Buddhism and Science

Reflecting its wide variety of topics, Buddhism and science is comprised of three sections. The first presents two historical overviews of the engagements between Buddhism and modern science or rather how Buddhism and modern science have definced, rivaled and complemented one another. The second describes the ways Buddhism and the cognitive sciences inform each other, the third address point of intersection between Buddhsim and the physical sciences. On the broadest level this work illuminates how different ways of exploring the nature of human identity the mind, and the universe at large can enrich and enlighten one another.

Contents

List of Contributors ........ ix
Preface ........ xv

Introduction: Buddhism and Science—Breaking Down the Barriers

B. Alan Wallace ........ 1

Part 1 Historical Context ........ 31

Buddhism and Science: On the Nature of the Dialogue
José Ignacio Cabezón ........ 35

Science As an Ally or a Rival Philosophy? Tibetan Buddhist Thinkers’ Engagement with Modern Science
Thupten Jinpa ........ 71

Part 2 Buddhism and the Cognitive Sciences ........ 87

Understanding and Transforming the Mind
His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama ........ 91

The Concepts “Self,” “Person,” and “I” in Western Psychology and in Buddhism
David Galin ........ 107

Common Ground, Common Cause: Buddhism and Science on the Afflictions of Identity
William S. Waldron ........ 145

Imagining: Embodiment, Phenomenology, and Transformation
Francisco J. Varela and Natalie Depraz ........ 195

Lucid Dreaming and the Yoga of the Dream State: A Psychophysiological Perspective
STEPHEN LABERGE-233
On the Relevance of a Contemplative Science
MATTHIEU RICARD - 261
Part 3 Buddhism and the Physical Sciences-281
Emptiness and Quantum Theory
WILLIAM L. AMES-285
Time and Impermanence in Middle Way Buddhism and Modern Physics
VICTOR MANSFIELD-305
A Cure for Metaphysical Illusions: Kant, Quantum Mechanics, and
Madhyamaka-MICHEL BITBOL 325
Emptiness and Relativity-DAVID RITZ FINKELSTEIN-365
Encounters Between Buddhist and Quantum Epistemologies-ANTON ZEILINGER -387
Conclusion: Life As a Laboratory-PIET HUT-399
Appendix: A History of the Mind and Life Institute-417
Index -423

Preface

Since 1987, I have been involved in a series of cross-cultural scientific di-alogues organized by the Mind and Life Institute (www.mindandlife.org) between H. H. the Dalai Lama and eminent Western scientists. This book, which was inspired by a suggestion to me by H. H. the Dalai Lama after one of those meetings, consists of a collection of essays on specific topics that have been examined within the fields of Buddhism and the cognitive and physical sciences. With the interface of Buddhism and the natural sciences, the contributors not only examine the fruits of inquiry from the East and the West but also shed light on the underlying assumptions of these dis-parate worldviews. In this way we have attempted to break down some of the barriers that have inhibited fruitful dialogue regarding Buddhism and science, anticipating that each discipline may bring fresh understanding and insightful challenges to the assumptions and methodologies of the other.
Following this preface, I have written an introduction to the volume as a whole, where I express my own views (not necessarily shared by the oth-er contributors to this volume) concerning some of the problems in any comparative study of Buddhism and modern science. I have also written short prefaces to each of the essays in parts 1-3. Part 1 of this anthology in-cludes two historical overviews of the engagements between Buddhism and modern science. Part 2 focuses on points of intersection between Buddhism and the cognitive sciences. Among all the natural sciences this is the field that most directly pertains to Buddhism, which holds the understanding of the mind and its relation to the rest of the world to be of paramount importance.
Because of the many common interests between Buddhism and the cog-nitive sciences, this interface has been a common theme in most of the Mind and Life conferences with H. H. the Dalai Lama and various groups of scientists since 1987. These conferences were initiated by Adam Engle and Francisco J. Varela and continue on in the present, and I have joined Thupten Jinpa as an interpreter for all but one of these meetings. With Francisco's untimely death in May 2001, shortly following the ninth Mind and Life conference, we have lost a cherished friend and respected col-league. He is dearly missed, and this volume is dedicated to his memory.
Part 3 focuses on Buddhism and the physical sciences. Since physics has been the paradigm for the natural sciences as a whole, dialogues between Buddhism and science cannot avoid discussions of this mode of inquiry into the physical universe. Moreover, twentieth-century physics-most no-tably quantum mechanics-has raised profound epistemological and onto-logical issues that challenge many of the traditional assumptions underly-ing science as a whole. Some of these topics, such as the relation between subject and object, lend themselves to dialogue with Buddhist philosophy, especially the Madhyamaka view, which is discussed in several essays in this volume. This volume concludes with an essay by physicist Piet Hut, who brings the challenges of this type of interdisciplinary inquiry into the con-text of daily life.
I believe that this anthology of essays will be of interest not only to Western scientists, Buddhologists, and scholars of religion but also to a much broader range of readers interested in East-West dialogue and the in-terface between science and religion as a whole. It is our hope that this work will illuminate multiple ways of exploring the nature of human identity, the mind, and the universe at large and thereby lead to greater well-being for all humanity.
I would like to thank H. H. the Dalai Lama for his continuing inspira-tion for such cross-cultural interdisciplinary dialogues and collaboration, the John E. Fetzer Foundation and Richard Gere Foundation for their sup-port of this project, all the scholars, contemplatives, and scientists who con-tributed essays to this volume, Taline Goorjian for preparing the index, and Jonathan Slutsky, Holly Hodder, Robin Smith, Alessandro Angelini, and Susan Pensak of Columbia University Press for bringing this project to completion.

