My reading time is a little reduced, but I did recently take the time to finish a book a friend of mine recently lent me, The Universe in a Single Atom by the Dalai Lama. This book was initially interesting to me because it sounded like a spiritual leader attempting to reconcile spirituality (in this case, Buddhist spirituality) with modern physics. As I read it, it actually was a bit better than this, which I’ll go into below.
The big thing for me was that instead of trying to describe a reconciliation, it seemed more like one could grow both spiritually and scientifically, and that the two weren’t necessarily at odds with each other. The difference, to me, is that rather than starting from the assumption that science and spirituality must be at odds and how one can “fix” it, he instead starts from the assumption that scientific and spiritual growth are both valuable to an individual (and to society).
However, he doesn’t sidestep that these things may come into conflict or that one may encounter teachings of one that contradict the other. Instead he addresses this directly, by encouraging critical thinking in both areas of thought. In particular, he discusses where one can think about the limitations of either school of thought and engage in thoughtful debate.
As the book went on, the topic moved away from topics of physics and more toward a discussion of consciousness. I found these discussions much more interesting as the Dalai Lama touched on some harder philosophical questions which are also good scientific questions. Things like defining consciousness, thinking about where consciousness ends and physicality begins, and determining whether something is conscious at all. In these areas, science hasn’t really provided a solid explanation, while spirituality relies significantly on the subjective experience, so in this case, the reconciliation isn’t an overlap, but a gap.
Overall, I found the discussions in the book interesting, if a bit high-level. The Dalai Lama doesn’t really delve deep into any subject, which made for pretty light reading. While I wasn’t ever thinking, “I wish this section had been longer/deeper”, by the end, I didn’t really feel like I got a lot out of the book. If you’re looking to branch out a bit and learn about modern spirituality (especially Buddhist spirituality and philosphy) and science though, I’d recommend this as one place to look.