In order for the study of consciousness to be complete, it is necessary to develop a methodology that takes into account not only what happens at the neural and biochemical levels, but also the subjective experience of consciousness itself. Even the combination of neurophysiology and behavioral psychology does not shed sufficient light on the experience of subjective experiences, since both of these directions emphasize the objective, non-personal method of observation. Traditions based on the practice of contemplation are based on the historically established method of a subjective, personal approach to the study of the nature and functions of consciousness. It uses special training of the mind, the ability to focus on one’s internal states in various ways.
In this approach, the observer, as well as the object and method of observation, represent different aspects of the same thing, namely, the mind of the experimenter himself. In Buddhism, training the mind is called bhavana, which in European languages is usually translated by the word meditation. The Sanskrit term bhavana carries the meaning of cultivating a skill, while the root meaning of the corresponding Tibetan term gom (Tib. s gom) is “mastery.” Thus, the idea of practice carried out on the basis of strict mental discipline is to become thoroughly acquainted with the chosen object, whether it be an external phenomenon or an internal experience.
People often think of meditation as simply clearing out the mind or practicing relaxation, but what I mean is something completely different. The practice of meditation in Buddhism is not a search for some mysterious or mystical states that are accessible only to some especially gifted people. Nor is it a complete absence of all mental activity. The term gom refers both to the means or process and to the state itself achieved as a result of that process. Here I would like to speak primarily of meditation as a means which involves the rigorous, concentrated and self-disciplined use of careful introspection for the purpose of penetrating deeply into the nature of the chosen object. From a scientific point of view, this can be compared to strict empirical observation.
The main difference between science as it currently stands and Buddhism as a research tradition is the dominance of the objectivist method of independent inquiry in science and the dominance of subjective, introspective observation in Buddhist meditative practice. In my opinion, a combination of subjectivist and objectivist approaches promises to be very fruitful for the scientific study of consciousness. Many studies can be carried out precisely on the basis of independent objective observation. With the development of neuroimaging technologies, it has become possible to more closely observe the physical correspondences of the rich world of our subjective experience, such as neural connections, biochemical reactions, localization in the brain of areas associated with one or another form of mental activity, and instantaneous processes (the time of which is sometimes measured in milliseconds), occurring in the brain in response to external stimulation. I had the pleasure of discovering all this during a visit to Richard Davidson’s laboratory at the University of Wisconsin in the spring of 2001.
His laboratory is equipped with the latest neuroimaging equipment. He has a team of young, enthusiastic scientists working with him, and one of his projects that interested me the most involved a series of studies on neurotransmitters. Richard took me around his laboratory and showed me the various instruments. I saw an EEG (electroencephalograph), used primarily to record the electrical activity of the brain. This is done using a kind of helmet with a variety of sensors placed on the subject’s head. The helmet used in Davidson’s lab contains 256 of these electrodes and is probably the most complex of its kind in the world. In addition, the study process uses the MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) method; For this device to function properly, the subject placed inside it requires little or no movement. The strength of the EEG, as I was told, is in the speed of measurement (here it is possible to record changes that occur in one thousandth of a second), while MRI allows you to localize the active part of the brain with millimeter accuracy.
The day before my visit, an experiment was carried out in this laboratory with the participation of an experienced meditation practitioner well known to me. Davidson showed a variety of images of his brain on a computer screen, with different colors representing different types of brain activity.
The next day I attended a meeting during which Davidson demonstrated the preliminary results of the study to his students. Psychologist Paul Ekman joined the discussion and presented a preliminary report on his ongoing work with a large number of groups of subjects, including meditation practitioners. The scientific study of such people has a long history, dating back to experiments conducted in the 1980s by Herbert Benson at Harvard Medical School. Benson studied the physiological parameters of body temperature and oxygen consumption during the practice of tummo, during which, among other things, heat is generated in a certain part of the body. Like Benson, Richard Davidson and his team conducted research using Himalayan hermits, including those living in the mountains around Dharamsala. Then, due to the need to conduct experiments in high altitude conditions, it was necessary to use mobile equipment, which limited the range of research to the capabilities of the instruments.
