The Universe in a Single Atom

With the work on Nothing Becomes and Living in the Moment complete, I’ve turned my focus even deeper on those ideas. During the work on Nothing Becomes, I was introduced to a Buddhist thinker Nagarjuna, who I plan on examining deeply in a future book. However, Nagarjuna’s work is highly demanding, and I want to gain the necessary intellectual and cultural experience before approaching it.

To that end, The Dalai Lama’s 2005 book The Universe in a Single Atom seemed a perfect starting point for that examination. It provided interesting convergence with Nothing Becomes, and gave me both an accessible introduction to several of Nagarjuna’s ideas and a fascinating view inside the mind of one of the great people in our world.

The Universe in a Single Atom offers something rare among experts: true humility. The Dalai Lama approaches modern science not as an authority pronouncing judgment, but as a curious student whose lifetime of contemplative practice gives him a unique perspective on scientific discoveries.

In this book, the Dalai Lama shares moments from his early life to help readers understand why he finds science so fascinating. He then offers commentary on that science throughout the rest of the book: appreciation for points of convergence, observations of places where science and faith seem contradictory, and honest questioning of what each has to offer the other.

Throughout, it’s his curiosity, not authority, that comes through. And yet his considerable experience and wisdom is present, not in the tone of the work but in its warmth and depth. In the early chapters, we’re introduced to formative individuals in the Dalai Lama’s scientific development, such as Karl Popper and David Bohm. The gratitude he expresses for these encounters is palpable. As he catalogs his meetings with modern scientists, he weaves in thought from Buddhist philosophers as well as others he had studied, finding similar distinctions to those made by modern scientists.

In chapter 3 – “Emptiness, Relativity, and Quantum Physics” – the Dalai Lama examines the deep interconnections between certain Buddhist thought on the nature of time and reality and modern physics, especially relativity and quantum mechanics. Through his own research, as well as his personal encounters with scientific minds including Anton Zeilinger and Carl von Weizsäcker (Werner Heisenberg’s student), he examines how scientific advancement is converging with the ideas present in the Buddhist belief of dependent origination. The Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna plays a large role here: his concepts of emptiness, relative time, and phenomena only existing in relation to other phenomena, while being empty of any intrinsic meaning. These are contrasted with converging views in science: the EPR paradox, the double slit experiment, the time-based conclusions of relativity. This isn’t just an interesting parallel; it demonstrates that dependent origination aligns with how reality actually behaves at quantum scales. In the years since this book was published, these convergences have only strengthened.

In chapter 4 – “The Big Bang and the Buddhist Beginningless Universe” – he turns his attention to the eternal question: how did we get here? At the time he was writing the book, the Big Bang was the predominant answer to that question. He examines various cosmological viewpoints from Buddhism, and again Nagarjuna makes a critical appearance, this time on the question of the true origin of the universe. The Buddha himself often refused to answer questions about ultimate origins, and Nagarjuna explains why: “insofar as the questions were framed on the presupposition of the intrinsic reality of things, and not on dependent origination, [the Buddha] responding would have led to a deeper entrenchment in the belief in solid, inherent existence.” The Dalai Lama also finds significant overlap between the Kalachakra theory of space particles and the theory of our universe arising from fluctuations in the quantum vacuum. In his closing to the chapter, he acknowledges that his questions may fall outside the domain of science, saying that he’s “not subject to the professional or ideological constraints of a radically materialistic worldview” and is therefore “quite happy to venture beyond the big bang and speculate about possible states of affairs before it.”

Much of the remainder of the book is spent on sentience and consciousness. He lays out where science may have blind spots related to consciousness – most critically, the tension between the scientific method’s necessary reliance on third-person empiricism while consciousness has essential aspects that can only be accessed from the first-person perspective. A neuroscientist can measure brain activity, but cannot directly access the subjective experience of what it feels like to be conscious. As with the rest of the book, he comes to the science as a curious inquirer, questioning rather than prescriptive.

The Universe in a Single Atom is a wonderful book that shows the reader – and especially the scientific community – opportunities for a different perspective. While science is based on hard data, observation, and experimentation, there is certainly space for looking at the work with fresh eyes. The Dalai Lama provides that perspective humbly, with his typical warmth, humor, and curiosity, and offers a path forward for science, philosophy, and faith to collaborate on understanding our world. For anyone interested in the intersections of contemplative wisdom and empirical science, this book provides a thoughtful and generous bridge between traditions that too often talk past each other.

For me, this book felt like familiar territory. Though over 20 years has passed since its publication, the hints of possible insights are visible throughout, and I have to think that the Dalai Lama finds a certain satisfaction on how scientific advancement has played out since publication. Dependent origination feels more and more a valid naturalistic conclusion, and science is opening doors to conclusions that once felt like the purviews of philosophy and religion alone.