East and West working together to understand the mind

One of the more intriguing collaborations that I have found is between neuroscientists and monks. I first heard about this partnership when reading The Art of Happiness by the Dalia Lama. The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddism and one could argue for all Budhhists in the world, has chosen to embrace the science community. He became one of the cofounders of the Mind and Life Institute in 1987, along with a neuroscientist and entrepreneur. The organization's purpose is to promote dialogue and collaborative research between science and Buddhism.

The Dalai Lama has actively encouraged monks and scientists to work together to study meditation. Neuroscientists have been interested in understanding what happens to the brain during meditation and how the brains of monks, who meditate on average 10 hours a day, may differ from those of non-monks. Many studies have shown that training the mind through meditation can in fact change the brain (i.e. neuroplasticity). Click here and here for some articles that discuss some of these findings.

In his book, The Universe in a Single Atom, the Dalai Lama looks at how scientific inquiry and Buddhism both have the objective to understand the nature of reality through critical investigation. While there are some central disagreements such as science's rejection of reincarnation and the Dalai Lama's rejection that consciousness is a combination of chemical reactions, the Dalai Lama seems unthreatened. In fact, he even goes as far to say that if science disproves Buddhism, then Buddhists must accept the findings. Listen to or read this this NPR piece on about the controversy over Dalai Lama, a nonscientist, addressing neuroscientists about the neuroscience of meditation.

Do you think these two worldviews be combined/united? Ultimately, I think both models show a strong overlap but use a different language and framework to describe the world. In any case, it is nice for a change to see religion and science, two diametrically opposed fields, taking a moment to learn from one another.