Introduction

The Scientific Revolution has been a timely and important response the physical sufferings of "medieval" existence in all societies. As the Buddha eschewed the sufferings of his ascetic life for milk and a modicum of food, the scientific revolution has been modern mankind's attempt to balance his physical world so that our inner world can better prosper. It has also been a rejection of the domination of mankind's mind and spirit by rigid and oppressive religious structures. At present, however, we are faced with a similar problem that the first scientific revolutionaries faced, a rigidified monopolized epistemology which impedes the development of the mind and spirit. In short, we might term this Scientism, a form of clinging to views (ditthupadana ) which clings to the rational inquiry and quantitative analysis of objective sensory experience (e.g. positivism). Especially in the realm of the social sciences, such as economics, philosophy, sociology and politics, Scientism has left our cultures devoid of vital aspects of the human spirit.

 From such an historical perspective, we can begin to see the need for both a religion which does not devolve into fundamentalist dogma and a science which does not devolve into Scientism. Uniting science which has developed a systematic method for understanding the objective world and religion which has developed a systematic method for understanding the subjective world can lead us to the highest fruits of physical and spiritual well being.

As both Scientism on one hand and religious fundamentalism have become prevalent world views, however, we must seek to understand their fallacies and develop a new world view which takes the best of science and religion. A Buddhist contribution to this project is found in the concept of "Dhamma". Dhamma is perhaps Buddhism's richest concept. It has a number of translations such as truth, phenomena, nature, or the teachings of the Buddha. It is both scientific in its experiential and investigative methods and religious in its comprehensive spiritual foundation. As such, it offers a good foundation for building an inclusive and beneficial world view based on the integrated development of mind and matter, or formlessness and form.

1) Dhamma as Nature (supramundane)

        As objective science grounds itself in the observation of the natural world (form), so too can we begin conceptualizing Dhamma as "nature". From this foundation, we can observe four core aspects of Dhamma as "nature".

1. nature itself
2. the law of nature
3. the duty that human beings must carry out towards nature
4. and the result  that comes with performing this duty according to the law of nature.¹

1. Nature Itself - Dhammajati & Dhammadhatu

    The sense of Dhamma as "nature" can be understood more deeply through the terms dhammajati and dhammadhatu.. Dhammajati refers to "all things that are born (jati) naturally, ordinarily, out of the natural order of things, that is, from Dhamma. Everything arising out of Dhamma, everything born from Dhamma, is what we mean by 'nature.' This is what is absolute and has the highest power in itself."² We should be careful to note here that "nature" is not to be understood simply as the world of forms, like the plants, trees, the sky, our bodies, etc. Rather "nature" or "all things that are born naturally" is a more expansive concept referring to all phenomena, both form and formless, which arise and fade or which are born and die. In Buddhism, we understand hat the basis of the world of forms is in the mind (the formless). This mental basis consists of the five khandhas of consciousness (vinyana), perceptions (sanya), feeling (vedana), mental formations (sankhara), and forms (rupa). In this way, Dhamma extends beyond the confines of Scientism by including in "nature" that which is beyond the narrow definitions of positivist sense perception.

Yet we can take another step beyond the realm of formlessness, and this leads us to dhammadhatu , the essence (dhatu) of "nature" or of concocted "things". This is the very foundation of reality. It is the fundamental component of "nature", yet Buddhism does not understand it as a solid core, like a creator God or omniscient being. Rather, it is conceived as the essential dynamic or process of reality. As such dhammadhatu  becomes a synonym for the law of nature.³

2. The Law of Nature - Idappaccayata & The Three Dynamics of Nature

The dynamic by which dhammadhatu functions is called idappaccayata, the interdependent stream of causes and conditions. This law emphasizes the relationship and connection of phenomena. It focuses on examining processes and the dynamics of interaction as opposed to positing forms or "things" and appointing them characteristics and properties. This dynamic has in fact been recently revealed in the objective world of the hard sciences. Quantum scientists like physicist David Bohm, a protégé of Einstein's, have found that what we consider a building block of reality in the electron is not an elementary particle but rather the name given to a certain process or dynamic.⁴

Idappaccayata reveals this process on the subjective plane through the concept of Not-self (anatta). That is the dynamics of interaction are more meaningful to understand than the arbitrary designation of "things" or "selves". For example, what is more important to comprehend: the parts of "an engine" or the process by which air, fuel and an assembly of metal parts interact to create motion? Similarly, is it more beneficial to spend time constructing an identity based on the sum of constituent parts like "tall", "white", "lazy", "intellectual" or to become aware of the ways this body, feelings, and mind interact with other such forms and formless phenomena?

