Buddhism and Science Symposium II

A great meetings of buddhist in Singapore in attempt to understand how Buddhism and Science can complement each other from the enlightening speech by a monk, a renowned psychologist and a Buddhist scholar that forms the bridge between Science and Buddhism since he was a Scientist as well as a practicing Buddhist.

Was told that the totally packed seating houses 1200+ audiences that stretch across one of the gallery on Suntec Convention Centre. The seating reminds me of when ever Buddha gives a sermon, 500 arhats were mentioned to be around as audience. The audience for the event was more than the arahats but slightly more rowdy bunch :) There I was enjoying my serenity as well as eavesdropping on Buddhism "small talks" on Sutras on Buddhism and others! The feeling was nice.

Here's the crust of the talk.

http://www.culturalcompass.org/index.html to look at the credentials of the speakers.

Ven Jing Yin (Dr)

It is futile to think that we can drive out all forms of emotions and esp. Buddhist should not fall prey to the notions of disregarding emotions. The way to live in harmony with our emotions is to recognize that all emotions can in fact be effective for our growth. The main point is to be fully mindful of the kind of emotions that arises. If say we encounter a verbal abuse by our boss or anyone, we should be grateful as they form the fertilizer for our growth. Just like a lotus could never bloom beautifully on a clean sandy beach. This work even if the abuse is nonsense. Through the course of abuse, we learn to keep watch of our restless mind. And doing so we can grow to accept criticism more objectively and with patience and gratitude.

He also covered slightly on habitual behaviour. Our mind and behavior works like a feedback loop. Why we have perception on things are due to our past habitual reaction towards things. For example, SG parents are always thinking that their child need to have good grades to pave the way for future success which seems as the normal thinking patterns in our society thus lacking emphasis on moral values. When student faces exams, they should focus in the current effort in studying the knowledge rather than dwelling on attaining good grades as a result. Focusing on the present will encourage good grades already rather than stressing on things in the future. Our habitual perceptual tendency will result in sometime irrational behaviors that might prove to do disfavor to our life.

He also jokes about not getting angry with a snoring husband. The wife should see that the snoring husband is her husband and if that man that sleeps beside her does not snore then he is not his husband. According to Buddhism, we all live in the Realm of Desire and thus it is impossible not to have desire. But we need to work hard on promoting good desires and minimizing bad desires from surfacing.

Dr B. Alan Wallace

Human history has been a short but rapid phase of development if in consideration of the whole cycle of live on Earth. We have develop from a Hunter-Gatherer stage to a Cultivator stage where instead of relying on hunting that is not enough to feed all the mouths, we resort to grow our food, utilizing the resources to higher efficiency. That is technology advancement.

But sad to say in pursue of happiness we are still in the primitive hunter instinct. We often look for happiness if we work for it externally or thinking that having lots of money and great social positions will guarantee happiness. In fact, there are 2 types of happiness that points out by him. One is what we get from externally like wealth and fortune. The 2nd is what we cultivated internally by being of service to others. Happiness that is from outside our self will stop once the external stimuli have been removed. But happiness that arises by helping others could never be robbed away.

He also mentioned that conventional psychological learning say that we are all social animals and need constant socializing with others to grow and survive. But he retorted the fact that we are all also individuals and thus need time to be with ourselves.

He shared an experience of posting a question to HH Dalai Lama. He says that as a newbie in Buddhism then he sees himself growing more arrogant despite his little knowledge gained and asks for way to grow beyond arrogance in fear to know he is going to grow more intellectually in future. HH Dalai Lama says that when a person is poor and hungry, a rich man nurse the person with lots of food. After filling the stomach, how can one be arrogant by just because he was fed and no longer hungry. The geis of it is to say we should all learn and work our wisdom with gratitude to our teachers and thus will not fall prey to arrogance.

Dr. Paul Ekman

His is more of applications. He mentioned to recognize the spark before the flame. He sees that anger happens due to certain stimuli. And we can observe this spark before it really grows into flame. He mentioned about physiological changes to the face or body when we are angry. Some of this symptoms are blood rush, drooping eyebrows, tension of the face to recognize that we are angry. Here are some tips he shared.

1) Keeping a diary: Writing down the causing of any particular emotions, what causes it and all the related thoughts and feelings about those emotions. And through time we will see a pattern on what makes us angry. Then next time we observe the arising of such symptoms, we can lessen or at least reduce the magnitude of the rage.

2) Mindfulness meditation: We can just sit down somewhere and quiet ourselves to observe and contemplate on what has happened and our reaction to it. This work primarily to understand our emotions better.

He cautioned to not act on impulse, not thinking rationally on our behavior thus leading to regrettable episodes. A little side track to Dr Paul was he is not a Buddhist and was a supporter to Darwinian theory of evolution and thus he talks a lot on how human psychology was developed. I shall not write here as it is too dry and scientific for a lot of people. He is also into criminal psychology and thus emphasis a lot on observing our negative thoughts.