The Quantum and the LotusBy: Matthieu Ricard, Trinh Xuan Thuan Matthieu Ricard trained as a molecular biologist, working in the lab of a Nobel prizewinning scientist, but when he read some Buddhist philosophy, he became drawn to Buddhism. Eventually he left his life in science to study with Tibetan teachers, and he is now a Buddhist monk and translator for the Dalai Lama, living in the Shechen monastery near Kathmandu in Nepal. Trinh Thuan was born into a Buddhist family in