How Did the Universe Begin — and Does It Matter?
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Modern science offers us a startling and highly detailed account of Cosmology—the origin of everything. This same issue—and its significance—have occupied religious thinkers for thousands of years. Their insights are very different from those of science, but can also be beautifully complementary. In this unique Wonder Dialogue, an astrophysicist, a Jewish scholar, and a Buddhist monk bring their own perspectives to these vast, yet highly personal questions. Steven Stahler is an astrophysicist at the University of California, Berkeley. Raised in Maryland, he attended graduate school at Berkeley in physics. He was a professor at MIT before returning to the Bay Area in 1992. His research centers on the problem of star formation, which he has attacked from many different perspectives. He is the author, along with Francesco Palla, of The Formation of Stars (Wiley, 2004), the first comprehensive text in this field. Steve especially enjoys the esthetic aspect of his research, which he tries to convey in his public talks and articles. Not coincidentally, he is also an accomplished artist. Daniel Matt is one of the world's leading authorities on Kabbalah. He has published over ten books, including God and the Big Bang: Discovering Harmony between Science and Spirituality; The Essential Kabbalah (translated into seven languages); and Zohar: Annotated and Explained. Daniel is currently engaged in an immense project of translating and annotating the Zohar, the masterpiece of Kabbalah. So far, he has completed six volumes of The Zohar: Pritzker Edition (Stanford University Press), covering approximately half of the Zohar. For this work, Daniel has been honored with a National Jewish Book Award and a Koret Jewish Book Award. The Koret award called his translation "a monumental contribution to the history of Jewish thought." Dr. Matt has been featured in Time Magazine, and has appeared on National Public Radio and the History Channel. For twenty years, he served as professor at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, and has also taught at Stanford University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Daniel lives in Berkeley, California with his wife Hana. Rev. Heng Sure, a native of Toledo, Ohio, became a Buddhist Bhikshu (monk) at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, Talmage, California, in 1976, after finishing his M.A. in Oriental Languages at the University of California, Berkeley. He ordained in the Mahayana tradition of Chinese Buddhism with his teacher in religion, the late Chan Master Hsuan Hua. In 1977 Heng Sure commenced a "Three Steps, One Bow" pilgrimage for World Peace, traveling up the California coast from South Pasadena to Ukiah. He and his monk companion covered a distance of eight hundred miles in two years and six months, during which time pilgrimage and for three years following Heng Sure observed a vow of complete silence. Rev. Sure currently serves as Director of the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery and holds a Doctorate in Religion from the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California, where he co-teaches a class on Buddhist-Christian Dialogue. He has represented Buddhism on the Global Council of the United Religions Initiative and has served on the Board of Directors of the Interfaith Center at the Presidio. Rev. Heng Sure is fluent in Mandarin Chinese, French and Japanese. He speaks around the world on topics as diverse as human values in the hi-tech world, eating a harmless, plant-based diet, and translating Buddhist music into the West. An accomplished folk musician and storyteller, Rev. Sure interprets traditional insights for contemporary seekers of the path to liberation.
Comments
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If you Want Really Really want to know Science of logic is the ultimate I thank God,that I was born after The Holy Spirit F.W.Hegel !!!be Serious.
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As Dialectical Reason to make it short is essentially the unity of opposite Mind create the Universes and they evolve to Self -Consensus
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What Idiotic"Buddhist monk" as to darke mater and darke energy get The Mythical Theology of Pseudo-Dionysius.!!! As mysticism it is Dialects Hegel the smole not science of Logic the Absolute Mind.
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But Infinitely better to read F.W.Hegel and Know.And in the same way to known yourself and became a crater of infinite universes.St.John of the cross.
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People how are lessening to this man should read F.W.Hegel chapter three The Phenomology of Mind.I mean the first speaker.Good to speak about mysticisms but it is infinitely better to read Hegel and came to know you yourself and became a Crater.
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Walter Russell has an interesting theory to explore...I wont bother going on about it here but just throwing it in for those serious about alternate views beside the Big Bang and the universe had a start ideas and all the quantum nonsense. Space and time is infinite and eternal. Space is constantly changing form through time from our sensory perception.
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talking about the Theravada, Theravada practitioners tend to be more stubborn than Mahayana practicioners. the evidence is right in what they said, they always say their teaching is closest to buddha teaching, their teaching is right, they are attached to words of sutra rather than the idea of the sutras, etc. I don't believe Theravada is closest to Buddha teaching. Why? Buddha was born in the north of India where Sanskrit language is more popular, while Theravada Tripitaka was written in Pali and popular in the south of India, at least there was many more transformation happened than Mahayana like geographic, culture and language. Theravada was practiced in Sri Lanka, which is an island far from india, that is why Theravada buddhism was not destroyed by Hinduism and Islam, that does not say Theravada is closest to buddha teaching
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God - and thereby the Universe - is beyond comprehension. "It is the Beginning and the End, and it is the stage before the Beginning and the stage after the End." From The Twelve Blessings.
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It's a pity, this monk had misled many people away from the path of Buddhism. I wish that you consult this matter with wiser Buddhist monk. The Buddha would not say of that "There is no beginning nor end" If so there is no way to remove your suffering, and if so, what are your practice for? ... The wise would say that all things are come to existence must have a cause.
If you really want to learn this matter in the real Buddhism view, consult this matter with real Buddhist teaching through Theravada Buddhism would be best.
It is so clear that Miss view is still all over.... More of Suttamayapanya, Jintamayapanya, Pawanamayapanya would help. -
Dharma Master Heng Sure, one of the greatest instructors/practitioners of the Buddha Dharma to have ever lived. -Amitofo!
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