Cambridge, Mass. — On the campus of the country’s premier scientific university, the world’s best-known Buddhist leader on Thursday (April
30) called on educators to teach ethics and compassion without a basis in religious belief.
Hundreds gathered at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as the Dalai Lama, speaking from the seated, cross-legged position of a sage, officially opened MIT’s Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values.
“The majority of the 6 billion people on earth, I think, we can categorize as non-believers,” the Dalai Lama said. “So we must find a way to promote ethics and values with these nonbelievers … We need promotion of secular ethics through education.”
The exiled spiritual and political leader of Tibet described “secular” not as an absence of belief, but as a mode of treating religious belief and non-belief with equal respect
The Dalai Lama used the stage to lay a framework for the center’s goal of shaping an ethical generation of leaders. Compassion cannot be bought, he said, but “there must be possibility to increase that through certain methods.”
With the launch of the Dalai Lama center, MIT is breaking new ground in the world of academic science: no other major science research institution in the U.S. has a center named for a contemporary religious leader.
Yet MIT makes no apologies for establishing a place where students learn how to embody and advance such “universal values” as compassion and peace. Such character training has become increasingly important as MIT has become “an institute that grooms technocrats and world leaders,” says Tenzin Priyadarshi, the Jesuit-educated Buddhist monk who directs the center.
“In this recent financial crisis, most of these people who were running Wall Street came from several Ivy League schools,” Priyadarshi said. “When you look at the issues underlying the crisis — greed and deceit — why were those not addressed when they were being educated?”
MIT’s collaboration with the Dalai Lama might raise eyebrows in professional science circles, Priyadarshi conceded, but he expects other schools to be inspired to launch similar initiatives in coming decades.
Because of MIT’s high profile, observers say, the center’s ambitions are sure to be noticed and discussed.
“When MIT does this, it gets more attention than if others do it,”
says Francisco Ayala, a biologist and former Dominican priest at the University of California, Irvine. “It’s extraordinary that it’s happening at MIT.”
At MIT, students are already learning contemplative techniques through the center, which launched its programming a year ago. Through self-awareness exercises, they learn how emotions shape their own decision-making and develop tools for anticipating long-term ramifications, according to Priyadarshi.
Those techniques are not only consistent with Buddhist teachings, he said, but they’re also compatible with other religious faiths — as well as atheistic and agnostic philosophies.
The center’s location at MIT reflects the Dalai Lama’s longtime interest in science. As a child in Lhasa, Tibet, he taught himself to fix broken machines, from cars to clocks and movie projectors. The Dalai Lama has used his global fame to help launch other science-related initiatives, such as the Mind & Life Institute in Boulder, Colo., which organizes annual conferences on Buddhism and neuroscience.
In one sense, the new center makes official and concrete something many scientists have felt for decades: that Buddhism isn’t an enemy of their profession. Since the 19th century, Buddhists have claimed their tradition — with its rejection of a creator deity and description of a mechanistic universe — is more compatible with science than Christianity is, according to Donald Lopez, professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Michigan and author of “Buddhism and Science: A Guide for the Perplexed.”
“Buddhism has no history of conflict with science,” says B. Alan Wallace, president of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies in Santa Barbara, Calif. “In that regard, it may seem non-threatening to certain scientists who’ve grown very wary of Christians, who they think always have an agenda to try to plug intelligent design or their own particular theological creed.”
The center also reflects a growing movement in higher education to explore how science and religion might be complementary, rather than perennial foes. Institutions including UC Irvine, Columbia University and the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley have in recent years formalized dialogues to seek synergies between religion and science. At Stanford University, the Dalai Lama helped inspire and fund a new Center for Compassion & Altruism Research & Education, which maintains close ties to Tibetan Buddhism and neuroscience.
Still, MIT’s new center forges into fresh territory, Wallace said, by rejecting what he describes as the “myth” of values-free science.
Atheist scientists and people of non-Buddhist faiths are both apt to worry about the center having a particular religious influence at MIT, Wallace said. But he cautions both groups not to pre-judge a Buddhist-led effort to seek a universal ethics and value system.
“The center is named for the most prominent Buddhist in the world, and the director is an ordained Buddhist monk, who’s walking around MIT’s campus in a Buddhist monastic robe,” Wallace said. “It can look like, `Hey, those Buddhists are being very cunning here. They’re trying to slip their agenda into MIT…’ It’s a valid qualm. Answer to the qualm: watch what they actually do (to see) if they’re pushing a Buddhist agenda.”
G. Jeffrey MacDonald
Religion News Service
Copyright 2009 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.
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posted April 30, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Yes! There are so many Christians and others who deny you can do that, when in fact you so easily can. Thank you, DL.
posted April 30, 2009 at 8:31 pm
It sounds as though there is a need for secular study to learn ethics, and compassion without a basis in religious belief. When I took medical ethics, religion was not brought into that class. It was very interesting and usable for the rest of my life, in fact. It would be a plus for anyone no matter what their beliefs. I read somewhere that a larger group of people who were Evangelical and in Churches that they visited every sunday thought that torture was o.k. if it was needed, and the people who didn’t go to church, thought it wasn’t o.k. So maybe the Evangelicals need this MIT class, could they be missing something?
posted April 30, 2009 at 8:59 pm
They could.
posted April 30, 2009 at 10:36 pm
Ken Wilber’s work shows that there is a similar direction of personal evolution across the various religious traditions. And Spiral Dynamics suggests it is there in the general population also. I think it is pretty clear that all of us start out with less capacity for ethics, and some of us grow into a greater capacity for ethics. It seems odd that I would even question this. But I spent so many years being taught that without Christian dogma, there would be no evolution, or reason to act ethically.
posted April 30, 2009 at 10:54 pm
I am speechless. All I can say is that American like to hear “SWEET TALK”
Dalai Lama do that all the time. But Dalai Lama on the back, he oppressed his own people, check shugden society on the net. You will find out how he and his so called Tibetan Government really is. Dalai Lama smile in America, Get Angry in Dharamsala, went crazy in Tibet.
