Nobel Peace Prize winner and beloved Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, was greeted by hundreds of supporters Friday in several Massachusetts communities.
NewsCenter 5’s David Boeri reported that the Dalai Lama traveled to Boston to attend a conference with Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists from the Mind and Life Institute. The conference covers cosmology, psychology, neuroscience, and quantum mechanics.
The Dalai Lama came to pursue his own personal interests in science and to continue a joint investigation by both Buddhists and Western scientists into the bio-behavioral workings of the brain.
“We’re exploring how Buddhism and science can collaborate in order to advance the understanding of the nature of reality,” said R. Adam Engle of the MIT’s Mind and Life Institute.
Over 2,500 years ago, Buddha set out to find an end to human suffering. Through meditation, he found, one could find an inner light. In both Buddha’s journey and in the research of Western scientists at the conference, the mind was the principal means of investigation.
“Up to now, science mainly deals with external things,” said the Dalai Lama.
Through advances in Western science, mental and neuro activity can now be measured, meaning the inner experience can now been seen and proved by mathematicians, physicists and neuroscientists.
The Dalai Lama sees common goals in his studies and the scientists’ work.
“I feel there is potential to work together; therefore, in any case, no harm to explore potential,” said the Dalai Lama.
The Dalai Lama is scheduled to speak at the Fleet Center on Sunday. Currently there are 16,000 names on the waiting list for tickets.
