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| Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics | 
 enlarge | Author: Gary Zukav
Publisher: HarperOne
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00 (35.31 RON)
Buy New: $10.95 (25.78 RON)
You Save: $4.05 (9.53 RON) (27%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  114 reviews
Sales Rank: 16721
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 416
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.3 x 1.1
ISBN: 0060959681
Dewey Decimal Number: 181
EAN: 9780060959685
ASIN: 0060959681
Publication Date: August 1, 2001
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 Join the dance February 3, 2007
29 out of 31 found this review helpful
What a pity the two responses to "The Dancing Wu Li Masters" chosen as "spotlight" reviews are both cynical and derogatory. I hope they don't deter others from reading further. Neither reviewer seemed to grasp the fact that Gary Zukav was not writing about physics: He was writing about mental mastery in the *context* of physics, going to great lengths to explain the implications of "Wu Li." The whole book, in fact, is based on five of the many representations of "Wu Li." Zukav even says in the introduction, "This is not a book about physics or eastern philosophies."
All the same, Zukav checked his facts out with "five of the finest physicists in the world" and footnotes their comments where they "punctuate, illustrate, annotate and jab at everything in the text." What more can you want? Those physicists even allowed themselves to be named, surely professional suicide if Zukav is substantially incorrect - as some reviewers maintain. Zukav also warns the reader that knowledge in physics at the time of writing was set to progress rapidly. What was accepted then would soon be made redundant as more information arose.
I feel really sorry for those who get no joy out of this book. I, for one, will go back to it again and again out of sheer delight. Zukav puts it this way: "Most people believe that physicists are explaining the world. Some physicists even believe that, but the Wu Li masters know they are only dancing with it."
All I can say is that, with this book, I danced too.
Delightful easy read to understand the complicated world of physics January 28, 2007
Gary Zukav managed as a lay jouralist to write this very easy to read and sometimes very funny book about science and physics. It is as valualable today as it was when first published 1979. Gary offers the notion that there is nothing that is nonsense, except the closed mind that refuses to see another reality. One of the early pioneers that has helped the 'birth of global consciousness' as we experience it today. An open heart and open mind is a necessary element to make the leap from the old world view to the new quantum world view. A must have in your library.
Estelle Myers
MApp.Sc.Hon.PhD.
A fun way to learn the basics of quantum theory December 19, 2006
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
This book is a very pleasant introduction to quantum theory. It covers not just the concepts, but also something of the history of the people who came up with them. If you're interested in the equations and such, this isn't the book for you. If you're looking for some proof of a relationship btwn physics and eastern philosophy, that's not here either. The Wu Li aspect seems to be the authors interpretation of what he's learned about quantum physics. The rest of us may or may not draw similar conclusions, and I do not feel that the author tries to force any new age mysticism down your throat. In fact, I feel like I've learned a fair amount about modern physics, but do not particularly appreciate any connection with eastern mysticism or new age philosophy.
 Over-reach in the attempt to build a bridge between science and religion November 22, 2006
8 out of 13 found this review helpful
While Zukav's attempt to build a bridge between Eastern Philosophy and Western science are well-intentioned, in my view he doesn't manage to make it convincing. In many places he somewhat underestimates the complexity and metaphysical subtlety of Eastern thought and equates too many of the concepts of modern physical science with those of Eastern philosophy. The writers of the Eastern sacred scriptures or philosophical texts did not have Newton's universe, Descartes rationalist enterprise, or Galileo's experimental physics in mind when they wrote their texts, nor did they imagine our cosmos to be anything like the one today which involves false vacuums, superstrings, dark matter, curving spacetime, and so on.
Science is a seperate enterprise from religion and philosophy and even in Asia, sciences such as mathematics tended to always have a degree of autonomy. Likewise in the West, while some sects such as the Pythagorans mixed mathematics and religious mysticism, science has kept itself from considering the questions philosophers often think about, such as the One or the Many, or if it does, recasts them in empirical terms.
The depth and insights of Eastern philosophy and religion, like those of the West, are beautiful and profound. But they are outside the domain of science and while sometimes truths appeal to experience, the Buddha would not argue enlightenment or nirvana are found in a lab. One abbot of a Buddhist monastary here is a former physicist who studied at Cambridge, and gave up a promising scientific career to become a monk. Certainly if religion was only to be found in science, then all religions would have long since passed away.
The relationship between the two needs to be handled with critical scrutiny and care. Otherwise, mysticism mixes with science and vice versa, and generally, the mixing is an unfruitful one.
Loved it! August 16, 2006
5 out of 12 found this review helpful
Gary Zukav did an incredible job on this book. I bought the tape series as well. I recommend it highly.
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