Meanwhile on the Science-Belief spectrum

"Davidson : [ ] one of the challenges in the modern dissemination of dharma in the West...

Another series of tweets by Dutch journalist Rob Hogendoorn pointed me to a Youtube discussion between Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche/Filmmaker Khyentse Norbu (DJKR) in Conversation with Neuroscientist Dr. Richard Davidson. As Rob Hogendoorn points out in one of his tweets "Dr. Davidson is a Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and heads the Center for Healty Minds". Dr. Richard Davidson is a also a prominent member of The Mind and Life Institute and a good friend of Jon Kabat-Zinn, the inventor of Mindfulness (mindfulness-based stress reduction MBSR), who introduced Dr. Richardson to the Dalaï-lama.

“It was at that meeting that my life and my work went through what Jon [kabat-Zinn] has called an orthogonal rotation. The Dalai-Lama was quite forceful and challenging and said that we've been using tools of modern neuroscience to study depression and anxiety and fear, why can't we use those same tools to study kindness and compassion. That was a wake-up call.” (Youtube)

Like good news journalism, positive psychology, self-improvement (Dale Carnegie) and attracting positive things into one’s life, some neuroscientists seem to have made it their life’s quest to look into how our lives could be made more positive, which is possible thanks to brain plasticity or “neuroplasticity”. Neuroscientists study neurophenomenology, neuropsychology, neuroanthropology and behavioral neuroscience. Many modern practitioners of religions have high hopes in neuroscience, because, to them, neuroscience looks at the “link” between body and mind (“consciousness”) and could, who knows, prove the existence of “consciousness”, as being different from the body and capable to act independently from the body, even after physical death. Or it can perhaps one day teach us how manipulations on the physical “neuronal”, or “yogic”, level could influence consciousness, beyond its lifetime interaction with the body? A happy marriage between science and faith, why not?

"Your mission is to proceed up the Nung River in a Navy patrol boat"

To religious scientophiles Francesco Varela seems to be the neuroscientist who set the bar highest on the Science-Belief Spectrum (SBS), on the side of science (neurophenomenology). Jon Kabat-Zinn was the first scientist (Ph.D. in molecular biology) to successfully secularize an applied practice of “meditation”. Dr. Richard Davidson goes further down the “Nung river” of cultivating AND measuring compassion, well-being etc. Perhaps one day also emptiness and Bodhi?

Other religious scientophiles approach neurophenomenology from the other side and call their parapsychological efforts “Noetic Sciences”. The Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) was co-founded in 1973 by former astronaut Edgar Mitchell.

“The Institute conducts research on topics such as spontaneous remission, meditation, consciousness, alternative healing practices, consciousness-based healthcare, spirituality, human potential, psychic abilities, psychokinesis and survival of consciousness after bodily death.” (wikipedia)

Europe has its own Institut Suisse des Sciences Noétiques (ISSNOE), founded by Sylvie Dethiollaz, doctor in molecular biology, and supported by French celebrities as Frederic Lenoir, Igor et Grichka Bogdanov, etc. In 2017, Sylvie Dethiollaz could be seen in various TV-shows with her “research collaborator” in Out-of-body experiences, Nicolas Fraisse, who, from a young age onward had the ability to leave his body at will while his mind freely traveled around. The institute investigates resurrectional phenomena and is extremely interested in the Tibetan Buddhist Rainbow body.

Other Tibetan masters such as the Kagyu/Nyingma teacher Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche use the Steiner/Waldorf method for their educational projects with courses such as ‘Child Development from Birth to Rebirth’ (with "Dr Meyrav Mor, Dr Matthieu Ricard, Dr Richard Davidson and others") (see my blog Le réincarnationisme à l’école).

Influenced by and loyal to his father Thinley Norbu Rinpoché[1] (1931-2011) DJKR, defends a conservative traditional Tibetan Buddhism and at various occasions wrote openly against attempts to secularize “Buddhism”[2] and integrate Western values such as democracy, rationalism, science. The present discussion with neuroscientist Richard Davidson is therefore surprising, but Dr. Davidson seems ready to go quite far on the belief spectrum to help DJKR to secularize “Buddhism” and the “Science of Meditation”. DJKR thinks that “modernization” (“so called modern life”) “is basically a westernization (09:18)”, and that after first going through paganism, Christianity, Enlightenment, Western civilization is now stuck in rationalism [and science] (22:53 “Bodhi TV : An interview with Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche[1]” 11/04/2021).

