Embracing Mind: The Common Ground of Science and Spirituality Paperback – December 23, 2008

Wallace (and Hodel) do a very good job in "Embracing Mind." They break the book down into three parts.In Part One, Wallace takes another look at science, and where science may drift off into scientism. Wallace (page 22) tells us where scientific materialism carries hidden metaphysical assumptions - " what did that interpretation boil down to? The five principles examined previously: objectivism, metaphysical realism, the closure principle, universalism, and physical reductionism." Without going into detail what the principles entail, I will merely summerize what Wallace (page 23) concludes: "So strong was their enthusiasm for an all-embracing scientific worldview that they often allowed their hopes, dreams, and beliefs to masquerade as facts. They were especially impressed with Darwin's theory of natural selection. According to their own interpretation, natural selection meant that organisms best suited to win the competition for scare resources survived, passing on their advantageous traits to succeeding generations."Wallace (page 24) writes: "Social philosophers influenced by scientific materialism created social Darwinism, the view that nations and individuals competed for economic supremacy in an arena where only the `favored races' or toughest individuals would succeed. There was no room here for any softness or idealism and, of course, such a philosophy gave at least tacit approval to war, imperialism, and racism. In like manner, Karl Marx reduced all aspects of culture to economics."Writing on modernity, with its scientific progress, Wallace (page 25) writes: "We have been exposed to this philosophy throughout our lives - in the classroom, in the media, by our doctors, and through the decisions of government agencies ruling on health, the environment, and elsewhere. It has been pounded into us consistently for so long that we've come to accept it as common sense. This, we are told, is what `non-believers' accept as truth."Wallace (page 75) writes on the study of mind and brain: "It wasn't until the late nineteenth century that science attempted a formal study of the mind. Given the enormous influence of scientific materialism, it is not surprising that a physical approach - the study of behavior and the brain, the `gray matter' - held sway. By the early twentieth century, nonmaterial qualities attributed to the mind (thoughts, feelings, images, dreams, and so on) were neatly avoided by correlating them to the physical brain, with its internal physiology, and to physical behavior. This, mind was simply redefined as the brain."Wallace (page 82) writes: "By relying on the argument of mere correlations between mental phenomena and brain physiology, cognitive psychologists remind us of astrologers, who rely on correlates between patterns in the heavens and events on earth, rather than astronomers, who have actually explored the skies scientifically with telescopes."Wallace (page 83) writes: "Shouldn't cognitive scientists first be experts on their own consciousness, deeply exploring their subjective nature, before they tackle the complexities of the mind-brain connection? Given the rigors of science, wouldn't such self-knowledge be useful for scientists in general? After all, the scientific mind behind the eyepiece of a physical instrument (and behind the devising of theories) is the fundamental instrument of all science. Must not this ultimate black box be opened and carefully examined if science wants to be certain that its theories and data are something more than complex imaginings or projections?"Wallace (page 84) concludes: "The preceding discussion should make it clear that science's attitude toward the mind has been hampered by historical baggage. According to the dictates of its Christian background, science explored outer, objective phenomena and avoided the inner, subjective realm. Lack of self knowledge hampered scientists by blinding them to subjective distortions that have prejudiced the scientific enterprise."Wallace (page 102-103) writes: "What of those students who do take an interest in science, believing that the practice of science follows the open-minded, exploratory spirit of the scientific method? They study textbooks that either imply or boldly declare that as-yet-unproven theories are definitely true or will certainly be proven true in the future. They are exposed to an attitude toward science that promotes conformity to the foregone conclusions of scientific materialism even as it pretends to favor free inquiry. Those people who see the contradiction are left with the choice of buckling under or striking out on their own. Alternatively, they may become discouraged with science altogether and choose another career."Wallace (page 105) writes: "The materialist approach to medicine has led to the desire for a `quick fix' - just pop a pill and let chemicals take care of it. Drug, tobacco, and alcohol addiction follow the same logic. There may be more to mental and physical illness than just chemicals, but the physical bias of scientific materialism has largely marginalized alternative therapies that show promise."In Part Two, Wallace looks at a more promising science that can study the mind. Wallace (page 142-143) writes: "Through intense and lengthy practice, the attention can be honed into a precision tool that, figuratively speaking, lights up the mind's interior. First one undergoes a sustained, rigorous training in developing stability and vividness of attention. One then uses one's enhanced powers of mental perception to learn to distinguish between the phenomena that are presented to the senses (including the sixth sense of mental perception) and the conceptual superimpositions that one under normal circumstances compulsively projects upon those phenomena."Wallace (page 144) writes: "A guilty conscience is no more conductive to contemplative practice than nervous agitation or drowsiness."Wallace (page 155) writes: "The Middle Way proposes an alternative explanation for the appearance of phenomena of the universe - regularities. Certain things tend to occur together or in a sequence. Whereas causes imply to us some power to affect, the Middle Way defines appearances as mere regularities."Wallace (page 156) writes: "If we conceive of one stage as an absolute, permanent, independent entity, by definition it cannot have any relationship to anything else. By definition, two completely self-contained, independent, permanent, absolute things cannot affect one other. If they did, they wouldn't be self-contained, independent, and so on. But if we back off that position and say that there is simply a `relationship' between them, Middle Way philosophers will point out that we are now viewing these things (such as seed and sprout) as relative, conventional realities. A relationship composed of regularities doesn't require absolute realities or absolute causality, and the relationship itself lacks any such inherent existence independent of the things that are related. Seed and sprout and their causal relationship, though existing conventionally, are now seen as `empty of' absolute existence."In Part Three, Wallace takes up "tools and technologies of a Buddhist science of contemplation."Wallace (page 213) writes: "From a Buddhist standpoint our mental afflictions, or distortions, stand in the way of enlightenment. From an empirical or scientific standpoint, such biases impede the search for truth, especially since the mind is truly the primary scientific instrument. Whether we are trying to use the mind and scientific instruments to probe stars and galaxies or we wish to understand the nature and workings of the mind itself, our mental projections and illusions of knowledge cloud the picture."