When we concentrate in this way on the patterns of interaction, we also come to see the constant state of flux and change in processes and the ultimate Impermanence (anicca) of all concocted "things" either form or formless. For example, when we look at the way our "selves" interact with the world, we see how previous causes and conditions determine present interactions, so that as experiences and interactions accumulate, there is never a time when what we call the "self" is exactly the same. Rather, we are like a big plasma or ocean undulating and changing from moment to moment as the process of birth and death goes on inside of us minute by minute.

From this, we can comprehend Dukkha, or the inability to definitively define and indefinitely preserve any phenomenon. This inability is the foundation for the birth, aging, sickness and death which not only our "selves" but all phenomena must pass through. More commonly, Dukkha is understood as the comprehensive suffering we must endure in living through Impermanence without realizing Not-Self.

Idappaccayata and the these three dynamics reveal the principle laws of nature to us. Idappaccayata, therefore, can reveal the law of ecology, that is "the science of relationships between organisms and their environments" . By grasping idappaccayata, we learn the principles of a deep ecology by focusing on the relationships and processes of organisms and environments opposed to the defining and labeling of organisms and their environments.⁵

3. The Duty of Nature - Cooperative Evolution

The duty of nature is similar to the scientific idea of evolution, however, it differs in some significant ways. The standard theory of evolution posits the development of biological forms in a linear stage-like progression over time from simpler and "inferior" to more complex and "superior". Such a hierarchical model of stages has been interpreted as the competitive struggle of beings over one another where the victory of the higher results in the annihilation of the lower. This has been adapted into a social theory, Social Darwinism, which sees the exploitation of "lesser beings" (e.g. based on race or religion) as the inevitable process of evolution.

The duty of idappaccayata, however, focuses more on the cooperative dynamic of nature rather than the competitive. Scientism looks at evolution as a process of competitive exclusion. True science or Dhamma, however, sees evolution as a process of cooperative inclusion in which lower forms and levels are incorporated into higher forms and levels as internal aspects and processes.⁶ Refuting classical science's stance that a whole system constitutes the accumulation of its parts (as in a competitive hierarchy), David Bohm has asserted that the parts in a system behave more like interconnected wholes.⁷  This implies that the larger dynamic of a system plays a more central role in the behavior of a part than the part's own predilection towards "individual" action. As such, our "ecological" systems more closely follow a cooperative system of interaction and communication than a competitive system of disconnected parts battling with individual wills.

Unfortunately, we have not understood this interdependency and cooperation of beings. Using Scientism, we have developed and applied chemicals to rid ourselves of organisms labeled as "pests" (rats) or as "dangers" (snakes) which disrupt farming. These organisms, however, are vital parts of the higher level of the cooperative food chain which breaks down when we eliminate parts of it, especially key species.  By eliminating the "pests", we end up destroying the whole balance of this chain of beings which support the maturation of crops. Meanwhile, we use the supposedly higher forms of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The problems is we have continued to misunderstand the process of the whole system and thus do not know how to properly integrate these new forms into present causes and conditions. In the end, we do greater damage to ourselves through toxic chemical poisoning than the original "pests" ever did. Only recently have some groups begun to understand and re-value the integrative and cooperative dynamics of the natural order by developing farming techniques which integrate natural and man made technologies.

