Pandemonium is the only word to describe the hallways of the Washington Convention Center in the moments leading up the Dalai Lama’s inaugural lecture on the “Neuroscience of Meditation” yesterday at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. With the exception of a large a sign that did little more than indicate the eastern wing of the building, thousands (myself included) pondered the logic behind the amoeba-like queue that was quickly growing.
As a Gotham straphanger I am no stranger to a large crowd. And so perhaps it was my New York pride that exacerbated my suspicion that these amateurs would surely stampede at the slightest sign of danger. After climbing a broken escalator and negotiating gridlocked walls of people, I decided to hedge my bets and seek refuge in a viewing room.
Arriving in the “ballroom,” I caught the last five minutes of a power-point presentation on the cerebral asymmetry of monkey brains, the high-point of which was the speaker’s virtuoso performance of monkey vocalizations. The tweed horde from the hallway quickly spilled into the half empty theatre and claimed every free seat. “Do you think the Dalai Lama will be speaking in English” a neuroscientist from Texas asked me. My only reply was, “that’s a good question.”
I had just come off three days of listening to the Dalai Lama converse with scientists at the Mind and Life conference just a few blocks east from where we sat. In that context His Holiness seemed to prefer Tibetan, with occasional remarks in English. Translation for that event was provided by Dr. Thubten Jinpa, whose eloquent English has engendered the envy of the Dalai himself. Given the political hype around this event, it seemed only prudent to enlist his help.
Soon there was a live video feed projecting the image of a podium on the two story screen before us. Within minutes a woman approached it and began to introduce His Holiness. Stumbling over her words, as if shell shocked by the mob, the reassuring presence of Tenzin Gyatso was soon beside her.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he said as he probed about the floor behind her, as if looking for a lost a contact lens. I giggled out-loud, but with no sign of Thubten Jinpa my good humor turned to worry. “Was he going it alone?” “Did he appreciate the controversy surrounding his presence?” I asked myself.
He did of course, and suggested as much when he admitted the whole event was giving him “stress.” His initial words were plagued by a hacking cough, that caused him to search the podium in vain for something to drink. The “antidote” (a small Poland Springs bottle) arrived in the hand of Thubten Jinpa — stage left and ready for on-the-fly translation. As I watched him drink directly from the bottle, my mind’s eye saw Mean Joe Green downing a refreshing bottle of coke in that old television commercial. Turning to the crowd as if to say “thanks kid,” the words that left his lips were: “truth is more important than beautiful words and nice appearances.” It was clear the Dalai Lama had every intention of handling this crowd mano a mano.
In the lecture that followed, the Dalai Lama reiterated many of the points he had made in his New York Times Op-Ed that same day. He told the audience about his days a child in the Potala curiously looking up at the night sky thinking, “how?” “What are these things?” He talked about his encounter with biology, and how he used to wonder to himself, “why does my own body have hair in some places and not in other?” He restated his belief in the common quest for knowledge and the conflict between science and Buddhism on the subject of subatomic physics. True to his conviction in the primacy of truth, he said, “if these authors [of ancient Buddhist texts] were to write these texts today they would write them differently.” And then he added, “I hope my senior colleagues don’t see me as rebellious Buddhist.”
Regarding the “relationship between the mind and the brain,” he said, “there are mysterious issues on Buddhist side and Neuroscience. . . We spend billions of dollars on outer space and still so much to explore on inner space.” The locus of human suffering, he told the members of the SFN, was “wrong perception. . . ignorance.”
The Dalai Lama also expressed his advocacy for research on human emotions and specifically on how to cultivate the positive ones on the “basis of understanding brain mechanisms.” He said, “in order to transform my mind, I spend a few hours — at least— in analytical meditation everyday.”
Returning to a theme from the Mind & Life conference, he mentioned his belief in the importance of a good educational system, and warned that, “we are neglecting the development of the heart.” “Loving Kindness,” he told the SFN, “are fundamental human values.”
The questions that followed were excellent and required more time than he was permitted. Nevertheless, he did address the issues of animal cruelty in scientific experiments, drug addiction, prescribed usage of mood altering drugs like prozac, the mind-body problem, and intelligent design. Though he may not have fully answered all of these, his responses were permeated by a powerful modesty and sincere willingness to consider multiple viewpoints. When someone asked him “what’s the best . . .” He quickly replied “best, cheapest, easiest . . . I don’t know.” Then he the dropped his microphone and apologized.
To read a copy of his prepared address click here.
See also:
༄ New York Times, “Our Faith in Science”
༄ New York Times, “Science, Faith, and Enlightenment.”
༄ Washington Post, “Dalai Lama Gives Talk on Science”
༄ Nature Neuroscience Blog, “Throngs at Dalai Lama SfN Lecture”
༄ BETTERHUMANS News, “Dalai Lama: Buddhism, sicence share goals”
JANUARY 26 UPDATE
༄ Wired Magazine, “Buddha on the Brain”
Much of the popular dialogue between science and Buddhism has focused solely on the ways in which “mindfulness” meditation may be used to reduce stress and improve health. Far less attention has been paid to the ways in which such meditations facilitate reasoning and the introspective investigation of mind and reality. In this panel session philosopher Mark Siderits will pose the question “Is Meditation a Means of Knowledge.” Members here will consider this question and specifically how certain meditations, that are designed to analyze the nature of conscious experience, may—or may not — be psychologically therapeutic and pedagogically useful in contemporary consciousness studies.
HighBeam™ Research
The decision to invite the Dalai Lama-Tenzin Gyatso to deliver the inaugural lecture in a new series at the 
