The Contemplative Science Podcast Where Science Meets Silence w/Brother Phap Linh
Jan 12, 2026
Brother Phap Linh, a Buddhist monk from the Plum Village tradition and a student of Thich Nhat Hanh, explores the intersection of Buddhism and science. He discusses his journey from skepticism to monastic life and shares insights on using Buddhist teachings as practical maps for reducing suffering. The conversation delves into the concept of store consciousness, grief, and how grounding in potentiality fosters hope. Emphasizing interdependence, Brother Phap Linh offers practical advice on cultivating mindfulness and returning to sensory experience.
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Teachings As Practice Maps
- Brother Phap Linh frames Buddhist teachings as practice-oriented maps aimed at reducing suffering rather than literal metaphysics.
- He warns against treating scientific materialism as the only valid worldview and calls it dogmatic.
Experience Is Epistemic Ground
- Brother Phap Linh argues experience is primary and matter is an epistemic coat hanger constructed to account for regularities.
- He insists measurable laws are real but arise within first-person experience rather than proving an independent external reality.
Subject And Object Co-Arise
- He rejects the idea that the brain merely reconstructs a fully independent external world into a simulation of reality.
- Instead he describes subject and object as co-arising aspects of experience that cannot be found apart.
