Can Buddhism Help Science Understand The Mind?

A peculiar relationship It's no secret that Science and Buddhism have been having an affair. During last month's "Mind & Reality Symposium":http://blog.mindandreality.org at Columbia University, scientists and Buddhists co-mingled, explored, and sought definition for their curious enounters. How can the two systems of knowledge forge a working, mutually benefitial relationship? For years now Buddhism has been popping up in science. In 1991 Francisco Varella, a neurobiologist and student of Chogyam Trungpa, published the ground breaking book, Embodied Mind, which ignited cognitive science to overcome the dilemmas plaguing Western science's approach to the phenomenon of mind. The trend has continued, as evidenced by His Holiness the Dalai Lama's controversial keynote at the most recent cognitive neuroscience conference, Mind and Life, late last year and his most recent book, The Universe in a Single Atom.

But why is science interested in Buddhism? Science, you see, is stumped by subjectivity. Its experiments are designed to be objective; a phenomenon like consciousness sits outside the laboratory (except within the quantum world). Buddhism deals primarily with this type of subjectivity. It has evolved centuries of techniques for observing, training, and refining the ephemeral nature of the mind and its processes. So as science begins to study the brain and the mind, Buddhism often pops in for a visit. Buddhism is enamored with science for its technological achievements, procedural rigor, pervasive cultural influence, and its power to bestow credulity. As H. H. Dalai Lama is also the leader of Tibet, his popularity within science makes for an interesting political maneuver.

The Mind & Reality Symposium With presentations like Science for Monks and Contemplative Science: Where Science and Buddhism Converge, the tone was clearly set. The event was a dense collision of thought. Histories of science collided with interpretations of sutras. The cavalcade of eminent scientists and scholars included luminaries such as Owen Flanagan, B. Alan Wallace, Robert Thurman, Thubten Jinpa, and many others. In the standout "panel on wisdom, astrophysicist Piet Hut— renowned for his expertise in physics— broke free from the confines of rhetoric and walked us into the realm of spiritual truths. Soft spoken and calm, he transmitted a warmth and presence often lacking within the headiness of intellectual debates and discussions. Somewhere near the threshold of Bodhisattva, he spoke of Husserl, the father of phenomenology, as if his texts on philosophy were guided meditations. Source materials and recordings for all of the Symposium can be found here, or by following the below listed links—