Scientists move to silence Dalai Lama
October 21, 2005
WASHINGTON: He has devoted his life to promoting happiness and harmony. But the Dalai Lama's forthcoming lecture on "fostering compassionate behaviour" to a gathering of US neurologists has provoked a bitter dispute.More than 900 disgruntled brain specialists have signed a petition calling for the Tibetan spiritual leader's talk to be scrapped because it will "highlight a subject with largely unsubstantiated claims and compromised scientific rigour and objectivity".
A Nobel Peace Prize winner, the Dalai Lama is due to share his views on the power of meditation to alter the brain and generate positive thoughts, at the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting in Washington next month.
"What I object to is having a non-scientist address a scientific community about science," said Nancy Hayes, a neurobiologist at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey.
Some of his supporters believe his critics may be motivated more by political objections than scientific doubts, pointing to a number of petition signatories of Chinese origin. The Dalai Lama has been in exile since 1959, after China annexed his homeland.
The petition says: "The presentation of a religious symbol with a controversial political agenda may cause unnecessary controversies, unwanted press, and significant divisions among SFN members ... with conflicting religious beliefs and political leanings. Inviting the Dalai Lama to lecture on the neuroscience of meditation is of poor scientific taste because it will highlight a subject with largely unsubstantiated claims at a prestigious meeting attended by more than 20,000 neuroscientists."
Supporters of the Dalai Lama, who will mark his 70th birthday in Washington on a 10-day visit, say he has collaborated with scientists for 15 years.
He has worked with Richard Davidson, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, whose researchers reported that employees of a biotechnology company showed increased levels of neural activity after taking a course in meditation.
Dr Davidson, who practises meditation himself, told The New York Times that his studies suggested that "human qualities like compassion and altruism may in some sense be regarded as skills, which can be improved through mental training".
The society defended the Dalai Lama's talk, saying it was "expected to bridge the cultural gap between neuroscientists andBuddhist practitioners by pointing to the methods of observation and verification that lie at the heart of both science and Buddhism".
The Times, AFP
Link Here
WASHINGTON: He has devoted his life to promoting happiness and harmony. But the Dalai Lama's forthcoming lecture on "fostering compassionate behaviour" to a gathering of US neurologists has provoked a bitter dispute.More than 900 disgruntled brain specialists have signed a petition calling for the Tibetan spiritual leader's talk to be scrapped because it will "highlight a subject with largely unsubstantiated claims and compromised scientific rigour and objectivity".
A Nobel Peace Prize winner, the Dalai Lama is due to share his views on the power of meditation to alter the brain and generate positive thoughts, at the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting in Washington next month.
"What I object to is having a non-scientist address a scientific community about science," said Nancy Hayes, a neurobiologist at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey.
Some of his supporters believe his critics may be motivated more by political objections than scientific doubts, pointing to a number of petition signatories of Chinese origin. The Dalai Lama has been in exile since 1959, after China annexed his homeland.
The petition says: "The presentation of a religious symbol with a controversial political agenda may cause unnecessary controversies, unwanted press, and significant divisions among SFN members ... with conflicting religious beliefs and political leanings. Inviting the Dalai Lama to lecture on the neuroscience of meditation is of poor scientific taste because it will highlight a subject with largely unsubstantiated claims at a prestigious meeting attended by more than 20,000 neuroscientists."
Supporters of the Dalai Lama, who will mark his 70th birthday in Washington on a 10-day visit, say he has collaborated with scientists for 15 years.
He has worked with Richard Davidson, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, whose researchers reported that employees of a biotechnology company showed increased levels of neural activity after taking a course in meditation.
Dr Davidson, who practises meditation himself, told The New York Times that his studies suggested that "human qualities like compassion and altruism may in some sense be regarded as skills, which can be improved through mental training".
The society defended the Dalai Lama's talk, saying it was "expected to bridge the cultural gap between neuroscientists andBuddhist practitioners by pointing to the methods of observation and verification that lie at the heart of both science and Buddhism".
The Times, AFP
Link Here
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 4:50 PM
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