Vaj <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: A Dialogue on The Universe in a Single Atom
Mind and Life XIV: A Dialogue on The Universe in a Single Atom
April 9-13, 2007, Dharamsala, India
In addition to being a scientific autobiography, the Dalai Lama's
book The Universe in a Single Atom: the Convergence of Science and
Spirituality highlights those issues he feels are most important in
the "convergence of science and spirituality." These issues and
questions will form the focus of our Mind and Life XIV meeting, and
will become the foundation on which a group of scientists will
develop a deep dialogue with the Dalai Lama and other Buddhist
scholar-practitioners.
In his book, the Dalai Lama includes ethical, philosophical and
even metaphysical reflections prompted by science. These are both
specific and general in character. For example, he asks whether
science is the sole reliable source of knowledge, which raises the
question of the limits of scientific knowledge, reductionism and its
ramifications. In addition, each field of science inevitably raises
ethical issues that must be addressed. Advances in molecular biology
and genetics have spawned a biotech industry which confronts profound
ethical dilemmas on a daily basis. Comparable issues also exist for
atomic physics and cognitive science. In addition to fundamental
scientific questions we will engage and address the larger
philosophical, ethical and spiritual issues these provoke.
For more complete information about the Dialogue on "The Universe in
a Single Atom" please please dowload the brochure PDF at
www.mindandlife.org/MLXIV.brochure.pdf.
Participants
Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness, the XIV Dalai Lama
Richard J. Davidson, Ph.D., Vilas Research Professor and William
James Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin-
Madison
John Dunne, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Religion, Emory
University
Paul Ekman, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology Emeritus in the Department
of Psychiatry at the University of California at San Francisco;
Consultant
R. Adam Engle, J.D., M.B.A., CEO and Chairman of the Mind and Life
Institute, and General Coordinator of the Mind and Life conferences
Martha Farah, Ph.D., Walter H. Annenberg professor in the Natural
Sciences, Director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience,
University of Pennsylvania
George Greenstein, Ph.D., Sidney Dillon Professor of Astronomy,
Amherst College
Matthieu Ricard, Ph.D., Author and Buddhist monk at Shechen Monastery
in Kathmandu and French interpreter since 1989 for His Holiness the
Dalai Lama
Bennett M. Shapiro, M.D., Biotechnology Consultant
Wolf Singer, M.D., Ph.D., Director at the Max Planck Institute for
Brain Research in Frankfurt and Founding Director of the Frankfurt
Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS)
Evan Thompson, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy, York University, Toronto
Anton Zeilinger, Ph.D., Professor at the Physics Department of Vienna
University and at the Institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum
Information of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
Arthur Zajonc, Ph.D., Andrew Mellon Professor of Physics and
Interdisciplinary Studies, Amherst College
Interpreters
Geshe Thupten Jinpa, Ph.D., President and chief editor for The
Classics of Tibet Series produced by the Institute of Tibetan
Classics in Montreal; Adjunct Faculty of Religious Studies, McGill
University, Montreal
Geshe Dorje Damdul, English interpreter for the Dalai Lama;
Dharamsala, India
THE DIALOGUE
DAY ONE
April 9, 2007 â Part I: The Buddhism-Science Collaboration and the
Limits of Scientific Knowledge: Exposing the Fracture Points
Dialogue Leader: Evan Thompson
While science has made phenomenal progress in physics, cosmology and
neuroscience, the juxtaposition of questions posed by the Buddhist
account unmasks many significant gaps in our scientific
understanding. Many of these gaps are regarded by some segments of
the scientific community not as fundamental limits in our
understanding but rather as the current state of progress in
particular fields of science, while the Buddhist account highlights
some of these gaps as fundamental, such as the conjecture that the
brain is necessary and sufficient for the expression of mind. We wish
to know where the Dalai Lama is committed to the belief that crucial
aspects of human nature can not be understood, ever, scientifically?
That there are mysteries that will remain mysteries?
The philosopher Evan Thompson will open the meeting with a
consideration of some of the key issues that frame this debate and
will expose the significant fracture points that distinguish
traditional scientific accounts from the Buddhist view.
