Who Should Read This Book
If you have ever wondered about "Infinity", this book is for you.
The book introduces you to many of the deepest mystical insights about this field from the ancient texts. It also introduces you to practical procedures for experiencing this level of reality yourself. At the same time, it explores the frontier of rigorous mathematical investigation of the Infinite. Because so many of the qualities, principles, and dynamics of the mathematical infinite and the Infinite subjectively experienced are the same, the book proposes that really, these two "types" of infinite are one and the same. The book invites you to test this hypothesis for yourself.
Readers who enjoyed popular physics and mathematics books, such as Fritjof Capra's The Tao of Physics and Rudy Rucker's Infinity and the Mind will appreciate the discussion of the rich connections between the views of the Infinite found in the ancient texts and the modern mathematical treatment of infinity.
Readers who have enjoyed "spiritual adventures" involving a wise teacher and an eager aspirant, such as Dan Millman's Way of the Peaceful Warrior will be drawn to the teacher/student style of developing the material, as Master Wu draws his student Paul to deeper understandings and realizations.
Readers who like working with mathematical ideas and solving problems will appreciate that the book provides numerous exercises at the end of each chapter dealing with the variety of topics introduced in the main text, ranging from easy to medium to difficult. Answers to odd-numbered problems are provided at the end of the book (and a full booklet of answers is available through the publisher). Approached primarily from the mathematical point of view, the book can serve as a do-it-yourself intermediate-level text on Set Theory.
Question: How much do you have to like math --- and how good at math do you need to be --- to benefit from this book?
Answer: I taught the core of the material from the book to two different freshman classes at Boise State University in 2001-2002 in the guise of a course on "Mathematical Ideas". Usually, this course is provided as the "liberal arts" alternative to the science-track math courses, and is therefore intended to be much easier for students who are not mathematically inclined. When I taught the course, these students learned about the Infinite, presented in the style of this book, and the response was outstanding. Students had to work at it sometimes, but they loved it. The bottom line is that if you don't have much background or fondness for math, you will need to be patient with some of the discussions and skip some of the more technical moments, but you should find the majority of the material accessible and rewarding.