As physician Larry Dossey put it, “We are conscious not because of the brain but in spite of it. - Bruce Greyson

As writer Dinty Moore put it: “If there is a God, I should live my life according to principles of kindness, compassion, and awareness, and if there is no God, well then I should live my life according to principles of kindness, compassion, and awareness anyway. How wonderfully simple.

There are many paths up the mountain to reach God and it really doesn’t matter which one you take, because when you get there to that mountaintop it is all the same love, light, peace, harmony, gratitude, wisdom, truth, and victory for everybody. There are no religions in heaven, just ‘jelly.

More important to me, however, was a comment by the Dalai Lama himself about the difference between Western science and Buddhism. Both disciplines, he argued, are based on observation and logical deduction, and both give experience precedence over belief in their quest for the truth. But, he added, Western scientists seem to seek understanding about how the world works in order to change and control the natural world. That is, the goal of most scientists is to gain mastery over our environment. Buddhists, on the other hand, seek understanding about how the world works in order to live more harmoniously with it.