By Ben Felden Bluegum Sangha Wednesday 26th March 2008
Questions re. Buddhism & Science y How does one determine the validity of Buddhist
practices and understandings? y By faith, intuition or logic. y With reference to a lineage of gurus or to scientific authority y Perhaps a mixture or all of this?
Questions re. Science & Meditation y What are the physiological and psychological effects? y Do they endure long after a retreat? y Are particular kinds of practices better suited for particular
types of people?
Topics y A Simplistic Model (NOMA) y Overlapping Magisteria of Mind (OMM!) y Where people sit in relation to OMM model y Effects of Meditation y Buddhism & Psychology y Buddhist Pseudoscience y Thought Leaders (Gyatso, Wallace, Wilber)
Science
empirical (facts and theories)
meaning and moral value
Religion /philosophy
Non‐Overlapping Magisteria (NOMA) Rock of Ages: Science & religion in the fullness of life Magesteria Science Religion
Stephen Jay Gould
The Mind
Science (materialism)
Religion (philosophy)
Science & Mind Science’s Broadening
‘Hard’ Science Cosmic Level
y y
Physics Astronomy
Mathematics/ Physics
Physiological Level
y y y
Biology Medicine Life Science
Bio-Chemistry
‘Soft’ Science
Mind/ Personal Level
y y
Cognitive Psychology
Psychiatry/ Psychology
Religion & Mind Cosmic Level
y y
Christian Cosmology Buddhist Abhidharma cosmology
Mathematics/ Physics
Physiological Level
y y y
Christian Creationists Reincarnation Virgin Mary
Bio-Chemistry
Religion’s Retreat Mind/ Personal Level
y
Buddhist Psychology
Psychiatry/ Psychology
y y
Meditation Prayer
OMM Model Ben Felden (2007) ☺
1
Science
Mathematics/ Physics
facts and theories
Micro-&Macro- Scopic 3rd person / math-based
1st person / language-based
2
Bio-Chemistry
3
Psychiatry/ Psychology
4
Buddhism / Meditative Experience
Philosophy meaning and moral value
Consciousness
Physics ‐> Experience
Experience ‐> Physics e.g. alpha
Posture
External World
Internal
e.g. serotonin
e.g. happiness
A game of musical cushions
Where People Sit Modern Tibetan Buddhists
Mathematicians Physicists
Materialistic
Mathematics/ Physics
Geologists Traditional Scientists
Bio-Chemistry
Psychiatry/ Psychology
Buddhism
Buddhist Psychologists, Zen & Insight
Philosophic
Traditional Tibetans & Thai Monks
Mathematicians & Physicists Mathematicians B. Russell A. Whitehead
Materialistic
Mathematics/ Physics
I. Newtown S. J. Gould
Bio-Chemistry
Physicists A. Einstein D. Bohm E. Schroedinger
Psychology
Buddhism
Philosophic
Psychiatrists & Psychologists Insight & Zen J. Kornfield M. Linehan J. Kabat-Zinn S. Blackmore M. Epstein
Mathematics/ Physics
Bio-Chemistry
Psychiatry/ Psychology
L. J. Cozolino E. Gordon
Buddhism
Buddhists
Tibetan Buddhists A. Wallace T. Gaytzo
Mathematics/ Physics
Bio-Chemistry
Psychiatry/ Psychology
Buddhism
S. Goenka
* Also Zen ^ Also some ‘religious’ ideas
What Tradition? Culture / Tradition
Scientist / MD
Psychologist
Japan ‐ Zen
James Austin Marsha Linehan
Susan Blackmore
US/UK – Insight
Jon Kabat‐Zinn *
Jack Kornfield John Teasdale Sylvia Boorstein Mark Epstein
Tibet ‐ Tibetan
Allan Wallace ^
Tenzin Gyatzo
India – Hindu/Vedic
Deepak Chopra ^
Agnostic Stance
Religious Stance
S. Bachelor * Chris Titmus
Sogyal Rinpoche
Mahrishi Goenka
Insightful Thoughts ?! ☺ y “great pity if Vipassana meditation became another kind of
psychotherapy” y “great pity if such mindfulness practice had the same fate as yoga which in the West has often been reduced to a system of healthy physical exercises” Christopher Titmus
Psychology
Buddhism
Using science to extract useful buddhist practices for non‐traditional settings... or money‐ making cults?
