The Universe in a Single Atom

In 2006, the fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, published The Universe in a Single Atom, a work that attempts to establish a link between Buddhism and the principles of scientific inquiry. This search for metaphorical and conceptual bridges between the Dalai Lama’s religion and his lifelong interest isn’t intended to blend or combine the two. Nevertheless, his theme throughout the book is that the purely objective, third-person emphasis of scientific study, and the intensely self-oriented and first-person focus of religion can, and maybe even should, complement and be in conversation with each other.

The book is split into ten chapters, with some providing personal anecdotes from the Dalai Lama’s own life, and some laying his theory for the way in which science and religion could possibly influence each other.

The first chapter, “Reflection,” underscores the Dalai Lama’s theme even more strongly. According to the Dalai Lama, science and religion aren’t at cross purposes, since both are trying to grapple with the nature of reality. Because of this, religion simply cannot ignore the teachings of science – doing so can cause believers to fall into potentially dangerous extremist or fundamentalist dogma.



Chapter 2, “Encounter with Science” shifts gears to the personal memories of the Dalai Lama, as he recalls his ascension to the title when he was six years old. Becoming Dalai Lama meant hours and hours of intense training and study in Buddhism. Whenever he got a chance, he would wander through the enormous Potala Palace, investigating its many rooms. By chance, he found a collapsible brass telescope that belonged to the thirteenth Dalai Lama. His interest was piqued, and he slowly taught himself to use it to identify lunar landmasses.

Eager to continue exploring his growing interest in sciences and the world outside the palace, the Dalai Lama spent more than forty years using his status to meet privately with top scientists who helped him deepen and broaden his understanding of the material world. He ends the chapter by arguing that the truth of the scientific process is absolute – so much so, that if it could be conclusively proven that Buddhism is false through scientific means, believers should abandon their faith. At the same time, he writes that scientists cannot proceed with their work unless they follow ethical values, such as compassion.

In the third chapter, “Emptiness, Relativity, and Quantum Physics,” the Dalai Lama connects the central Buddhist concept of emptiness to Einstein’s thought experiments about relativity. In the way quantum physics overturn Newton’s absolute laws and introduces uncertainty into the scientific principles of matter behavior, the Dalai Lama sees an echo of the Buddhist concept that reality is not quite what it appears to be.



Chapter 4, “The Big Bang and the Buddhist Beginningless Universe,” finds the Dalai Lama contemplating the theory that the universe is permanently expanding as a result of a long-ago explosion. Although there are some Buddhist conceptions of the universe that he rejects, one teaching posits a cosmos in which many world systems – including our own universe – begin and end. This principle seems to align with the theory of the Big Bang.

The book shifts gears away from finding correlations of scientific thought in Buddhism to finding Buddhist ideas reflected in the world of science. In chapter 5, “Evolution, Karma and the World of Sentience,” the Dalai Lama explains that in Buddhist theology, animals and plants are considered closer to the sentience of humans than they are classified in science. Because of this, Buddhists can focus on the elimination of suffering from any creatures that can experience it.

The difference between sentience and consciousness is explored in the next three chapters. In chapter 6, “Question of Consciousness,” the Dalai Lama finds direct evidence in neuroscience for the Buddhist practice of strengthening the mind through meditation. After all, using MRI scans, we can now see just how much neuroplasticity we possess, how with practice, the brain is capable of surprising feats of self-healing and transformation. Chapter 7, “Towards a Science of Consciousness,” continues this train of thought, arguing that the best way for neuroscience to proceed is to use both the external, third-person view of science in combination with the self-reflective, first-person observations that mindfulness can generate. Finally, chapter 8, “The Spectrum of Consciousness,” concludes this part of the book by comparing the limitations of the human mind and the potential of meditation to push these limits further.



Chapter 9, “Ethics and the New Genetics,” raises some concerns about the manipulations of genetic material that are already possible and will soon be even more prevalent. The Dalai Lama draws the line between necessary medical interventions and aesthetically enhancing meddling.

In the last chapter, “Science, Spirituality, and Humanity,” the Dalai Lama ends the book by once again stressing that accepting the findings of the scientific process doesn’t commit a religious person to a completely materialist interpretation of the world. Instead, these can be approached as two sides of the same reality-questioning coin.

Reactions to this book have been positive, with critics such as Arthur Zajonc praising the “open-minded engagement between intellectual traditions,” and Lisa Liquori concluding that the Dalai Lama “offers a fair, nicely written, and thoughtful treatise.” Some reviewers point out that of all the world’s religions, Buddhism seems uniquely poised to be able to absorb the message that scientific study can and should coexist with belief and that its findings should supersede superstitions and disproven ideas. In his response to the book in Skeptic Magazine, publisher Michael Shermer warns, “I would caution both Christians and Buddhists alike: be careful what you wish for in this endeavor to unify science and religion-you may not like what you find.”