Sacred science

Little is known about the Dalai Lama’s intense personal interest in the sciences; he has said that if he were not a monk, he would have...

Little is known about the Dalai Lama’s intense personal interest in the sciences; he has said that if he were not a monk, he would have liked to have been an engineer. As a youth in Lhasa it was he who was called on to fix broken machinery in the Potala Palace, be it a clock or a car. That early interest in science burns as brightly today. In part, I believe, this interest is motivated by his instinct that scientific truths lend yet another base of support to his most basic beliefs, such as the principle of universal responsibility.

Over the last decade or so I have had the privilege of convening or participating in a series of dialogues with His Holiness and scientists and scholars. These dialogues have been a rich source for finding the agreements between science and the spiritual views that support a philosophy of universal responsibility. The topics have been wide-ranging: the philosophical bases of physical reality; the nature of time, emotions and health; neurophysiology and states of consciousness; and the nature of suffering. But an underlying, unifying theme has been the interconnectedness of phenomena, and particularly the web that ties together all life.

Throughout these discussions I have been struck by the attitude of His Holiness: one of openness, deep curiosity, keen insight and a high level of scientific sophistication. Often, for example, a scientist would describe an experiment and its results — whether in neuroscience or quantum physics — and His Holiness would ask a question about whether such and such a proposition or some other possibility had been tested, only to have the scientist say, “Your Holiness, that is exactly the next experiment we want to do.” He is, as it were, a natural scientist.

His attitude towards finding the truth is that of the true scientist: ideas and beliefs are hypotheses, to be investigated, explored and tested. Where the weight of evidence lies, there is truth to be found. His openness extends even to his own faith, Buddhism. He has said that if some belief of Buddhism were to be tested scientifically and irrefutably shown to be false, then it would have to change. Indeed, he sees investigation of the truth as vital to the spirit of Buddhism. As he told one scientist, “From the Buddhist perspective, the more explanation and insight there is, the better.”

Excerpted from ‘Understanding the Dalai Lama’ (Penguin India)

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