Noble Eightfold Path Wisdom (panna)
y 1. Right view – clinical psychology Ethical Conduct (sila) y 2. Right Action – Precept 5 ‐ psychopharmacology
Mental Discipline (samadhi) y 7 & 8. Right mindfulness & Right concentration ‐ cognitive science
Buddhism & Psychology y Problem y Buddhist: suffering y Psychology: distress, disability
y Etiology y Buddhist: craving/ignorance y Psychology: genetics, childhood development, socialisation
y Goal y Buddhist: enlightenment y Psychology: normal or higher functioning
y Treatment y Buddhist: noble eightfold path y Psychology: counseling, therapy, medication
Positive Psychology Pleasant Life
Good Life
Psychiatry/ Mathematics/ Bio-Chemistry Psychology Physics
Positive feelings & emotions Healthy living
Meaningful Life
‘Buddhism’
Immersion Absorption Flow
Philosophic
Meaning Purpose Transcendence
‘Pros’ for Science ‐> Buddhism y Therapeutic and side‐effects of meditation identified. y Most effective practices determined y Myths debunked from religious Buddhism y Science broadened to cover subjective topics
‘Cons’ for Science ‐> Buddhism y May not be feasible y May not be desirable (narrowing of Buddhism)? y May promote intellectual discussion rather than a way of life y May not develop transpersonal aspects (beyond ego) y May disregard ethical considerations y May not develop wisdom at expense of compassion
Hard to do by oneself.. “So, in this book, the subject – neurologist – and investigator are one and the same person. It is rare today to find this kind of a clinical autobiography” James H. Austin, Zen and The Brain
Is Psychology Scientific? y Most definitions of psychology consider it a science y Tests theories with evidence y Degree of objectivity (many studies are unbiased) y Prediction, understanding, control
y However y Relatively young science y There have been no scientific revolutions
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+
Scientific Research on Positive and Negative Effects
Transcendental Meditation Research y Over 600 scientific studies y More than 200 independent research institutions y The National Institutes of Health has contributed more
than $21 million to verify the benefits of the TM
TM Skeptics y Within scientific literature, meditation is a poorly
defined and heterogonous collection of methods. y Of more than 3200 articles on meditation in peer‐ reviewed literature, less than 100 (about 3%) were randomised controlled trials (RCTs) y “The Transcendental Meditation program is a money‐ making cult. Its claims to scientific validation are highly misleading.”
Positive Psychological Effects Reductions in: y Stress y Pain y Anxiety y Depression y Mood and self‐esteem problems y Insomnia
Possible Side Effects y Impaired reality testing y Depersonalisation & defenselessness y Relaxation‐induced anxiety y Worsen pre‐existing conditions
y Or possibly just none of the positive effects intended
Science
Mickey Mouse Buddhist ideas Buddhism
2
Past Lives & Rebirth? Mainstream Buddhism
y Some say that rebirth takes place immediately, others that
it takes 49 days. y When a person dies they are reborn and that this process of death and rebirth will continue until Nirvana is attained. y Is this compatible with Darwin’s theory of evolution and the
principle of "heritability”?
Bodhisattvas? Tibetan Buddhism
y Being who is dedicated to
assisting all sentient beings in achieving complete Buddhahood, at the expense of delaying nirvana themselves. y Could science determine whether a being is a genuine Bodhisattva?
1
Kalapas? Abhidharma, Goenka Vispassana
y Smaller than atoms y Eight basic constituents: y
y y
Solid, liquid, calorific, oscillatory, color, smell, taste, and nutriment. The first four are primary qualities The other four are secondary properties that derive from the primaries.
y Is this compatible with modern
physics? S.N. Goenka
3
Siddhis? Indian & Tibetan Buddhism
y One of the many supernatural
powers possessed by siddhas as a result of their practice. y Included among the siddhis are the power of flight, invisibility, the power of attraction and the power to realize one’s every desire. y Is this compatible with scientific research?
3
TM‐Sidhi program Bhagavad Gita
y The TM‐Sidhi program™ is a
meditation technique that was introduced by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in the mid 1970s, following the earlier introduction of the Transcendental Meditation technique.
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
1
3
Maharishi Effect? Transcendental Meditation
y According to Transcendental
Meditation® organisation scientists: "collective meditation causes changes in a fundamental, unified physical field, and...those changes radiate into society and affect all aspects of society for the better" y “the Maharishi effect” has been repeatedly discredited by skeptics
1
Yogic Flying? Transcendental Meditation
y The Transcendental Meditation®
organization claims this is the first of three stages of levitation called "the perfection of leaping like a frog". y Is this compatible with Newtown’s law of gravity? ☺
Leading Tibetan buddhism into a global stage and opening up ancient practices to scientific investigation
Out with pseudoscience! y “Just as I never found the Abhidharma cosmology
convincing, I have never really been persuaded by the Abhidharma acount of human evolution as progressive ‘degreneration’. y Kalapas: “it is evident that the early Buddhist atomic theories and their conception of the smallest indivisible particles of matter are at best crude models”.
Mind & Life Institute y The Mind and Life dialogues between His Holiness
the Dalai Lama and Western scientists were brought to life through a collaboration in 1983. y 1st conference was 1987 & 14th conference was April 2007. y Vision: To establish mutually respectful working collaboration and research partnerships between modern science and Buddhism
At the forefront of scientific research into meditation and a key to bringing together wisdom of east and west
The Shamatha Project y Started in February 2007 y Multi‐million dollar, multi‐disciplinary project y Matched, randomized wait‐list control group y Will take around 2 years to analyse the terabytes of data
Science Experience Statisticians/ neuroscientists
physiologists
Brainwaves
Physiology
Brain activity will be examined using 96channel surface EEG, and changes in ANS activity will be assessed.
Immune system Hormones
psychologists Psychological Condition
Emotions will be assessed with self-report measures, performance on emotion-regulation tasks, and unobtrusively video-recorded facial expressions. Attitudes and social reasoning tendencies will be explored with tests of community problem solving.
practitioners
Meditative Experience
Meditation 10 hours a day for 3 months
Meaning
Journals Participants report focus on bigger life issues and greater harmony Interviews
An influential figure with a philosophy which combines science & spirituality
Integral Theory y 1967 he enrolled as a pre‐med student and experienced
a disillusionment with science. y While practiced Buddhist meditation methods, Wilber does not self‐identify as a Buddhist. y 25 books over the past thirty years.
Narrow Religion, Narrow Science and Broad Science Narrow Science Broad Science
Mathematics/ Physics
Bio-Chemistry
Psychology
Buddhism
Narrow Religion
