Space and Eternal Life

Astronomer Chandra Wickramasinghe and Buddhist Daisaku Ikeda discuss the nature of human existence from two vastly different perspectives. Their dialogue reveals side-by-side comparisons between the ways science and Buddhism approach cosmology, life after death, the challenges posed by scientific and technological advancement, and the future of the human community.

In his foreword to the book, Sir Fred Hoyle reflects on the historical relationship between science and philosophy in the West. He proposes that a new worldview is needed in the 21st century to embrace the “connection between the Earth and the Universe at large.”

"If science is to recover its lost vitality,” he writes, “new attitudes will be needed. . . . As this dialogue exemplifies, the older philosophies of Asia are set to play an important role in the emerging scientific culture of the twenty-first century."

The two interlocutors are scholars in their own right and share the cultural heritage of Asia. They probe every human activity and universal phenomenon—from the fear of death to nuclear arms, from the Big Bang theory to life beyond Earth. Throughout the dialogue, astronomer and Buddhist converge in their thinking about the relatedness of the “inner cosmos” and the “outer cosmos.”

They conclude on the complementary aims of astronomy and Buddhism toward a broadened and deepened awareness of cosmic existence. That greater awareness can inspire, in the words of Ikeda, “a worldview and a sense of ethics appropriate to taking responsibility for a global community."