Scientific experiments using human subjects always involve certain ethical issues, which the scientific community takes very seriously. For hermits who chose a solitary life in the mountains, such research represented a deep intrusion into their personal life and spiritual practice. Therefore, it is not surprising that many initially categorically refused to participate in these experiments. Among other things, many of them simply did not see anything in these experiments except the idle curiosity of strange people with incomprehensible instruments. Nevertheless, even then I believed (and still believe so) that the use of scientific methods to study the consciousness of meditation masters is very important, and therefore I made considerable efforts to persuade hermits to take part in the work. My argument was that they should give their consent out of altruism; If the positive effect of calming the mind and developing good qualities of consciousness is scientifically confirmed, it will bring great benefit to the whole world. I really hope that I was not overly persistent in these requests. In the end, some of the hermits agreed, convinced, I hope, by my arguments, and not simply out of respect for the authority of the office of the Dalai Lama.
All these works can clarify one part of the complete picture of the work of consciousness. But unlike the study of a material object in three-dimensional space, the study of consciousness, including the entire field of phenomena related to it and everything that belongs to the category of subjective experience, has two components. One of them is what happens to the brain and behavior of the individual (neuroscientists and psychologists have appropriate methods to study this area), while the other concerns the individual’s experience of his personal cognitive, emotional and psychological experiences. To study this particular part of reality, a personal, subjectivist approach is required. In other words, although the experience of happiness may be accompanied by certain chemical reactions in the brain, such as increased levels of serotonin, no biochemical or neurobiological description of these brain changes can explain what happiness is in the human experience.
Although the Buddhist contemplative tradition has never had at its disposal specific scientific tools to study the processes of brain activity, it has a clear understanding of the brain’s ability to change and adapt. Until recently, as far as I know, scientists believed that after a person goes through puberty, his brain practically does not change. However, recent neuroscience research has shown that there is significant potential for changes in the brain, even in an older person like me. At the Life and Consciousness conference in Dharamsala in 2004, I learned about the emergence of a new subfield of neurophysiology that studies the phenomenon of so-called neuroplasticity. This phenomenon, in my opinion, indicates that characteristics of a person that are usually considered unchangeable, such as personality traits, character traits and habits, are not completely immutable, and therefore can be influenced by training the mind or changing the environment. It has already been shown experimentally that an experienced meditation practitioner has increased activity in the left frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex, that is, that part of the brain that is associated with positive emotions such as happiness, joy and satisfaction. These observations indicate that it is possible to develop these qualities through mental training that has a direct effect on the brain.
Philosopher-monk of the 7th century. Dharmakirti provides a philosophical rationale in his works that through consistent training of the mind one can achieve significant changes in human consciousness, including emotions. The basis of his argument is the universal law of cause and effect, according to which the conditions that create a certain cause will certainly lead to a result. This principle is one of the oldest in Buddhism; The Buddha himself argued that if we wish to avoid any result, we should eliminate the conditions that lead to it. Therefore, if we change, as conditions, those states of our mind that lead to the emergence of certain habitual manifestations of its activity, we manage to make changes in our everyday behavioral reactions and emotions.
The second key point of the theory is the universal law of universal impermanence, which is also contained in many early teachings of Buddhism. According to this law, all conditioned things and phenomena are in a process of continuous change. Even in the material world, nothing that seems immutable to us is actually immovable and permanent. Therefore, everything that is generated by causes is subject to change, and by creating suitable conditions, we can consciously direct these changes to transform the states of our mind.
Dharmakirti, like many Buddhist thinkers before him, points to the existence of what can be called the law of psychology: various psychological states, including emotions, are manifestations of opposing and dynamically interacting states of consciousness of different types. In the emotional sphere, this typology includes hatred, anger, hostility and other negative emotional states, which are opposed by positive emotions: love, compassion and empathy. Dharmakirti states: if in some individual at a given moment one of the parts of this polarity is strengthened, then the other is weakened. Therefore, by increasing, strengthening and strengthening the group of positive mental states, we thereby weaken the opposite negative states, transforming our thoughts and emotions.