In the Scientistic view of evolution, competition is the practice of seeking the increase and perpetuation (permanence & satisfaction) of demarcated, individual forms (self) in opposition to one another (independence). However, in this Dhammic view of evolution, competition is not done away with but is rather integrated into the larger process of cooperation, a higher level of natural and human interaction.  Cooperation is the process by which we can begin to practice communication, interrelationship and connection as posited in the law of idappaccayata and the dynamics of Impermanence, Not-self and Dukkha and corroborated by quantum physics.  The meaning of "duty" then is seeking survival and growth not in the selfish, narrow terms of our own individual "selves", but rather in playing our proper role in the mega-organism of life.

When we practice the natural duty of cooperation and penetrate the natural laws of idappaccayata, Impermanence, Not-self and Dukkha, we practice not only an external ecology of skillful interaction with other life forms, but we practice an internal ecology of cooperative balance and harmony within. In fact, this practice of internal ecology is the locus for establishing the larger harmony of external ecology. When we practice inner ecology as a civilization, the practice of external ecology unfolds naturally. When we do not practice as a group, as is happening today, there is no foundation for the realization of external ecology. As such, all our well meaning work for external ecology and environmental preservation becomes  foiled when we do not begin with this fundamental internal ecology.⁸

4. The Results of Following the Duty of Nature - The Freedom of Natural Diversity

 In this modern world, many of us may cringe at the idea of such a "duty" and of "losing" our independence to the will of the larger whole. Indeed, it was the Scientific Revolution which broke against people's dependence and servitude to the medieval Christian Church. In Asia as well, the Confucian ethic and other social grouping systems have often sacrificed the well being of individuals for the will of the whole. As we have seen, however, in following the duty of idappaccayata, individual integrity is not sacrificed. On the contrary, when integrated into a higher whole, the individual may gain a greater experience of freedom. Thus, one of the principle results of following the duty of nature is freedom.

Today, freedom means to be able to do whatever you want to do. It is a dissociated, selfish freedom. One would never think that freedom could come from following a duty or having to bother with responsibility and cooperation. The freedom which comes from following the duty of idappaccayata, though, is the freedom to be oneself, one's true nature. Scientistic individualism speaks of being a unique individual, yet modern identity is anything but unique. Rather, by focusing on arbitrary constructions of "selves" and "things" instead of processes and dynamics, we have confined our world to a series of models and stage systems (Scientistic evolution) which defy the ever-changing nature of our reality. Instead of developing dynamic systems which can respond to changing conditions, we have formed essentialist theories and models which attempt to provide definitive and final answers. The theory of the "evolution" of societies towards industrial modernism is one such example. Whether capitalist or Marxist, our beings are engineered like cars in a factory: educated to the universal models of social science at the expense of our diverse cultures; nurtured on mass produced material goods made from "no where"; and assembled into nationalistic and chauvinistic nation states. The dwindling diversity of the human form and our natural environment has become apparent.

A Jataka story from the Buddha's previous lives provides a good allegory of our present condition:

The Bodhissatva, who represents everyone on the path of Buddhahood, was a tree spirit. A monkey and a bird lived in this particular tree. One day the bird laughed at the monkey for not having a house, saying "why donÌt you build a nest like I do? We birds have such nice, comfortable nests to live in." The monkey replied, "youÌre crazy, we monkeys donÌt need such ridiculous things." The bird laughed at the monkey who got angry and ripped the birdÌs nest to bits. So the bird lost its nest because of its foolish tongue. It tried to teach technology to the monkey, but the monkey would have none of it. The Bodhissatva as tree spirit had a good laugh at this episode of the sassy bird teaching technology to a monkey. A wiser being would consider what is correct for the monkey and what is appropriate in this situation.⁹

 By following the duty of nature, we do not become lost and neglected within an oppressive mega-order, nor do we become engineered into a series of homogenous parts. Rather we learn to become ourselves as naturally existing forms arising from our distinct environment and time. The monkey is the monkey and the bird is the bird. A monkey need not follow a bird's free market capitalism and tastes for hamburgers and luxury cars. All the animals in the forest need not go making bird's nests to live in, nor do they need to all become like birds in order to experience the purported "higher" personal freedoms of birds. Each organism has it's own responsibilities and its own freedoms which arise due to the causes and conditions of that state of being. The magnificent diversity of our natural order shows the true meaning of freedom. Each organism has its own way and own role in the natural order. Once we as humans discover this law of idappaccayata within ourselves and practice ecology properly through following the duty of this law, our true yearnings for freedom will be realized in the natural diversity of cultures and people within those cultures.

