Short description:

This book presents a view of Buddhism from the perspective of a theoretical physicist. It helps the reader comprehend deep Buddhist ideas by bringing them closer to a more familiar context. Their structure and main ideas are compared with the structure of scientific theory and the modern understanding of the laws of the Universe.

Long description:

This book presents a view of Buddhism from the perspective of a theoretical physicist. It helps the reader comprehend deep Buddhist ideas by bringing them closer to a more familiar context. Concentrating on teachings of Mahayana school represented by Tibetan Buddhism, their structure and main ideas are compared with the structure of scientific theory and the modern understanding of the laws of the Universe. It particularly explains in simple terms how attempts to construct a theory of quantum gravity have led to discoveries, not yet covered in the popular science literature, which drastically change our ideas about the nature of matter, space and time, and why the resulting picture of the world nicely agrees with the Buddhist doctrine of emptiness. The book also addresses several misinterpretations and misconceptions appearing from time to time in the literature and private discussions.

The volume will be of great interest to general readers as well as scholars and researchers of religion and science and technology studies.

"The parallels and intersections between a number of concepts of new physics and Eastern philosophical-religious teachings have been extensively discussed since the time of Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr, and the reading public is familiar with the review of these intriguing "coincidences" made in recent decades by various authors, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama. In this book, the analysis of such facts is presented in the understanding of a theoretical physicist who has come to the Buddhist worldview, and such a doubly competent approach allows us, the readers, to refresh and deepen our understanding of some important ideas, both in physics and in Buddhism." - A.A. Terentyev, PhD in Historical Sciences, editor-in-chief of Publishing House ?Nartang?

Table of Contents:

I. The religion of knowledge, or the Science of the mind II. Axioms III. The four seals IV. The two truths V. Emptiness VI. Death VII. Analogies VIII. Space and time IX. Synthesis