By Ben FeldenBluegum Sangha

Wednesday 26th March 2008

Questions re. Buddhism & Science

How does one determine the validity of Buddhist practices and understandings? 

By faith, intuition or logic. With reference to a lineage of gurus or to scientific authorityPerhaps a mixture or all of this?

Questions re. Science & Meditation

What are the physiological and psychological effects?Do they endure long after a retreat?Are particular kinds of practices better suited for particular types of people?

TopicsA Simplistic Model (NOMA)Overlapping Magisteria of Mind (OMM!)

Where people sit in relation to OMM model

Effects of MeditationBuddhism & Psychology Buddhist Pseudoscience

Thought Leaders (Gyatso, Wallace, Wilber)

Religion /philosophyScience empirical (facts and theories)

meaning and moral value

Non‐Overlapping Magisteria (NOMA)Rock of Ages: Science & religion in the fullness of life

Magesteria

Science

Religion

Stephen Jay Gould 

Religion(philosophy)

Science(materialism)

The Mind

Science & Mind

PhysicsAstronomy

Mind/ Personal LevelCosmic Level

CognitivePsychology

BiologyMedicineLife Science

Physiological Level

Psychiatry/ PsychologyBio-Chemistry

Mathematics/Physics

‘Hard’ Science ‘Soft’ ScienceScience’s Broadening

Religion & Mind

Mind/ Personal LevelCosmic Level Physiological Level

Psychiatry/ PsychologyBio-Chemistry

Mathematics/Physics

Christian CosmologyBuddhist Abhidharmacosmology

Christian CreationistsReincarnationVirgin Mary

Buddhist Psychology

MeditationPrayer

Religion’s Retreat

Psychiatry/ Psychology

Buddhism / Meditative Experience

Bio-ChemistryMathematics/Physics

OMM ModelBen Felden (2007) ☺

Science Philosophymeaning and moral valuefacts and

theories

Micro-&Macro- Scopic Consciousness

3rd person / math-based

1st person / language-based

1 2 3 4

Physics ‐> Experience

Experience ‐> Physicse.g. happinesse.g. serotonine.g. alpha

Posture

ExternalWorld

Internal

A game of musical cushions

Psychiatry/ Psychology BuddhismBio-ChemistryMathematics/

Physics

Where People Sit

Materialistic Philosophic

Physicists

Geologists

Traditional Scientists

Modern Tibetan

Buddhists

Buddhist Psychologists, Zen & Insight

Traditional Tibetans & Thai Monks

Mathematicians

Psychology BuddhismBio-ChemistryMathematics/Physics

Mathematicians & Physicists

A. EinsteinD. BohmE. Schroedinger

I. NewtownS. J. Gould

B. RussellA. Whitehead

Mathematicians Physicists

Materialistic Philosophic

Psychiatry/ Psychology

BuddhismBio-ChemistryMathematics/Physics

Psychiatrists & Psychologists

M. LinehanS. Blackmore

Insight & Zen

J. KornfieldJ. Kabat-ZinnM. Epstein

L. J. CozolinoE. Gordon

Psychiatry/ Psychology

BuddhismBio-ChemistryMathematics/Physics

Buddhists

A. WallaceT. Gaytzo

S. Goenka

Tibetan Buddhists

What Tradition?Culture / Tradition Scientist

/ MD Psychologist Agnostic Stance

Religious Stance

Japan ‐ Zen James AustinMarsha Linehan Susan Blackmore

US/UK – Insight Jon Kabat‐Zinn *

Jack KornfieldJohn TeasdaleSylvia BoorsteinMark Epstein

S. Bachelor *Chris Titmus

Tibet ‐ Tibetan Allan Wallace ^ Tenzin Gyatzo Sogyal Rinpoche

India – Hindu/Vedic Deepak Chopra ^ MahrishiGoenka

* Also Zen^ Also some ‘religious’ ideas

Insightful Thoughts ?! ☺

“great pity if Vipassana meditation became another kind of psychotherapy”“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

Using science to extract useful buddhist practices 

for non‐traditional settings... or money‐

making cults?

Psychology Buddhism

Noble Eightfold PathWisdom (panna)

1. Right view – clinical psychology

Ethical Conduct (sila)2. Right Action – Precept 5   ‐ psychopharmacology

Mental Discipline (samadhi)7 & 8. Right mindfulness & Right concentration ‐ cognitive science

Buddhism & PsychologyProblem

Buddhist: sufferingPsychology: distress, disability

EtiologyBuddhist: craving/ignorancePsychology: genetics, childhood development, socialisation

Goal Buddhist: enlightenmentPsychology: normal or higher functioning

TreatmentBuddhist: noble eightfold pathPsychology: counseling, therapy, medication

Positive Psychology

Psychiatry/ Psychology ‘Buddhism’

Bio-ChemistryMathematics/

Physics Philosophic

Pleasant Life Good Life Meaningful Life

ImmersionAbsorption

Flow

MeaningPurpose

Transcendence

Positive feelings & emotions

Healthy living

‘Pros’ for Science ‐> Buddhism

Therapeutic and side‐effects of meditation identified.Most effective practices determinedMyths debunked from religious BuddhismScience broadened to cover subjective topics

‘Cons’ for Science ‐> Buddhism

May not be feasibleMay not be desirable (narrowing of Buddhism)?

