The Dalai Lama, three physicists, two astrophysicists, and a historian walk into a bar ... Actually they met in Dharamsala, India, in 1997 and spent a week talking soberly about their intersecting interests: Buddhist philosophy and modern physics, disciplines that take different paths in attempting to explain the nature of reality. The result is this meditation, laid out transcript style, on issues of heaven and earth-the timeless metaphysical implications presented by the newest of Western sciences. The editor, who was one of the participants in the dialogues, teaches physics at Amherst College and is a founding member of the Kira Institute, which explores the relationships among science, values, and spirituality.