Dharmakirti illustrated the complexity of this process with a number of analogies from everyday experience. The opposing powers of the mind may be regarded as analogous to the states of heat and cold, which cannot coexist at the same time, but at the same time do not change instantly; the process of changing one state to another is always gradual. Perhaps Dharmakirti is referring to the gradual warming of a room after lighting a fire in the hearth, or the gradual subsidence of heat in the tropics where he lived with the onset of the rainy season. As an analogy for the instantaneous process, Dharmakirti gave the example of a lamp that instantly drives out darkness.
This law, according to which two opposite states cannot coexist without one of them eliminating the other, is the main argument in Buddhism for justifying the possibility of transforming consciousness: through the development of loving kindness, one can, after some time, eliminate the forces of hatred from the mind. Dharmakirti further shows that eliminating the basic conditions will also eliminate their manifestation. For example, by eliminating cold, we also eliminate all its associated effects, such as goosebumps on the skin, trembling in the body and chattering of the teeth.
But Dharmakirti does not stop there; he suggests that, unlike physical abilities, the qualities of the mind can develop indefinitely. Contrasting the process of mental development with athletic training, such as long jumping, it shows that physical abilities, although they vary over a wide range, still have natural limitations determined by the very structure of the human body, regardless of how intense the training and what the natural abilities of the athlete are. . Even the illegal use of tonic substances in modern sports, which can significantly expand the limits of human performance, is not capable of expanding them indefinitely. In contrast, Dharmakirti argues, the natural limitations inherent in consciousness are completely removable, therefore, in principle, one can develop such a quality as boundless compassion. In fact, for Dharmakirti, the Buddha’s greatness as a spiritual teacher lies not so much in the vastness of his knowledge, but in his boundless compassion for all living beings.
But even before Dharmakirti, in Indian Buddhism there was an understanding of the mind’s ability to transform negative states into a state of peace and complete purity. Maitreya’s 4th century Mahayana text, The Supreme Continuity (Uttaranantra), as well as Nagarjuna’s Praise of Absolute Dharma Space (Dharmadhatu Stotra), state that the essential nature of the mind is pure and that all its defilements can be eliminated through meditative practice. In these treatises we find the concept of tathagatagarbha, “buddha nature”, which is understood as the natural potential for perfection contained in all living beings (including animals). The supreme continuity of Maitreya and Nagarjuna’s Praise offer two main theses to justify the mind’s capacity for transformation. The first is that all negative aspects of the mind can be purified through the use of appropriate antidotes. This means that the defilements of the mind are not its essential characteristics, which means that by its original nature the mind is completely pure. From a scientific point of view, such an assumption is a metaphysical assumption. The second thesis follows from the first and states that the ability for positive transformations is a property inherent in the mind itself.
Buddha-nature texts contain metaphors that illustrate ideas about the primordial purity of the essential nature of the mind. Nagarjuna’s praise begins with a description of striking examples in which the original purity of the mind is contrasted with its defilements and shortcomings as something external. Nagarjuna compares natural purity to the oil contained in milk, to a lamp inside a vessel, to a jewel hidden in a rock, and to a seed in a husk. If you churn milk, butter will appear, if you make a hole in a vessel, the light of a lamp will be visible, if you break a rock, the sparkle of a jewel will appear, if you remove a seed, it can germinate, and so on. In the same way, when our defilements are eliminated through the diligent cultivation of insight into the absolute nature of reality, the primordial purity of mind will appear, which Nagarjuna calls the absolute dharma space ( dharmadhatu).
But in this work Nagarjuna goes even further and argues that just as water in underground veins retains its purity, remaining the same water, so in the harmful emotions themselves one can discover the perfect wisdom of the enlightened mind. The highest continuity compares the defilements of the primordially pure mind with a Buddha seated on a lotus flower growing from mud and mud, with honey contained in a honeycomb, with gold thrown into sewage, with a precious treasure hidden in the house of a poor person who does not know about it, with a plant , potentially contained in the seed, and with an image of Buddha wrapped in a dirty rag.
