Einstein’s Quotes on Buddhism October 26, 2007
Posted by Philip Ryan in Random Notes.trackback
6.23 Confucius said, “When a cornered vessel no longer has any corners, should it be called a cornered vessel? Should it?” – The Analects, quoted in Wing-Tsit Chan’s Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1963
The Confucian school, like many other schools of Chinese philosophy, had a theory about names and actuality, commonly called the “rectification of names.” The Confucians held that the rectification of names was an ethical project, not merely a metaphysical or logical concern, because all things must be fit into their proper scheme in the universe. But you don’t have to be a Confucian to want to set the record straight on Buddhism and the quotes about it attributed to various luminaries and used to promote (or defend?) the dharma.
To wit: There are two similar versions of a prominent Einstein quote on Buddhism floating around the web, reproducing themselves in viral fashion. They are:
Buddhism has the characteristics of what would be expected in a cosmic religion for the future: It transcends a personal God, avoids dogmas and theology; it covers both the natural and the spiritual, and it is based on a religious sense aspiring from the experience of all things, natural and spiritual, as a meaningful unity.
and:
The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend personal God and avoid dogma and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things natural and spiritual as a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description. If there is any religion that could cope with modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism.
These quotes are rarely said to come from a particular book or speech, but we sometimes see this attribution:
Albert Einstein, The Human Side, edited by Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman, Princeton University Press, 1954
Now, this book is subtitled New Glimpses From His Archives and is not by Einstein, so the quote may not actually be his, but someone quoting him or paraphrasing him, as pointed out on the E-Sangha discussion forums (see below for more on that). The two slightly different versions of the quote given above may lend support to that theory. But if so, this should be noted when the quotes are used. A Google Books search of The Human Side yields no hits for the word “Buddhism” but rather one and only one for “Buddha”:
Page 70
What humanity owes to personalities like Buddha, Moses, and Jesus ranks for me higher than all the achievements of the enquiring and constructive mind.
So these quotes seem to be spurious. (Some pages of the book are omitted from Google’s preview, but the entire book seems to be searchable. As I haven’t read the book myself I admit the possibility that these quotes may lurk elsewhere in the work — if so, perhaps some intrepid searcher will at last unearth them.) There is much valuable discussion of this very issue on WikiQuote, the discussion forums of the Buddhist Society of Western Australia, and E-Sangha. (You need to be registered to view the E-Sangha boards.) Also look at Religious Tolerance’s comments on this issue.
If you Google these quotes, you’ll find they’re all over the place on sites devoted to Buddhism, Einstein, and science, from The Buddhist Blog to the Progressive Buddhism blog (which recently had a long back-and-forth about a spurious Buddha quote [make that "possibly spurious" -- see comment below] used by Paul Carus, author of the popular Gospel of Buddha.) A bogus Einsteinism also appeared in Tricycle promotional material several years back before the sagacious Kenneth Kraft set the record straight.
Bogus quotes reproduced on the web are a problem that comes up quite often. I think one of the candidates in this current, already exhausting Presidential election cycle got caught in a trap like this, and the more we rely on the web and neglect primary sources (and actual books), the more this will happen, and it may give us something much more pernicious than this Einstein issue.
So these quotes, interesting and entertaining as they are, should be shelved, or at least have the Einstein attribution removed, until someone can tell us from whence they originally came.
- Philip Ryan, Web Editor
Ah! Good stuff, your post, Phil.
I’m the one that used the perhaps-spurious quote from Carus. I say ‘perhaps,” since we now have a new lead and I might yet find the quote, but even then, coming from a 19th Century translation, it could prove not to be Buddha’s meaning.
Tricycle has some problems in these areas, btw, which I wish it would correct. It wouldn’t take much, you know. Human error, we all can understand all that.
There’s an interview of Red Pine in Trike, years ago, where he says that his father was placed in nomination for the presidency by Eleanor Roosevelt. Didn’t happen. EASY to check that one out. Actually, it’s a revealing moment, since I believe Red Pine’s book, mentioned in the interview, is wholly bogus. In 1988 did Red Pine stand up and encourage students headed off to Beijing to demand liberty from their government? Probably not. Methinks Mr. Pine has a bit of a Zelig problem.
An interview of Reggie Ray, in the pages of Trike, was done by his close colleague and not “by Tricycle.” This should be corrected, even as late as now, I should think.
There are myriad factual errors in an article called “Down Home Dharma.” Tricycle might feel an obligation to correct the record.
Now is a time of ombudsmen at newspapers — The NY Times, The Post, The Sac Bee — to try to get things right. Hooray, that. Tricycle should try that, too. Don’t you think? And should not neglect the past.
Getting the facts right is important for its own sake.
Doing a bit of housecleaning. Checking on my vessel corners.
