NEWS FLASH - My Book Released!

The Dalai Lama has been seen wandering the globe for decades now attempting to raise awareness and funding so that he might reclaim his Tibetan throne. The Dalai Lama is just the name taken by the Tibetan leader.

Today’s Dalai Lama is the 14th and went into exile in 1959. While he remains unsuccessful in uniting forces to reclaim his throne to date, he has still managed to become a revered spiritual leader, offering philosophical advice to individuals seeking it and even authoring books dealing with the spiritual and scientific side of life.

The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality is the Dalai Lama’s acclaimed novel that brings religion and science into focus and illustrates a joining of the two.

The more advanced sciences like quantum physics are studied, the more their makeup actually resembles religion. However, for the Dalai Lama, His Holiness, the keynote speaker and supreme ruler of Tibetan Buddhism, to suggest a convergence in the two is a bit off-putting for most.

That is until the book is read and the author’s vision is made abundantly clear. The novel deals more with the Dalai Lama’s own personal beliefs in science and how he melds his relative and perceived knowledge into his other worldly beliefs. He explains that not only is science is something he believes in and respects, but something he embraces and turns to.

The Dalai Lama embraces science so much, in fact, that he states (paraphrased) if science could prove Buddhism false, then science must be accepted and Buddhism must be abandoned. That’s not the kind of self-realizing and humbling statement that most religious and spiritual leaders would put out there, but the Dalai Lama is a man who has always presented himself in a true and honest manner.

In this extremely thought-provoking book, the author tells the tale of how he became a Tibetan leader and where he drew his inspiration. The actual content of the book is presented in a laid-back manner, easy to read and very thoughtful and warming. The Dalai Lama presents stories with deep meaning that act more as questions in an attempt to open up discussion. Although, the book is very unassuming; it has no clear agenda and the Dalai Lama is not making bold claims—as others have—to be in possession of the secret of life or happiness.

Throughout The Universe in a Single Atom, the Dalai Lama makes it a theme that, at least for himself, the things in the world which can be proven are the things to cling tightly to. This no doubt comes from his experience as the leader of Tibet when it was overthrown. He was faced with an undeniable fact; a fact that his spirituality could not change.

The author does delve deeply into certain beliefs and offers up insights, but the theme of the book deals with believing in yourself and believing what you hold to be truth. He uses his personal story to motivate others. Now in his 70s, the Dalai Lama has been in exile for 50 years. The way he’s handled decisions by weighing both the science and spiritual side may actually help others when they reach critical points in their lives.