| Richard Gere sits in the audience at the Mind and Life conference in Washington . At the conference, the Dalai Lama and top scientists discussed the science and clinical applications of meditation. Washington November 8, 2005 |
| Richard Gere poses for a picture with a Buddhist delegate on the second day of the Mind and Life conference in Washington November 9, 2005. The Dalai Lama and top scientists are discussing the science and clinical applications of meditation at the three-day conference. |
For the Dalai Lama, a Meeting of Brain and Mind
By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 9, 2005;
The Dalai Lama, believed by millions to be the 74th manifestation of Avalokiteshvara, the enlightened Buddha of compassion,
made his way across the stage of DAR Constitution Hall yesterday more as the peasant he was born than the international
icon he has become.
He walked slowly and half-bowed, smiling broadly and with a playful glint in his eye. And why not: The audience of several
thousand -- scientists, meditators, spiritual seekers and monks in scarlet robes -- had gathered for a tutorial that has been
going on for him since he was a young boy. Tibetan religious teachers began the process, but for almost 20 years the Dalai
Lama has actively sought to expand his knowledge of several disciplines of science by attracting top researchers from around
the world to his Indian mountain home to discuss their latest work.
The Dalai Lama at a conference run by the Mind and Life Institute. (By Lois Raimondo -- The Washington Post)
Yesterday's gathering was the second time his sessions with scientists have gone public -- a kind of living-room gathering for
thousands to watch and listen. The 70-year-old Dalai Lama, aka His Holiness, perched at the lectern, spoke briefly about his
boyhood love of technology and science in faraway and then-closed Lhasa, and hinted at the high-minded and sometimes
complex scientific and philosophical discussions to come.
"After these sessions, sometimes I cannot really remember what has been said," he said, a humility that his writings tend to
dispute. "But I think it leaves an imprint in my brain."
How much of an imprint has become a surprisingly controversial issue on the Dalai Lama's 10-day visit to Washington. The
Dalai Lama already is a major religious, political and literary figure, but his emerging role as a scientific leader has for the first
time encountered some significant pushback.
Not at the Constitution Hall gathering, sponsored by the Mind and Life Institute, a group that he helped found. (The official
topic for the three days of discussion will be meditation, and how cutting-edge science is beginning to understand more
about its highly active nature and how it can enhance and heal the human mind and body.)
But trouble looms this weekend at the Washington Convention Center, where the Dalai Lama is scheduled to give an
hour-long keynote address Saturday to the annual convention of the Society for Neuroscience.
A petition drive, begun primarily by Chinese American researchers, seeks to have the Dalai Lama's appearance canceled.
The protesters, who argue that a religious leader should not be given such a prominent role at an important scientific
conference, say they have gathered at least 600 signatures. There have also been competing letters and an editorial in the
journal Nature.
"The presentation of a religious symbol with a controversial political agenda may cause unnecessary controversies,
unwanted press, and significant divisions among SFN members from multiple geographic locations, and with conflicting
religious beliefs and political leanings," reads the petition, which was signed by several hundred non-Chinese researchers
and academics as well.
"Inviting the Dalai Lama to lecture on 'Neuroscience of Meditation' is of poor scientific taste, because it will highlight a subject
with largely unsubstantiated claims and compromised scientific rigor and objectivity at a prestigious meeting attended by
more than 20,000 neuroscientists."
That anti-Dalai Lama effort quickly gave birth to a counter-petition in favor of his address, as well as speculation about the
motives of the original group of petition writers. Relations between China and once-independent Tibet have been badly
strained for half a century, and the Dalai Lama is at the center of the dispute.
"Chinese protests against high-profile visits of the Dalai Lama are routine wherever he travels," said John Ackerly, president
of the International Campaign for Tibet and one of the sponsors of the Dalai Lama's Washington visit. Ackerly said that the
speech is part of a series called "Dialogues Between Neuroscience and Society" and that architect Frank Gehry is scheduled
to be next year's speaker.
"The Dalai Lama has had a long interest in science and has maintained an ongoing dialogue with leading neuroscientists for
more than 15 years," said Carol Barnes, the society's president. "Which is the reason he was invited to speak."
Speaking to reporters before the Mind and Life conference sessions began yesterday, the Dalai Lama said he understood the
controversy: "When people heard that I would be speaking, that meant that the Dalai Lama -- from a 500-year institution that
symbolizes Tibetan Buddhism -- would be meeting with scientists," he said. "Yes, it's a little bit strange. But on the other hand,
when scientists come into our Tibetan monastic institutions, that also looks a little strange."
