Oct 07 2009
on Zen Buddhism’s relation to modern scientific findings on happiness, the brain, reality
Disclaimer: I began writing this as a response to a comment on this video, now decided to finish my thoughts. I first published this as a Facebook note.
I find the stories of correlation between old folk-scientific/philosophical beliefs and new accurate empirical evidence fascinating. How did those from the past stumble upon scientific accuracy?
It is very curious how durable many portions of the Zen Buddhist philosophy have proven throughout time, especially when considered alongside other folk philosophies of life, theories of happiness, religions — which were all conceived during the (relative) intellectual darkness of the past.
Of mild interest, though not the topic of my post, you will find that the stories of contradiction between folk beliefs and new empirical evidence are usually not told or largely ignored in popular literature — I suspect because they would make an important group of people blush, and might make those same important people think unkindly of those story-writers and subsequent story-tellers, considering them (and anyone in the non-folk-belief-following outgroup) as cold-hearted horrible-spiritless people who are advocating a world which would be bereft of happiness and meaning.
Two things to ponder when considering the case of Buddhism’s non-contradictory relationship with the emerging neuroscientific position on happiness, and, to a degree, science in general:
(1) Buddhism began with a null hypothesis (no presuppositions) and allowed rational thinking explicitly via Buddha’s Kalama Sutta, or Charter of Free Thinking
(2) The brain sciences are becoming powerful and mature enough to produce compelling empirical evidence about the basis of human nature, humans’ folk theories, and the comically un-mystical origins of mystic theories and stories.
More on these topics:
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.html Video of Harvard University psychology professor Dan Gilbert talking about the neuroscience of happiness and the inaccurate folk theories most people hold about the nature of happiness.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalama_Sutta Zen Buddhism’s story expressing Buddha’s insistence on a proper assessment of evidence versus reliance on faith, hearsay or speculation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_and_science Buddhism’s relation to scientific inquiry, neuro/psychological findings and non-armchair philosophy.
(Seems less relevant when reposting this outside of Facebook, but I’ll include anyway:) Jon Sellon, I’m tagging you in this note because I am remembering in our confirmation class when you were the one person who expressed that you weren’t ready to be confirmed and wanted to explore other options — specifically, Buddhism! Boats of respect, that was not the easy thing to do.
