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59 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Five-star Credentials and Five-star Writing, August 29, 2005
--This fascinating, well-written work deserves another five-star vote. The author explains several interesting problems when using a strictly scientific or philosophical viewpoint for understanding Reality and then shows how the principle of Conditioned Origination, developed in Buddhism, can offer a lucid alternative. Buddhism, a source of the most profound spiritual insight and personal value, can also be a means for understanding our world and a source of deep intellectual joy.
--Several authors (notably Varela and Kalupahana)have discussed the intersection of Buddhism and science but the author's credentials are unique. He has officially translated for the Dalai Lama at conferences on Science and Buddhism, which indicates His Holiness trusts the author.
--The author first addresses how certain limitations of scientific understanding make it an ultimately unreliable instrument for discovering ontological or ethical "truth." These limitations include the reasonableness of multiple hypotheses. Because they are inherent to scientific understanding, they will exist no matter how well we refine our methods, our math, or our measurements (indeed, many scientists, notably Richard Feynman, have acknowledged them). They preclude a unique and provable "Theory of Anything," much less a "Theory of Everything." Traditional philosophical and sociological viewpoints are similarly limited.
--The author then shows how Buddhism has developed an intellectually sound, attractive, and consistent viewpoint, especially in its analysis of Mind. Buddhism, instead of referring to an inherently existing external world or a set of measurements used by our mental or social structure, interprets empirical reality as Relationships between Events (rather than "things" or "ideas."). Because these relationships are causally conditioned and evolving, empirical existence is perpetually verbal and perpetually co-related. Buddhist insights, originally developed to end Suffering, can also help comprehend the world in which we live. They can also transform our lives if we add an ethical dimension -- including compassion, clarity, calmness, and unselfish joy. Buddhism also offers a sound and lucid alternative to the vacuity of modern and post-modern philosophy and social value theory.
--Given the beauty and value of Buddhist insights, at least some Buddhists should maintain a sound intellectual rigor and discipline, to avoid Buddhism's becoming a shallow dharma or some kind of vague New Age metaphysics. To be sure, the mystical experiences are said to be superlative, but Buddhism can defend itself quite well in the realm of the gross material world. The Buddha often gave a philosophically cogent defense of his world-view to inquirers, and any Buddhist seeking this cogent defense would benefit from this book.
--The author concludes Buddhism and science are complementary rather than opposed. They are partners in using ingenuity and freedom and in seeking truth. Buddhism, without a superb empirical insight like science, might have no hands; science, without a mindful set of principles like those proposed by Buddhism, might have no wisdom. Science gives a wonderful window into the empirical world in which we live, and Buddhism gives a wonderful world into the relational world in which we live. We should rejoice in both, and this book helped me do that.
--This book gave several insights extremely useful to my meditation practice, in addition to its value as a commentary on a world-view of Buddhism. I hope this review and this book will be useful to you.
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41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A thoughtful and illuminating book, September 12, 2003
By A Customer
I read this book years ago, and just today was telling a colleague how good it is. I'm writing this review because I felt a responsibility to counter the polemic of Donald Cooley ("A more honest title would be 'Rejecting Reality'"), which was the first review on the page. It appears that Cooley is threatened by some pearls of Buddhist philosophy that Wallace has to share, so much so that he wants to discourage from reading this book and forming your own judgements. But my point isn't to counter Cooley's ad hominem review with one of my own. Rather, I want to stress that Wallace does not present his own philosophy, let alone his own "bizarre" philosophy, the impression Cooley gives. In fact, Wallace provides lucid presentations of philosophical insights gained from disciplined and rigorous dialectical reasoning methods, and even more disciplined and rigorous training of the mind to investigate - directly, not via philosophical analyses or the instrumental extensions of the senses essential to science - fundamental relationships between language, belief, and perception; epistemology and ontology, etc. As Wallace shows, the insights which emerge from this extremely rigorous Buddhist tradition in no way oppose the methods and insights of physics or Western science, though they do challenge some philosophical assumptions that have a grip on many of our minds and brains' operating systems. So sure, check out the books Cooley suggests on 'critical realism,' which do sound quite good (I'll be getting some). But don't let his review persuade you to cheat yourself out of this cogent, rewarding and philosophically illuminating book.
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23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic!, March 19, 2006
As both a physicist and a buddhist, this was the book I've spent years looking for. I must admit that I was turned off by the scary guy on the cover, and my previous readings of assorted new-age fluff. Make no mistake however, this book is rock solid. Dashing to bits our untenable "assumptions" of exactly what reality is (for the concept of reality itself is an idea), we develop a clearer picture of exactly what it means to be human.
With a pertinent selection of quotes and ideas from the western world, Einstein, Poincare, Heisenberg, etc., we can clearly see how we have shaped our world from our worldview into what it has become. In the present age, we are the willing slaves of technology. Just as our cells don't know what we are doing, people spend their lives working to buy toys like cell phones and televisions, and have no idea how they work. Yet, because it is 'scientific', technological advancements are greatly praised and coveted. Meanwhile, intellectual, spiritual, and philosophical advancement is shunned as meaningless.
This book deftly points out taking such a stance reflects complete ignorance, since scientific investigation of the mind or the physical world provides no further understanding of reality, just a better "understanding" of our own ideas. Are we to say we are more advanced than our ancestors because we can relieve ourselves indoors, whereas our ancestors didn't care? Our social advancement, which can be seen as that most critical for our own species, has been left in the dust, in lieu of technological advancement--that all too often poisons us and our planet. How is this the rational course of action?
Although the first 9/10 of this book are right on track, I felt like the final portion, in its attempt to reach a resolution, a reconsciliation of western philosphy with Buddhist philosophy fell short. This may be the point. Wallace seems to want (or as the reader we want and assume that's where he's going) to pull us all out of the pit of buddhist emptiniess dug in the first 19 or so chapters. But, as Wallace points out, neither worldview is right, just 'more or less useful' in various contexts. There is no escape from our essential nature of emptiness and, like Descartes, by the end of the book the reader is left feeling like he can know nothing apart from his own 'existence'. But after having read the book, the reader of course realizes this is just an illusion, a particular spin on consciousness we decide to choose out of infinite number of possible interpretations, interpretations in turn all shaped by our cultures, mores, and environment, a.k.a 'reality'. Choosing Reality is a great book, and who knows how much you will gain by reading it.
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