In my opinion, these two works, belonging to the classical heritage of Ancient India, as well as numerous other works of the same genre, written in delightful poetic language, are designed to complement the strict logic and systematic presentation of other works of the Buddhist philosophical tradition. The theory of Tathagatagarbha, that is, the knowledge that each of us contains the inherent prerequisite for the development of complete perfection in each of us, is a deep and endless source of inspiration for Buddhists.
What I have said does not mean that we can use scientific methods to establish the validity of the Buddha-nature theory. I just want to show in what terms the Buddhist tradition explains the idea of the possibility of transforming consciousness. The phenomenon known scientifically as neuroplasticity is a long-established fact in Buddhism. The terms in which Buddhism formulates this concept are radically different from those used by modern consciousness science, but most importantly, both of these schools recognize the ability of the mind to change within very wide limits. In neurophysiology, it is believed that the brain is very plastic and undergoes constant changes in the process of gaining new experience, which means that new connections are formed between neurons or even new nerve cells appear. Research subjects in this area include athletes, such as chess players and musicians, people who have demonstrated the benefits of intense exercise and may be able to detect accompanying changes in the brain. It would be interesting to compare such data with the results of a study of experienced meditation practitioners who also devoted a lot of time and effort to diligent training as part of their development.
Whether we are talking about the transformation of consciousness or about the introspective empirical analysis of mental phenomena, one who works in this direction needs to have a certain level of skill, which is developed by repeated and regular training, which in turn requires great rigor and discipline. Performing all of these practices presupposes a certain level of ability to focus the mind on a chosen object and maintain attention on it for a certain time. It is also assumed that as this quality develops, the mind develops the skill of strengthening precisely that component that is predominantly involved in the present moment, be it attention, analytical consideration, or the work of the imagination. As a result of such long and regular practice, the ability to perform the exercises becomes second nature. There is an obvious parallel here with athletes or musicians; Another example would be learning to swim or ride a bike. At first, the movements accompanying such learning seem unnatural, but as the skill is acquired, they become completely familiar and simple.
One of the basic trainings of the mind is the development of mindfulness, that is, the ability to maintain continuous attention for a long time, for which the technique of observing the breath is often used. Mindfulness is very important for those who want to learn to be aware of what phenomena are happening in their mind and in the surrounding reality. In a normal state, our mind remains dispersed most of the time, and thoughts randomly and chaotically rush from one object to another. By developing mindfulness, we first learn to be aware of this disorder, so that we can then gently direct our mind to the object that we have chosen as the subject of our concentration. Breathing has traditionally been considered an ideal tool for developing mindfulness. Its advantage as an object of concentration is that breathing is an instinctive, effortless process; This is something that happens to us throughout our lives, so there is no need to apply additional effort to discover the object of concentration. In its developed forms, mindfulness is accompanied by a subtle sensitivity to all, even the most insignificant events occurring in our mind or in our immediate environment.
One of the main elements in the process of mindfulness training is the development and application of attention. In the modern world, a large percentage of children suffer from attention deficits, especially in affluent societies, and I have heard that significant efforts have been made in science to understand what attention is and how it works. Buddhism, with its many years of experience with mindfulness, could contribute to such research. In Buddhist psychology, attention is defined as the ability that helps direct the mind to a chosen object, despite the variety of sensory information that comes to us from the senses every minute. Here we will not ask the complex theoretical question of what attention is in its essence: is it a single mechanism or are there different types of attention; whether attention is identical to goal-directed thinking or not, etc. Let’s define it simply as an arbitrary intention that helps us focus on some aspect or characteristic of an object. Persisting for a long time, this voluntary attention helps us maintain stable concentration on the selected object.
Attention training is closely related to developing the ability to control mental processes. I am sure that most young people, even those who suffer from severe attention disorders, are able to watch an interesting film for a long time and without distraction. Their problem is to direct attention voluntarily in the presence of distracting stimuli. Another important factor is habit. The less familiar we are with the process of concentration, the greater the effort we need to direct our attention to the chosen object or task without distraction. However, as we develop a habit through practice, we become less dependent on the need to exert effort in the process. We know from experience that as a result of training, even those tasks that at first seem very difficult, we begin to perform almost automatically. According to Buddhist psychology, as a result of consistent and diligent practice, voluntarily directing attention to a chosen object, which at first requires great effort, then becomes easy or even spontaneous.