The central theme of B. Alan Wallace's work is that the empirical study of consciousness requires the integration of both the third-person perspective (i.e. the scientific method) and the first-person perspective (i.e. introspection or contemplative practice). In this book, he continues that theme.To begin with, Wallace discusses the theological underpinnings of science. He avers that the third-person perspective of science was actually based on the theological notion of a "God's-eye view" or God-like objectivity. This, he believes, is what eventually led to the rise of scientific materialism.Secondly, Wallace discusses in detail the following terms (which are not to be conflated with each other): 'science,' 'scientific materialism,' and 'scientism.'Thirdly, he discusses how the new physics, wrought by the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics, undermine the materialistic worldview. Wallace stresses the point that mental phenomena have no physical property and that consciousness cannot be scientifically measured; and yet, it is commonplace in the scientific community to assume that consciousness is physical.Next, Wallace argues that the only way to fully study consciousness is to employ the first-person perspective (i.e. introspection or contemplative practice) and the second-person perspective (i.e. the experts in contemplative practice training and communicating with those learning the practice). Wallace likens the second-person perspective to peer-review.Then, Wallace discusses the Buddhist contemplative practices of 'shamatha' (meditative quiescence) and 'vipashyana' (insight meditation). And finally, he discusses the Buddhist 'Middle Way' philosophy (Madhyamaka) and the way of the 'Great Perfection'(Dzogchen).What I especially enjoyed in this book was Wallace's discussion of the Buddhist concepts of 'substrate consciousness' (i.e. the individual's mindstream) and primordial consciousness (i.e. Dharmadhatu or Buddha-nature). Also, I found the glossary located in the back appendix to be particularly beneficial.The bottom line is that this is a wonderful read. I highly recommend it to those who are interested in science and mysticism and the common empirical or experiential method that both share.

