The Dalai Lama is serious about integrating science into traditional Buddhist monastic education.
Image via emory.edu.
His philanthropic organization, the Dalai Lama Trust, has just added $1 million to the coffers of Emory University’s Robert A. Paul Emory-Tibet Science Initiative (ETSI). The gift will help ETSI implementation its plan this year to introduce a broad, six-year science curriculum in some of the largest Buddhist monasteries in India, as well as expand research opportunities for monks and nuns at Emory’s Atlanta campus (see a video about the program after the jump). Emory’s announcement recalled the Dalai Lama’s relevant words from his visit to the university last year:
“For more than 30 years I have been engaged in an ongoing exchange with scientists, exploring what modern scientific knowledge and time-honored science of mind embodied by the Tibetan tradition can bring to each other’s understanding of reality. This is important because the greatest problems humanity faces today must be addressed not only on a material level, but also on a psychological and emotional level.”
In Tuesday’s announcement, Emory also released this short video about ETSI, Bridging Two Worlds:
Read the full announcement about the Dalai Lama Fund’s grant here.