Minding Closely by B. Alan Wallace, now in the Tricycle Book Club

The Tricycle Book Club is currently discussing B. Alan Wallace’s new book, Minding Closely: The Four Applications of Mindfulness.  During the month of September, you can purchase Minding Closely, which is published by Snow Lion, at a 20% discount including free shipping here at Tricycle.

In the context of discussing the scientific revolution, Wallace describes his love of science:

The tantalizing question of what exists beyond our anthropocentric perspective has inspired more than four hundred years of scientific investigation: What really occurs when no one is looking—other than God? Not that many scientists aren’t religious, it’s not called a God’s eye view anymore. One philosopher of science calls it a view from nowhere. How does the world appear to nobody who is nowhere? The overriding need for an absolutely objective frame of reference remains central to the spirit of scientific inquiry.

And yet:

The Buddhist view, like the ancient Indian contemplative perspective in which it is rooted, considers the external approach to understanding reality to be of distinctly secondary importance.

The Buddha actually put most scientific questions into the category of “not worth asking.” In his writings, Wallace reconciles these two positions and uses Buddhist ideas to advance the study of an area traditional science has historically neglected—the mind. Discuss Minding Closely here.