Buddhism and Science

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From Buddhist Encyclopedia

Buddhism, being generally neutral on the subject of the supernatural, is open to scientific discoveries. With its focus on the nature of mind and its implications for the concept of reality, Buddhism offers explanations for metaphysical issues within psychology and studies of consciousness. Some popular conceptions of Buddhism connect it to discourse regarding evolution, quantum theory, and cosmology, though most scientists see a separation between the religious and metaphysical statements of Buddhism and the methodology of science<ref>See for example, the petition opposing the speech given by the Dalai Lama to the Society for Neuroscience which cites various disputes between Buddhist beliefs and scientific understanding (e.g. regarding reincarnation)</ref>. Nevertheless, commonalities have been cited between scientific investigation and Buddhist thought. The Dalai Lama in a speech at the meeting of the Society for Neuroscience listed a "suspicion of absolutes" and a reliance on causality and empiricism as common philosophical principles shared between Buddhism and science<ref>"The Neuroscience of Meditation." November 12, 2005 speech given by the Dalai Lama</ref>. As both Buddhism and science are open to criticism from within, there is some disagreement over whether one is being badly influenced by the other.

Contents 1 Parallels 2 Kalama Sutta 3 Famous Scientists on Buddhism 3.1 Buddhism and Cognitive Science 4 Further reading 5 External links 6 See also

Parallels

Attempts to link Buddhist concepts such as nondualism to concepts in physics such as wave-particle duality, while popularised through books like The Tao of Physics and The Dancing Wu Li Masters, have so far proved only suggestive. While there are instances where the pioneers of quantum theory such as Einstein, Heisenberg and Schrodinger mentioned Buddhist and eastern philosophical concepts and many indicated this influence in their thought, although there is no evidence that these philosophies influenced the ideas and development of quantum theory or the mainstream scientific physical descriptions of natural processes. Despite this, a number of popular New Age and mystical gurus and authors have conflated the two in what has been termed by some skeptics as pseudoscience.

Einstein did comment that Buddhism "contains a much stronger element of [the cosmic religious feeling, by which] the religious geniuses of all ages have been distinguished."<ref>Albert Einstein, "Religion and Science". New York Times Magazine, 9 November 1930 reprinted in Ideas and Opinions, ISBN 0-517-00393-7, p. 36.</ref>

Erwin Schroedinger (1887-1961), Austrian theoretical physicist, best known for his discovery of wave mechanics, which won him the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1933, wished to see: "Some blood transfusion from the East to the West" to save Western science from spiritual anemia."

"In all the world," writes Schroedinger in his book, My View of the World (chapter iv), "there is no kind of framework within which we can find consciousness in the plural; this is simply something we construct because of the temporal plurality of individuals, but it is a false construction....The only solution to this conflict insofar as any is available to us at all lies in the ancient wisdom of the Upanishad."

Nicola Tesla and Lord Kelvin both studied Buddhism and eastern philosophy. [1]

David Bohm, who had a series of meetings with the Dalai Lama was impressed with Eastern trancendental practices:

"[M]editation would even bring us out of all [the difficulties] we've been talking about. . . [S]omewhere we've got to leave thought behind, and come to this emptiness of manifest thought altogether. . . In other words, meditation actually transforms the mind. It transforms consciousness." (Pp. 103-104)

In 1974 the Kagyu Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa predicted that "Buddhism will come to the West as psychology". This view was apparently regarded with considerable skepticism at the time, but Buddhist concepts have indeed made most in-roads in the psychological sciences. Some modern scientific theories such as Rogerian psychology, show strong parallels with Buddhist thought. Some of the most interesting work on the relationship between Buddhism and science is being done in the area of comparison between Yogacara theories regarding the store consciousness and modern evolutionary biology, especially DNA. This is because the Yogacara theory of karmic seeds works well in explaining the nature/nurture problem. See the works by William Walron on this topic.

During the 1970s, several experimental studies suggested that Buddhist meditation could produce insights into a wide range of psychological states. Interest in the use of meditation as a means of providing insight into mind-states has recently been revived, following the increased availability of brain-scanning technology such as fMRI and SPECT.

These studies are being enthusiastically encouraged by the present Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso who has long expressed an interest in exploring the connection between Buddhism and western science, and regularly attends the Mind and Life Conferences. However, some scientists are concerned by the popular coverage given to Buddhism's applications in neuroscience, believing that it will open up the field to mysticism.<ref>Christina Reed, "Talking Up Enlightenment." Scientific American, 6 February 2006.</ref>

Kalama Sutta

The Kalama Sutta has been cited as offering a glimpse into the commanlity between Buddhism and science:

"Yes, Kalamas, it is proper that you have doubt, that you have perplexity, for a doubt has arisen in a matter which is doubtful. Now, look you Kalamas, do not be led by reports, or tradition, or hearsay. Be not led by the authority of religious texts, not by mere logic or inference, nor by considering appearances, nor by the delight in speculative opinions, nor by seeming possibilities, nor by the idea: 'this is our teacher'. But O Kalamas, when you know for yourselves that certain things are unwholesome (akusala), and wrong, and bad, then give them up...And when you know for yourselves that certain things are wholesome (kusala) and good, then accept them and follow them."

