Buddha, Bohr and Einstein

What I needed, according to a dear friend, was some spirituality to uplift my mid life blues, and I was kindly provided with a copy of the book “Universe in an Atom” written by none other than His Holiness, the Dalai Lama himself. As most impartial observers would appreciate, Dalai Lama has become a global symbol of what a spiritually enlightened being looks like. In comparative terms, if the picture of Einstein immediately conjures up the image of super human genius, the picture of the Dalai Lama conjures up the image of a fully enlightened being while still fully human. Though I had been fascinated by him, and actually had the privilege of listening to him in person when he visited Birmingham last year, I never had the privilege of reading a book by him. While I expected what he would be writing – the importance of spirituality and the Buddhist ideals of “Ahimsa” or “non violence”, I was very pleasantly surprised after reading this book on the depth of understanding the Dalai Lama shows in the modern sciences, especially in the fields of quantum mechanics, relativistic cosmology and consciousness research, and provide valuable pointers to places where Buddhist (and ancient Indian) philosophy can meet modern science, and at times even fill the gaps in our understanding of issues on the borders of physics and metaphysics. This is a humble review and summary of the book. For anyone interested in a deeper understanding I strongly recommend to read the full book, which can be finished in 2-3 hours but is full of useful information as well profound insights.

Many religious leaders and scholars have written books claiming to connect their particular faith with modern ideas of science. Almost all of them are written to prove the author’s particular theology has pre-dated or even predicted all or part of modern science. However this book offers something much wiser and more humble; this book is written by a compassionate and well read religious leader who not only respects science but, for the most part, embraces it. "If scientific analysis were conclusively to demonstrate certain claims in Buddhism to be false, then we must accept the findings of science and abandon those claims," he writes. No one who wants to understand the world "can ignore the basic insights of theories as key as evolution, relativity and quantum mechanics."

That is an extraordinary concession compared with other religious leaders who conducts seminars and conferences devoted to “reconciling” science and their particular faith. These “dialogues", some of which I had attended or watched online, implicitly begin with the non negotiable like  “Jesus was born of virgin mother, and after death on the cross He was bodily resurrected into heaven. . ."  then seek scientific justification for what is already assumed to be true.

The story of how someone so open-minded became the Tibetan Buddhist equivalent of the Pope reads like a fairy tale. When the 13th Dalai Lama died in 1933 he was facing northeast, so a spiritual search team was sent in that direction to find his reincarnation. The quest narrowed further when a Lama had a vision pointing to a certain house. The little boy in that house, considered the re incarnation of the previous Dalai Lama, was then taken to the official residence of the Dalai Lama, the Potala Palace. The Buddhist elders soon realized they have indeed selected a very special child, as the little boy showed a wide ranging curiosity and sharp mind, learning not only the ancient traditions and scholarly work, but in his lonely childhood found solace in the very few technological marvels in the ‘otala palace, like a clock and a brass telescope. When he focused it one evening on what Tibetans call "the rabbit on the moon," he saw that it consisted of shadows cast by craters. Although he knew nothing yet about astronomy, he inferred that the moon, like the earth, must be lighted by the sun. He had experienced the thrill of discovery of himself and it appears he continues this tradition of discovery – spiritual and scientific – even today. When I saw him speak at Birmingham, what impressed me most was, despite his age and wise looks, he acted, spoke and most importantly laughed with the innocence of a child. In this book also one can see the insatiable curiosity of a child trying to grasp some of the deepest questions humans have ever faced.

What is remarkable is, despite absolutely no formal training in the fields of mathematics, biology or physics, his childish curiosity would serve him well to have a perfectly adequate understanding of the basic concepts in these fields. In no small part this was helped by his association with some of the greatest scientists and philosophers of the latter half of 20^th century. These scientists and philosophers included American Physicist David Bohm, German Physicist Carl von Weizsäcker (a student of quantum mechanical pioneer Werner Heisenberg) and British philosopher (and a friend of Albert Einstein himself), Sir. Karl Popper. In his humble way he praise these and other scientists and philosophers as “my respected teachers” – he treat them with the same regard he holds for his spiritual masters who taught him while he was a young monk at the Potala palace.

His interest in the intersection of science and spirituality and his willingness to embrace science with an open mind endeared him to spiritually inclined scientists all over the world. He has been conducting the so called "Mind and Life" conferences which have brought physicists, cosmologists, biologists and psychologists to Dharamsala, India, where he now lives in exile from the Chinese occupation of Tibet. He and his guests discuss things like the neuroscientific basis of Buddhist meditation and the similarities between Eastern concepts like the "philosophy of emptiness" and modern field theory. In fact when he visited Birmingham he was the distinguished guest speaker at a seminar organized by UAB Department of Neuroscience on the topic of Neuroplasticity and Healing. 

