PACIFIC WORLD - The Institute of Buddhist Studies

Studying “No Mind”:The Future of Orthogonal ApproachesSteven A. TainerThe Institute for World Religions, and the Kira InstituteTHIS IS A PAPER ON COGNITIVE SCIENCE and Buddhism. I willcomment on the consequences of living in a world increasingly framed byscience, and ways in which the situation may change as both cognitivescience and the contemporary practice of Buddhism mature and—perhaps—influenceeach other.“MY BRAIN IS ANGRY,” AND OTHER CALLS TO ARMSMany years ago, when I first began studying Buddhism in a serious,formal way, I was visited in Berkeley by a friend, at that time a fledglingbiochemist but already a most confirmed Scientist. Like characters in anupdated version of Fielding’s Tom Jones, we were both young andexcited, certain we had embarked on vast exploratory journeys . . . butexplorations that stood in an unclear relation to one another. Curious(and I think, suspicious) about my new pursuits, he asked me for anaccount of Buddhism.I gave him the history—once upon a time there was this person whomade extraordinary efforts to see to the heart of the human situation, hada supremely great awakening, shared his insight with the rest of us, andurged us to follow his teaching (dharma). My friend listened very patiently,and sat in thoughtful silence when I’d finished. Finally he said: “IfI understand you correctly, you’re trying to find something that somebodyelse already found a long time ago.” I had to admit this was true.So he went on, “But what I’m trying to do is to find things that nobodyhas ever discovered before!” This time I was the one to fall silent . . . I’dnever considered prior to this conversation how complex a differencemight lie between scientific and spiritual investigations. His commentopened worlds of worry for me—people might now really think thatspirituality was something like a quest for facts, that it was optional or evenbest handled via the kind of specialization or division of labor that’scommon in science. Someone studies astronomy, someone else investi-55