Mind in the Balance: Meditation in Science, Buddhism, and Christianity

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Columbia University Press, Mar 22, 2009 - Religion - 264 pages

By establishing a dialogue in which the meditative practices of Buddhism and Christianity speak to the theories of modern philosophy and science, B. Alan Wallace reveals the theoretical similarities underlying these disparate disciplines and their unified approach to making sense of the objective world.

Wallace begins by exploring the relationship between Christian and Buddhist meditative practices. He outlines a sequence of meditations the reader can undertake, showing that, though Buddhism and Christianity differ in their belief systems, their methods of cognitive inquiry provide similar insight into the nature and origins of consciousness.

From this convergence Wallace then connects the approaches of contemporary cognitive science, quantum mechanics, and the philosophy of the mind. He links Buddhist and Christian views to the provocative philosophical theories of Hilary Putnam, Charles Taylor, and Bas van Fraassen, and he seamlessly incorporates the work of such physicists as Anton Zeilinger, John Wheeler, and Stephen Hawking. Combining a concrete analysis of conceptions of consciousness with a guide to cultivating mindfulness and profound contemplative practice, Wallace takes the scientific and intellectual mapping of the mind in exciting new directions.

 

Contents

MEDITATION WHERE IT STARTED
1
The Origins of Contemplation
7
The Scientific Externalization of Meditation
15
Scientific Studies of Meditation
27
Attending to the Breath of Life
39
The Union of Stillness and Motion
47
Behold the Light of Consciousness
71
The Ground State of Consciousness
89
The Participatory Worlds of Buddhism
139
The Emptiness of Matter
151
The Participatory Worlds of Philosophy and Science
153
Resting in Timeless Consciousness
167
The Luminous Space of Pristine Awareness
169
Meditation in Action
187
The Universe as a Whole
189
What Shall We Become?
197

Oscillating Awareness
97
Consciousness Without Beginning or End
99
Resting in the Stillness of Awareness
119
Worlds of Skepticism
121
The Emptiness of Mind
137
Notes
201
Bibliography
221
Index
233
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About the author (2009)

B. Alan Wallace spent fourteen years as a Buddhist monk, ordained by H. H. the Dalai Lama. He then earned his undergraduate degree, summa cum laude, in physics and the philosophy of science at Amherst College, and his doctorate in religious studies from Stanford University. His Columbia University Press books are Hidden Dimensions: The Unification of Physics and Consciousness, Contemplative Science: Where Buddhism and Neuroscience Converge, and Buddhism and Science: Breaking New Ground (editor). A prolific writer who has translated numerous Tibetan Buddhist texts, he is the founder and president of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies (http://www.sbinstitute.com).

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