Dalai Lama is very open when it comes to admitting where scientific reasoning far exceeds the traditional “concrete logic” as used in Buddhist and ancient Indian philosophy. He explains it by describing how Buddhism and science differ in the role of deduction. While in science reason uses highly developed use of profoundly complex mathematical reasoning, Buddhism, like all other classical Indian philosophies, has a very concrete use of logic, whereby reasoning is never divorced from a particular context. In contrast, the mathematical reasoning of science allows a tremendous level of abstraction, so that the validity or invalidity of an argument can be determined purely on the basis of the correctness of an equation. Thus the generalization achievable through mathematics is at a much higher level than is possible in traditional forms of logic.

Dalai Lama explores this further by stating that “given the astounding success of mathematics, it is no wonder some people believe that the laws of mathematics are absolute and that mathematics is the true language of reality, intrinsic to nature herself”.

While accepting the superiority of science in general, Dalai Lama argues against scientists and some non scientists, who appear to believe that all aspects of reality must and will fall within the scope of science, the view also shared by “hard atheists” as well as by Marxist dialectical materialists. He argues against this view, in which science is perceived as having disproved many of the claims of religion, such as the existence of God and the eternal soul. Per him “Such views are effectively philosophical assumptions that reflect their holders’ metaphysical prejudices” which to him sounds very similar to theistic presumptions. He argues that the scientific cannot exhaust all aspects of reality, in particular the nature of human existence, the subjective world of feelings, emotions, thoughts, and the values and spiritual aspirations based on them. One finds it hard to argue with his point that “if we treat this realm of spirit as though it had no constitutive role in our understanding of reality, we lose the richness of our own existence”. Below I have summarized his book in to the following three sub headings. 1) Buddhism and Quantum Mechanics 2) Buddhism and Relativity / Cosmology 3) Buddhism and Life/Consciousness.

Quantum mechanics and the Philosophy of Emptiness:

One of the most important philosophical insights in Buddhism comes from what is known as the "theory of emptiness". Briefly from what I understood, this argues against a “separate self”. Though our every day experience makes us want to think of us (and other sentient beings as well as non sentient matter) appear as discrete particles, the theory of emptiness argues this is just an illusion. Per the theory of emptiness, our individual identity and “separateness” is a persistent but false delusion of the mind. This delusion of separateness leads to our “discrete ego” which in turn leads to many of the ills at individual and societal levels including attachment, loneliness, and development of our numerous prejudices. This theory of emptiness was first systematically expounded by the great Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna (c. second century C.E.); though little is known of his personal life other than that he came from Southern India, he was—after the Buddha himself—the single most important figure for the formulation of Buddhism. Historians credit him with the emergence of the Middle Way school of Mahayana Buddhism, which remains the predominant school among Tibetan Buddhists to this day. 


Dalai Lama argues the ideas of quantum mechanics leads to very similar conclusions. It is fairly well known even among those who are not very scientifically literate that the microscopic world of quantum mechanics challenges our commonsense understanding. Examples abound, including facts like light can be seen as either a particle or a wave (In fact, the man who won the Nobel Prize for showing that the electron is a wave, George Thomson, was the son of the man who won the same prize for showing that the electron is a particle, J. J. Thomson.), and that the uncertainty principle tells us we can never know at the same time what an electron does and where it is, and the quantum notion of superposition all suggest an entirely different way of understanding the world from that of classical physics, in which objects behave in a deterministic and predictable manner. For instance, in the well-known example of Schrodinger's cat, in which a cat is placed inside a box containing a radioactive source that has a 50 percent chance of releasing a deadly toxin, we are forced to accept that, until the lid is opened, this cat is both dead and alive, seemingly defying the law of contradiction. Dalai Lama argues that to a Mahayana Buddhist exposed to Nagarjuna’s thought, there is an unmistakable resonance between the notion of emptiness and the new physics. If on the quantum level, matter is revealed to be less solid and definable than it appears, it is like science is coming closer to the Buddhist contemplative insights of emptiness and interdependence.

