Philosophy of Buddhism Final

Ethics and Buddhism
Perhaps both the greatest strength and weakness of humanity is the overconfidence that we have considered all the options and picked the best course of action. Although this anthropocentric view has led us to discoveries in science that have made life for some convenient to a fault, we have failed to forecast the consequences of our actions and as a result are on the verge of ecocatastrophe. Humans easily forget that they are humans trying to understand the world from a human perspective. Not only do we “have a dangerous tendency to turn the visions we construct of ourselves into self-fulfilling prophecies,” we also have a tendency to forget the rest of the life on the planet and that our very survival depends on its survival. (Gyatso 115) Many concepts of Buddhism, such as suffering, emptiness, impermanence, codependent origination, and meditation are complementary to the propagation of ethics in the realm of science.
Buddhism is unlike other religions in that the Buddha instructed his followers to seek the truth for themselves and to test things and to not believe anything until they had completely examined it for themselves and found it to be true. This is very similar to the scientific method of testing hypotheses. However, “science deals with empirical facts but not with metaphysics and ethics, whereas for Buddhism, critical inquiry into all three is essential.” (Gyatso 35) This omission of insight in science is obviously problematic and is to blame for many of the world’s problems today, including social inequality and global warming. Scientific materialism is rampant in today’s information era, combined with the heavy reliance of Western thought on mathematics and logic, the risk of humans being “reduced to nothing more than biological machines” is very real. (Gyatso 13) Science isn’t all bad, though. Science has alleviated human physical suffering in many ways.
Another commonality that science and Buddhism share is seemingly contradictory concepts. Quantum physics and The Two Truths both contain knowledge that is counterintuitive. However, just because they don’t seem to make any sense doesn’t lessen their merit. Actually, humans rely too heavily on their own understanding of the world. It seems the more knowledgeable a person becomes, the more that person realizes how little knowledge they have. The opposite also holds true. In fact, people who score badly on tests tend to overestimate how well they did whereas people who score higher tend to estimate their performance more accurately. Since the majority of the seven-billion-person world is uneducated, there are a lot of people running around that are overconfident in their view of how the world functions and what life is; but we all do the best we can with what we have. Even though quantum physics and The Two Truths are not widely understood, they give us something of a challenge to master and also a basis for further knowledge about the world.
One major contribution that Buddhism can offer to science is the concept of The Three Jewels – emptiness, impermanence, and codependent origination. The universe (and beyond) is empty because we cannot see the true reality of it. We know solid objects are made up of atoms, but atoms contain lots of empty space, and if the whole universe is made up of atoms, that constitutes an immeasurable amount of empty space. The universe and everything in it is impermanent, as far as we can conceive. It is constantly changing and to the best of our knowledge there is nothing that lasts forever. Everything in the universe depends on everything else. This is something that humans either never arrive at or easily forget. Codependent origination refers to the concept that there are not “any metaphysically distinct and independently existing beings”. (Laumakis 129) In other words, we are all interconnected and every thought is capable of changing the course of the universe because thoughts have the potential to bring about actions. So, knowing that we do not know all there is to know about the universe, that nothing in the universe is permanent, and that every action we take has the capability of changing the course of the universe should affect the way we live our lives. Sadly, it does not, and I’m not sure that anyone really knows why. “Impermanence is chosen as a worthy object of meditation in Buddhism because, although we may understand it intellectually, we mostly do not behave as though we have integrated this awareness.” (Gyatso 155) We are easily deluded into false ideals. Over-consumption, credit, eating disorders, indifference towards the suffering of others and hate crimes are just a few of the things that come to mind.
Perhaps we’re just not understanding the true meaning of life. First of all, the concept of infinity is unfathomable. Take for example the phrase, “if ‘untold’ worlds are reduced to atoms and each atom contains ‘untold’ worlds, still the numbers of world systems will not be exhausted.” (Gyatso 89) If this is true, then our universe must be relative, just like time and space. However, we haven’t yet learned what its relative to. Strictly speaking from a physical standpoint, if there was an end to the world, there would have to be something after that end, and after that, and so on. So, if a cause outside of the universe we know created the universe, then that cause must exist in another universe, and so on. As if that isn’t enough to contemplate, at some point interactive life evolved, which brought intentional actions along with it. I say interactive because as far as we know a rock could be alive. “When [a] universe has evolved to a stage where it can support the life of sentient beings, its fate becomes entangled with the karma of the beings who will inhabit it….this would suggest (from a Buddhist perspective) that even the laws of physics are entangled with the karma of the sentient beings that will arise in that universe.” (Gyatso 91-92) Is it truly the intent that is karmic? Or is it the action? Let’s say I kill a pesky gnat flying around my face. Will I be instilling bad karma by killing the gnat, or am I actually helping out natural selection by killing those stupid enough to fly around my face? And if it is both, then there is one point over which science and Buddhism would not agree. If someone was attacked by an animal and came out of the situation with some cool scars to talk about, isn’t that completely different than someone who is permanently and horrifically disfigured to the point that no one can look at them without difficulty? Even though the Dalai Lama says, “[i]ntentions result in acts, which result in effects that condition the mind toward certain traits and propensities, all of which may give rise to further intentions and actions,” I think I disagree. (Gyatso 109) I can only assume that the initial intention of scientific experiment was for a greater good; however, one can only be as good as their knowledge allows them to be.