Part II: Atomism, Emptiness, Interdependence and the Role of the
Observer in Quantum Physics and Buddhism
Dialogue Leaders: Anton Zeilinger and Arthur Zajonc
Quantum physics and Buddhism both raise questions concerning the
nature of causality, the constitution of objects, the nature of
emptiness and the importance of interconnectedness. As in Buddhism,
physics contrasts the common-sense view of the world with a much more
subtle and complex ontology and epistemology. In the third chapter of
his book the Dalai Lama takes up these themes and relates them to the
Middle Way school of Mahayana Buddhism. He writes, for example, of
the importance assigned to the observer in both Buddhism (through the
idea of dependent origination) and quantum theory, and he explores
the crucial role of interconnectedness in ethics and ontology. How
far are these two traditions similar and different and what are the
larger implications of these ideas for life?
DAY TWO
April 10, 2007 â Cosmology and the Relativity of Space and Time
Dialogue Leaders: George Greenstein and Arthur Zajonc
Two related themes emerge from the Dalai Lama's writings on
cosmology: 1) The relativity of time and space as developed within
both Einstein's relativity theory and Buddhist philosophy. For
example the Dalai Lama refers to the arguments of the Sautrantika
School and Nagarjuna concerning the relative nature of time, and to
the Kalchakra system's concept of "space particles" as the source of
material existence from out of emptiness or the vacuum. This latter
view echoes modern ideas of fluctuations of the quantum vacuum and
the inflationary theory and merit further discussion.
2) The Big Bang and the Buddhist idea of a beginningless universe.
Like modern cosmology, Buddhism endorses an evolutionary cosmology,
but for logical reasons it is held to be one that is without
beginning or end. Moreover there are a "billion-fold" universes in
various stages of development. One feature of Buddhist cosmology is
the central place of sentient beings whose evolution (karma) is
served by the development of a world system. In a sense, their view
is "anthropic," that is centered on human development.
DAY THREE
April 11, 2007 â Evolution, Altruism and the Fundamental Nature of
Human Emotion
Dialogue Leaders: Ben Shapiro, Paul Ekman, Richard Davidson and
Matthieu Ricard
Is evolution driven by random mutation and natural selection?
How can the adaptations of species best be understood?
Can basic evolutionary principles be used to understand the
fundamental origins of basic human cognitive and emotional competences?
Is the fundamental nature of emotion positive, compassionate and
altruistic?
How might evolutionary accounts of emotion accommodate these virtuous
emotional qualities?
To what extent is any particular emotion (e.g., anger) destructive or
constructive, or can any emotion be enacted constructively or
destructively?
What is the role of subjective experience of emotion in the overall
function of emotion? Buddhism places great emphasis on the role of
experience while modern psychological and neurobiological accounts of
emotion place less emphasis on the experiential component. Buddhism
underscores the importance of suffering.
Is there some teleological significance to suffering?
Are there neurobiological parallels?
Buddhist accounts emphasize training the mind as a strategy for
improving emotional qualities. What are the scientific bases of these
practices and what do these practices imply for the stability and
plasticity of emotional traits?
DAY FOUR
April 12, 2007 â Consciousness
Dialogue Leaders: Wolf Singer, Richard Davidson and Evan Thompson
Buddhist psychology and philosophy make strong claims about the
primary of subjective experience and from this perspective, Buddhist
accounts have argued that there are three fundamentally distinct
features of our world: 1. matter comprised of physical objects; 2.
mind comprised of subjective experiences; and 3. abstract composites
comprised of mental formations. Western science has grounded the
study of consciousness and subjective experience in terms of the
functions of the brain. The Buddhist account questions the adequacy
of this reductionistic proposition and suggests that there remains a
large explanatory gap. As His Holiness has asked, how do we explain
the emergence of consciousness? What marks the transition from
sentient to non-sentient beings?
DAY FIVE
April 13, 2007 â Buddhist-Science Collaboration, the Mind-Brain
Relationship, and Neuroethics
Dialogue Leader: Martha Farah
The Buddhist approach with its emphasis on the central role of
relieving suffering and promoting compassion has at its root a strong
ethical stance toward the acquisition of knowledge. The Buddhists ask
what is the purpose of further knowledge acquisition. In the case of
neuroscience, how does our growing understanding of brain function
illuminate the nature of sentience, suffering, compassion, and moral
agency? How might such new knowledge be put to more widespread use in
promoting a secular ethics that shares many of the same goals as the
Buddhist approach?
Philosophical and Historical Dimensions of the Dialogue
Evan Thompson
Throughout the meeting we will be aware of the philosophical issues
that are implicitly at stake, and also the historical moment the
dialogue occupies. The philosophical issues will range from the
epistemological and ontological to the ethical and metaphysical.
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