Buddhism has entered into the science and religion dialogue. The case is made

that the philosophic and psychological teachings within Buddhism share

commonalities with modern scientific and philosophic thought. For example,

Buddhism encourages the impartial investigation of Nature — the principal

object of study being oneself. 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. In 1993 a model

deduced from Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development was published

arguing that Buddhism is a fourth mode of thought beyond magic, science and

religion. Buddhism has been described by some as

rational and non-dogmatic, and there is evidence that this has been the case

from the earliest period of its history, though some have suggested this aspect

is given greater emphasis in modern times and is in part a reinterpretation.

Not all forms of Buddhism eschew dogmatism, remain neutral on the subject

of the supernatural, or are open to scientific discoveries. Buddhism is a

varied tradition and aspects include fundamentalism, devotional traditions,

supplication to local spirits, and various superstitions. Nevertheless,

certain commonalities have been cited between scientific investigation and

Buddhist thought. Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th 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. Buddhism and the scientific method

More consistent with the scientific method than traditional, faith-based

religion, the Kalama Sutta insists on a proper assessment of evidence, rather

than a reliance on faith, hearsay or speculation:

"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, and wrong, and bad,

then give them up...And when you know for yourselves that certain things are

wholesome and good, then accept them and follow them."

The general tenor of the sutta is also similar to "Nullius in verba" — often

translated as "Take no-one's word for it", the motto of the Royal Society.

Buddhism and psychology 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 such brain-scanning technologies as fMRI

and SPECT. Such studies are enthusiastically

encouraged by the present Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, who has long expressed an

interest in exploring the connection between Buddhism and science and

regularly attends the Mind and Life Institute Conferences.

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. William 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 Pali

vinnana-sota. The "stream of consciousness" is given various names

throughout the many languages of Buddhadharma discourse but in English is

generally known as "Mindstream". In Varieties of Religious Experience James

also promoted the functional value of meditation for modern psychology. He is

said to have proclaimed in a course lecture at Harvard, "This is the

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

Buddhism as science Buddhist teacher S.N. Goenka describes

Buddhadharma as a 'pure science of mind and matter'. He claims Buddhism uses

precise, analytical philosophical and psychological terminology and reasoning.

Goenka's presentation describes Buddhism not so much as belief in a body of

unverifiable dogmas, but an active, impartial, objective investigation of

things as they are. What is generally accepted in Buddhism

is that effects arise from causation. From his very first discourse onwards,

the Buddha explains the reality of things in terms of cause and effect. The

existence of misery and suffering in any given individual is due to the presence

of causes. One way to describe the Buddhist eightfold path is a turning

towards the reality of things as they are right now and understanding reality

directly, although it is debated the degree to which these investigations are

metaphysical or epistemological. Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh has written

the following on Buddhism and science: In Buddhism there are two kinds of

truth: conventional truth and ultimate truth. In the framework of the

conventional truth, Buddhists speak of being and non-being, birth and death,

coming and going, inside and outside, one and many, etc… and the Buddhist

teaching and practice based on this framework helps reduce suffering, and

bring more harmony and happiness. In the framework of the ultimate truth, the

teaching transcends notions of being and non-being, birth and death, coming and

going, inside and outside, one and many, etc… and the teaching and practice based

on this insight help practitioners liberate themselves from discrimination,

fear, and touch nirvana, the ultimate reality. Buddhists see no conflict

between the two kinds of truth and are free to make good use of both

frameworks. Classical science, as seen in Newton’s

theories, is built upon a framework reflecting everyday experience, in which

material objects have an individual existence, and can be located in time

and space. Quantum physics provides a framework for understanding how nature

operates on subatomic scales, but differs completely from classical

science, because in this framework, there is no such thing as empty space,

and the position of an object and its momentum cannot simultaneously be

precisely determined. Elementary particles fluctuate in and out of

existence, and do not really exist but have only a “tendency to exist”.

Classical science seems to reflect the conventional truth and quantum physics

seems to be on its way to discover the absolute truth, trying very hard to

discard notions such as being and non-being, inside and outside, sameness

and otherness, etc.… At the same time, scientists are trying to find out the

relationship between the two kinds of truth represented by the two kinds of

science, because both can be tested and applied in life.

