Embracing Mind: The Common Ground of Science and Spirituality

Description

This book has the potential to be the Tao of Physics or the Dancing Wu Li Masters for the present day. With lively language, Alan Wallace puts the issues surrounding science and spirituality into perspective for the layperson without watering them down. He shows that the present split between these two fields of inquiry can be resolved through following a middle way that moves between an absolutely physical view of the universe and a nebulous spirituality based on wishful thinking.The mind is the place where science and spirituality can meet. Here a renowned scientist who is also a teacher of Buddhist meditation explores the nature of mind from scientific and spiritual perspectives to present a new model that incorporates the truths of contemplative spirituality. 'This book shows clearly and compellingly how Buddhism and other spiritual traditions may help enrich our understanding of the mind and its role in nature, without reducing it merely to a material function or property of the brain' - H. H. the Dalai Lama.

B. Alan Wallace has authored, translated, edited, and contributed to more than forty books on Tibetan Buddhism, science, and culture. With fourteen years as a Buddhist monk, he earned a BA in physics and the philosophy of science and then a PhD in religious studies. After teaching in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, he founded the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies (http-//sbinstitute.com) to explore the integration of scientific approaches and contemplative methods.

"This book shows clearly and compellingly how Buddhism and other spiritual traditions may help enrich our understanding of the mind and its role in nature, without reducing it merely to a material function or property of the brain."-H. H. the Dalai Lama "Any scientist serious about his or her avocation will find this book a thought-provoking and rewarding read. Wallace and Hodel make a very reasonable point: since the mind is a primary instrument that allows scientific theory and understanding to occur, should not a thorough and rigorous study of all aspects of that instrument itself be undertaken in order to better assess scientific theory and understanding? This provocative and beautifully written book is absorbing and well worth reading for anyone interested in delving into the nature of things."-Elizabeth Blackburn, Recipient of the Albert Lasker Award for Medical Research "In these few pages Wallace and Hodel cover the whole spectrum of Buddhism and science-from the moving narrative of Alan's life through the fallacies of scientific materialism, and on to the heart of the ancient Buddhist science of consciousness and how it speaks to the modern sciences of the mind. An invaluable introduction to the story of science and Buddhist contemplative inquiry."-Philip Clayton, Ingraham Professor, Claremont School of Theology, and co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Religion and Science "A tour de force."-Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, Professor of Medicine emeritus, University of Massachusetts Medical School, and author of Coming to Our Senses