During yesterday's sessions, the Dalai Lama sat cross-legged in a chair onstage as he listened with other presenters. Each
presenter wore a headset microphone. (The Dalai Lama blew his nose constantly, sometimes into his own mike.)
The Dalai Lama can't simply attend a convention. He requires no Hello-My-Name-Is badge. He is religious leader, student,
attendee, celebrity, exile.
Adam Engle, the president of the Mind and Life Institute, announced that today's afternoon session would start late, as the
Dalai Lama has back-to-back meetings with President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. This pleased
audience members, who cheered -- it's always a good thing for the Tibetan cause when the Dalai Lama gets into the White
House.
His recent book, "The Universe in an Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality," tries to make the case that modern
science and Buddhist thought have surprisingly similar aims, methods and sometimes conclusions -- though he resists
efforts to see the world in purely material terms. (Some of his thoughts about limits to the theory of evolution when it comes to
how life and consciousness began earned him a rather harsh book review in the New York Times, including a suggestion
that he was proposing a Buddhist version of intelligent design.)
During yesterday's session, some of those parallels between Buddhist thought and cutting-edge science were on display.
Wolf Singer, director of the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt, explained how his research has found that
neuronal coordination within the brain is key to human understanding and performance -- a conclusion that Buddhist thought
intuited long ago.
Richard Davidson, a research psychologist at the University of Wisconsin whose pioneering (and peer-reviewed) work on
meditation was also criticized by the petition writers, described research into how "plastic" the brain actually is and how
meditation has been found to change the nature and intensity of brain waves. Stanford's Robert Sapolsky explained research
into the harmful physical and mental effects of stress, and how lab rats given constructive outlets to relieve their stress
suffered fewer problems.
By day's end, it was more clear why the Dalai Lama finds his scientific explorations to be so compelling. What the scientists
were discussing -- and with the help of the Mind and Life Institute are increasingly researching -- is the most current
biological, chemical and psychological findings about how certain kinds of human suffering can be understood and
alleviated. Precisely what might appeal to the man known as the present-day Buddha of compassion.
While politics and religion are always important to the Dalai Lama, aides say, his involvement with science is especially
significant to him. Given the frequent hostility between religious and scientific thought in the United States, many find the Dalai
Lama's explorations into such subjects as quantum physics, or the neuroscience of consciousness, or evolution and the
physical nature of emotions to be remarkable.
And he has been known to back that up: He often says -- and affirmed again in front of yesterday's audience -- that when
science proves that Buddhist scriptures are incorrect, then the scriptures should be rejected.
By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 9, 2005;
The Dalai Lama, believed by millions to be the 74th manifestation of Avalokiteshvara, the enlightened Buddha of compassion,
made his way across the stage of DAR Constitution Hall yesterday more as the peasant he was born than the international
icon he has become.
He walked slowly and half-bowed, smiling broadly and with a playful glint in his eye. And why not: The audience of several
thousand -- scientists, meditators, spiritual seekers and monks in scarlet robes -- had gathered for a tutorial that has been
going on for him since he was a young boy. Tibetan religious teachers began the process, but for almost 20 years the Dalai
Lama has actively sought to expand his knowledge of several disciplines of science by attracting top researchers from around
the world to his Indian mountain home to discuss their latest work.
The Dalai Lama at a conference run by the Mind and Life Institute. (By Lois Raimondo -- The Washington Post)
Yesterday's gathering was the second time his sessions with scientists have gone public -- a kind of living-room gathering for
thousands to watch and listen. The 70-year-old Dalai Lama, aka His Holiness, perched at the lectern, spoke briefly about his
boyhood love of technology and science in faraway and then-closed Lhasa, and hinted at the high-minded and sometimes
complex scientific and philosophical discussions to come.
"After these sessions, sometimes I cannot really remember what has been said," he said, a humility that his writings tend to
dispute. "But I think it leaves an imprint in my brain."
How much of an imprint has become a surprisingly controversial issue on the Dalai Lama's 10-day visit to Washington. The
Dalai Lama already is a major religious, political and literary figure, but his emerging role as a scientific leader has for the first
time encountered some significant pushback.
Not at the Constitution Hall gathering, sponsored by the Mind and Life Institute, a group that he helped found. (The official
topic for the three days of discussion will be meditation, and how cutting-edge science is beginning to understand more
about its highly active nature and how it can enhance and heal the human mind and body.)
But trouble looms this weekend at the Washington Convention Center, where the Dalai Lama is scheduled to give an
hour-long keynote address Saturday to the annual convention of the Society for Neuroscience.
