'The Buddhist tradition and science both are seeking truth'
Edited excerpts from an interview with the Dalai Lama, conducted by Globe reporter Michael Paulson on Sunday at the Chamtse Ling Temple at the Tibetan Cultural Center in Bloomington, Ind. The Dalai Lama spoke mostly in English, but at times spoke in Tibetan, which was translated by an aide.
Q. Let's talk for a minute about science as you head to this conference at MIT. You've been engaged in this dialogue for some time. What have you learned?
A. The Buddhist tradition and science both are seeking truth, seeking reality through investigation. Of course, there are differences. The Buddhist way of investigation is mainly logic and in some cases through meditation. Science uses mainly instruments and then mathematics. But both basically seek to know the reality. And then Buddhism, particularly so-called Mahayana tradition, makes very clear you should accept teaching out of investigation rather than respect. According to that ... we have the right to investigate our own world. So some of the concepts of thousands of years [ago] - for example Buddhist cosmology - now from what is the logical viewpoint, now we have to disagree about Buddhist texts... not just to be in tune with modern science but because Buddhism itself calls for this. Whatever approaches you adopt must make sense. If you look at the cosmological texts, there are measurements of celestial bodies, and now it's obvious that the measurements are way off.
Q. What have you learned through these discussions over the last 10 years?
A. In the fields of cosmology, neurobiology, subatomic physics like quantum physics, and psychology - in these four fields, it's become quite clear that we can learn something ... In some cases, for example in subatomics, the Buddhist explanation is quite rough... Then in some fields, like psychology, I think Buddhist psychology is much more advanced, especially with emotions and these things, so for the scientists in these fields, the Buddhist explanation is helpful to them ... Then medical scientists are now showing some concern or interest about emotion within the context of health, [and] the Buddhist explanation about different kinds of emotion are quite detailed, so this is a potential field of interest.