He is a God king of Tibet. Please do not listen to his sweet talk. He only talks the talks. He never walks the walk. His non-violence is in fact, non action. He never joined a protest. He never suffered a moment because he was spoon-feded by his people. Wake up America before it is too late.
posted May 1, 2009 at 10:03 am
I think Dawa is a follower of Shugden and i disagree your comment. Tell you the truth Shugden is just like body guide and it’s not religion at all. The boss has right to keep this body guide is or not. if the body guide is good, then continue to hire. If the body guide is not good, then just fire it.I think you got narrowed mind and lack of Tibetan dignity. Don’t just work for money or dollars. Don’t dog of anti Tibet group even you are follower of Shugden, but keep in your mind that you/shugden group small part of Tibetan. So don’t forget your monther, Tibet!!! I hope this center teach Tibetan language and Tibetan culture. Also History and Tibet Issue. Tashi Delek
posted May 1, 2009 at 2:42 pm
The last time I saw the D.L. he was rolling around Washington in a spanking new Bentley. I had not seen him for several decades, when I was in India. The old boy looks good for his age.
It was back in the 1950s that I bought an ancient Tibetan Buddhist Robe, from a Lama. It is golden yellow silk, and has large fiqures worked into it with threads of gold and silver. The old lama who sold it, said that it had been a ceremonial robe for the 8th Pachen Lama? ( I cannot recall.) In the 1960s, I decided that it was taking up too much wall space, as I had hung it to better enjoy the delicate work. I went to Washington to the “Freer Art Gallery,” to ask them how old it really was. They, after examining it for days, were unable to date it. They did ask me if I would like to donate it to them. As it had not come free to me, I asked them what they were willing to pay. I was paid with a look I still recall and an offer of a bronze piece to read,” from the collection of George—. I mentioned that I still have it, and from them, I know that it is museum quality.
I have a goal to help raise funds for Focus Adolescent Services, http://www.focusas.com They, after fifteen years, have become the Worlds Largest Clearinghouse of Information and Resources for parents and professionals dealing with, “troubled teens.” They do their work for Free. I am told, sadly, that they receive over two million visitors a Month, their councilors take thousands of telephone calls and emails.
Following Katrina, and seeing the way our money was spent, or better, not spent by “The Big Three,” I dedicated a year to find groups that really do what they say they are doing. I located six who do not depend on government funding and who work to help Americans. These are organizations who I feel bear the major work load and actually do some good without wanting any great recognition for their good deeds.
Focusas.com told me that as of the first of the year they have received $30.00 in gifts. The Director reluctantly told me that most of their councilors are working for free. Another thing that I found of interest is their demographics. We have been educated to believe that the problems are with the so called, “inner-city,” youth. They tell me that their calls come from what we use to call our, “middle-class,” and, “upper-class.” The problems of the inner-city can not be solved by tossing Billions at it. I feel that it would best be addressed by an ethnologist or sociologist.
The bottom line here folks is that I want to sell the robe and give the money to them. I do not know how best to go about it. Richard Gere where are you? Mr Dalai Lama, why don’t you respond to my emails and letters? If any body can help me and help focusas please do.
posted May 1, 2009 at 4:00 pm
George, I just got off the http://www.focusas.com website. They have an enormous amount of information. They are a group that I can get behind and I did.
Maybe the big auction houses of NYC and London would be a place to sell your robe. You might just want to wear it to the next lecture given by the Dalai Lama and see what happens there.
Here is one for the record books. This morning I was on the Consumer Reports website. I need a new washer. If it’s not one thing it’s another. To get the info I needed I had to subscribe to them at about 20 buckos. I noticed at the top of their site they have a DONATE button. They want it both ways. Needless to say they got zip from me.
I wish you and Focusas.com good luck. That robe is probably worth a cool million. That would keep them going to the end of time. Longer than my old washer lasted for sure.
Good Luck
posted May 1, 2009 at 6:19 pm
The truth will eventually prevail. Dalai Lama is a God king of Tibet. Please do not restore God king system to Tibet. Civilian will suffer again. Please go and read history. As for Shugden, I am not a beleiver any religion. I think Religion made Tibetans blind. Either Shugden or Dalai Lamaden are both Hindu Yogism, not Buddhism. Buddha was against worshiping Idol, against Caste system, and against God King Reincarnation system. But Tibetan are doing exactly the opposite. What an irony. Please do some research and come back here.
Free Tibet from China,God king Dalai Lama and Aristocrats.
posted May 2, 2009 at 10:37 am
Folks,
Why all the flames here?
as I read it, The news is nothing about ‘free tibet’ or ‘Dalai’s cliche’ (as
those in china often says) at all,
in fact, its kind of science and religion being together in a positive way
and I’m pretty sure that peoples at MIT are NO such dumb, so there must
be a good reason for them in building the facility after His Holiness ‘s name
in one of the most famous places in the world.
as a Buddhist myself, its a good news and I’m going to celebrate this.
posted May 14, 2009 at 4:20 pm
I forgot to say that a portion will go to those working within Tibet for Freedom.