Science and Buddhism

In the Dalai Lama’s words…

I believe that it is the basic right of all beings, but particularly human beings, to lead a happy and successful life. In this context, science and technology have brought us a great deal of benefit. Because of advances in science and technology, some findamental human problems have been solved, while other kinds of basic human misery, including disease and hunger, are being adressed. I have no doubt that science and technology can contribute toward the happiness of us all and that science is a vast and wonderful source of knowledge.

However, despite their achievements in many fields, we have not yet found a way to use science and technology to eliminate the worries and unhappiness that trouble so many people. Indeed, I think that the basic remedy for mental trouble, by nature, lies within the mind itself and that the potential for really solving problems of the mind exists only on a mental level. Therefore, while we certainly need science and technology, we also need a sense of sprituality, including ways to cultivate the warm-heartedness and compassion that underpin our basic happiness.

Until recently, these two fields, science and spirituality, have remained distant and apart from each other, but I believe this is changing. For example, although I am a Buddhist, if I were to cling only to Buddhist teaching and deny what modern scientific findings prove, I would believe that the world is flat and at the center of the universe and that the sun and the moon revolve around it. Clearly, if I were to adopt an extreme stance and only consider what the scriptures say, keeping my distance from science, then I myself would suffer, not least due to a lack of knowledge.

The Buddhist tradition, particularly the thousand-year-old traditoin of the Indian University of Nalanda that we inherited in Tibet, is concerned with trying to know reality, various levels of reality, through investigation, avoiding the pitfalls of underestimation and exaggeration. Modern science, too, is concerned with discovering reality, not only in theory but also in practice by conducting repeatable experiments. Whether we approach reality through science or through a spiritual path, we have to accept it as it is.

From the Foreword to Tibetan Buddhism and Modern Physics by Vic Mansfield, 2007.