Science and Buddhism

While looking for pictures of Tibetan monks to go with the story I published today on akarrú, I came across the site Science For Monks, an initiative promoted by the Dalai Lama to teach science to Tibetan monks.

The program continues the line the Dalai Lama started with his dialogue with modern scientists. I remember Francisco Varela’s book “Sleeping, Dreaming, and Dying”, which collects one of the early conferences debating Buddhism and science. One of the things that struck me most was that the Dalai Lama was asked whether a soul could be reincarnated in a machine, and he answered that if the machine was capable of hosting consciousness, Buddhism did not rule out the possibility.

It is an interesting initiative: the monks get trained in science and help spread it in their communities.

I imagine Francisco Varela would be happy to see this picture: