The Universe in a Single Atom Quotes

“If scientific analysis were conclusively to demonstrate certain claims in Buddhism to be false, then we must accept the findings of science and abandon those claims.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality

“unless the direction of science is guided by a consciously ethical motivation, especially compassion, its effects may fail to bring benefit. They may indeed cause great harm.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality

“What we do and think in our own lives, then, becomes of extreme importance as it effects everything we're connected to.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality

“If as spiritual practitioners we ignore the discoveries of science, our practice is also impoverished, as this mind-set can lead to fundamentalism.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality

“The theory of emptiness…is the deep recognition that there is a fundamental disparity between the way we perceive the world, including our own existence in it, and the way things actually are.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality

“For modern science, at least from a philosophical point of view, the critical divide seems to be between inanimate matter and the origin of living organisms, while for Buddhism the critical divide is between non-sentient matter and the emergence of sentient beings.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality

“There is more to human existence and to reality itself than current science can ever give us access to.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality

“The view that all aspects of reality can be reduced to matter and its various particles is, to my mind, as much a metaphysical position as the view that an organizing intelligence created and controls reality.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality

“What marks the transition from non-sentient to sentient beings? A model of increasing complexity based on evolution through natural selection is simply a descriptive hypothesis, a kind of euphemism for “mystery,” and not a satisfactory explanation.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality

“The view that all mental processes are necessarily physical processes is a metaphysical assumption, not a scientific fact.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality

“Buddhism and science share a fundamental reluctance to postulate a transcendent being as the origin of all things.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality

“the first moment of consciousness of the new being must be preceded by its substantial cause, which must be a moment of consciousness.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality

“no credible understanding of the natural world or our human existence—what I am going to call in this book a worldview—can ignore the basic insights of theories as key as evolution, relativity, and quantum mechanics.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality

“I wish to emphasize to the millions of my fellow Buddhists worldwide the need to take science seriously and to accept its fundamental discoveries within their worldview.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality

“Can there be a completely different set of laws of physics in a different universe, or do the laws of physics as we understand them hold true in all possible universes? If the answer is that a different set of laws can operate in a different universe system, this would suggest (from a Buddhist perspective) that even the laws of physics are entangled with the karma of the sentient beings that will arise in that universe.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality

“This is a precious gateway into the alleviation of suffering, which I believe to be our principal task on this earth.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality

“The specific areas of science that I have explored most over the years are subatomic physics, cosmology, and biology, including neuroscience and psychology.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality

“Science and technology are powerful tools, but we must decide how best to use them.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality

“Scientists have a special responsibility, a moral responsibility, in ensuring that science serves the interests of humanity in the best possible way.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality

“My confidence in venturing into science lies in my basic belief that as in science so in Buddhism, understanding the nature of reality is pursued by means of critical investigation: if scientific analysis were conclusively to demonstrate certain claims in Buddhism to be false, then we must accept the findings of science and abandon those claims.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality

“To a Mahayana Buddhist exposed to Nagarjuna’s thought, there is an unmistakable resonance between the notion of emptiness and the new physics.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality

“On the whole, I think the Darwinian theory of evolution, at least with the additional insights of modern genetics, gives us a fairly coherent account of the evolution of human life on earth. At the same time, I believe that karma can have a central role in understanding the origination of what Buddhism calls “sentience,” through the media of energy and consciousness.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality

“No scientific description of the neural mechanisms of color discrimination can make one understand what it feels like to perceive, say, the color red.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality

“In the case of food, if the argument is valid that we need some kind of genetic modification to help feed the world’s growing population, then I believe that we cannot simply dismiss this branch of genetic technology. However, if, as suggested by its critics, this argument is merely a front for motives that are primarily commercial—such as producing food that will simply have a longer lasting shelf life, that can be more easily exported from one side of the world to the other, that is more attractive in appearance and more convenient in consumption, or creating grains and cereals engineered not to produce their own seeds so that farmers are forced to depend entirely upon the biotech companies for seeds—then clearly such practices must be seriously questioned. Many”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality

“All truths in science must be demonstrated either through experiment or through mathematical proof. The idea that something must be so because Newton or Einstein said so is simply not scientific.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality

“Anton showed me an instrument that allows one to view an ionized single atom. Try as I might, though, I simply could not see it. Perhaps my karma wasn’t ripe enough to enjoy this spectacle.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality

“La ciencia y la tecnología son instrumentos poderosos, pero debemos decidir cuál es el mejor uso que les podemos dar.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, El universo en un solo átomo: Cómo la unión entre la ciencia y espiritualidad pueden salvar el mundo

“The primary purpose of Buddhist contemplative practice is to alleviate suffering.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality

“The amount of scientific knowledge and the range of technological possibilities are so enormous that the only limitations on what we do may be the results of insufficient imagination.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality

“The higher the level of knowledge and power, the greater must be our sense of moral responsibility.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality