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  • The Neural Buddhists

    Published May 13th, 2008

    Ian Case sent me this interesting op-ed piece by David Brooks of the New York Times on the current “scientific revolution,” which supports many of the insights of Buddhist practice. Those who follow the dialog between cognitive science and Buddhism know that this kind of research has been developing for sometime now. Brooks proposes here that these insights within the scientific community are a distinct paradigm shift running counter to the former materialist perspective and will consequently have broad, even revolutionary implications for society as a whole. The following text, excerpted from the column, enumerates several of its positions:

    First, the self is not a fixed entity but a dynamic process of relationships. Second, underneath the patina of different religions, people around the world have common moral intuitions. Third, people are equipped to experience the sacred, to have moments of elevated experience when they transcend boundaries and overflow with love. Fourth, God can best be conceived as the nature one experiences at those moments, the unknowable total of all there is.

    In their arguments with Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, the faithful have been defending the existence of God. That was the easy debate. The real challenge is going to come from people who feel the existence of the sacred, but who think that particular religions are just cultural artifacts built on top of universal human traits. It’s going to come from scientists whose beliefs overlap a bit with Buddhism.

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