In science, a theory should be tested in several ways before it can be accepted

by the scientific community. The Buddha also recommended, in the Kālāma Sūtra1,

that any teaching and insight given by any teacher should be tested by our own

experience before it can be accepted as the truth. Real insight, or right view,

has the capacity to liberate, and to bring peace and happiness. The findings

of science are also insight; they can be applied in technology, but can be

applied also to our daily behavior to improve the quality of our life and

happiness. Buddhists and scientists can share with each other their ways of

studying and practice and can profit from each other’s insights and

experience. The practice of mindfulness and

concentration always brings insight. It can help both Buddhists and scientists.

Insights transmitted by realized practitioners like the Buddhas and

bodhisattvas can be a source of inspiration and support for both

Buddhist practitioners and scientists, and scientific tests can help Buddhist

practitioners understand better and have more confidence in the insight they

receive from their ancestral teachers. It is our belief that in this 21st

Century, Buddhism and science can go hand in hand to promote more insight for

us all and bring more liberation, reducing discrimination, separation,

fear, anger, and despair in the world. Buddhism and relativity

Buddhism shares with science the understanding of relativity. The

relativity of phenomena is often used in Buddhist teaching to counter dogmatic or

rigid views, like the relativity of size to break the belief in "small" or

"tall". In Nāgārjuna's Treaty on the Middle Way, in the chapter 3 "Analysis

of motion", it is even shown that motion has no independent existence and does

not exists intrinsically, more than one millennium before Galileo who wrote:

"Let us therefore set as a principle that, whatever be the motion that one

attributes to the Earth, it is necessary that, for us who partake of it, it

remains perfectly imperceptible and as not being".

In the Heart Sutra, which presents the view of emptiness, it is said that

phenomena have no "defining characteristics", which is a claim of

relativity since, in the absence of a reference system, nothing can be said

about anything and therefore objects have indeed no intrinsic

characteristics. In this Sutra, it is also said that phenomena are "not

decreasing nor increasing", which is in agreement with Noether's theorem showing

that, because of relativity, there are conserved quantities in physics, like

energy. Buddhism mainly focused on the emptiness aspect of objects whereas

science developed more the relative aspect.

Buddhism and quantum physics The Heart Sutra explains that: "Form is

emptiness, Emptiness is form", which fits closely Nottale's theory of quantum

physics, which proves that matter and space are not different.

Notable scientists on Buddhism Niels Bohr, who developed the Bohr Model

of the atom, said, 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.

Nobel Prize–winning philosopher Bertrand Russell described Buddhism as a

speculative and scientific philosophy: 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: 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.

Nobel Prize–winning physicist Albert Einstein, who developed the general

theory of relativity and the special theory of relativity, also known for his

mass–energy equivalence, described Buddhism as containing a strong cosmic

element: ...there is found a third level of

religious experience, even if it is seldom found in a pure form. I will call

it the cosmic religious sense. This is hard to make clear to those who do not

experience it, since it does not involve an anthropomorphic idea of God; the

individual feels the vanity of human desires and aims, and the nobility and

marvelous order which are revealed in nature and in the world of thought. He

feels the individual destiny as an imprisonment and seeks to experience the

totality of existence as a unity full of significance. Indications of this cosmic

religious sense can be found even on earlier levels of development—for

example, in the Psalms of David and in the Prophets. The cosmic element is much

stronger in Buddhism, as, in particular, Schopenhauer's magnificent essays have

shown us. The religious geniuses of all times have been distinguished by this

cosmic religious sense, which recognizes neither dogmas nor God made in man's

image. Consequently there cannot be a church whose chief doctrines are based

on the cosmic religious experience. It comes about, therefore, that we find

precisely among the heretics of all ages men who were inspired by this highest

religious experience; often they appeared to their contemporaries as

atheists, but sometimes also as saints. See also

References Further reading

Sarunya Prasopchingchana & Dana Sugu, 'Distinctiveness of the Unseen Buddhist

Identity' Donald S. Lopez Jr., Buddhism and

Science: A Guide for the Perplexed Matthieu Ricard, Trinh Xuan Thuan, The

Quantum and the Lotus Tenzin Gyatso, The Dalai Lama XIV, The

Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality,

McMahan, David, “Modernity and the Discourse of Scientific Buddhism.”

Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 72, No. 4, 897-933.

B. Alan Wallace, Hidden Dimensions: The Unification of Physics and Consciousness

B. Alan Wallace, Buddhism and Science: breaking new ground

B. Alan Wallace, Choosing Reality: A Buddhist Perspective of Physics and the

Mind, Robin Cooper, The Evolving Mind:

Buddhism, Biology and Consciousness, Windhorse

Daniel Goleman, Destructive Emotions, Bloomsbury