I initially bought a paper copy of this book in a clearance sale for $10 - just because it sounded reasonably interesting and I do like a good read about science and / or versus the slippery topic of "mind". Well, the point of the book - science and Buddhism - was too much for me - largely lost on me really BUT the first few chapters - a history of scientific materialism was so great that I couldn't wait to get a kindle copy so I can read it all over again in my favourite way - kindle in bed. If you are not a scientist, but for your own knowledge you want a clear clean and tidy understanding of the development of what we know as scientific thinking, then this book is for you. I am sure there are all manner of incorrect interpretations that this book maybe ignores or glosses over, but it gives a really strong framework from which to explore and branch out on your own. It put science in perspective without (I think anyway) in any way demeaning it. But it also ensures the reader understands that the mind, consciousness, whatever we want to call it, is indeed an elephant in the room - unexplained and to a great extent, in the past and probably still, unexplored apart from within a scientific paradigm. Definitely worth getting!

Slow build up and delivers you at the start of a new territory to explore.

Embracing Mind: The common ground between science and spirituality, by B. Alan Wallace with Brian Hodel, Shambhala, Boston, 2008, 272 ff.The role of mind in science and spiritualityBy Howard JonesAlan Wallace has a first degree in physics and the philosophy of science, and a doctorate in religious studies from Stanford. After 14 years of study in Tibet he was ordained as a Buddhist monk by H.H. the Dalai Lama. His co-author, Brian Hodel, is a freelance journalist.The book is an attempt to explain how the materialist scientific approach differs from, and the quantum scientific interpretation of the world resonates with, the world as seen in Buddhist philosophy. The book is laid out in three Parts.In Part One we start with a chapter on the development of science since Copernicus, where the authors point up the limitations of the materialist and reductionist views that are standard approaches in science. In the second chapter they show how this philosophy has been modified by the approach of quantum physics.The next two chapters focus on the role of the mind in these two complementary scientific world-views, making the case that what human consciousness tells us about the world is as valid as the sensory observations of science, interpreted by mind. Even in science, the emotional outlook and expectations of the scientist influence the interpretation of results. Wallace points out that Kant was the first to show how mind is involved in both the assimilation of data and its interpretation. He describes how the only knowledge we have of the existence of entities like quarks or even gravity is by their effects, and by an underlying mathematical scheme that is both elegant and consistent with other theories, that is, through mind.Chapter 5 which closes Part One is a discussion about how scientific materialism is regarded as being the only true science: mind is simply a linguistic term we use to describe the working of the brain. All the rest of the stuff involving consciousness is just pseudo-science. However, the most significant and fundamental instrument we have to investigate the world . . . is mind.So Part Two on Consciousness turns to explore in depth just how mind contributes to our understanding of the world. In the West, the mind typically looks outward: Whether in science or theology, the western mind is always probing what lies beyond. In the East, the core to understanding the world is to understand the self. The authors ask: If we know in detail the electronic and chemical reactions involved in the working of the brain, would this give us any real understanding of the nature of consciousness, or of our selves in relation to the world? They believe it does not, because the mind is essentially and uniquely individual. The mechanistic approach can give us only a partial view of reality.The four chapters of Part Three explain how the world-view of science relates to different varieties of Buddhist meditative practices. While much of this book covers material that can be found elsewhere, the continual links with eastern mysticism that the authors highlight makes this a worthwhile read. There is a glossary of scientific and spiritual terms and an index at the end.Dr Howard A. Jones is the author of The Thoughtful Guide to God (2006) and The Tao of Holism (2008), both published by O Books of Winchester, U.K.; and The World as Spirit published by Fairhill Publishing, Whitland, West Wales, 2011. The Universe in a Single Atom: How Science and Spirituality Can Serve Our WorldThe Inner Chapters: The Classic Taoist Text Eastern Religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, ShintoA Buddhist PsychologyThe Universe in a Single Atom: How Science and Spirituality Can Serve Our WorldThe Inner Chapters: The Classic Taoist TextEastern Religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, ShintoA Buddhist Psychology

A well written and insightful book on the necessity of melding spirituality with science. While most spirituality has its share of irrational dogmas, science (particularly materialism) is built upon false credos. Modern physics is reaching the same point that enlightened spirituality reached hundreds of years ago; "reality" exists solely because man's consciousness has created it and nothing exists outside of our ability to preceive it.