Buddhism and Science Flashcards
what are miracles
defy laws of nature at the will of God
- marvellous
- no God in B?
Buddhas teachings on Miracles
- mundane: taming of the elephant
- marvellous: day of miracles (15 consecutive days), converted 90,000 –> defying laws of nature
- ‘whatever the mind does outside and beyond the order commonly determined or observed in nature’
- meditation and ethical thought –> can unleash miraculous powers (past life knowledge, flying)
- story of kevaddha –> 3 types of miracles (Buddha was sceptical of them)
1. supernatural powers
2. read minds
3. Guide for own good - monks and nuns banned from teaching miracles, as education is better –> people should not believe in the dharma only because of miracles
scientific response to miracles
- cant break laws of nature, only expand our knowledge
- neuroscience: verdlinger’s experiments
- if science disproves something in Buddhism, Buddhism has to change: dalai lama
what is karma
- good karma: good rebirth
- merit making
- actions and intentions
- consequences due to actions
scientific responses to karma
- cannot be empirically tested
- west is rationalising buddhism
- dependent origination
- secular buddhism: ‘dharma practice should never be in contradiction to science’ Bachelor
- owen flanagan: karma can be compared to the simple teaching that the negative leads to negative and vv (omits more spiritual elements such as rebirth and anatta)
- conflict between Buddha and rationalists
- misinterpretation: difference in time and culture –> focus on individual effects not consequences
- questions behind historical Buddha: did he really do these things (hairographical and mythological elements)
examples of the Buddhas unanswerable questions
- the world is eternal or not
- the soul is identical with the body
parable of the poisoned arrow
- do not contemplate on the nature of samsara etc
- focus should be the cessation of suffering, not how suffering came to be
- no Buddhist creation story
Daniel Veidlinger and B science
- athiestic religion: do not believe in one creator God who can control the lives of humans as a cause in esse
- belief in many supernatural beings
3 parts to buddhist science
- knowledge gained through experience not doctrine (4 sights etc)
- rejection of absolutes: experience can change understanding
- Buddhism subject to change based on empirical evidence
Kalama sutra and Veidlinger
- Buddhism was an oral tradition passed down, causing us to question its authenticity
- Buddha encourages doubting scripture + teaching –> should not accept his teachings without discourse
- miracles: miracle worker does not mean that Buddhism is not correct all the time
- people will be dazzled by magic and will not effectively engage and challenge the Buddha’s teachings –> will accept only due to power and this weakens his teachings
- Buddhist texts are not wholly scientific as people perform miracles
science and Buddhism compatibility
- Anatta is ultimate reality –> neuroscience has not found a separate soul and science observes the changing nature of the body (no phenomenal model of the self)
- Yogis: heating themselves under cold blankets by meditating
- observing religious experience: oneness, neurocoordination, decreased anxiety and depression etc
- first printing press in Buddhist monasteries
- development of paper etc
- however: non scientific powers observed eg clairvoyance. knowledge of past lives and flying
named scientists and Buddhism
- Bohr: ‘we must turn to those kind of epistemological problems with which already thinkers like the Buddha and Lao Tzu have been confronted’
- Russell: ‘buddhism is a combination of both speculative and scientific philosophy’
Thich Nhat Hanh on science
- science helped him better understand buddhism
- ‘if we believe that the knowledge we presently possess is the absolute truth then we lose our objectivity’
- parable about the father who believed his son died and refused to believe he could be alive –> be open to enquiry, do not shut the door and stop learning
- need to be free from preconception in science and B
- interbeing in science: ‘electrons do not have a separate existence’
- science and yogis: studying their control over bodies –> meditation and its empirical effect (compatibility between B and science)
Dalai lama and science
‘if science proves some belief of Buddhism wrong then Buddhism will have to change’
- Buddhism is science, philosophy and religion
- DL actively involved in scientific development
- neuroplasticity: can create different neuropathways as you grow
- meditating on certain topics eg compassion can make certain brain areas more active
- wider implications of science and tech
dalai lama and the ethics of science
- morality of science can be questioned eg WMD
- need ethical framework either Buddhist or secular
- responsible for use of science/grows as we develop
- ‘dialogue between neuroscience and society’ –> profound benefit
- empirical evidence>spiritual belief –> no absolutes
- ‘scientific communities play a vitally important role in this interconnected world’
quote on sunyata
‘form is emptiness emptiness is form’ –> heart sutra
what is quantum mechanics
- mathematically describe motion and interaction of subatomic particles
how are quantum mechanics and buddhism interlinked
- buddhists and scientists have different understandings of the same thing
- sunyata, like electromagnetic fields and the everchanging movement of subatomic particles - impermenance and anicca
- allows for free will –> brains quantum process supports karma
- wave particle duality: many possible states of waves
3 modes of existential existence in Buddhism
- Cause and condition: dependent originatio and 12 niddanas
- parts of a whole: interbeing and thich nhat hanh (flower and flower elements)
- perception of the mind –> colour, smell etc are dependent on our perception of it
- subatomic particles: range of possibilities, only have a location when observed –> random behaviour
wave particle duality and sunyata
particles do not act on the assumption that they should travel as a wave
- only acts like a particle when observed but when not observed acts as a wave
- conventional: waves are impermenant and surface level; their properties are dependent of external causes
- waves are impermenant states that drift in and out of existence