Another practice necessary to strengthen attention is single-pointed concentration. To develop this ability, any object, external or internal, should be chosen; it is only important that it be easily visible. The exercise consists of voluntarily concentrating on a selected object and maintaining attention on it for as long as possible. There are primarily two faculties used here: mindfulness, which ensures that the mind is kept steadily, without distraction, in concentration on an object, and vigilant introspection, which allows one to notice the distraction of the mind and even a weakening of the clarity of focus. The basis of this practice is the development of two qualities of the trained mind: a stable duration of one-pointed attention and the clarity with which the mind perceives the chosen object. In addition to this, the practitioner must learn to maintain a certain balance, that is, to avoid excessive involvement in contemplation, which can distort the object of meditation or destabilize the internal balance.
Having detected through vigilance the occurrence of a distraction, you need to gently return attention to the object. At first, the time interval between a distraction and its detection may be relatively long, but with regular practice it will become increasingly shorter. In its advanced form, this practice allows one to maintain attention on a chosen object for a long time, while noticing any changes that occur in the object of contemplation or in the mind. Then the practitioner must achieve the so-called compliance of the mind, in which the mind becomes completely obedient and can be directed to any object with ease. This stage marks the stage of achieving peace of mind, called shine in Tibetan (Skt. shamtha, Tib. zhignas).
Buddhist instructions on meditation say that an experienced practitioner can develop this technique to such a level that he will be able to maintain continuous concentration for up to four hours at a time. I knew a Tibetan meditation master who was said to have achieved this ability. Unfortunately, he has already died; it would have been very interesting to test it while it was in this state, using the sophisticated instruments in Richard Davidson’s laboratory. This is a promising area of attention research for Western psychology, especially if such exceptional cases are studied. The usual concentration of attention of modern people lasts, it seems to me, no more than a few minutes.
Such meditative practices ensure the attainment of a state of steady and obedient mind, but if we wish to advance our research further, mere concentration will not be enough. It is required to achieve mastery in considering with the greatest possible accuracy the nature and characteristics of the object of our observation. This second level of training is called “insight into the essence” in Buddhism, in Tibetan lhatong (“higher vision”) (Sanskrit vipashyana, Tib. lhag mthong). In the process of achieving peace of mind, the emphasis is on focusing attention and eliminating distractions; the main quality that needs to be developed here is single-pointedness of attention. At the penetration stage, the main thing is discriminating research and analysis, carried out through the developed one-pointedness of the mind.
In the classic work The Stages of Meditation (Bhavana Krama), the Indian Buddhist master Kamalashila gave a detailed description of methods for systematically developing mental stillness and insight. Their combination allows us to gain a deeper understanding of the specific properties of reality to such an extent that the achieved understanding begins to influence our thoughts, emotions and behavior. In particular, he points out the need to maintain a delicate balance between one-pointed concentration and the use of the mind for analysis. The difficulty here is that these are two completely different processes, each tending to suppress the other. One-pointed concentration involves keeping the mind stationary on the chosen object, a kind of clinging to it, while penetration requires some purposeful activity in which the mind moves from one aspect of the object in question to another.
In the process of developing insight , Kamalashila recommends first concentrating as sharply as possible on the process of analytical consideration, and then maintaining one-pointed focus on the resulting understanding for as long as possible. If the practitioner begins to lose the power of penetration, Kamalashila recommends resuming the process of analytical review. This alternation develops the faculties of the mind, and as a result both analysis and meditative absorption occur effortlessly.
As in any other area of activity, there are means here that help the practitioner concentrate his efforts in carrying out analytical consideration. Because subjective experience can easily be distorted by various fantasies and delusions, various methods of structuring the analytic process have been developed to focus meditative consideration. Often, the practitioner is recommended to consider certain topics, among which he can choose the most suitable one for himself. One of these themes is the impermanence of the nature of existence. The topic of impermanence is considered a very good subject for meditation in Buddhism, because although we have a certain intellectual understanding here, our behavior, as a rule, indicates that this understanding has not yet become part of our life. The combination of an analytical consideration of a given topic and subsequent concentration on the understanding gained leads to the fact that we begin to especially appreciate every moment of our existence.
