Buddhism & Science

The Dalai Lama

This past July (2011), the Dalai Lama gave a wide-ranging interview to Rolling Stone magazine (here), and among many other things he touched briefly on the relationship of Buddhism to science and his contribution to that relationship.  He said,

"I have done one thing that I think is a contribution: I helped Buddhist science and modern science combine. No other Buddhist has done that. Other lamas, I don't think they ever pay attention to modern science. Since my childhood, I have a keen interest. As far as inner sciences [science of the mind] are concerned, modern science very young. In the meantime, science in external matters is highly developed. So we Buddhists should learn from that as well."

 In this brief statement,  the Dalai Lama suggests a relationship between religions and science by which religion offers us a science of the mind and modern science contributes a science of the physical world.  Each science contributes to a full, integrated life, and each has something to teach us.  There is no hint here of the science-religion relationship being inherently an issue or a problem although traditional monks generally ignore science because it is, well, untraditional.

For practicing people of faith, from the Dalai Lama's perspective, the relationship of their faith to science is not so much a theoretical issue to sort out as it is a spiritually practical meshing of two crucial elements of life.  Faith's contribution, speaking from a Christian perspective, is to open our hearts and minds to God, to daily practices that quiet our hearts and minds, and to a life that is oriented away from self and toward others.