A petition drive, begun primarily by Chinese American researchers, seeks to have the Dalai Lama's appearance canceled.
The protesters, who argue that a religious leader should not be given such a prominent role at an important scientific
conference, say they have gathered at least 600 signatures. There have also been competing letters and an editorial in the
journal Nature.
"The presentation of a religious symbol with a controversial political agenda may cause unnecessary controversies,
unwanted press, and significant divisions among SFN members from multiple geographic locations, and with conflicting
religious beliefs and political leanings," reads the petition, which was signed by several hundred non-Chinese researchers
and academics as well.
"Inviting the Dalai Lama to lecture on 'Neuroscience of Meditation' is of poor scientific taste, because it will highlight a subject
with largely unsubstantiated claims and compromised scientific rigor and objectivity at a prestigious meeting attended by
more than 20,000 neuroscientists."
That anti-Dalai Lama effort quickly gave birth to a counter-petition in favor of his address, as well as speculation about the
motives of the original group of petition writers. Relations between China and once-independent Tibet have been badly
strained for half a century, and the Dalai Lama is at the center of the dispute.
"Chinese protests against high-profile visits of the Dalai Lama are routine wherever he travels," said John Ackerly, president
of the International Campaign for Tibet and one of the sponsors of the Dalai Lama's Washington visit. Ackerly said that the
speech is part of a series called "Dialogues Between Neuroscience and Society" and that architect Frank Gehry is scheduled
to be next year's speaker.
"The Dalai Lama has had a long interest in science and has maintained an ongoing dialogue with leading neuroscientists for
more than 15 years," said Carol Barnes, the society's president. "Which is the reason he was invited to speak."
Speaking to reporters before the Mind and Life conference sessions began yesterday, the Dalai Lama said he understood the
controversy: "When people heard that I would be speaking, that meant that the Dalai Lama -- from a 500-year institution that
symbolizes Tibetan Buddhism -- would be meeting with scientists," he said. "Yes, it's a little bit strange. But on the other hand,
when scientists come into our Tibetan monastic institutions, that also looks a little strange."
During yesterday's sessions, the Dalai Lama sat cross-legged in a chair onstage as he listened with other presenters. Each
presenter wore a headset microphone. (The Dalai Lama blew his nose constantly, sometimes into his own mike.)
The Dalai Lama can't simply attend a convention. He requires no Hello-My-Name-Is badge. He is religious leader, student,
attendee, celebrity, exile.
Adam Engle, the president of the Mind and Life Institute, announced that today's afternoon session would start late, as the
Dalai Lama has back-to-back meetings with President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. This pleased
audience members, who cheered -- it's always a good thing for the Tibetan cause when the Dalai Lama gets into the White
House.
His recent book, "The Universe in an Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality," tries to make the case that modern
science and Buddhist thought have surprisingly similar aims, methods and sometimes conclusions -- though he resists
efforts to see the world in purely material terms. (Some of his thoughts about limits to the theory of evolution when it comes to
how life and consciousness began earned him a rather harsh book review in the New York Times, including a suggestion
that he was proposing a Buddhist version of intelligent design.)
During yesterday's session, some of those parallels between Buddhist thought and cutting-edge science were on display.
Wolf Singer, director of the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt, explained how his research has found that
neuronal coordination within the brain is key to human understanding and performance -- a conclusion that Buddhist thought
intuited long ago.
Richard Davidson, a research psychologist at the University of Wisconsin whose pioneering (and peer-reviewed) work on
meditation was also criticized by the petition writers, described research into how "plastic" the brain actually is and how
meditation has been found to change the nature and intensity of brain waves. Stanford's Robert Sapolsky explained research
into the harmful physical and mental effects of stress, and how lab rats given constructive outlets to relieve their stress
suffered fewer problems.
By day's end, it was more clear why the Dalai Lama finds his scientific explorations to be so compelling. What the scientists
were discussing -- and with the help of the Mind and Life Institute are increasingly researching -- is the most current
biological, chemical and psychological findings about how certain kinds of human suffering can be understood and
alleviated. Precisely what might appeal to the man known as the present-day Buddha of compassion.
While politics and religion are always important to the Dalai Lama, aides say, his involvement with science is especially
significant to him. Given the frequent hostility between religious and scientific thought in the United States, many find the Dalai
Lama's explorations into such subjects as quantum physics, or the neuroscience of consciousness, or evolution and the
physical nature of emotions to be remarkable.
And he has been known to back that up: He often says -- and affirmed again in front of yesterday's audience -- that when
science proves that Buddhist scriptures are incorrect, then the scriptures should be rejected.