The Dalai Lama, who has long proved that science and religion don't need to be enemies, is scheduled to give a talk at DAR Constitutional Hall on the neuroscience of meditation. Certain Chinese-Americans are protesting this speech and are trying to shut it down. They claim that they have reservations about mixing science and religion. But could their complaints have less to do with religion, and more to do with the Dalai Lama's controversial political agenda?
This
article was in the Washington Post:
The Dalai Lama already is a major religious, political and literary figure, but his emerging role as a scientific leader has for the first time encountered some significant pushback.
Not at the Constitution Hall gathering, sponsored by the Mind and Life Institute, a group that he helped found. (The official topic for the three days of discussion will be meditation, and how cutting-edge science is beginning to understand more about its highly active nature and how it can enhance and heal the human mind and body.)
But trouble looms this weekend at the Washington Convention Center, where the Dalai Lama is scheduled to give an hour-long keynote address Saturday to the annual convention of the Society for Neuroscience.
A petition drive, begun primarily by Chinese American researchers, seeks to have the Dalai Lama's appearance canceled. The protesters, who argue that a religious leader should not be given such a prominent role at an important scientific conference, say they have gathered at least 600 signatures. There have also been competing letters and an editorial in the journal Nature.
"The presentation of a religious symbol with a controversial political agenda may cause unnecessary controversies, unwanted press, and significant divisions among SFN members from multiple geographic locations, and with conflicting religious beliefs and political leanings," reads the petition, which was signed by several hundred non-Chinese researchers and academics as well.
"Inviting the Dalai Lama to lecture on 'Neuroscience of Meditation' is of poor scientific taste, because it will highlight a subject with largely unsubstantiated claims and compromised scientific rigor and objectivity at a prestigious meeting attended by more than 20,000 neuroscientists."
That anti-Dalai Lama effort quickly gave birth to a counter-petition in favor of his address, as well as speculation about the motives of the original group of petition writers. Relations between China and once-independent Tibet have been badly strained for half a century, and the Dalai Lama is at the center of the dispute.
"Chinese protests against high-profile visits of the Dalai Lama are routine wherever he travels," said John Ackerly, president of the International Campaign for Tibet and one of the sponsors of the Dalai Lama's Washington visit. Ackerly said that the speech is part of a series called "Dialogues Between Neuroscience and Society" and that architect Frank Gehry is scheduled to be next year's speaker.
"The Dalai Lama has had a long interest in science and has maintained an ongoing dialogue with leading neuroscientists for more than 15 years," said Carol Barnes, the society's president. "Which is the reason he was invited to speak."
Speaking to reporters before the Mind and Life conference sessions began yesterday, the Dalai Lama said he understood the controversy: "When people heard that I would be speaking, that meant that the Dalai Lama -- from a 500-year institution that symbolizes Tibetan Buddhism -- would be meeting with scientists," he said. "Yes, it's a little bit strange. But on the other hand, when scientists come into our Tibetan monastic institutions, that also looks a little strange."
I'm also a Buddhist, and even though I disagree with his Holiness on some issues, I've always respected his outreach to the scientific community and eagerness to learn. So it's easy to see that this protest has nothing to do with religion or "psuedo-science." Personally, I think it's all about Tibet. The Web site www.phayul.com agrees: "[M]any believe that the opposition to His Holiness came at the behest of China." These protestors realize that this talk will garner unwanted press (given our own, heated anti-science religious climate here) and they want the Dalai Lama to get as little exposure as possible. Because the more attention he gets, the more attention his cause for freeing Tibet receives. This, in turn, could ruin the image of our seemingly innocuous dealer of abject consumerism to the East and expose it as the tyrannical, imperialistic, oppressor that it really is.
The Dalai Lama is also meeting with Bush and Rice soon, which will further raise his profile in the media, and that of his cause to free Tibet. The pro-Chinese government forces want to minimize the attention he will receive. Apparently this happens often. I also wonder how Bush will weasel out his avowed policy of not tolerating un-democratic regimes (like the one occupying Tibet) in order to appease our Chinese sugar daddies.
That's my take on this incident, at any rate. Feel free to disagree below. You can support the Dalai Lama by signing this online petition. I agree with the premises of this petition, but I still think the real issue isn't science and religion, it's Tibet.
As a side note, do you think he'll be able to turn Bush around? Maybe convert him to Buddhism? That'd be a sight. Bush might even be good at it. He seems to have mastered the concept of "no-mind."
[Cross-posted to Forged Demon]