The Dalai Lama: Science and Spirituality in the Service of the World

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Looking back over seventy years of my life, I see that my personal acquaintance with science began in a completely pre-scientific world, where the emergence of any technology seemed a real miracle. I can assume that my fascination with science is still based on this naive admiration for the achievements of humanity. Starting in this way, my journey into science led me to consider very difficult problems, such as the influence of science on the general understanding of the world, its ability to change the life of people and nature itself, as well as its consequences in the form of intractable moral problems arising as a result of new scientific achievements. But at the same time, I also do not forget about all the amazing and wonderful opportunities that science brings to the world.

Acquaintance with science greatly enriched some aspects of my own Buddhist worldview. Einstein's theory of relativity, which has received experimental confirmation, gives me an empirical basis for my understanding of the views.

Nagarjuna on the relativity of time. The unusually detailed picture of the behavior of subatomic particles in the micro-level examination of matter vividly reminds the Buddhist concept of the dynamic, transient nature of all phenomena. The study of the human genome is consistent with the Buddhist view of the fundamental unity of all people.

What is the place of science in the general space of human aspirations? She explores everything - from the smallest amoeba to the complex neurophysiological systems of the human body, from the problem of the origin of the world and the origin of life on Earth to the very nature of matter and energy. Science's ability to explore reality is truly amazing. It not only revolutionizes our knowledge, but also opens up completely new ways of development for it. Science invades even such complex issues as the problem of consciousness, which is a key characteristic of living beings. The question arises: can science lead to a comprehensive understanding of the entire spectrum of being and human existence?

According to the Buddhist point of view, the result of a complete and correct understanding of reality should be not only a consistent description of it itself, our means of comprehension and the place that consciousness occupies in this process, but also knowledge of the actions that need to be performed. In the modern scientific paradigm, only that knowledge that arises as a result of the strict application of the empirical method, consisting of observation, inference and subsequent experimental verification of the obtained conclusion, is considered reliable. This method also includes quantitative analysis and measurement, repetition of the experiment, and independent verification of the results. Many essential aspects of reality, as well as some key elements of human existence, such as the ability to distinguish between good and evil, spirituality, creativity, that is, exactly what we consider to be the main human values, inevitably fall out of the circle of scientific consideration. Scientific knowledge in the form in which it exists at the moment does not contain completeness. I believe that it is very important to be aware of this fact and clearly understand where the border of scientific knowledge lies. Only this will give us the opportunity to sincerely recognize the need to combine scientific knowledge with the fullness of human experience. Otherwise, our idea of the world, including our own existence, will be reduced to a set of facts established by science, which will lead to reductionism, that is, to a materialistic and even nihilistic picture of the world.

I am not against reductionism as such. In fact, we owe much of our success to the reductionist approach, which largely determines the methods of scientific experiment and analysis. The problem arises when reductionism, which is an essential method in science, is applied to address metaphysical questions. This is an expression of the usual tendency to confuse means and ends, which often occurs when a method has been shown to be highly effective. In Buddhist texts, there is a very appropriate comparison for such situations: if someone points a finger at the moon, one should look not at the tip of the finger, but where it is directed.

I hope that on the pages of this book I was able to show the possibility of taking science seriously and accepting the reliability of its empirical data without necessarily leaning towards scientific materialism in my understanding of the world. I tried to give arguments in favor of the need for a new picture of the world, rooted in science, but at the same time not rejecting the entire wealth of human nature and the value of methods of cognition, other than those that are accepted in science. I say this because I am deeply convinced of the existence of a close connection between our conceptual understanding of the world, our vision of human existence with its capabilities and moral values that determine our behavior. Our beliefs about ourselves and the reality around us inevitably affect our relationship to other people and the world, as well as our way of dealing with them. And this is the main issue of ethics and morality.

Scientists have a special kind of responsibility, namely, the moral responsibility to ensure that science serves in the best way the cause of strengthening humanity in the world. What they do, each in their own field of study, has an impact on the lives of each of us. For certain historical reasons, scholars have won more respect in society than many other professions. But this respect ceases to be the basis for absolute belief in the correctness of their actions. There have already been too many tragic events in the world, directly or indirectly related to the development of technology, for this belief to remain unchanged. Suffice it to mention man-made disasters associated with chemical and radioactive contamination, such as the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, the accidents at nuclear power plants in Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, the release of poisonous gas at a plant in the Indian city of Bhopal, or environmental problems, such as the destruction of the ozone layer.

I dream that we will be able to combine our spirituality and the kindness of universal human values with the course of development in the human society of science and technology. Despite different approaches, at their core, science and spirituality strive towards a single goal - the improvement of human life. In its best endeavors, science seeks ways for people to achieve prosperity and happiness. Speaking in terms of Buddhism, this orientation is characterized by wisdom combined with compassion. Likewise, spirituality is the human appeal to our inner resources in order to understand who we are in the deepest sense and how we should organize our lives in accordance with the highest ideals. And it is also a combination of wisdom and compassion.

Since the inception of modern science, there has been a competition between science and spirituality as between the two main sources of knowledge and well-being. Sometimes the relationship between the two became friendly, and sometimes very alienated, even to the point that many considered them completely incompatible. Now, in the first decade of the new century, spirituality and science have the opportunity to come closer as never before and begin a very promising cooperation with the aim of helping humanity to meet the challenges ahead with dignity. This is our common task. And may each of us, as a member of a single human family, contribute to making this cooperation possible. This is my most cordial request.