Can I adapt Buddha’s teachings into science?

Upvote:0

"Arising and Vanishing trillion times per second (Aniccam Dukkham Anatta)" and "Imagination of them, arising&vanishing (Pannatti/Sammati)" are basis of every thing.

So, you can see science inside Dhamma.

However, there are many other Dhamma which still out of reach for science, so you can't use pure science to understand Dhamma. It's like when Einstein begin to explain his theory, he need the other's trust first before the others allow his theory into their heart.

For the example, the fastest and smallest element is Arising and Vanishing Dhamma, neither light nor particle, you can't see it without Mastery Jhana and the Buddha's teaching because nothing could be faster than mass except mind, etc.

Or another example, the ordinary don't know how much the past Karma is effecting their only this life until they see the first moment (in trillion time persecond) of life and their last moments of previous life (cutupapata) previous of previous, so they still think they can control everything by only this latest life effort. They have misunderstand whether their only latest life effort has power more than the uncountable past lives efforts. This misunderstood let them argue and battle to each others to finish their goal because they don't understand the truth at the end whether "the uncountable past lives karmas is the judge for the winner and looser of the battle, not their only latest life karma". When they don't know this truth the lower past lives' power have misunderstood they can win the battle by the only latest life karma then start the battle instead of doing new karma to be win in the next lives, etc.

By the example, you can see that you need trust in the Jhana Mastery who memorized Tipitaka first.

Upvote:0

The Dhamma will "destroy" any refuge in what ever house within the world, and will also newer function as a home outwardly. When put into homes, stands, it disappears. So why does one try to maintain, decorate dirt with gold?

Upvote:0

Buddhist meditation has been used in science as the basis for developing mindfulness-based medical therapies like MBSR and MBCT. Please see below for details.

While this answer focuses on mindfulness-based medical therapies that are derived from Buddhist meditation techniques, it does not directly promote original Buddhist meditation practices, for medical therapy.

This Feb 2015 article from Huffington Post reports that:

Mindfulness research pioneer and founder of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Jon Kabat-Zinn, who was in the audience at Davos, stood up at the end of the conversation to share his thoughts on the mindful revolution in mental healthcare, which he noted has been well underway for several decades. As Kabat-Zinn explained, research and testimonials from patients and clinicians suggest that we can turn "the medication down and the meditation up."

"We’ve seen this in the clinical domain for many years. People, in concert with their physicians... actually going off their medications for pain, for anxiety, for depression, as they begin to learn the self-regulatory elements of mindfulness," said Kabat-Zinn. "They discover that the things that used to be symptomatically problematic for them are no longer arising at the same level."

Patients, in concert with their physicians, could seek to try two therapies derived from Buddhist mindfulness meditation techniques, namely, the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). More information can be found here and here.

MBSR was founded by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn. You can find his books here. His book that talks about MBSR is "Full Catastrophe Living".

Another interesting book by Kabat-Zinn is "The Mind's Own Physician: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama on the Healing Power of Meditation".

MBCT description:

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is designed to help people who suffer repeated bouts of depression and chronic unhappiness. It combines the ideas of cognitive therapy with meditative practices and attitudes based on the cultivation of mindfulness. The heart of this work lies in becoming acquainted with the modes of mind that often characterize mood disorders while simultaneously learning to develop a new relationship to them. MBCT was developed by Zindel Segal, Mark Williams and John Teasdale, based on Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program.

There is a TEDx Talk video by Dr. Zindel Segal, which explains MBCT and provides research evidence.

The three founders of MBCT and Kabat-Zinn also published a book called "The Mindful Way Through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness".

The 10th Global Conference on Buddhism (17 - 18 June 2017 in Toronto, Canada) had the theme of "Neuroscience and Mental Health: Making a Mindful Connection". You can find videos from it on their Youtube channel. There were three neuroscientists who presented on Day 1, Session 3. You can find a video of that here.

Upvote:1

Buddhist teachings talk about the physics of the mind, and mind's interpretation of matter. So, its natural to draw parallels between branches of physics and Buddhism. But, there is a significant difference between scientific approach and Buddhism. Buddhist teachings are eternal, and non changing, and can be applied to all times (akaliko). However, scientific findings are evolving and changing over time. So, drawing parallels between a changing science and constant Buddhist teachings will leave you confused.

Maybe, when the scientists have concluded their findings where there is nothing more to find or clarify, both science and Buddhism could be looking at similar results.

Broadly, you can look at it this way; science is still a journey, where Buddhism is already at the destination.

Upvote:1

Can I adapt Buddha’s teaching into science ?

I had quite a lot of education in physics, at school, and I think that perhaps you should not.

I think that the Buddha's teaching has almost nothing to say about the speed of light, about electro-magnetism, aero-dynamics, materials science, microelectronics, or anything else that's the usual kind of subject of modern physics.

I fear that claiming that Buddha’s teaching anticipates modern physics might be a discreditable claim, and therefore even risks inviting discredit on the teaching itself (as well as being not very good as physics).

I think that the subject and purpose of the teaching is other than physics.

How do you think my small attempt to bring Buddha and science together holds ?

Well ... science does consider it important whether "an experiment is repeatable", so your attempt sounds relevant.

I'm not sure anyone claims that an experiment is "repeatable forever", I think that physics predicts that the whole universe (or at least every discernable "thing" in it) will end eventually (one way or another).

More post

Search Posts

Related post