| Those who know that he counts renowned
physicist David Bohm and the late philosopher of science Karl
Popper among his friends, and that he has participated in many
science and spirituality conferences in the last several decades,
will not be surprised to hear that His Holiness will gather with
Buddhist scholar-practitioners and a group of scientists at Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT) in September of 2003 for a cutting
edge conference investigating the common ground between Buddhism
and science. This monk with the inquisitive mind has attended
many such conferences over the years.
“Investigating the Mind: Exchanges between
Buddhism and Biobehavioral Science on How the Mind Works,”
September 13-14, in Cambridge, Mass. is the centerpiece of the
Dalai Lama’s month-long visit to the U.S. This will be the
11th meeting between the Dalai Lama and scientists interested
in the brain, and the first open to the public.
Co-sponsored by the Institute of Brain Research at MIT and the
Mind and Life Institute of Boulder, Colorado, this conference
will explore the synergy between those perpetually estranged bedfellows:
Eastern spirituality and Western science.
How does the mind work? Cognitive scientists base answers on “third-person”
biobehavioral data, while Buddhists emphasize a “first-person”
approach. Neurophenomenology--a research program for the science
of consciousness developed by the late Francisco Varela--has sought
to incorporate one the two approaches in a “circular and
reciprocal exchange” between Western behavioral science
and Buddhist introspective experience. The Dalai Lama first met
Dr. Varela at the Alpbach Symposia on Consciousness in 1983. Later,
together with Adam Engle, Dr. Varela established a forum for ongoing
dialogues between leaders in science and spirituality, which grew
into the Mind and Life Institute. His Holiness has attended their
biennial meetings to discuss these interrelationships since 1987,
believing that “science and Buddhism share a common objective:
to serve humanity and create a better understanding of the world.
Science offers powerful tools for understanding the interconnectedness
of all life which provides an essential rationale for ethical
behavior and protection of the environment.”
The MIT conference will open with a session honoring
Dr. Varela, and analyzing neurophenomenology. Then the Buddhist
tradition will be integrated into the presentation. What can the
disciplined Buddhist teach about how to increase our threshold
of awareness to provide more refined first-person reports of subjective
experience? How can this refinement partner with experimental
techniques of biobehavioral science such as brain imaging to further
our understanding of neural and cognitive processes? Following
such dialogue, science can then reciprocate with discoveries that
will enrich first-person insights, leading to further refinement,
in an ongoing virtuous cycle.
Cognitive control, the subject of the second session, is defined
as the ability to act (or think) in accord with intention. One
of Buddhism’s primary tenets is the practice of training
the mind to focus and sustain attention. According to the Dalai
Lama: “Teaching the mind to focus on its inner contents
in a sustained manner is a gateway to an expansion of one’s
capacity to exert cognitive control both over the contents of
one’s own thoughts and the processes of one’s own
body.” Tibetan adepts have long been known as practitioners
of “mind over matter,” able to exert the mind to keep
the body warm in the coldest conditions, for example. How can
science apply such skills practically? Biobehavioral sciences
have in the past studied psychological processes and underlying
neural mechanisms as a way to understand attention processes.
Recent advances in hypnosis and placebo responses have allowed
for the possibility of training mental capacities beyond old Western-proscribed
limits of control. Again, the mental dialogue is intended to provide
reciprocal benefits: results from scientific studies of such phenomena
may deepen Buddhist understanding of attention as the foundation
of spiritual practice.
What would a study of mental imagery provide? Again in the words
of the Dalai Lama: “Objects populate the world without;
images populate the world within.” Twentieth-century philosopher
Karl Wittgenstein believed (as do most behavioral psychologists)
that scientific study of mental imagery is not possible. But new
techniques such as brain scanning can observe the neural levers
and pistons that power our inner imagery. And Tibetan Buddhists
have a centuries-old system of disciplined introspective techniques
for generating, controlling, and observing mental images. What
can be learned from merging old and new knowledge? If science
can now track the observable footprints of imagery, how can this
heightened consciousness enhance creativity and emotional experience?
The afternoon session on day two will probe emotion: why have
Buddhism and science disagreed about the extent to which emotion
can be voluntarily controlled? Can evolutionary and Buddhist views
of emotion be reconciled, and on what grounds, empirical or otherwise?
Western psychology tends to label emotion as “positive”
or “negative”-the part of being human that is most
unsettling and beyond the control of logic and reason. Buddhism
looks at the wholesomeness, or harmfulness, of a particular emotional
experience in terms of the individual’s personal and social
functioning in the world, and insists that emotions can be regulated
with cognitive strategies. Specific methods and systematic training
for the cultivation of compassion are the Buddhist foundation
for emotional control. The Dalai Lama, along with Buddhists Georges
Dreyfus, Thupten Jinpa, B. Alan Wallace, and Matthieu Ricard,
will compare notes with scientists Richard Davidson, Daniel Kahneman,
Daniel Gilbert, and Dacher Keltner to examine systematically “the
points of divergence and overlap between Buddhist and Western
understanding of emotion.”
The final session of this groundbreaking conference
will explore how both traditions understand the functional interrelations
between attention, imagery, and emotion. And, more broadly, it
will examine what each tradition understands “the mind”
to be, and on what empirical basis Buddhism uses highly disciplined
“first-person” methodologies and practices of introspection.
Western biobehavioral science prefers “third-person”
observation, especially the use of technical instruments of measurement.
Empirical investigations of the mind are integral to both traditions,
but for reasons that are embedded in quite different ethical and
philosophical traditions.
Since 1987 the Mind and Life Institute has hosted small meetings
with western scientists and the Dalai Lama at his residence in
Dharamsala, India, which have resulted in the publication of six
books. The most recent is Destructive Emotions: A Scientific
Dialogue with the Dalai Lama, narrated by Daniel Goleman.
These meetings have also inspired research initiatives and scientific
collaborations in neuroscience and psychology, many of which will
be addressed at the MIT meeting. The MIT conference will be the
11th Mind and Life meeting and the first one convening in the
West with open attendance.
Can modern science make use of Buddhism’s 2,500 years of
investigating the mind? Western scientists have been aware of
this tradition while being skeptical of the fact that it uses
the mind to investigate itself. Increasing numbers of scientists
recognize that introspective investigation can be both rigorous
and at the same time complementary to established scientific methods
of observation and measurement. The moment for collaboration between
Buddhism and biobehavioral science has come. “This MIT meeting
is the fruit of almost 20 years of dialogue and collaboration
between the Dalai Lama and scientists,” says Adam Engle,
chairman of the Mind and Life Institute. “We hope this larger
and more open forum at MIT will initiate a new chapter in this
exciting exploration and lead to more in-depth collaborative research.
The participation of the Dalai Lama along with so many leading
scientists and Buddhist scholars will make this conference historic.”
More info at www.dalailamaboston.org
Hope
For the Dalai Lama’s Return Home
Meditation and Science: A Meeting of Minds
An Interview with the Dalai Lama
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