Zen table

Now this really is a project bringing Zen into the 21st Century! The beauty and fascination of a zen garden dynamically cared for by a computer/robot :-) Why not donate a buck? I did as I would love to own one....

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fnbrit/zen-table

Neuroscience vs Buddhism

Following yesterday's post I came across this opinion article on the connection between neuroscience and Buddhism. Clearly there is a lot out there about these connections. To quote a particularly juicy paragraph:

Western thought is hardly monolithic or simple, but monotheistic religions made a simple misstep when they didn’t apply naturalism to themselves and their notions of their souls. Time and again, their prominent scholars and philosophers rendered the human soul exceptional and otherworldly, falsely elevating our species above and beyond nature. We see the effects today. When Judeo-Christian belief conflicts with science, it nearly always concerns science removing humans from a putative pedestal, a central place in creation. Yet science has shown us that we reside on the fringes of our galaxy, which itself doesn’t seem to hold a particularly precious location in the universe. Our species came from common ape-like ancestors, many of which in all likelihood possessed brains capable of experiencing and manifesting some of our most precious “human” sentiments and traits. Our own brains produce the thing we call a mind, which is not a soul. Human exceptionalism increasingly seems a vain fantasy. In its modest rejection of that vanity, Buddhism exhibits less error and less original sin, this one of pride.

The author follows that up by making an interesting point. Buddhists are clearly happy to bask in the reinforcement of their beliefs by science, but will they be equally happy to accept that there is currently no scientific evidence for reincarnation?

Science vs Buddhism

An interesting, well produced video that highlights the strong parallels between the way both science and buddhism describe the world. [Original Source]:



Although the video is slightly laboured, I do find these parallels extremely thought provoking. Buddhism after all stands alone amongst world relgions due to its lack of a supreme deity (Buddha is NOT a God in case you were unaware!) and focuses on truely trying to understand reality. For further reading along similar lines I would recommend both these two books:

The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism








Einstein and Buddha: The Parallel Sayings