Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10641 in Books
• Published on: 1992-02-20
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

About the Author
Fritjof Capra received his PhD in theoretical physics from the University of Vienna and has done research in high-energy physics at several European and American universities. Capra has written and lectured extensively about the philosophical implications of modern science and is author of 'The Tao of Physics', 'The Turning Point' and 'Uncommon Wisdom'. Currently Director of the Centre for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, California, he lives in Berkeley with his wife and daughter.

Customer Reviews

Scientists are still playing 'catch up' to the mystics.
Quote from book - "I also hope to find among my readers many physicists with an interest in the philosophical aspects of physics, who have not come in contact with the religious philosophies of the East. They will find that Eastern Mysticism provides a consistent and beautiful philosophical framework which can accommodate our most advanced theories of the physical world"

Originally published in 1975 this book was the first of its kind, and its findings still apply some thirty years later.

Fritjof explores eastern mysticism in the from of Hinduism, Buddhism, Chinese thought, Taoism and Zen, with devoting many pages to introduce them and provides the reader with a good insight into these religions.

Fritjof does not inject much humour into his work, but does have quite an interesting take on discoveries in that discoveries, most often come to people in an almost daydreaming state, as did this book come into being. His writing is clear and at times concise, at others, elaboration on the subject is very well included and there is little in this book to get bored with.

What Fritjof does is take excerpts from the different schools of thought and shows how this correlates with scientific findings of the 20th century; he does this with ease and grace. The main thing to be taken away from this book is the idea that some of those things were written 1000's of years ago, and science has been playing `catch up' with the mystics. Definitely worth reading if you like science or not, but more so if you like science.

Mysticism is all about Physics
This is the book which is said to have turned the philosophy of scientific endeavours in academic communities on both sides of the Atlantic on its head. It is easy to see why. The first edition of this book appeared in 1975 - Quantum physics and Relativity theory were beginning to make more sense than earlier and finding favour with more and more young minds round that time. To be jolted with the idea of this "modern" science paralleling Eastern thought and mysticism was bound to have an impact. Coming from the East myself and being fortunate enough to have studied Quantum physics and Relativity at college, I went through this book with an extremely fine toothcomb. And couldn't fault it - except for some easily pardonable pacifist statements. I wouldn't recommend this book if you want to learn more about QP - read Feynman's lectures if you want to do that. But if you want to find out more about what Eastern thought is and how religion and philosophy there tie in with modern science and the consequent "organic" world view - you would want to take a look at this book.

Spot on
In this book Capra manages to encapsulate the true nature of existence. No mean feat. In an inspired act of synthesis, he demonstrates that both modern Western science and traditional Eastern spirituality reveal the same core truth: that the universe is one interconnected whole, a ceaseless flux of living energy of which we are all part.

What is more, he argues his case with clarity, conciseness and a total lack of spiritual mumbo-jumbo.