2) Dhamma as Mind (mundane)

From Dhamma as nature, we now look to understand the nature within us. Just as science took its discoveries of the physical world and then applied them inwardly to the study of psychology, Dhamma turns inward to look at mind in its full development. Dhamma as nature revealed to us the dynamics between the individual and the cosmos. Dhamma as mind will then look to reveal the dynamics between the individual and society. Following the framework established in our study of nature, let us look at the mind:

1. mind itself
2. the law of mind
3. the duty that we must carry out towards mind
4. the result that comes with performing this duty according to the law of mind
 

1. Mind Itself - Wisdom & Compassion

As we have seen, mind is a subtler encapsulation of what we consider physical nature. At its core, mind is none other than the dynamic of dhammadhatu (the essence of nature), or idappaccayata (the interdependent flux of causes and conditions). On a simple level, we have spoken of the five main processes of mind called the khandhas : consciousness (vinyana), perceptions (sanya), feeling (vedana), mental formations (sankhara), and concocted forms (rupa). The common conceptions of heart, soul, psyche and spirit can all be found in the interplay of these five dynamics. In Chinese, the words "mind" and "heart" have the same character. In English, however, the sense of mind has been separated from emotive aspects which are labeled as the heart. Science has further divided the mind into separate compartments for study such as the brain (rupa, sanya and vinyana khandha) and psychology (some parts of sankhara khandha). Affective processes (vedana khandha and the rest of sankhara khandha) are typically considered outside the objective realm of "knowledge" and neglected in both research and education. Furthermore, these affective processes are considered a barrier to proper scientific observation so that Scientism tries to ignore their existence in its investigative methodology.

As dhammajati, or nature, springs from the deeper foundation of dhammadhatu, the common mind is also seen to have a deeper foundation in wisdom (panya) and compassion (karuna). Science typically adopts the rational processes of wisdom, while religion typically embraces the affective processes of compassion. In Buddhist teachings, these two processes are unified and comprise the enlightened or awakened mind. They are the first step in the movement of the undivided essence of reality (dhammadhatu) towards differentiated, concocted forms; or they are the last step in the mind's realization of unity with dhammadhatu.

The Chinese term for wisdom is a set of two characters. The first is the aforementioned character for heart-mind which operates in the mundane world. The second is the heart-mind which understands the ultimate truth of dhammadhatu.¹⁰  Put together, they indicate the state of union within a human who lives a daily life connected to ultimate truth.  The Chinese term for compassion is also a set of two characters. The first means "giving happiness" (metta) and the second means saving sentient beings from suffering (karuna).¹¹

Compassion is the essential companion to wisdom. Wisdom without compassion may lead to a kind of quietistic isolation from the world of suffering beings, yet compassion without wisdom can lead us to getting lost in the world of suffering without knowing how to engage properly. In the same way, the wisdom elements of science and the compassion elements of religion must integrate in order for mankind to be healthy and balanced. Unfortunately, Scientism has neglected the affective processes of compassion, while religion clings to irrational dogmas that deny the wisdom of scientific insight. Wisdom and compassion united together give rise to the true or original nature of the mind. Naturally "fresh, beautiful, quiet and joyful,"¹² this is the state of perfect mental ecology just as dhammadhatu is the state of perfect physical ecology. In such a way, true science and true religion united can help mankind to create a state of perfect social ecology. A true science systematically penetrates the mysteries of reality while a true religion integrates such insights into a beneficial society of all beings.