Dalai Lama, quoting Nagarjuna, suggests that the theory of emptiness is not a question of the mere conceptual understanding of reality. It has profound psychological and ethical implications. He then recollects a conversation he had with American physicist David Bohm: “From the perspective of modern science, what is wrong with the belief in the independent existence of things?” Bohm responds that “if we examine the various ideologies that tend to divide humanity, such as racism, extreme nationalism, and the Marxist class struggle, one of the key factors of their origin is the tendency to perceive things as inherently divided and disconnected. From this misconception springs the belief that each of these divisions is essentially independent and self-existent”. Bohm’s response, grounded in his work in quantum physics, echoes the ethical concern about harboring such beliefs that had worried Nagarjuna, who wrote nearly two thousand years before. Similarly the “observer effect”, where reality depends on the observer (collapse of the wave function in quantum mechanical language, where a “cat could be alive and dead at the same time as in the Schrödinger’s thought experiment) suggest that we must abolish as a matter of principle the separability of subject and object, the observed and the observer.

Relativity of time in Buddhist philosophy:

Einstein’s theory of relativity showed conclusively that time is “relative” to the speed of the observer. This leads to many of the interesting paradoxes, like the twin’s paradox, time dilation, or the contraction of objects at high velocity. (For those interested to read Einstein's ideas in more depth, click on the link to these blogs What time is it? and How fast does Brahma moves?). Dalai Lama quotes the story from Buddhist mythology of how Asanga was taken to Maitreya’s Heavenly Realm, where he received the five scriptures of Maitreya, a significant set of Mahayana texts, all in the time frame of a few minutes. Thus it appears, according to Buddhist and Ancient Indian principles, the concept of time as relative is not new. Dividing the temporal process into the past, present, and future, the Sautrantikas demonstrated the interdependence of the three and argued for the untenability of any notion of independently real past, present, and future.

EPR Paradox and Buddhism: Named after its creators, Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky, and Nathan Rosen—which was originally formulated to challenge quantum mechanics, the EPR paper is a famous thought experiment in the early days of quantum mechanics, and was suggested to explain why quantum mechanics can’t be true. Briefly the EPR paradox is this: Assume a pair of particles is created and then separates, moving away from each other in opposite directions. One of the properties of this pair of particles is that their spin must be in opposite directions—so that one is measured as “up” and the other will be found to be “down.” According to quantum mechanics, the correlation of measurements (for example, when one is up, then the other is down) must exist even though the individual attributes are not determined until the experimenters measure one of the particles. Such an entangled particle pair could be at great distances from each other, say at either ends of the visible universe; but a “measurement” of one particle could cause a simultaneous change in the paired particle, even if that particle is at a great distance. Einstein’s relativity conclusively showed nothing can travel faster the speed of light. So how is it possible for this paired particles to communicate instantly across vast cosmic distances? Stranger is the fact that this EPR paradox has now been proved experimentally to actually exist in reality. While the authors of the original EPR paper wrote it to discredit quantum mechanics, it appears EPR phenomenon actually happens. Einstein called the EPR phenomenon “spooky action at a distance”. And it appears nature is spooky after all!

Dalai Lama gets in to this argument as follows: He quotes the so called "Vaisheshika atomism", which substituted a plurality of indivisible “atoms” as the basic units of reality for a single underlying reality. So what appear to be events separated by great distances are in fact connected through this underlying substratum of reality, one that is not obvious to us.

Cosmic origins:

It appears there are two main traditions of cosmology in Buddhism. One is the Abhidharma system, and the Mahayana Buddhism, especially the version of Indian Buddhism known as the Nalanda tradition. The primary work on the Abhidharma system of cosmology that made its way into Tibet was Vasubandhu’s Treasury of Higher Knowledge (Abhidharmakosha). Buddhist writing in the fourth century describes cosmic origin in terms of the theory of “dependent origination”. This theory states that all things arise and come to an end in dependence upon causes and conditions.

The second cosmological tradition in both classical Indian philosophy and Buddhism is called “Kalachakra” or the wheel of time. Both the Abhidharma and Kalachakra suggest ours is one among countless world systems. Evolution of a particular world system is understood in terms of four stages 1) Emptiness 2) Formation 3) Abiding and 4) Destruction. Each of these stages is thought to last a tremendously long time. At the heart of this idea is that there are not only multiple world systems but they are in a constant state of coming in to being and passing away. According to Dalai Lama, the idea of a single beginning, a singular big bang, is inaccurate – because such a singular beginning could suggest one of two things 1) Theism which suggest a universe created by an intelligent designer 2) Universe came in to being with no cause at all as hard atheism suggests. Surprisingly (for me), it appears Buddhism, like science, share a fundamental reluctance to postulate an intelligent designer. Buddhism in turn proposes the following origin story; In the beginning was the vast void; out of which (“emptiness”) a new universe if formed; this universe go through immense period of expansion, and is finally destroyed or turn back to pure emptiness. And the cycle continues. What is remarkable is how closely this indeed resembles our best understanding on the structure and life cycles of the cosmos.