In the discussion with Dr. Davidson, there is an agreement about the recognition that “awareness” (tib. rig pa) is continuously with us (0:51), including during dreams. There is no separation in this “awareness”, there are no “bardos” (tib. bar do, intermediate state). There are various intermediate states, states or “momentary gaps” that are intermediate between two temporal limits.

“Davidson: The way I think you've explored in some of your films [ ] that's related to this is death and dying and “bardo”. The way we think of “bardo” as a scientist, it's kind of a gap, a momentary gap, when the normal constraints on our perception are suspended. It even could just be a brief moment, it could be like a sneeze[3], but those are like mini-bardos that provide an opening, where there are other ways of seeing (23:00).

“DJKR: I think what people also need to know is when we talk about in between, we are talking about two things, like this and this, and then in between, the bardo. In teachings it is clearly stated that these two [temporal limits] actually do not exist. This bardo, in between, is just another [state] like an illusion. (24:11)”

In order to be able to meet neuroscience, DJKR does not mention the most famous “bardo” in Tibetan Buddhism, which is the bardo between death and the next rebirth, about which many books have been written, and on which the great majority of Tibetan Buddhist Nyingma teachings and practices are based. If one can have a neuroscientist accept the bardo of the time of a “sneeze” (22:39), then perhaps there is a chance to slip in the “bardo” between death and rebirth… Both DJKR and the Meditation scientist may have in the back of their minds that “awareness” is continuous (immortal?), including during the “bardo” after the death of the physical body.

Dr. Matthieu Ricard and Dr. Richard Davidson

Dr. Davidson seems to regret that the current state of the “Science of Meditation” in the West is only “a small fraction”, “a tiny sliver” of what meditation has to offer, and wants to go further along his research, including by integrating devotion and faith (skt. śraddhā tib. dad pa), “that have received very little study” (9:53). Because:

“Dr. Davidson: devotion is important in developing a kind of confidence, not an arrogance, but a confidence to basically keep going on the path. I think that one of the challenges in the modern dissemination of dharma in the West is that and one of the challenges of using science to help to promote it is the lack of devotion.” (9:26)

DJKR observes that devotion and faith are not enough, because they are a technique, a method, that needs to be associated with a “view” (skt. dṛṣṭi tib. lta ba), otherwise they just float in the air (9:00). A “view” is a doctrine, an ideology… that nicely captures and contends devotion and faith.

The Science of Meditation is in need of devotion and faith in a doctrine for “the modern dissemination of dharma in the West”. Otherwise one can’t make sense of one’s experience in the same way (15:22). Dr. Davidson, the neuroscientist, discussed with the Dalaï-lama about how the “view” could be “conveyed” “in a way that is quote ‘secular’ in a way that could be appealing to everyone, to be more universal” (15:27).

DJKR thinks this is possible, even though the Buddhist “view” “is packaged” in madhyamaka and tantra, which makes it technical, mechanical, philosophical and intellectual, whereas in reality it is so simple (16:14).

As we know, although DJKR has spoken out fiercely against secularism (Stephen Batchelor) and declared repeatedly :

"Under no circumstances should any of us even attempt to change the Vajrayana’s core teachings. By changing just one word, you effectively take on full responsibility for the spiritual path and enlightenment of all future practitioners. I, for one, lack the courage to do such a thing." Poison is Medecin, p.233

Here (13/05/2021) he seems to be ready to allow for a more secular approach, most likely under the condition that the guru keeps playing the key role in the process of helping the student to recognize reality, which can be as simple as folding paper tissues.

The next stage for gray neuroscientists seems to be to also integrate guruvāda into the mix of Science of Mediation.  

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[1] A son of Dudjom Rinpoché (1904-1987) and author of “Words to the West”, which in its first paragraph declares “Almost all western teachers of Buddhism are either nihilists or eternalists, and not actual Buddhist lineage holders.”

[2] How India Is Squandering Its Top Export: The Buddha, 14/07/2016, Huffington Post, Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse, Contributor, World-renowned Buddhist meditation master, teacher and author.

Jay Garfield wrote an answer (“In defense of the Secular”) to defend his view of secularism.

[3] In Buddhist and non-Buddhist tantrism, moments and opportunities for awakening include sneezing, yawning, surprise, orgasm, etc. See Dalaï-lama, The World of Tibetan Buddhism, 1995, Wisdom Publications.