understandable to a Western mind

Most books on Buddhism and meditation presupposes great knowledge.
Either these books employ Tibetan and Sanskrit terms without making them understandable to a Western mind, or he employ without knowing translations show how they differ from the original.
Worse, those who try to translate things for a Western mind are often based on a false understanding of modern scientific culture.

With Matthieu Ricard for the first time, I found an author who clearly explains simplification without reducing what Tibetan Buddhism and meditation.
Ricard is a scientific mind who then chose the path of Tibetan Buddhism without
abandon his interest in scientific culture and Western philosphique.
This book is prefaced by Mattthieu Ricard is the work of someone who has had the opposite approach, Yongey Ningyour Rinponche is a curious Tibetan meditator of Western scientific culture. His book is very readable.

At a time when the singularity advocated by Kurzweil may be rather that of a world uninhabitable for humans and therefore be the end of our species, it is encouraging to see spirits seek to reconcile the advances of science with the knowledge on the profound nature of human consciousness for the good of all and to share their findings.