[Buddha-l] nytimes article on the Emory U Tibetans and Science project

[Dan Lusthaus]

A curious reaction to the news that HHDL encourages Tibetans to catch up 
with western science and develop justicatory methods for confirming and 
promotiong Tibetan practices. As if some in the west want to maintain 
separate realities -- one for the scientifically conceived world and 
another, separate one for a certain imaginal world that might operate by 
different rules.

Why assume Tibetans would be incapable of understanding scientific methods 
and knowledge on its own terms? Are they culturally retarded?

After years of working on Asanga, who was very interested in being as 
up-to-date with the sciences of his day -- esp. medicine -- for underlying 
principles and explanations for his philosophy, the idea of updating 
Buddhist appreciations of scientific knowledge not only seems reasonable, 
but desirable.

Dan