B. Alan Wallace
Introduction: Buddhism and Science-Breaking Down the Barriers
The publication of a volume of essays on Buddhism and science presupposes that these two fields are commensurable and that the interface be-tween Buddhist theories and practices and scientific theories and modes of inquiry can somehow be fruitful. But serious objections to this presupposition can be raised from the outset, so I would like to introduce this work by presenting arguments against such a coupling of Buddhism and science. together with my responses to those arguments. The first idea to be considered is the view that religion and science are autonomous, their domains of concern mutually exclusive, so they really have little, if anything, to say to each other. I shall respond to this assertion by first analyzing whether Bud-dhism can properly be categorized according to modern Western notions of religion, then I shall describe specific elements within Buddhism that may be deemed scientific. I shall then distinguish between empirical science it-self and the metaphysical dogma of scientific materialism that is often conflated with it. Next I shall address objections raised by proponents of post-modernism, to the effect that Buddhism and science are cultural specific and hence fundamentally incomparable. Finally, I shall present suggestions for a dialogic approach to the study of Buddhism and science that may enrich both fields and consequently broaden our understanding of the subjective and objective domains of the natural world.

Introduction: Buddhism and Science

ARE RELIGION AND SCIENCE AUTONOMOUS?
Most mainstream religious thinkers and many scientists share the view of religion and science as independent and autonomous rather than conflicting realms, with each discipline having its own domain and methods that can be justified on its own terms. One of the most prominent scientists to promote this view is paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould. In his book Rocks of Ages: Science and Religion in the Fullness of Life Gould argues that religion and science are logically distinct and fully separate in terms of their styles of inquiry and goals. But, rather than suggesting that they are irrelevant to each other, he emphasizes the need to integrate insights from both in order to build a rich and full view of life (Gould 1999:29). One of Gould's central ideas is that the domains of religion and science consist of "non-overlap-ping magisteria." In his view the magisterium of science includes the empirical realm, and it addresses the questions of what the universe is composed of and how it works. The magisterium of religion, on the other hand, con-sists of the realm of human purposes, meaning, and value. His solution for the apparent conflicts between religion and science is to maintain that the two should coexist in a spirit of respectful noninterference. Religious texts, therefore, should not be read as scientific texts, and the claims of scientists should not be used to disprove the basis of religious belief (93).
In a similar vein, theologian Langdon Gilkey declares that religion ad-dresses questions concerning the meaning and purpose of life, our ultimate origins and destiny, and the experiences of our inner life. Science, in contrast, seeks to explain objective, public, repeatable data with theories that are logically coherent and experimentally adequate, presenting quantitative predictions that can be tested experimentally (Gilkey 1985:108-116).
Not all scientists (or religious believers), however, go along with the amicable assertion of the nonoverlapping domains of religion and science. Zo-ologist Richard Dawkins, for example, poignantly argues that religious beliefs are not outside the domain of science and there are consequently irreconcilable differences between religion and science. Since religions do make claims about the nature of existence, and do not confine themselves solely to questions of meaning and values, religious beliefs and dogmas should be subjected to scientific criticism (Dawkins 1999:62-64).
Sociobiologist Edward O. Wilson takes a somewhat more equivocal position regarding the relation between religion and science. He first defines science as the "organized, systematic enterprise that gathers knowledge about.