November 19, 2008
Meditating on consciousness
Michael Bond in Nature:
The Dalai Lama is keen for Buddhists and scientists to interact.
In the troubled relationship between science and religion, Buddhism represents something of a singularity, in which the usual rules do not apply. Sharing quests for the big truths about the Universe and the human condition, science and Buddhism seem strangely compatible. At a fundamental level they are not quite aligned, as both these books make clear. But they can talk to each other without the whiff of intellectual or spiritual insult that haunts scientific engagement with other faiths.
The disciplines are compatible for two reasons. First, to a large degree, Buddhism is a study in human development. Unencumbered by a creator deity, it embraces empirical investigation rather than blind faith. Thus it sings from the same hymn-sheet as science. Second, it has in one of its figureheads an energetic champion of science. The current Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibetans, has met regularly with many prominent researchers during the past three decades. He has even written his own book on the interaction between science and Buddhism (The Universe in a Single Atom; Little, Brown; 2006). His motivation is clear from the prologue of that book, which Donald Lopez cites in his latest work Buddhism and Science: for the alleviation of human suffering, we need both science and spirituality.
More here.
Posted by Abbas Raza at 02:45 AM | Permalink
Comments
"Unencumbered by a creator deity, it embraces empirical investigation rather than blind faith"
And also the concept of codependent origination, the observation that really separates Buddhism from the rest, and frees it from the superstition and story based reality of other religions.
Of course, 99.9% of Buddhism is also superstition based, with elites using promises for continuance for control of actions and ideas.
Posted by: Dave Ranning | Nov 19, 2008 12:04:22 PM
My wife and I visited a thousand year old Buddhist temple in southern China a few years ago. In the temple the monks were offering free "
life advice." Not being in need of such advice, I passed, but my wife had a "consultation" with a monk. She was told to go outside and make an offering with candles and then return for a longer consultation, which she did. She was disappointed at how off-base this second consultation was. The temple, on the other hand, made about $30.00 for candles.
Posted by: Jared | Nov 19, 2008 1:04:30 PM
Dave, I always thought the Dalai Lama looked so peaceful. Do you happen to know why he's wielding a dagger in the photo?
Also, do you think the scientists at the Dalai Lama's "get-togethers" are also superstitious? What do you see as the purpose of their meetings? I read one article about a conference, maybe at MIT, where the old guy was surprised by the scientists' findings on meditation lowering -- oh, what was it -- cortisol in the bloodstream, I think. I'll have to look it up. I've also read that Buddhists are keen on the rigors of logic, the power of reason, which conflicts with your statement on superstition.
I wanted to ask you why you seem to have such intense antipathy toward the mention of religion. If it's all superstition or hocus-pocus, why not just dismiss it as that? It seems to me that you must invest it with enormous power and consequence to be so revolted by it. At the same time, you think people should turn to Freud and his disciples to be cleansed of impurities of mind in the form of brain-devouring religious memes. Rather like turning to ecclesiastical authority, the traditional priesthood, to purify the flock from taint of sin or a destiny of damnation. Instead of stigmatizing people as reprobates or some other type of deviant who might spread moral contagion among the devout, you think a kind of psychiatric enlightened caste should cast out erroneous religious memes and stigmatize those who worship as loopy? I'm trying to understand your thinking, not to engage in "debate." After spending tens of thousands of hours on a meditation cushion, you speak from experience I would like to understand.
Posted by: CriticalMassI | Nov 19, 2008 3:40:32 PM
P.S. I should have said what looks like a dagger.
Posted by: CriticalMassI | Nov 19, 2008 6:35:34 PM
I don't know if that is a dagger-it looks like he is in a laboratory and that might be a pipette he is using to inject something into a test tube. It certainly doesn't look like any ceremonial dagger traditionally used in Tibetan buddhism. Such daggers, by the way, are meant to be taken symbolically, their use meant to be a reference, usually, to cutting through spiritual materialism or some kind of wrong perception.
Much of the symbolism one sees in Tibetan buddhism stems from the often illiterate tribe people that existed in the country when buddhism made it's first appearances there, existing with spirit worship of the native Bon beliefs that relied heavily on bloodthirsty deities and heavily visual concepts.
Buddhism incorporated these mythologies as a way to speak to the people. The meanings were transmuted into a psychology of mind that resulted in, say, a particularly wrathful deity waving daggers and wearing bloody necklace as symbolic of the state of mind that brings us back to the present when daydreaming, we slip and cut ourselves with a knife. Such violent looking creatures are actually protectors, as in, "Hey, wake up before you cut your finger off!"
Posted by: Rob Reiter | Nov 19, 2008 9:13:10 PM
Guys, that is definitely, without a doubt, a pipette.
Posted by: April | Nov 19, 2008 11:54:35 PM
No, April. I think he's conducting a kitchen chemistry experiment with a turkey baster.
Posted by: CriticalMassI | Nov 20, 2008 12:01:38 AM
CM-
I'm saying institutional buddhism is superstition and ritual based, while the practice, if one can lessen the cultural baggage, is quite compatible with science and is based on observation and personal examination and experience.
Disclaimer: I worked with the Tibetan Independence Movement, and had a audience with the Dali Lama for the "merit" of my political work.
I also attended 6 days of teaching with the Dali Lama (with a large group, not personal teaching). My background is in a Vipassana Forest Tradition , and I have am not experienced with Tibetan Buddhism.
Posted by: Dave Ranning | Nov 20, 2008 12:17:36 AM
Rob, Thanks for dagger background. Interesting, cutting through spiritual materialism -- and the wake-up! aspect.
April, Thanks for the opportunity to visit the furry snakes. OMG!
Dave, Thanks for answering some of my questions and giving some insight into your Buddhist experience. I hope you'll tell us more about the Forest Tradition and your time in Maui. I'm still on the island kick.
Posted by: CriticalMassI | Nov 20, 2008 11:32:58 PM
Bond should read his Popper. Empirical verification is blind faith.
Posted by: JP | Nov 22, 2008 12:02:41 AM
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