Ricard, Matthieu and Trinh Xuan Thuan : Quantum and the Lotus

A rich and stimulating dialogue between a Buddhist monk who had trained as a molecular biologist and an acclaimed astrophysicist and specialist on how galaxies formed.

When Matthieu Ricard, author of the best-selling Monk and the Philosopher and French translator of the Dalai Lama, met Trinh Xuan Thuan at an academic conference they began discussing the many remarkable connections between the teachings of Buddhism and the findings of recent science. That conversation grew into an astonishing correspondence exploring a series of fascinating questions. Did the universe have a beginning? Or is the universe one in a series of infinite universes with no end or beginning? Is the concept of a beginning of time fundamentally flawed? Is our perception of time an illusion? How does the radical interpretation of reality offered by quantum physics conform to and yet differ from the Buddhist concept of reality? What is consciousness and how did it evolve? Can consciousness exist apart from a brain governing it?

"The Quantum and the Lotus is a mind-expanding, eye-opening exploration of the exciting parallels between cutting edge thinking in physics and Buddhism - a scintillating conversation any thinking person would delight in overhearing." Daniel Goleman.