May promote intellectual discussion rather than a way of lifeMay not develop transpersonal aspects (beyond ego)May disregard ethical considerationsMay 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?

Most definitions of psychology consider it a scienceTests theories with evidenceDegree of objectivity (many studies are unbiased)Prediction, understanding, control

HoweverRelatively young scienceThere have been no scientific revolutions

Scientific Research on Positive and Negative Effects

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Transcendental Meditation ResearchOver 600 scientific studies More than 200 independent research institutionsThe National Institutes of Health has contributed more than $21 million to verify the benefits of the TM

TM SkepticsWithin scientific literature, meditation is a poorly defined and heterogonous collection of methods.Of more than 3200 articles on meditation in peer‐reviewed literature, less than 100 (about 3%) were randomised controlled trials (RCTs)“The Transcendental Meditation program is a money‐making cult. Its claims to scientific validation are highly misleading.”

Positive Psychological EffectsReductions in:Stress Pain Anxiety Depression Mood and self‐esteem problems Insomnia

Possible Side EffectsImpaired reality testingDepersonalisation & defenselessnessRelaxation‐induced anxietyWorsen pre‐existing conditions

Or possibly just none of the positive effects intended

Mickey Mouse Buddhist ideas

Science

Buddhism

Past Lives & Rebirth?

Some say that rebirth takes place immediately, others that it takes 49 days. When a person dies they are reborn and that this process of death and rebirth will continue until Nirvana is attained.

Is this compatible with Darwin’s theory of evolution and the principle of "heritability”?

Mainstream Buddhism

2

Bodhisattvas?

Being who is dedicated to assisting all sentient beings in achieving complete Buddhahood, at the expense of delaying nirvana themselves.Could science determine whether a being is a genuine Bodhisattva?

Tibetan Buddhism

Kalapas?

Smaller than atomsEight basic constituents:

Solid, liquid, calorific, oscillatory, color, smell, taste, and nutriment.The first four are primary qualitiesThe other four are secondary properties that derive from the primaries.

Is this compatible with modern physics?

S.N. Goenka

Abhidharma, Goenka Vispassana

1

Siddhis?

One of the many supernatural powers possessed by siddhas as a result of their practice.Included among the siddhis are the power of flight, invisibility, the power of attraction and the power to realize one’s every desire.Is this compatible with scientific research?

Indian & Tibetan Buddhism

3

TM‐Sidhi program

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

Bhagavad Gita

3

Maharishi Effect?

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" “the Maharishi effect” has been repeatedly discredited by skeptics 

Transcendental Meditation

1 3

Yogic Flying?

The Transcendental Meditation®  organization claims this is the first of three stages of levitation called "the perfection of leaping like a frog".Is this compatible with Newtown’s law of gravity? ☺

Transcendental Meditation

1

Leading Tibetan buddhism into a global stage and 

opening up ancient practices to scientific investigation

Out with pseudoscience!“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’.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 InstituteThe Mind and Life dialogues between His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Western scientists were brought to life through a collaboration in 1983.1st conference was 1987 & 14th conference was April 2007.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

Started in February 2007Multi‐million dollar, multi‐disciplinary projectMatched, randomized wait‐list control groupWill take around 2 years to analyse the terabytes of data

Science <‐> Experience

Psychological Condition

Meditative Experience

PhysiologyBrainwaves

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.

Immune system Hormones

Brain activity will be examined using 96-channel surface EEG, and changes in ANS activity will be assessed.

Meditation 10 hours a day for 3 months

Meaning

Statisticians/neuroscientists psychologists

JournalsParticipants report focus on bigger life issues and greater harmonyInterviews

practitionersphysiologists

An influential figure with a philosophy which combines 

science & spirituality

Integral Theory

1967 he enrolled as a pre‐med student and experienced a disillusionment with science.While practiced Buddhist meditation methods, Wilber does not self‐identify as a Buddhist.25 books over the past thirty years.

Psychology BuddhismBio-ChemistryMathematics/Physics

Narrow Science

Broad Science

Narrow Religion

Narrow Religion, Narrow Science and Broad Science