2. The Law of Mind - True Science

As a subtler form of physical nature, the mind also follows the law of idappaccayata. Mind is an ever turbulent ocean of causes and conditions, except of course in its highest state of union with dhammadhatu. The key term to understand here is conditions.

a) Idappaccayata as the Law of Causes & Conditions

As Scientism limits the framework of the mind to rational thinking, it tends to regard causality in a rather linear progression of cause and effect. From such a perspective, not only are significant psychic processes disregarded but the fundamental holism of a process is not comprehended. This especially occurs in isolating a process in a laboratory. Laboratory isolation helps to identify and understand key components, but this isolation destroys what we have seen as the holistic dynamic of a process in its natural state. Such isolated observations are then held up as "objective information" and "knowledge" expressed as a static and universalistic code of scientific laws which disregard the varied conditions of varied environments. These laws are formulated on an incomplete foundation which neglects other aspects of the mind, especially psychic aspects of feeling and non-rational thought (vedana and sankhara khandha). With such a blind spot, science has been hijacked for harmful purposes and our mental ecology has been reduced to the maintenance of physical needs.

For example, chemical compounds in laboratory research are found to be effective in killing "pests" while leaving plant life in tact. These compounds are made into pesticides like toxic DDT. Such a pesticide is then regarded as the cure for most any "pest" problem in any setting. The problem is that laboratory research does not take into account who will use the pesticide and how it might be used and abused. This is left to the people who use it to decide. Like giving a pack of matches to a toddler, science opens up a Pandora's box when it gives us its technology without ethical guidance. In America this has meant: unable to apply the pesticide without damaging workers' health and more interested in profit, agro-businesses use the pesticide to the detriment of both workers and the people who consume the crops. In Indonesia this means: uninformed of its toxic properties by chemical companies and government agencies more interested in profit, normal citizens use the pesticide as a miracle drug to get rid of household "pests". The development of the atomic bomb is perhaps the most prominent example of science lacking a psychic and moral principle. In our modern consumer societies, cases of cellular phones being used to run telephone sex clubs from inside schools in Japan is a more mundane example of technological development without consideration to the holistic development of our beings. In such a way, the typical Scientistic model of cause and effect focuses on isolated processes and not the larger holism of inter-relation when it develops medicines and chemical products in the laboratory.

 b) The Three Dynamics of Nature as Non-attachment to Views (ditthi)

 Such a critique of classical scientific casualty has already been made by David Bohm and others involved in quantum physics.¹³  In exposing the fallacy of this limited understanding of causality, these scientists have exposed the deeper problem of attachment to attitudes and views (ditthupadana). Through a limited view of mind, we have developed a limited view of causality. These limitations, however, are not the core problem, but rather our predilection towards a scientific dogmatism, Scientism, which refuses to challenge itself to update and refine its basic ideas and methodologies. Yet we, the unscientific community, are equally to blame for carelessly following the dictates of this dogmatism. In the same way medieval citizens bowed in fear and awe of the Catholic Church, modern citizens bow in fear and awe at the pronouncements of scientific research. Without thinking twice or examining a wider range of alternatives, we pop the latest wonder drug and employ the latest technological gadget.¹⁴

Scientists who have challenged the status quo of scientific dogmatism have found what the Buddha discovered as well: as all physical forms are Impermanent, formless conceptions like ideas, views and scientific theories are equally as Impermanent. These scientists have thus comprehended the essential dynamic of Dukkha, the pressure and conflict of attaching to any aspect of mind (all five khandhas) as all encompassing, everlasting and complete.¹⁵  In other words, there is no single theory which can give us a complete and lasting vision of the universe, and the attempt to posit one is responsible for many of our problems.¹⁶  Therefore, we are challenged to take universalistic claims, theories and laws with a grain of salt and to investigate the limits of their comprehensiveness in our real world of causes and conditions.

c) Holistic Mind includes the Law of Psychic Process and Moral Causality (kamma )
 
With such an undercutting of the truths of scientific inquiry, we would seem to be adrift at sea without a sail. The law of psychic process and moral causality (kamma  or karma), however, introduces a critical element which Scientism disregards. This causality gives us another perspective when the rational dynamics of a process do not reveal themselves to us. When we incorporate this psychic principle of kamma, we bring in the other fundamental aspect of mind, compassion. The psychic principle of kamma brings compassion to bear on wisdom. By seeking to aid the suffering of others, compassion breaks down feelings of separation and "self" in relation to others. This realization of Not-self further aids the realization of interconnectedness (idappaccayata) and the importance of understanding processes over "things". In such a way, compassion helps to nurture the development of knowledge into wisdom by pushing beyond attachment to concocted "things" and theories. Compassion and wisdom together seek to find the best possible answer to any possible situation rather than the one single answer for all situations. As such, technological and moral development arise together providing us with the wisdom to discover solutions and the compassion to enact them properly. Such a system of mental development then becomes a true science which is able to unite our inner mental ecology with our outer natural ecology and to connect us to the highest spiritual and liberative level of Dhamma.

