Mind and Life: Discussions with the Dalai Lama on the Nature of Reality

As I've mentioned before, I'm subscribed to the Mind & Life Institute mailing list, and through this list I just received an email about a new book:

We are pleased to announce the publication of a new book that captures the rich exchange between scientists and Buddhist contemplatives during a Mind and Life Institute Dialogue with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. When a group of noted scientists including Nobel physicist Steven Chu and biologist Eric Lander discussed the nature of matter, life and everything from particle physics to the evolution and nature of consciousness with the Dalai Lama at his home in Dharamsala, their dialogue was recorded for posterity.

The book that grew out of this meeting of minds is Mind and Life: Discussions with the Dalai Lama on the Nature of Reality by Pier Luigi Luisi and Zara Houshmand. Recently released by Columbia University Press, the book has already received an appreciative review by the journal Nature, which notes that Luisi, "does a fine job of capturing the ebb and flow of debate and the delicate dynamics of cross-cultural interaction ... The book is stimulating whatever your field of expertise, because it is likely to offer a way of looking at the world that you had not tried."

You can read the book review in Nature at: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v456/n7219/full/456170a.html

In case you don't already know, for over a decade, a small group of scientists and philosophers (and practitioners of many faiths, all members of the Mind and Life Institute) have met about once a year to explore the intersection between science and the spirit. This book came out of one of those conferences.

Don't think I will purchase this book, at least not yet, but I would like to learn more about it.

I understand that in addition to interviews with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, included in this book are also interviews with Matthieu Ricard and Richard Gere. I'm not too interested in the interviews with Gere but The Monk & the Philosopher: Father & Son Discuss the Meaning of Life by Jean-Francois Revel & Matthieu Ricard (which I read in 2004) is one of my favorite books. Of the Dalai Lama's books, I've read The Heart of the Buddha’s Path and just a few others and I would love to read more from him.