This book is a stirring attack on the hubris and blind spots of the scientific establishment, combined with an engaging presentation of Buddhist wisdom as the antidote. The author spent 14 years as a monk, ordained by the Dalai Lama, before acquiring degrees in physics and religious studies, so he is superbly equipped for his task. We sometimes hear that Buddhism, unlike Christianity, has no problem with the scientific worldview, since it is a radically empirical religion, skeptical about any claims that go beyond what can be experienced. But this science-friendly Buddhism often turns out to be a modernized version, shorn of traditional doctrines.
B. Alan Wallace upholds the full panoply of classical Buddhist teachings, as taught in Tibet, and does not shy away from a frontal conflict with the dogmatic presuppositions of contemporary science.
He shows that materialist dogma keeps scientists from any understanding of human consciousness and freedom, and leads them into absurdities such as the claim that "the precise condition of the universe shortly after the Big Bang necessitated the assassination of John F. Kennedy" (p. 113), or that Stephen Hawking's view that "the brain is essentially a computer and consciousness is like a computer program. It will cease to run when the computer is turned off" (p. 91).