To begin with, one should establish mindfulness of the body and the process of breathing in the resting state, and then develop mindfulness of every subtle change that occurs in the body and mind during the period of practice, even during the interval between inhalation and exhalation. This is how an experiential understanding arises that there is nothing constant in our state. As this faculty of observation becomes more refined, our attentiveness to changes in state becomes more refined and dynamic. For example, one application of this ability might be to consider the many conditions that contribute to the maintenance of our lives, which brings about an understanding of its fragility and fragility. Another application may be the consideration of bodily processes and functions, especially aging and weakening vitality. If the meditator has knowledge in the field of biology, this will undoubtedly enrich the content of such practice. Such thought experiments were performed many times over many centuries, and their effectiveness was reliably confirmed by many meditation masters before the corresponding techniques were recommended for general use.
If our goal is to incorporate an individual, subjectivist approach to research into the scientific method of studying consciousness, we need to develop a certain level of mastery of a combination of two techniques: one-pointed concentration and analytical consideration. The key here is regularity of training. A physical scientist has to undergo a lengthy training that includes studying mathematics, mastering the ability to use complex instruments and recognize the recording of data that confirms the hypothesis being tested; he should also learn to interpret the results of his predecessors’ experiments. All these skills take many years to develop. Anyone wishing to learn the skill of subjective research must be prepared to invest a comparable amount of time and effort. It is important to point out here that, like the training of a scientist, acquiring meditative experience is a matter of intention and effort, and not some mystical gift that only a select few possess.
There are many other varieties of meditation in the Buddhist tradition, including a wide range of practices using visualization and imagination, as well as techniques for manipulating the vital energies of the body to achieve the deepest and most subtle states of consciousness that are accompanied by an increasingly complete liberation from mental constructs. These states and practices can be an interesting area of scientific research because they reveal unexpected abilities and potential of the human mind.
One possible area of research in this direction is the study of what in the Tibetan tradition is called “clear light mind.” This is the subtlest state of consciousness that manifests itself in all people at the moment of death. Brief glimpses of such a state periodically arise during life; they accompany sneezing, fainting, deep dreamless sleep and sexual pleasure. The main characteristics of this state of consciousness are complete spontaneity and lack of self-identification with one’s own “I”. An experienced practitioner can voluntarily enter into the experience of clear light mind through the use of certain meditative techniques, and when this mind manifests at the moment of death, such a person is able to maintain a state of mindfulness for an extended period.
My teacher Ling Rimpoche remained in the death clear light state for thirteen days. Although he had already experienced clinical death symptoms, he maintained a meditative posture and there were no signs of decomposition on his body. Another meditator I know remained in this state for seventeen days in the tropical summer heat of eastern India. It would be very interesting to know what happens during this period at the physiological level, whether any scientifically recorded biochemical processes occur in the body. But during the stay of Richard Davidson’s research group in Dharamsala, I don’t know, fortunately or unfortunately, none of the meditation practitioners died. However, such cases are not very suitable for scientific research based on strict introspection.
To perform exercises that use consciousness itself as the object of observation, it is necessary to first achieve a certain level of calmness of the mind. The experience of observing simple presence is very useful. This practice is aimed at developing the ability to hold the direct, subjective experience of one’s own mind in the focus of conscious attention for a long time and without distraction. This is done as follows.
Before starting a meditation session, you should be determined not to allow your mind to be distracted by memories of past events or thoughts of the future. To do this, the practitioner makes a silent promise that during the period of meditation his mind will not indulge in thoughts about the past and future, but will remain completely focused on paying attention to the present moment. It is easier to meditate if you sit facing a wall on which there are no distracting contrasting spots of color. The most suitable in this case are muted, neutral tones, such as cream or beige. During meditation, it is important not to make any effort. Instead, you should simply observe your mind resting in its natural state.
