to see both their differences and the profound similarities in their understanding of reality.Ricard is a penetrative thinker and he can strongly present the Buddhist view. At times I felt like Thuan, while certainly extremely competent as a physicist, may not be up to Ricard's philosophically ast...
I am certainly no physicist and though familiar with many concepts explored in this fascinating book I did get a bit lost from time to time. The parallels between Buddhist teachings and the understanding now emerging from quantum physics is astonishing. That the nature of perception and reality explored over 2,000 years by Buddhist scholars is now being substantiated experimentally should be cause for the western world to at least begin to call into question the beliefs and assumptions that have...
I gradually stopped reading this book. I think I was halfway through but I can't stand it. As another reviewer wrote below, I too found the physicist clear but the monk pretentious. Sorry Matthieu!
Awkwardly pretentious title aside, the framework for this book is the one of your typical Western philosophy manual, heavy on citations despite the always-fashionable dialogue style and with catchy, though not very informative, chapter titles. Some spare thoughts:- The book is a dialogue between Science and Buddhism, but if they find a common ground (as they do) is because most of the focus is on ontology. The first 3 chapters are centered around good old Leibniz's question “Why is there somethi...
Is there such a thing as reality — a unique, hard, objective, scientific reality? This question is central to the book. Matthieu Ricard trained as a scientist, but left this life to become a Buddhist monk. Trinh Xuan Thuan was brought up in the Buddhist tradition, but went on to become an acclaimed astrophysicist. The entire book is in dialogue form, alternating between the two authors. Their conversations are based on scientific facts and on Buddhist texts and accounts. The level of discourse i...
I was quite eager to read this book, but I found it hard to follow because of the conversational way it was written. I have issues with when the Buddhist Mr. Ricard says things along the lines of "why limit science to things than can be rationalized and proven with mathematics?" That is the definition of science. Anything claiming to be science yet does not meet those criteria is either pseudo science, conjecture, or a lie. It is akin to calling a turkey-burger a hamburger. They might look simil...