Appearance & Reality: Quantum Physics meets Buddhist Philosophy

Objects around us ordinarily appear as if they are solid, singular, and separate from us. However, both science and the Buddhist understanding of reality show us that as we examine things more closely, things exist far more subtly and richly than they appear. This workshop guides us in meditation to analyze the objects around us according to the Buddhist logic of dependent origination, showing us the interdependence of objects’ myriad parts, the causes that bring them together, and our minds that label these collections of parts as singular objects. Though this meditative analysis is more than a thousand years old, it’s more relevant than ever as we gain deeper insights into the flickering probabilities of quantum mechanics that underly the illusion of reality as it appears.

4.00 – 6.00 PM (BST): Interdependence in Physics and Nagarjuna’s Philosophy, a dialogue with Prof. Carlo Rovelli and Geshe Tenzin Namdak moderated by Scott Snibbe

7.00 – 9.00 PM (BST): How Things Exist: Experiential Meditation Workshop with Scott Snibbe of A Skeptic’s Path to Enlightenment