3. The Duty of Mind - True Religion

The duty of the mind is the application of this new comprehensive science. As we have noted, application (the compassion aspect) is the weak link in the scientific process. In science, we have developed technical knowledge, but lack the various place specific understandings of causes and conditions.¹⁷  Psychic principle and moral causality (kamma) provide the guide for all this knowledge and engender wisdom by connecting the abstract realm of thinking with the concrete realm of action. True science in the law of mind provides us with the liberating components of wisdom and compassion to end the disease of Dukkha, while true religion in the duty of mind provides us with the preventative medicine of moral action (sila) to enact these answers into the world. Moral action squelches doubt (vicikiccha) and pushes us forward with proper energy and confidence (saddha). Saddha  is a kind of faith or confidence in our systematic inquiry (yoniso-manasikara) which incorporates all aspects of our mind (all five khandhas). Like true science, yoniso-manasikara emphasizes free and independent inquiry, sustained investigation and verification through personal experience.

a) The Affective Power of the Law of Psychic Process and Moral Causality (kamma )

When unsure of the causes and conditions, moral action (sila), confidence (saddha) and systematic inquiry (yoniso-manasikara) as true religion provide us with the spirit of natural duty in cooperative interdependence. This spirit enables us to resolve smaller processes within a larger problem that lead to the unraveling of the problem. Using the mind in its inclusiveness (all five khandhas) can have tremendous affective power, yet Scientism views that the pure mechanical functioning of phenomena determine the outcome of a process. A true science of the mind, however, understands the critical role the affective parts of the mind can play on a physiological process. This is manifested in the miracles of will like in cases of mothers using inhuman strength to save children in mortal danger. Such affective will has recently been "proven" in scientific experiments at well respected institutes like the Princeton University School of Engineering and Applied Science in the USA.¹⁸  The point here is that affective mental states like compassion and confidence are not "just feelings" which fool us into feeling OK or which convince us that we will receive a happy afterlife. Affective mental states like compassion and confidence have a psychic energy like an electrical current which influence the direction of a process. As such, they can provide us with a frequency of well being which can guide us step by step through a larger process whose solution appears opaque.

b) The Law of Causes & Conditions as Process - Means as Ends

Affective means are a development of the dynamic of idappaccayata. Idappaccayata  posits that one action in a certain situation will yield a certain result. Manifesting in the psychic principle of kamma, idappaccayata  contradicts the idea that one can create a result from contradictory means (e.g. peace from war). The Buddha once said:

Bhikkhus, whatever one frequently thinks and ponders upon, that will become the inclination of his mind. If one frequently thinks and ponders upon thoughts of sensual desire, one has abandoned the thought of renunciation to cultivate the thought of sensual desire, and then one's mind inclines to thoughts of sensual desire......Whatever one frequently thinks and ponders upon, that will become the inclination of his mind. If one frequently thinks and ponders upon thoughts of renunciation, one has abandoned the thought of sensual desire, and then one's mind inclines to thoughts of renunciation.¹⁹

What one thinks, one becomes, and what one does, one is. When faced with situations where scientific laws are in doubt and solutions seem not at hand, moral action, confidence, and systematic inquiry offer us a way to act when it is called for, like embracing and psychically supporting those with AIDS, while not losing precious lives waiting around for the scientific answer to solve the ailment of these stigmatized people.²⁰