A Mahayana text titled “The flower ornament” describes with precision about the large number of “worlds” and the limits of human knowledge. A section titled “incalculable” contains numbers named “the measureless”, the “boundless”, the incomparable” and “square untold” which is “unspeakable” multiplied by itself! Amazing that they were at least thinking of really huge quantities at a time when our everyday experiences did not require use of such large quantities. As any one familiar with modern cosmology must have read, the currently accepted "pre big bang" cosmology mandates vast amount of "parallel universes". And famous Physicist Lawrence Krauss discuss in explicit details in his fascinating book A Universe From Nothing how an entire universe could form literally from "nothing" - where "nothing" is described as unstable quantum form from which, statistically at least, an entire cosmos could arise.

Evolution, life and consciousness in Buddhist traditions:

For a brief overview of the modern ideas on consciousness, please click on the link (Some Random Thoughts on Consciousness) The Buddhist realm consists of three realms of existence – the desire realm, the form realm and the formless realm, each progressively subtler and higher levels of existence. The formless realm transcends physical sensations and lives in a purely mental realm. Human evolution in Buddhist philosophy is somewhat “anti Darwinian” – it suggests humans have “descended” from a higher level of life; from “formless celestial beings”.  This is of course very different from the “upwardly mobile” ideas accepted in science where humans have evolved from apes. Dalia Lama readily accepts the modern Darwinian rules of evolution, though he believes in some of the ancient ideas of Karma and the permeation of energy and consciousness throughout the cosmos, something that cannot be contained in a vessel or within a single body. He argues for additional forces other than “survival of the fittest” should have shaped evolution to explain emotions like love and altruism. At least in this section, His Holiness appear to wobble a bit, as clearly defined Darwinian rules of group selection and even anatomic features (like Mirror neurons) appear to explain these puzzles clearly. Unfortunately even Dalai Lama confuses Darwinian Theory with the much maligned social Darwinism, which has nothing to do with the scientific theory of evolution.

With regards to consciousness and the study of “qualia” or that indescribable “inner feelings”, Dalia Lama gives an excellent over view the Eastern ideas on this most elusive of subjects. He describe that the Tibetan word “Namshe” or Sanskrit “Vijnana” encompasses a much broader range of conscious experiences. Buddhist philosophy describes consciousness as “luminosity” and “cognizance” as the two features of consciousness. As the primary feature of light is to illuminate, so consciousness illuminate the objects. Buddhism suggest three fundamental aspects of the world – 1) Matter consisting of physical objects and energy 2) Mind – subjective experiences 3) Abstract composites or mental formations  like a theorem in Mathematics. Consciousness transcends both the realm of Mind as well as Abstract composites. This is surprisingly similar to the ideas of Karl Popper. 

He asks a very valid question on the nature of consciousness – that while we have known the levels of certain neuro transmitters like serotonin can affect our emotions, could it be also true that the “emotions” came first and changed the level of the neuro transmitter? He briefly also dwells in the controversial topic of quantum mechanics as an explanation of consciousness, including the “non locality” as described above in the EPR paradox and how the observer and observed could be part of a larger quantum system. He talks about the ideas of Buddhist thinker Dharmakirti, who argues that the rational basis of rebirth (that the consciousness comes from a prior instance of cognition, so the consciousness of the new born also must have existed prior to being born). Then he explores how meditative practices could change our consciousness (this is a well researched field with empirical evidence supporting the notion that meditative practice could indeed change our brain’s “wiring” as is shown in several experiments using functional MRI). He quotes the work of Nagarjuna “Praise to the Ultimate Expanse” which argues that essential nature of the mind is pure and the mind can undergo meditative purification from impure thoughts. The modern ideas of neuro plasticity (that new connections between neurons can be formed and brain is highly malleable even in adults) support many of these traditional Buddhist arguments.

In short, this is an unusual book written by an unusual and charismatic Religious leader. Even though the category of "science and spirituality" is a subject matter of many books, this book shines through for it's simplicity, humility and deeply spiritual writing, just as the author Himself. His Holiness, who appears to possess the inquisitiveness of a child while also deeply well read not only about classical Indian and Buddhist philosophy but also well versed in the language of modern science, shows science and spirituality can not only co exist but inform and strengthens each other. A must read for anyone interested in these timeless questions.