I looked up the word ’spurious.’ Did you know this about the word …
spurious
1598, “born out of wedlock,” from L. spurius “illegitimate, false” (cf. It. spurio, Sp. espurio ), from spurius (n.) “illegitimate child,” probably from Etruscan spural “public.” Sense of “having an irregular origin, not properly constituted” is from 1601; that of “false, sham” is from 1615.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
An ugly word that ’spurious.’ A lot like the word ‘gypped’ that I used to use, before learning its origins. ‘Spurious’ has spurious origins, I guess you could say — but I wouldn’t. ‘Spurious’ has meretricious origins, maybe, if I better understood what ‘meretricious’ means.
It’s hard to keep the universe in its proper scheme.
[...] may remember our post on bogus Einstein quotes (about Buddhism) floating around the web. I recently came across this book, Einstein and Buddha, The Parallel [...]
“What humanity owes to personalities like Buddha, Moses, and Jesus ranks for me higher than all the achievements of the enquiring and constructive mind”
I don’t think THAT one is spurious
swicked
Dear Phillip,
This puts me in mind of the famous “Toynbee” quote:
” Buddhism has transformed every culture it has entered, and Buddhism has been transformed by its entry into that culture . . . . The coming of Buddhism to the West may well prove to be the most important event of the Twentieth Century.”
Do you know if this attribution is genuine? I have only been able to find authors quoting it from other authors (rather than Toynbee himself); certainly no reference to an actual locus in a published Toynbee work.
Thank you,
There is a book with dialogue between Toynbee and Buddhist lay leader Daisaku Ikeda. Quite brilliant discussion. Maybe it came from that. I think its called Choose Life or something like that.
[...] seems to be the “Buddhism is the religion of the future” meme [...]
Einstien also said the following.
“The most beautiful and profound emotion we can experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is the source of all true science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their primitive forms — this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of true religion.”
and,
“A human being is part of the whole that we call the universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest — a kind of optical illusion of his consciousness. This illusion is a prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for only the few people nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living beings and all of nature.”
and,
“The true value of a human being can be found in the degree to which he has obtained liberation from the self.”
[All three are cited in 'The Enlightened Mind,' ed. Stephen Mitchell; New York: Harper Collins, 1991]
These two quotations from Einstein’s letters are also of value in this discussion:
“Mere unbelief in a personal God is no philosophy at all.” [Letter to V. T. Aaltonen (7 May 1952), Einstein Archive 59-059]
“I am a deeply religious nonbeliever… This is a somewhat new kind of religion.” [Letter to Hans Muehsam (30 March 1954), Einstein Archive 38-434]
Whether Einstein said our next religion will be cosmic or not is interesting, but the content of the quote is relevant. In my own explorations I have found that we have moved from a logic (creationist) to a organic (humanist) to a methodic (mechanist) to a pragmatic (materialist) religion and are indeed on the cusp of a cosmic (globalist) religion. The step beyond cosmic appears to be chronic (eventist) but I do not know what that implies.
Einstein may not have said those particular words, but they are nonetheless interesting comments, regardless of who said them.
Buddhism does have a deep resonance with the modern theories of physics and the other sciences. Buddhist philosophy and scientific philosophy are very compatable. To be a good scientist one must not be attached to ones concepts!
Alas, I was a tiny bit attached to the concept that Einstein had been the source of the quotations here being discussed. But I’m happy to let go of said concepts.
I recommend to all the practice of disolving ALL concepts.
( Swami Beyondananda calls this “mental flossing”. )
Yours in the Dharma,
-Rafael Espericueta
Shimmering Void Zen Center
I have not read any book by Einstein and therefore can’t say whether or not he said the things about buddhism attributed to him. But reading about the two pillars of modern physics namely relativity and quantum mechanics, I am led to believe he might have said those. If you read buddhist tenets like Dependent-origination, Emptiness and Impermanence etc, you will see how close they approximate the conclusions of modern physics.
Those quotes can be found in Einsteins essays on the relationship between science and religion in his book Ideas and Opinions. He gave a series of lectures which have been transcribed, many of which are in that book.
Anonymous: Not according to Google Book Search: http://books.google.com/books?id=ubwEAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22ideas+and+opinions%22+einstein&q=buddhism&pgis=1#search_anchor
Can you be more specific?
[...] Danny Fisher points us to a piece by Buddhologist Donald S. Lopez, Jr. discussing his new book, Buddhism and Science, a cultural history of claims that Buddhism anticipated or is compatible with science, particularly the theories of Einstein. (Buddha and Einstein go way back.) [...]
[...] and Jesus ranks for me higher than all the achievements of the enquiring and constructive mind.” Einstein’s Quotes on Buddhism Tricycle Editors’ Blog sorry! [...]
[...] and Jesus ranks for me higher than all the achievements of the enquiring and constructive mind.” Einstein’s Quotes on Buddhism Tricycle Editors’ Blog sorry! s. Context? Was the context in which he spoke meaning that he valued them as higher [...]
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Awakened observer is a real scientist who will create only in a favour of life and humanity. Once we will bring observing, watching, witnessing of the mind means meditation in science the whole humanity will change. We will reach beyond our egos into pure existence of eternal now. Eternity is now in this present moment of your breath. When you discover it you become independent, free human being that nobody can manipulate. You become a Real Scientist of Life.
[...] [...]