Famous Scientists on Buddhism

Niels Bohr who developed the presently accepted model of the atom together with Ernest Rutherford says,

"For a parallel to the lesson of atomic theory...[we must turn] to those kinds of epistemological problems with which already thinkers like the Buddha and Lao Tzu have been confronted, when trying to harmonize our position as spectators and actors in the great drama of existence." 1958 Neils Bohr, Atomic Physics and Human Knowledge, (edited by John Wiley and Sons, 1958) p. 20.

The British mathematician, philosopher Alfred North Whitehead (co-author of Principia Mathematica -The Principia is widely considered by specialists in the subject to be one of the most important and seminal works in mathematical logic and philosophy.) declared,

"Buddhism is the most colossal example in the history of applied metaphysics."

His contemporary Bertrand Russell, another Nobel Prize winner, Russell discovered a superior scientific method—one that reconciled the speculative and the rational while investigating the ultimate questions of life:

Buddhism is a combination of both speculative and scientific philosophy. It advocates the scientific method and pursues that to a finality that may be called Rationalistic. In it are to be found answers to such questions of interest as: 'What is mind and matter? Of them, which is of greater importance? Is the universe moving towards a goal? What is man's position? Is there living that is noble?' It takes up where science cannot lead because of the limitations of the latter's instruments. Its conquests are those of the mind.

The American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer made an analogy to Buddhism when describing the Heisenberg uncertainty principle thusly:

If we ask, for instance, whether the position of the electron remains the same, we must say 'no;' if we ask whether the electron's position changes with time, we must say 'no;' if we ask whether the electron is at rest, we must say 'no;' if we ask whether it is in motion, we must say 'no.' The Buddha has given such answers when interrogated as to the conditions of man's self after his death; but they are not familiar answers for the tradition of seventeenth and eighteenth-century science. J. R. Oppenheimer, Science and the Common Understanding, (Oxford University Press, 1954) pp 8-9.

"The general notions about human understanding… which are illustrated by discoveries in atomic physics are not in the nature of things wholly unfamiliar, wholly unheard of or new. Even in our own culture they have a history, and in Buddhist and Hindu thought a more considerable and central place. What we shall find [in modern physics] is an exemplification, an encouragement, and a refinement of old wisdom." The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels Between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism - By Fritjof Capra p. 18

Buddhism and Cognitive Science

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

We find the doctrine of metempsychosis, springing from the earliest and noblest ages of the human race, always spread abroad in the earth as the belief of the great majority of mankind, nay, really as the teachings of all religions with the exception of that of the Jews and the two which have preceded from it: in the most subtle form, however, and coming nearest to the truth, as has already been mentioned, in Buddhism.

It almost seems that, as the oldest languages are the most perfect so also are the oldest religions. If I were to take the results of my philosophy as a yardstick of the truth, I would concede to Buddhism the pre-eminence of all religions of the world.

William James

"This is the psychology everybody will be studying twenty-five years from now."

David Scott, "William James and Buddhism: American Pragmatism and the Orient," Religion 30 (2000): 335. James often drew on Buddhist cosmology when framing perceptual concepts, such as his term "stream of consciousness," which is the literal English translation of the Sanskrit vinnana-sota.

In the landmark text, Varieties of Religious Experience, James also breaks new ground for modern psychology by addressing the functional value of meditation. William James, Varieties of Religious Experience. (1902; New York: Viking Penguin, 1982).

Further reading

• B. Alan Wallace (ed) Buddhism and Science: breaking new ground" (Columbia Univ Press 2003)
• Robin Cooper, The Evolving Mind: Buddhism, Biology and Consciousness, Windhorse (Birmingham UK 1996)
• Daniel Goleman (in collaboration with The Dalai Lama), Destructive Emotions, Bloomsbury (London UK 2003)
• B. Alan Wallace, Choosing Reality: A Buddhist Perspective of Physics and the Mind, Snow Lion (Ithaca, NY 1996)
• Rapgay L, Rinpoche VL, Jessum R, Exploring the nature and functions of the mind: a Tibetan Buddhist meditative perspective, Prog. Brain Res. 2000 vol 122 pp 507-15
• Tenzin Gyatso, The Dalai Lama XIV, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality, Morgan Road Books (2005)

External links

• Full text of 2004 paper examining effects of long-term meditation on brain function
• Full text of 2003 paper examining the effect of mindfulness meditation on brain and immune function
• The Mind and Life Conferences
• Scientists dispute the Dalai Lama's Lecture to the Society of Neuroscience
• Collection of quotes regarding Buddhism and science

See also

• Buddhism and Evolution