Perhaps we’re just behaving like animals. Humans think they are superior, but, “the only way [Darwin’s natural selection] hypothesis can be verified is to observe the characteristics of those mutations that have survived. So, in a sense, we are stating simply this: ‘Because these genetic mutations have survived, they are the ones that had the greatest chance of survival’.” (Gyatso 111-112) Autism is becoming a popular genetic mutation. If it were to become a dominant genetic mutation, wouldn’t that help out the planet? People with autism lack social skills, and perhaps would be less inclined to reproduce because of this. If autism became the dominant genetic mutation, the world population might decline sufficiently enough to prevent ecocide and collapse. What about the other genetic mutations that are currently considered diseases and birth defects. Are they really negative attributes, or are they part of an evolutionary process that we don’t understand? “It leaves open the question of whether this randomness is best understood as an objective feature of reality or better understood as indicating some kind of hidden causality.” (Gyatso 104)
As one can infer from just a little bit of exploration, there are many unanswerable questions in life. There are also many actions we take on a daily basis that are detrimental to our very existence. This is where Buddhism can help. Buddhism offers the practice of meditation and the philosophy of compassion. Meditation allows for a fuller observation of an object than would normally be afforded. Meditation offers to scientists the opportunity to train the mind in order to allow for more well-thought-out thought experiments. Meditation also restores attention span, which is so important in the industrialized, attention-deficit nations of today. Although scientists do not generally agree that pure thought can effect a chemical reaction in the brain, Buddhists have discovered that “happiness is something that we can cultivate deliberately through mental training that affects the brain.” (Gyatso 145) Scientists are wary of first-person experience being used to explain reality, but third-person data collection isn’t giving us all the answers either. Just as Western thought separates emotion from logic, it also doubts the reliability of first-person data. Either Western theory or Eastern theory, or both could be right, but at this point we don’t know enough about the world to discriminate. This is why the convergence of science and Buddhism could prove to be so beneficial. The Dalai Lama has even established some guidelines that may ease the transition, such as, “[a]ll meditatively valid subjective experiences must be verifiable through repetition by the same practitioner and through other individuals being able to attain the same state by the same practice.” (Gyatso 134)
As noted previously, science has eased much of the physical human suffering in the world. It has brought convenience, pain relief, cures to diseases, product safety, and many other benefits to humanity. All of these benefits have come at a price, possibly one as high as our very existence. We have modified the genes of the foods we eat, but we don’t understand the full consequences of that action yet. The food we eat interacts with our body in ways we cannot fully understand. Because we do not know the full nature of reality, we cannot realistically say that we know everything that an apple is made of. We know it has sugars and fiber and vitamins and micronutrients, but is that really everything that an apple is made up of? It could be, but it may not be. Things we do not even know that are in a genetically modified apple can affect us in ways that we might not understand, just as we don’t understand what is causing such an epidemic as autism in industrialized nations. Genetic manipulation is frightening. “The evolution of the human brain has occurred over millions of years. By actively manipulating the gene, we are on the cusp of forcing an unnaturally quick rate of change in animals and plants as well as our own species.” (Gyatso 188) Instead of using science to try to alleviate the world’s problems, much money is being spent on technology to further capitalism. It is the powerful and wealthy, not the compassionate and wise, who are controlling the world. The gap between these two groups is widening. As the affluent find ways to better their own self-indulgent causes, and the powerful figure out better ways to control, the social inequality increases and more intolerance and hatred is spurred.
The Dalai Lama is calling for the use of ethics in science, but unfortunately ethics, like global sustainability, is not profitable. The need for instant gratification has usurped the need for species survival. However, his warning to “trust our instinctive feelings of revulsion, as these arise out of our basic humanity….The willingness to step across such natural thresholds is what often leads humanity to the commission of horrific atrocities” will be heard by some. (Gyatso 192) Those that hear it must take action if any change is to be effected. Actions would include finding ways to make ethical science marketable and profitable, teaching others, and living by example, amongst others. The knowledge of Buddhism is out there for anyone who chooses to own it. For scientists around the world, that might not be such a bad idea.






Works Cited

Gyatso, Tenzin, Fourteenth Dalai Lama. The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality, New York: Morgan Road Books.
Laumakis, Stephen J. An Introduction to Buddhist Philosophy. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.