Buddhism and Science: A Guide for the Perplexed

Buddhism and Science: A Guide for the Perplexed
Beginning in the nineteenth century and continuing to the present day, both Buddhists and admirers of Buddhism have proclaimed the compatibility of Buddhism and science. Their assertions have ranged from modest claims about the efficacy of meditation for mental health to grander declarations that the Buddha himself anticipated the theories of relativity, quantum physics and the big bang more than two millennia ago.

In Buddhism and Science, Donald S. Lopez Jr. is less interested in evaluating the accuracy of such claims than in exploring how and why these two seemingly disparate modes of understanding the inner and outer universe have been so persistently linked. Lopez opens with an account of the rise and fall of Mount Meru, the great peak that stands at the center of the flat earth of Buddhist cosmography—and which was interpreted anew once it proved incompatible with modern geography. From there, he analyzes the way in which Buddhist concepts of spiritual nobility were enlisted to support the notorious science of race in the nineteenth century. Bringing the story to the present, Lopez explores the Dalai Lama’s interest in scientific discoveries, as well as the implications of research on meditation for neuroscience.

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Rational Mysticism: Dispatches from the Border Between Science and Spirituality

Rational Mysticism: Dispatches from the Border Between Science and Spirituality
John Horgan, author of the best-selling The End of Science, chronicles the most advanced research into the mechanics—and meaning—of mystical experiences. How do trances, visions, prayer, satori, and other mystical experiences "work"? What induces and defines them? Is there a scientific explanation for religious mysteries and transcendent meditation?

John Horgan investigates a wide range of fields — chemistry, neuroscience, psychology, anthropology, theology, and more — to narrow the gap between reason and mystical phenomena. As both a seeker and an award-winning journalist, Horgan consulted a wide range of experts, including theologian Huston Smith, spiritual heir to Joseph Campbell; Andrew Newberg, the scientist whose quest for the "God module" was the focus of a Newsweek cover story; Ken Wilber, prominent transpersonal psychologist; Alexander Shulgin, legendary psychedelic drug chemist; and Susan Blackmore, Oxford-educated psychologist, parapsychology debunker, and Zen practitioner. Horgan explores the striking similarities between "mystical technologies" like sensory deprivation, prayer, fasting, trance, dancing, meditation, and drug trips.

He participates in experiments that seek the neurological underpinnings of mystical experiences. And, finally, he recounts his own search for enlightenment — adventurous, poignant, and sometimes surprisingly comic. Horgan"s conclusions resonate with the controversial climax of The End of Science, because, as he argues, the most enlightened mystics and the most enlightened scientists end up in the same place — confronting the imponderable depth of the universe.

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Space and Eternal Life: A Dialogue between Chandra Wickramasinghe & Daisaku Ikeda

Space and Eternal Life: A Dialogue between Chandra Wickramasinghe & Daisaku Ikeda

This is a volume of discussions between an astronomer and a Buddhist scholar. They examine life on Earth from two different starting points - the religious Buddhist and the natural science of the astronomer, largely concerned with physics. The use of natural science is discussed in its exploration of the physical world, its treatment of psychology and states of consciousness, and Buddhist ideas of cosmology, and how these concepts are in tune with each other. They debate reductionism, one of the key factors that distinguishes the practice of scientific investigation against the pacifist, holistic and ecological world view that is inherent in Buddhism and its underlying philosophy. In the last chapter two protagonists discuss key issues of today and how they relate to these tenets: nuclear arms, ecology, AIDS, youth and education, the family, democracy, human rights, suicide, abortion, genetic engineering and organ transplants.

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