The Universe in a Single Atom

The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality, His Holiness the Dalai Lama

This book functions in a few ways. It is a bit of a personal memoir and reflection, anchored as it is in so much of the Dalai Lama’s memories of his training as a monk in Tibet, and his interest in the mechanical and scientific as a young boy. It is part an invitation to the Buddhist community to consider more deeply the importance and value of science, and how their own philosophy and teachings can parallel that of how scientists examine the world. And it is part an invitation to science to recognize the importance of religion, with repeated reminders that science cannot say that they can answer all of the whys and that a consideration of ethics is critical in the development of any new technology.

Regarding the science pieces of this book, I do not think it will be revelatory to anyone who has a strong understanding of science. The Dalai Lama, brilliant man though he is, is up front in this book that he is not a scientist or a mathematician and that, until he introduced it into the curriculum, Tibetan Buddhist monasteries had no science instruction whatsoever.

Where the book was interesting to me is in the comparisons to Buddhist philosophy to physics. Early in the book I wasn’t sure this would be as interesting as it is. There are many superficial comparisons of quantum physics to Eastern philosophy after all. But as the book progresses, there are many more discussions not just of the reality of physics but also how different philosophical approaches compare to the scientific method, to possibilities of the multiverse, to possibilities of the big bang, and how the list of questions Buddha refused to answer on the nature of the universe should teach us humility about proclaiming certain things as fact.

Mostly, though, what this book made me realize is the incredibly narrowness of our education in the West, and the limitation of focusing only on our own Western cannon. It is especially amazing not only because there are whole pieces of philosophy that are never examined that are very different from our own, and that we are missing schools of thought that have been around for far longer than most of our own. In the standard education, if one doesn’t take any additional classes, we would say that Philosophy began with a handful of Greeks and a couple of Romans, took a break of about 1600 to 1700 years until the enlightenment, and then went through rationalism, existentialism, nihilism, postmodernism, then end. And yet in India and Tibet there are schools of philosophy stretching back to the 6^th and 7^th centuries. And I’m sure if we look at China and Japan we can find a whole other wealth of thought that can inform our own philosophies today.

I recognize that we have limited time in our schools, but the limits we place on our studies of history, religion, and philosophy are unnecessarily restricted and leave us much impoverished. I do not know how we compare to other regions or countries, if we are better or worse, but my point is not to criticize the United States unnecessarily. It is only to point out that greater exposure to other revolutions and historical struggles and new ways of thinking and seeing the world can only help us in the long run. We would do well to think of how to expand our curricula and our cannon.