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The New Physics and Cosmology Dialogues with the Dalai Lama

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Edited by Arthur Zajonc, this slim volume is a series of discussions between five leading physicists and a historian have with the Dalai Lama. It's an attempt to bring together: Quantum theory, Doctrines, Religion - World Religions, Religion, Buddhism - General, and Cosmology.

It is surprising to see how close the relationship might be. Back in 1962, Murray Gell-Mann began to fit the known elemental particles into a series of eight 'families.' Gell-Mann called this beautiful symmetry the 'Eightfold Way' after the Buddha's 'Eightfold path to truth.' This correlation or merger seems to have continued.

In this book, the discussions are far ranging over the nature of matter itself, the experimental evidence, and the nature of the mind and its logic. It is not intended to be a textbook on modern particle physics, but it almost is. Well worth reading.

Although he does say a few things about Buddhist philosophy, the actual role of the Dalai Lama in these discussions turned out to be acting as the perfect "straight man" for a presentation of some of the bizarreness of modern physics: intelligent but not indoctrinated into the belief that everything "scientific" is necessarily correct.

Most of the material is more-or-less orthodox Quantum Mechanics. Some of the more far-out concepts, as Finkelstein admitted, may not last as long as the end of next week.