Looking back over seventy years of my life, I see that my personal acquaintance with science began in a completely pre-scientific world, where the emergence of any technology seemed like a true miracle. I would guess that my fascination with science is still based on this naive admiration for human achievements. Having thus begun, my journey into science led me to consider very complex problems, such as the impact of science on the general understanding of the world, its ability to change the lives of people and nature itself, and its consequences in the form of intractable moral problems arising from new scientific achievements. But at the same time, I also do not forget about all the amazing and wonderful opportunities that science brings to the world.
My acquaintance with science has greatly enriched some aspects of my own Buddhist worldview. Einstein’s theory of relativity, which has received experimental confirmation, provides me with an empirical basis for my understanding of the views
Nagarjuna on the relativity of time. The unusually detailed picture of the behavior of subatomic particles at the micro-level consideration of matter vividly resembles the Buddhist idea of the dynamic, transient nature of all phenomena. The study of the human genome is consistent with the Buddhist view of the fundamental unity of all people.
What is the place of science in the general space of human aspirations? She explores everything – from the smallest amoeba to the complex neurophysiological systems of the human body, from the problem of the emergence of the world and the origin of life on Earth to the very nature of matter and energy. Science’s ability to explore reality is truly amazing. It not only revolutionizes our knowledge, but also opens up completely new ways of development for it. Science even intrudes into such complex issues as the problem of consciousness, which is a key characteristic of living beings. The question arises: can science lead to a comprehensive understanding of the entire spectrum of existence and human existence?
According to the Buddhist point of view, the result of a complete and correct understanding of reality should be not only a consistent description of it itself, our means of comprehension and the place that consciousness occupies in this process, but also knowledge of the actions that need to be performed. In the modern scientific paradigm, only that knowledge that arises as a result of the strict application of the empirical method, consisting of observation, inference and subsequent experimental verification of the resulting conclusion, is considered reliable. This method also includes quantitative analysis and measurement, experimental replication, and independent verification of results. Many essential aspects of reality, as well as some key elements of human existence, such as the ability to distinguish between good and evil, spirituality, creativity, that is, precisely what we consider to be the main human values, inevitably fall outside the scope of scientific consideration. Scientific knowledge in the form in which it currently exists does not contain completeness. I believe that it is very important to recognize this fact and clearly understand where the boundaries of scientific knowledge lie. Only this will enable us to sincerely recognize the need to unite scientific knowledge with the fullness of human experience. Otherwise, our understanding of the world, including our own existence, will be reduced to a set of facts established by science, which will lead to reductionism, that is, to a materialistic and even nihilistic picture of the world.
I’m not against reductionism as such. In fact, we owe many of our successes precisely to the reductionist approach, which largely determines the methods of scientific experiment and analysis. The problem arises when reductionism, which is the essential method in science, is applied to metaphysical questions. This is an expression of the usual tendency to confuse means and ends, which often occurs when a method exhibits a high degree of effectiveness. In Buddhist texts there is a very appropriate comparison for such situations: if someone points a finger at the moon, one should not look at the tip of the finger, but where it is pointing.
I hope that in the pages of this book I was able to show the possibility of taking science seriously and accepting the reliability of its empirical data without necessarily leaning towards scientific materialism in my worldview. I tried to argue for the need for a new picture of the world, rooted in science, but at the same time not rejecting the full richness of human nature and the value of methods of knowledge other than those accepted in science. I say this because I am deeply convinced that there is a close connection between our conceptual understanding of the world, our vision of human existence and its possibilities, and the moral values that determine our behavior. Our ideas about ourselves and about the surrounding reality inevitably influence our attitude towards other people and the whole world, as well as our way of dealing with them. And this is the main question of ethics and morality.
Scientists have a special kind of responsibility, namely a moral responsibility to ensure that science best serves the cause of strengthening humanity in the world. What they do, each in their own field of study, has an impact on the lives of each of us. For certain historical reasons, scientists have earned more respect in society than representatives of many other professions. But this respect ceases to be the basis for absolute faith in the correctness of their actions. There have already been too many tragic events in the world, directly or indirectly related to the development of technology, for such a belief to remain unchanged. It is enough to mention man-made disasters associated with chemical and radioactive contamination, such as the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, accidents at nuclear power plants in Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, the release of poisonous gas at a plant in the Indian city of Bhopal, or environmental problems, such as the destruction of the ozone layer.
My dream is that we will be able to combine our spirituality and kindness of universal human values with the course of development of science and technology in human society. Despite their different approaches, at their core, science and spirituality strive for a common goal – the improvement of human life. At its best, science finds ways for people to achieve prosperity and happiness. Speaking in Buddhist terms, this orientation is characterized by wisdom combined with compassion. Likewise, spirituality is man’s turning to our inner resources to understand who we are in the deepest sense and how we should organize our lives in accordance with our highest ideals. And it is also a combination of wisdom and compassion.
Since the emergence of modern science, there has been a competition between science and spirituality as between the two main sources of knowledge and well-being. Sometimes relations between these two movements became friendly, and sometimes very estranged, even to the point that many considered them completely incompatible. Now, in the first decade of the new century, spirituality and science have the opportunity to come closer than ever before and begin a very promising collaboration to help humanity meet the challenges ahead. This is our common task. And let each of us, as a member of a single human family, contribute to making this cooperation possible. This is my most heartfelt request.
Read online. The book “The Universe in One Atom: Science and Spirituality in the Service of the World.” Tenzin Gyatso
Content
Preface. Introduction
1. Meditation
2. My encounter with science
3. Emptiness, relativity and quantum physics
4. The Big Bang Theory and the Buddhist Beginningless Cosmos
5. Evolution, karma and the world of living beings
6. The problem of the emergence of consciousness
7. Towards a science of consciousness
8. Factors of consciousness
9. Ethical problems of modern genetics
Conclusion. Science, Spirituality and Humanity