Kolkata, November 24 – Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama today said Buddhism and science shared a common aspect of inquiry for truth and therefore scientific education has been introduced in a number of Buddhist monasteries in south India.
Speaking on the golden jubilee celebrations of the Indo Tibetan Study Centre of Viswa Bharati University here, the Dalai Lama said that in the end of the 20th and beginning of 21st century, several scientists had shown keen interest in Buddhism.
”I had the chance of having dialogue with leading scientists in the past few years. We have also introduced science education in a number of monasteries in south India,” he said, adding, ”I can say with confidence that these types of Indo-Tibetan centres can extend a lot to such comparative studies.” However, the Dalai Lama said though in the 21st century man had achieved highly in material and scientific developments, the ”one sided development” or material prosperity could result in ”unthinkable misery and unthinkable suffering if wrongly used as has been seen in the recent past.” Recollecting West Bengal’s connection with Buddhism, the Dalai Lama said the religion, which flourished in Nalanda on the basis of knowledge, had a lot of contribution from Bengali scholars, like Atish Dipankara, who had refined Buddhism in Tibet also.
