A contemplative psychology that laboratories now study, a cosmology of vast cycles, and a modernist rule — stated by the Dalai Lama — that where demonstration contradicts doctrine, doctrine must change; karma and rebirth mark the boundary of that concession.
Tagged: Buddhist
Buddhist traditions meet modern science with a psychology first: the Abhidharma analysis of experience, and meditation practices now studied in neuroscience laboratories, gave Buddhism its current reputation as the science-friendly religion — a reputation scholars date largely to the nineteenth-century ‘Buddhist modernism’ that presented the tradition in rationalist dress for Western audiences. The Dalai Lama’s standing rule — where science demonstrates what Buddhism asserts falsely, Buddhism must change — is the modernist position at its strongest, and his dialogues with scientists (the Mind & Life Institute, from 1987) are its institution.
The fit is real but partial. Cosmology’s vast cycles suit Buddhist time; evolution sits easily beside impermanence; but karma and rebirth are not empirical ornaments to be trimmed at the laboratory’s request, and traditional cosmologies (Mount Meru) have required the same reinterpretive work as Genesis in other hands. On bioethics, Buddhist positions turn on intention (cetanā) and compassion: abortion is morally grave and widely practiced in Buddhist-majority countries, an acknowledged tension the tradition discusses openly.
Recorded Stances in the Register
Artificial intelligence Contested within the tradition
Buddhist analysis asks what AI does to attention and compassion: systems engineered to capture craving are, on the tradition’s diagnosis, suffering machines by design; systems that relieve drudgery free time for practice. Whether a machine could be conscious divides Buddhist philosophers along the lines of their theories of mind.
Evolution by natural selection Selectively adopted
Impermanence and dependent origination fit an evolving cosmos without strain, and the Dalai Lama accepts the biology; the points of friction are karma and rebirth, which Buddhist authorities treat as outside the laboratory’s remit rather than as contradicted by it.
Germline gene editing Selectively adopted
Buddhist evaluation runs on intention (cetanā) and the reduction of suffering (dukkha): therapeutic intent commends editing in principle, while the no-self doctrine complicates ownership arguments — there is no soul-stuff for the genome to violate. Monastic authorities have issued no binding rulings; Buddhist bioethicists are mostly permissive on therapy and skeptical of enhancement markets.
Organ transplantation Selectively adopted
Compassion (karuṇā) commends the gift of the body — the Jātaka tales celebrate the Bodhisattva’s gift of his own flesh — while family-centered practice in East Asian Buddhist cultures long made cadaveric donation rare; the revival of donation in Taiwan was led by the Buddhist Tzu Chi movement, which reframed the body’s usefulness after death as the teaching’s fulfillment.
Surgical and medical abortion Condemned
Abortion breaks the first precept and is a grave act in Buddhist ethics (the monastic code makes procuring it an offense entailing expulsion); in Buddhist-majority societies it is simultaneously a common practice, and teachers discuss the gap openly in the language of compassion for the women concerned — the register records both the doctrine and the tension.
References
- Donald S. Lopez Jr., Buddhism and Science: A Guide for the Perplexed (2008)
- B. Alan Wallace, Contemplative Science (2007)
Related Across the Site
- Classical Tibetan Language — The sacred language of Tibetan Buddhism, into which the whole Indian Buddhist canon was translated.
- Pali Language — The canonical language of Theravada Buddhism, in which the Pali Canon is preserved and recited.
- Sanskrit Language — The sacred language of Hinduism and a scriptural language of Buddhism and Jainism: Vedic first, then the classical language of Indian theology.
- St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology Library — An open-access, multi-author theological reference with advanced articles on Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.
- Five Precepts (Pancasila) Prayer or Creed — Five voluntary training rules — against killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, false speech, and intoxicants — undertaken by lay Buddhists.
- Metta Sutta Prayer or Creed — The Buddha's discourse on loving-kindness, chanted as a blessing and a protection.
- Refuge Prayer (Tisarana) Prayer or Creed — The formula of going for refuge to the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha — the act that makes a person a Buddhist.
- Buddhism World View — Buddhism teaches that suffering comes from craving and ignorance; by following the Buddha's Eightfold Path, a person can awaken and be freed from rebirth.