The idea of this book is to confront the views of a Buddhist monk (Matthieu Ricard, a biologist by training) and that of a physicist (Trinh Xuan Thuan) on fundamental issues of humanity (consciousness is, it is independent of material, for example). It is a good idea (...) but the idea is not everything. For my part, although scientific training and interested in Buddhism for about two years (without being a specialist I am now quite familiar with some concepts), this book leaves me a little on my hunger. Indeed, the form used is a dialogue, and this very free form makes it very difficult synthesis of information: sometimes you want to ask for more details and be sure that we understand this or that idea. This is not surprising, but the fundamental physics is not easy! In short, the big shortcoming of this book is that it lacks a summary at the end of each chapter, which would highlight the differences between science and Buddhism, as well as the compatibility between the two viewpoints. Make it yourself summary seems particularly difficult (...)