"If there is any religion that would cope with modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism." -Albert EinsteinThe following documentary (50mins) covers the life of Siddhartha Gautama, a young prince from India who went out to find the reason for Dukkha [suffering] of human life. He later found the reason of Dukkha and teached a way to live life. He was later known as the Buddha, the founder of "Buddhism".
[ see also the short doc The Buddha (20mins) ]
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The Dalai Lama said "science of the mind".
I like - science of nothingness.
My wife is Korean.
We visited Korea in 2008, and went to some of the Buddhist temples there.
About 25% of Koreans are Buddhist.
There is something magical about entering and walking around the temples.
They exude serenity.
Mixing together Dao De Ching, along with some religious aspects of Christianity, and Islam is where the answer will be found.
Buddhism has some very unique empirical claims related to transcendence that scientists should be focused on.
In Tibetan the process is called Ja'lus Pa. Indigenous Dzogchen has it, Tibetan Buddhism has it, the Jains have it, the Taoists have it, and Fr. Francis Tiso suggests it's something near to what Christianity has.
I also think Jewish mysticism has something like it. Martin Buber's essays in Legends of the Baal Shem Tov describe something like it.
Timothy Morton practices Dzogchen but hasn't had time to discuss his views of the Ja'lus.
Lama Yeshe, one of the famous Tantra stars of the diaspora, explicitly claims in his 1984 France transmissions (if memory serves me) that these phenomena are empirical and repeatable given sufficient causes and conditions.
Namkhai Norbu speaks in great detail about these matters in the Crystal & the Way of Light. The biography of Dudjom Dorje speaks of it.
In addition, consider Thomas McEvilley's work The Shape of Ancient Thought, which argues for East-to-West transmission of ideas prior to Alexander's excursion into India.
Other scholars have argued that the Mahayana turn in Buddhism doesn't begin until after the teachings of Christ entered India. Some Tibetan Buddhists suggest Christ was practicing Tong-len on the cross, and that Tong-len is a Christian gift to Buddhist praxis.
Anyway, it's very interesting.
I wanted to pursue doctoral research on the Ja'lus phenomena but really there aren't any professors doing it. I mean, when you want to know about this stuff, most people go to a practitioner to learn the techniques first hand. I would like to do this, but also be a researcher about, providing arguments that make sense for scientists.
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