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Physics World

Talking physics with the Dalai Lama

Peter Rodgers

Published Aug 1, 1998• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The University of Innsbruck in Austria is one of the world's leading centres for research into the mysteries and subtleties of quantum theory. The work of Anton Zeilinger and colleagues at Innsbruck – such as the experimental demonstration of quantum teleportation – regularly appears in the leading journals, and in magazines such as Physics World. Recently a surprising figure was seen in the labs. Was that really the Dalai Lama – the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism and winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize – checking out a quantum optics experiment?

DOI
10.1088/2058-7058/11/8/16

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Physics World•Jan 1, 1998•1 citation
The University of Innsbruck in Austria is one of the world's leading centres for research into the mysteries and subtleties of quantum theory. The work of Anton Zeilinger and colleagues at Innsbruck – such as the experimental demonstration of quantum teleportation – regularly appears in the leading journals, and in magazines such as Physics World. Recently a surprising figure was seen in the labs. Was that really the Dalai Lama – the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism and winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize – checking out a quantum optics experiment?
In 1997, I attended a Mind and Life dialogue between H. H. the Dalai Lama and prominent American and European physicists in Dharamsala, India. Among them was Professor Anton Zeilinger of the University of Vienna, an expert in quantum mechanics who, the following year, oversaw the fi rst successful quantum teleportation experiment. After describing the sequence of experiments that established quantum mechanics as a fi eld, research in which light was found to be paradoxically both a particle and a wave, Professor Zeilinger asked the Dalai Lama if he had any questions. The Dalai Lama, attentive and absorbed in the narrative explanation, nodded and began an intriguing exchange, which went something like this: “This history and these fi ndings confi rm the Buddhist view that if you analyse any phenomenon in search of its essence, as you scientists have done with light, you will arrive at the realization of its ultimate lack of inherent existence: its emptiness. Yet, I am left wondering how this knowledge, these insights about the nature of light, affected you.”
Abstract What happens when the Dalai Lama meets with leading physicists and a historian? This book is the carefully edited record of the fascinating discussions at a Mind and Life conference in which five leading physicists and a historian (David Finkelstein, George Greenstein, Piet Hut, Arthur Zajonc, Anton Zeilinger, and Tu Weiming) discussed with the Dalai Lama current thought in theoretical quantum physics, in the context of Buddhist philosophy. A contribution to the science-religion interface, and a useful explanation of our basic understanding of quantum reality, couched at a level that intelligent readers without a deep involvement in science can grasp. In the tradition of other popular books on resonances between modern quantum physics and Zen or Buddhist mystical traditions--notably The Dancing Wu Li Masters and The Tao of Physics, this book gives a clear and useful update of the genuine correspondences between these two rather disparate approaches to understanding the nature of reality.
Abstract The morning after our arrival in Dharamsala, India, home to many Tibetans in exile, I made my way by foot along narrow, rutted roads until I came to the Tibetan Children’s Village. Nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas, the orphanage and schools of the Children’s Village make up a small world of some 2,500 refugee children, teachers, and caregivers striving to preserve their ancient culture while simultaneously becoming part of modern civilization. Nearby is the residence and monastery of His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. During the coming week, from October 27 to 31, 1997, five other scientists and I would be conversing with him about our intersecting interests, Buddhist philosophy and modern physics.
The article on quantum teleportation (January p5), which said that this phenomenon had been demonstrated for the first time by a group from the University of Innsbruck, is not quite correct. The first successful quantum teleportation experiment was in fact performed by our group in Rome. Our paper, "Experimental realisation of teleporting an unknown pure quantum state via dual classical and Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen channels" (D Boschi et al. 1998 Phys. Rev. Iett. 80 1121), was submitted in July of last year and published last month. The teleportation paper by the Innsbruck group, led by Anton Zeilinger, was submitted on 16 October of last year and published in December (Bouwmeester et al. 1997 Nature390 575).