Prof B. Alan Wallace

President
Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies

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Biography

Alan Wallace, Ph.D. has been a scholar and practitioner of Buddhism since 1970, and he has taught Buddhist theory and meditation throughout Europe and America since 1976. Having devoted fourteen years to training as a Tibetan Buddhist monk, ordained by H. H. the Dalai Lama, he went on to earn an undergraduate degree in physics and the philosophy of science at Amherst College and a doctorate in religious studies at Stanford University. With this background, he brings unique experience and skills to the challenge of integrating traditional Indo-Tibetan Buddhism with the modern world.
One of the most prolific writers and translators of Tibetan Buddhism in the West, he is currently seeking ways to integrate Buddhist contemplative practices and Western science to advance the study of the mind. His original works include Choosing Reality: A Buddhist View of Physics and the Mind (Snow Lion, 1996), The Taboo of Subjectivity: Toward a New Science of Consciousness (Oxford University Press, 2000), Buddhism with an Attitude: The Tibetan Seven-Point Mind-Training (Snow Lion, 2001), and Genuine Happiness: Meditation as the Path to Fulfillment (John Wiley & Sons 2005). His edited works include Consciousness at the Crossroads: Conversations with the Dalai Lama on Brainscience and Buddhism (Snow Lion, 1999) and Buddhism and Science: Breaking New Ground (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003).
Having taught for four years in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara, he is now the founder and president of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies (www.sbinstitute.com).

Honoraria Titles

Major Prizes

Publications

Meditations of a Buddhist Skeptic

2011

Mind in the Balance

Columbia University Press 2009

Embracing Mind: The Common Ground of Science and Spirituality,

Shambhala Publications 2008
Co-authors: B. Alan Wallace and Brian Hodel,

Contemplative Science: Where Buddhism and Neuroscience Converge,

Columbia University Press 2007

Hidden Dimensions: The Unification of Physics and Consciousness,

columbia University Press 2007

Ed: Buddhism and Science: Breaking New Ground,

Columbia University Press 2003

The Taboo of Subjectivity: Toward a New Science of Consciousness,

Oxford University Press 2000

Choosing Reality: A Buddhist View of Physics and the Mind,

Rev. ed. Snow Lion Publications, 1996. Re-edition of Choosing Reality: A Contemplative View of Physics and the Mind, Shambhala Publications 1989