Soon after you start meditating, you will begin to notice that all sorts of thoughts arise in your mind, like a bubbling stream of endless internal chatter. All thoughts that come should be allowed to arise completely freely, regardless of whether you perceive them as wholesome or unwholesome. Do not subject them to any evaluation, do not strengthen or suppress them. Any attempt to do this will lead to further thoughts, as it will only provide new material for the chain reaction of thoughts to continue. You just have to watch your thoughts. Then the process of discursive thinking will continue in the mind, just as bubbles appear and disappear on the surface of water.
Gradually, in the confusion of this internal chatter, you will begin to notice glimpses of what can be called simple absence, that is, a state of mind devoid of any specific, defined content. As a rule, at first such experiences are only brief flashes of new experience, but as the practice is mastered, the intervals of absence of the usual stream of thoughts begin to increase. When this happens, there is a real opportunity to understand why consciousness in Buddhism is defined as “clarity and knowledge.” In this way the meditator gradually learns to grasp the basic experiential experience of consciousness and then uses it as the object of meditative consideration.
Consciousness is very fleeting, and for this reason the study of it is not like the study of material processes such as biochemical reactions. However, its elusiveness can be compared to some objects from physics and biology, such as subatomic particles or genes. Modern science has developed streamlined methods for studying them, and therefore these objects now seem relatively familiar and indisputable to us. Their study is based on observation, and regardless of the philosophical interpretation by one or another scientist of the results of relevant research, it is empirical experience that testifies to the truth of a particular phenomenon. Likewise, whatever our philosophical beliefs about the nature of consciousness, whether we believe that it is based solely on the properties of matter or not, we can learn to study this phenomenon, including its characteristics and dynamics, strictly through the use of a subjectivist method of study.
Along this path, I see an opportunity to expand the boundaries of consciousness science and enrich our general understanding of the nature of the human mind in scientific terms. Francesco Valeri once told me about the European philosopher Edmund Husserl, who proposed a similar approach to the study of consciousness. Husserl developed a philosophical method that takes metaphysics beyond the brackets of phenomenological experience and is based solely on our directly experienced experience, without introducing additional categories in the form of metaphysical assumptions. This does not mean that a person should not have his own philosophical position, but in order to conduct an objective analysis, personal beliefs must be consciously set aside. In fact, something similar to this bracketing is already happening in modern science.
For example, biology has made remarkable strides in the scientific understanding of life in its various forms and manifestations, despite the fact that the philosophical solution to the question “what is life?” still not found. Likewise, remarkable advances in physics, especially in the field of quantum mechanics, have been achieved without a clear answer to the question “what is reality?”, and many conceptual problems related to the interpretation of the discoveries made remain unresolved.
I think that some experience with mind-training techniques (and the like) must be part of the training of scientists if science is to be serious about gaining access to the full range of techniques needed for a comprehensive study of consciousness. I am prepared to agree with Francesco Valeri’s opinion that if the scientific study of consciousness is ever to reach full maturity, then, since subjectivity is the main characteristic of the object of study, scientists will sooner or later have to begin to use methods that rely on individual subjective experience. It is in this area of research that traditions such as Buddhism, which have at their disposal developed methods of contemplative practices, can make a particularly valuable contribution to the enrichment of science and its methods. In addition, in the Western philosophical tradition itself a resource may be discovered that will allow modern science to develop its methods for using a subjectivist approach. In this way, we may be able to expand the horizons of science in terms of greater understanding of the nature of consciousness, one of the key qualities that characterize human existence.
Read online. The book “The Universe in One Atom: Science and Spirituality in the Service of the World.” Tenzin Gyatso
Content
Preface. Introduction
1. Meditation
2. My encounter with science
3. Emptiness, relativity and quantum physics
4. The Big Bang Theory and the Buddhist Beginningless Cosmos
5. Evolution, karma and the world of living beings
6. The problem of the emergence of consciousness
7. Towards a science of consciousness
8. Factors of consciousness
9. Ethical problems of modern genetics
Conclusion. Science, Spirituality and Humanity