We were blessed to celebrate the 87th birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama on July 6th. The story of how he left his birthplace at a young age and fled to the birthplace of the Buddha is a great inspiration to the world Buddhist community. The Dalai Lama is revered by Tibetan Buddhists as a reincarnation of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1989 for his work in the field of peace. Let’s wish him health and prosperity.
I feel that examining the views expressed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama on science and Buddhism is the best way for us living in the 21st century to pay tribute to him. People of the modern world talk about science with great pride. It is no secret that the contemporary supreme achievements of human knowledge are coincidental with science. It can be interesting to compare the scientific views of his holiness the Dalai Lama, who is the most prominent prelate of the world Buddhist Community and the world’s leading scientists (especially Einstein) on religion and Buddhism.
Since the first time Buddha presented his philosophy to the world, he called his teachings to be scientifically true, so everyone is more concerned about it. What position do the teachings of an Indian sage who lived 26 centuries ago hold compared to the dominant thought of the twentieth century? What if the Dalai Lama and someone from Einstein’s generation met face-to-face? Let’s think about it.
As we know, his holiness the Dalai Lama loves the company of scientists. He is the leader of a peaceful community that is interested in mental development, and he has won the hearts of scientists as an enlightened Buddhist nobleman who likes to think together with scientists. It is said that, just after receiving the Nobel Prize, he attended a five-day dialogue conference with ten Western scientists. Its theme was to identify the position of science when it comes to greed, hatred, and delusion, which are known as evil motives in Buddhism, and as the Three Poisons by modern Western thinkers. A synthesis of dialogues held in order to relate the classical wisdom of Buddhism and the results of explorations of modern sciences like biology and psychology are published as, Destructive Emotions: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama, Destructive Emotions: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama.
After that, it appears that the Dalai Lama was able to give Buddhists a new understanding of science by constantly conversing with scientists and engaging in practical knowledge exchange. He saw that there was no conflict between the introspective analysis of the Buddha’s thought which was presented in India twenty-six centuries ago and the scientific method followed by Western thinkers. He pointed out that the Buddha’s approach to the universe and life was extremely scientific. Although many religions consider science as their enemy, the Dalai Lama did not think so.
Modern science frees man from myth and encourages him to think realistically according to cause-and-effect theory. Behind all the highest scientific achievements lies the unwavering desire to understand the world intelligently and rationally. This approach can be a challenge to people that reject the investigation of religious truth and emphasize mandatory devotion. That is why some determinists say that scientific conclusions should be outcasted. Scientists who thought it would not be good to have such a conflict have even tried to prevent. When Einstein said that the allergy of fanatical atheists and the allergy of fanatical theists are identical, he was surely hoping for a compromise. (There are the fanatical atheists whose intolerance is the same as that of the religious fanatics and it springs from the same source ) It is true that there are some rigid Buddhists who say that any conversation with science is unnecessary. They are not fortunate enough to realize that the more they inquire Buddhism scientifically and rationally, the more they approach Buddhism.
Through his thorough studies on Buddhism, the Dalai Lama showed that the philosophical position of the Buddha is different from the authors of other common religions. The Buddha’s position in understanding the way of the world and making others understand the noble truth is prominent. His Holiness the Dalai Lama saw no contradiction between that and the scientific method. Buddha also wanted to understand the reality of the world.
It is mentioned in the “Lokawaboda Sutta” that the Buddha said that understanding the world perceived by human beings is the road to liberation. It is said in the Sabba Sutta that instincts say everything and if one tries to say that there is something beyond it, it is only a waste of words and effort. It is not a strange thing but a birth heritage of all human beings. The meditations that accomplish these tasks have not been criticized but praised by the scientists. Therefore, the Dalai Lama does not think that there is a conflict between Buddhism and science.
A wonderful saying can be found in the book ‘The Universe in a Single Atom’ written by the His Holiness Dalai Lama. “If scientific analysis were conclusively to demonstrate certain claims in Buddhism to be false, then we must accept the findings of science and abandon those claims.” Traditional Buddhists may take this as a radical revolutionary statement. But the deeper meaning here is that His Holiness Dalai Lama is as sure as the sun that science will never come up with an idea that contradicts Buddhism. The Dalai Lama says that he does not agree with those who call science “the killer of religion”, he says that we can benefit a lot from science. He also states that he has great respect for science. However, we must understand that this does not mean that the Dalai Lama accepts science blindly. He has inherited a very critical wisdom from Buddhism. Science has the same moralistic attitude as Buddhism. Not a naive (illogical) belief. Blind faith towards anything is rejected in Buddhism. He knows the limits of scientific truth as well as the stability of Buddhism. Scientific knowledge itself did not prove Nirvana. The science that knows the difference between a happy life and a miserable life, only points out that there is a cure for it. He explains that the true shape of the mind can be seen only through meditation. It is with enlightened attitude that he joins scientists for friendly research in order to scientifically reveal the possible facts about the practical results of meditation to the inquisitive community living in the twenty-first century.
However, there is no lack of scientists who go to against this friendly approach of the Dalai Lama, who was a prominent Buddhist thinker. For example, in year 2005 a group of scientists presented a petition against inviting the Dalai Lama to address the meeting of neuroscientists in Washington. He presented facts on meditation and scientific research on the brain. He firmly believed that Buddhists had much in common with neuroscientists. However, scientists such as Professor Richard Davidson of the University of Wisconsin pointed out that there is no contradiction in the scientific proofs of the changes in the brain caused by Buddhist meditation.
The Dalai Lama’s main hope was to scientifically observe the changes made in the brain through meditation, which was a mental training. He believed that even though some scientists are interested in materialism, those who study a subject like science that loves the truth and never hesitates in exploring the reality, similarly, he believed that there is no need to hesitate in examining the essence of meditation that comes in Buddhism, which was a progressive and an enlightened religion. “There is a set of parallel attitudes between Western scientific thought and Buddhist philosophy,” says Mrs. Sarah Lazar, a professor at Harvard University. She states that she does not think that His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s interest in neuroscience is unnatural from a scientific point of view.
It is true that balancing studies between Buddhism, which presented ideas about the functioning of the human mind for twenty-six centuries, and science, which conducted research for a short period of one and a half centuries, should be done carefully and responsibly. The Dalai Lama has accepted it. Even though, Buddhism and science share the same goal of seeking truth, there is a non-contradictory difference between them. However, Buddhism, which does not accept anything without rationally, states that truth must be coherent (reality) and constitutive (free from contradictions). That is also the position of science. We reject what is logically rejected by science, but something should not be rejected just because it is not found in science. The Buddha has taught us methods that compares well with the scientific method Consciousness, determination, and reincarnation are still remote from science.
© Satipatthana Magazine
