Dalai Lama - Encounters With Science

The Dalai Lama has for many years already close contacts to scientists. With us scientists, the Dalai Lama shares the curiosity towards correlations between nature and technology. About the beginnings of this curiosity Wolf von Lojewski writes about the young Dalai Lama: "To be, to become like him, it seems unrepeatable in this world: growing up in the Himalaya, all of a sudden being dragged away from a poor surrounding., being educated in religious teachings and rituals by his teachers from dawn till dusk. Nobody tells him that mathematics or sciences do exist at all. And suddenly, he comes upon a telescope, a film projector and a watch somewhere in one of the thousand rooms of his palace. And pretty much as his entire life, also his approach to science is becoming an exceptional journey. He starts taking apart the watch and reassembling it back again. With childish curiosity, the Dalai Lama throws himself into some kind of ecstasy of knowledge, which appears rather strange to his environment.

Over the course of his journey through the world of science, the Dalai Lama encounters a vast number of scientists. Among others, Anton Zeilinger and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker are some of his teachers. Encounters with, for example Glenn T. Seaborg and Richard Ernst, have shaped his affiliation towards chemistry. In the prologue of his book "The Universe in a Single Atom", which was published in 2005 with several publishers, the Dalai Lama writes: ". it is a report about an expedition which has led a Buddhistic monk from Tibet into the world of bubble chambers, particle accelerators and magnetic resonance spectroscopy." In this book he deals with, among other things, the theories of relativity and quantum physics, the big bang, the theory of evolution, awareness and genetics. Although he acknowledges not to master these different disciplines in all details, nevertheless, he convinces the reader with to his sense of scientific coherence and methodology.

For many years already, the Dalai Lama has set himself to find common grounds between natural science and religion, especially the Tibetan Buddhism. A rather crucial part of these similarities is an undogmatic and open mind, which allows - and even more so demands - a critical questioning and reconsideration of facts and coherences. On this subject, one can find sentences in his books which could just as well originate from Richard Freyman.

Within this dialogue between religion and science the Dalai Lama also asks for an openness for external ideas beyond the scientists' own horizon, above all an ethical awareness of the consequences of one´s own acting. He himself represents a very open, undogmatic and tolerant attitude towards scientific knowledge. In fact, he concludes from the empirical strength of evidence of scientific methods that certain Buddhistic teachings have to be reconsidered in case they might contradict new scientific findings. An example for this is the Buddhistic atomic theory which shows similarities to Greek philosophy. The Dalai Lama writes in his book that he would acknowledge these empirically proven findings of atomic physics and would even rewrite his own books.

The Dalai Lama supports the introduction of scientific topics in the education at Buddhistic monasteries. He organizes scientific conferences in his Indian exile in Dharamsala every two years. These meetings are entitled "Mind and Life" conferences, and he regularly has intensive discussions with scientists, physicians and other researchers. The first conference had already taken place in 1987, two years before he received the Noble Price for Peace.

Literature:
  • Dalai Lama, "Die Welt in einem einzigen Atom - Meine Reise durch Wissenschaft und Buddhismus", Theseus Verlag, Berlin: 2005
  • Dalai Lama, "The Universe in a Single Atom - The Convergence of Science and Spirituality", Morgan Road Books, New York, 2005
  • Sonderheft GEO, Januar 1999 mit dem Titel: "Wer erklärt uns die Welt ? Mystik und Wissenschaft kommen sich näher"