Salon profiles B. Alan Wallace

In "Buddha on the brain", Salon profiles B. Alan Wallace, the author of "Contemplative Science":

The debate between science and religion typically gets stuck on the thorny question of God's existence. How do you reconcile an all-powerful God with the mechanistic slog of evolution? Can a rationalist do anything but sneer at the Bible's miracles? But what if another religion — a non-theistic one — offered a way out of this impasse? That's the promise that some people hold out for in Buddhism. [...]

B. Alan Wallace may be the American Buddhist most committed to finding connections between Buddhism and science. An ex-Buddhist monk who went on to get a doctorate in religious studies at Stanford, he once studied under the Dalai Lama, and has acted as one of the Tibetan leader's translators. Wallace, now president of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies, has written and edited many books, often challenging the conventions of modern science. [...]

In his new book, "Contemplative Science: Where Buddhism and Neuroscience Converge," Wallace takes on the loaded subject of consciousness. He argues that the long tradition of Buddhist meditation, with its rigorous investigation of the mind, has in effect pioneered a science of consciousness, and that it has much to teach Western scientists. [...]

I have a long list of books on the theme of "Buddhism and Science". Someday I will actually get around to reading them — and when I do, I will post my reviews here.

For now, however, my list has just increased by one.

南無阿彌陀佛