THE UNIVERSE IN A SINGLE ATOM

Although this book was written some years ago, it has lost none of its relevance in relation to the subject matter, even though some areas like contemporary to neuroscience have made considerable progress in the interim. The book begins by explaining the Dalai Lama's initial encounter with science via some artefacts, including a telescope, left by his predecessor, along with two film projectors and three cars. This is against a background of extensive training including memorising sacred texts, and long hours of prayer and meditative contemplation. His main initiative has been dialogues with scientists through his Mind and Life Institute for over 20 years. This book shows him as well-informed in terms of cosmology, physics, biology and neuroscience interfacing with Buddhist philosophy and ethics.

It is interesting to read of some of the formative influences on his thinking, including in physics Carl von Weizsacker and David Bohm, and Sir Karl Popper in terms of his views on Darwinism as a metaphysical research programme and his division of the world into three main categories, with matter, mind and abstract composites or mental formations. In addition, he gleaned from Popper some interesting insights into falsifiability compared with the Buddhist principle of the scope of negation. He notes that while science deals with empirical facts but not with metaphysics and ethics, Buddhism requires critical enquiry into all three areas. He found in Bohm 'one of the greatest intellects and most open minds' he had encountered.

In various places in the book, the Dalai Lama makes particularly clear statements about the limits of science and the dangers of scientism. He observes that 'scientific materialism seems to be a common unexamined presupposition… My concern here is not so much to argue against this reductionist position (although I myself do not share it) 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.' (p. 12) This is exactly the argument of our recent Galileo Report. He notes that one of the principal problems of scientific materialism is its narrowness of vision from a human perspective, as it can impoverish the way in which we see ourselves. Later, he rightly notes that 'the view that all mental processes are necessarily physical processes is a metaphysical assumption, not a scientific fact' (p. 137). He feels it critical to recognise the limits of science and to integrated within the totality of human knowledge, including metaphysics and ethics. Specifically, he recommends that science should be practised with compassion and empathy.

Needless to say, his expositions of Buddhist philosophy are mostly and in relation to both spirituality and science he emphasises the importance of refined attention, advocating some contemplative training also neuroscientists. He does not think that neuroscience has any real explanation of consciousness, and uses the Buddhist notion of a substantial cause to argue that although 'consciousness and matter can and do contribute towards the origination of each other, one can never become a substantial cause of the other' (p. 141) as this would constitute a category error. He feels that a paradigm shift is required in order to integrate the third person perspective with an informed first-person perspective - both approaches and methods are required through a disciplined and trained mind. Moreover, for the Dalai Lama it is not sufficient to understand the nature of consciousness without addressing the question of suffering and how to alleviate it. The next chapter explains some possible ways forward in this respect, drawing on both science and contemplative practice. He feels it crucial to develop a rigorous methodology of first-person empiricism.

In discussing the experience of the clear light state as one potential research avenue, he remarks that his own teacher Ling Rinpoche remained in the clear light of death for 13 days: 'although he was clinically dead and had stopped breathing, he stayed in the meditation posture and his body showed no sign of composition.' (p. 166) As the Dalai Lama observes, it would indeed be interesting to know what is happening at the physiological level in such a case.

Although the last chapter is devoted to a discussion of ethics and the new genetics, the issues are wider than a single field as they concern 'the relationship between our knowledge and power on the one hand and our responsibility on the other' (p. 198). The latter must advance in tandem with the former. He calls for more education on the relationship between science and society and a much higher level of public involvement in debate, especially in relation to new ethical issues raised by scientific advances. This requires a broadly human approach rather than seeking nationalist advantage. Individually, this means checking our own motivation to ensure that it is founded on compassion, taking the widest possible perspective, seeking to be self-aware and unbiased, and responding in the spirit of humility. All this should have as its primary goal the well-being humanity as a whole. The measured tone, deep reflection and well-informed account of both science and Buddhist philosophy make this a classic statement and a timely reminder to integrate the ethical dimension.