Science uses the same method for navigating the physical universe, like in employing pieces of logical reasoning to build a logical system in order to send a man to the moon. Yet at the same time, science fails to decipher the spiritual or moral meanings for these accomplishments. Outside of the miraculous feat of engineering which got man to the moon, the moral impetus for this feat seems to have been based on the competitive anger and fear of the United States to defeat its arch enemy the Soviet Union in the battleground of world (and other world) supremacy. Such competitive anger and fear was able to produce a technological feat, yet at the same time the world was gripped in the Cold War of anger and fear which this technological feat could not remedy. Meanwhile the lack of cooperative moral action, confidence, and systematic inquiry meant that millions of Americans remained neglected in poverty and racial discrimination.²¹  One wonders if the brilliance spent getting a man to the moon had been a part of a cooperative effort of compassion among the super powers, that this might have inspired the rest of the world to address problems of local suffering here on planet earth.

c) Non-attachment to Views as Practical Benefit

The proliferation of such mega development projects like space exploration and high speed trains while basic human suffering still goes on puts into question the vision we have created in scientific technological development. As we have seen above, by not developing a more integrative scientific paradigm which includes the psychic principle of kamma, scientific and technological development gets hijacked by our more base natures such as greed and anger expressed through competition. Practicality for benefit is thus another aspect of following the duty of mind, and something that the Buddha always emphasized in his teachings.

For example, there was a man interested in following the Buddha, however, he refused to do so until the Buddha answered his rather abstruse questions like "Is the world eternal?"; "Are the soul and body one in the same or different?"; "Do enlightened beings exist or not after death?"; and perhaps even "What are the rocks like on the moon?". The Buddha as usual refused to answer the questions on the grounds that they were irrelevant to unraveling the man's own personal suffering and to reaching enlightenment. When the man persisted, the Buddha responded that this was like a man who had been shot and before he would allow the doctor to operate on him, he insisted on knowing what class his assailant was from, the height and build of the assailant, the skin color of his assailant, the make of the weapon and so on. Obviously, by the time, the man receives all this information he would be dead. The Buddha further explained that,"if one holds to the view that the world is eternal or not eternal, the holy life cannot be lived. And even if the world is eternal or not eternal , there is still birth, aging, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair, the destruction of which I prescribe here and now." He then concluded,"Why have I left these (questions) unanswered? Because they are not beneficial, do not belong to the fundamentals of the holy life, do not lead to disenchantment, to dispassion, to cessation, to peace, to direct knowledge, to enlightenment, to Nirvana."²²  If we had formulated a greater reason to go to the moon than super power competition and basic curiosity and then integrated that greater purpose into our daily lives, going to the moon could have been a transformative experience. Yet the way the United States continues to spend billions of dollars to send probes to Mars while some of its own children do not have three dollars to buy lunch brings into doubt the practical benefit of our scientific culture.²³

This lack of practical and moral focus leads to further objectification of knowledge for its own sake and attachment to views (ditthupadana). In both the physical and social sciences, expertise in minute subjects is prized over a knowledge that is balanced both in depth and breadth. Particularly in the field of medicine, specialists trained to know only certain parts of the body argue and offer conflicting diagnoses like the Buddhist simile of blind men arguing over the essential nature of an elephant. This narrowness of view not only goes against developing an understanding of interdependent causes and conditions but ultimately leaves us with knowledge which does not know how to apply itself to the larger world. In the Sisapa Sutta, the Buddha offers a lesson in the practicality of learning.

One day while with a group of monks in the Sisapa forest, the Buddha picked up a handful of leaves from the forest floor and asked,"Which is the greatest number, the leaves in my hand, or the leaves on the trees?" The monks answered immediately that the leaves in the forest were of far greater number. The Buddha then replied,"It is the same with the things that I teach you. There are many truths that I know, but most of them I do not teach. They are like the leaves in the forest. The truths that I do teach you are like the leaves in my hand. Why do I not teach those other truths? Because they are not conducive to ultimate wisdom, to understanding of the way things are, or to the rectification of problems and the transcendence of suffering. They do not lead to the attainment of the goal, which is Nirvana.".²⁴

Evolving out of the cooperative duty of idappaccayata, the duty of mind as science cum religion provides this guidance for our pursuit of knowledge (wisdom) by tempering it with practical benefit for others (compassion). Following the true religion of this cooperative order, we know that affective practices like moral action, confidence and systematic thinking can inform and temper material development and the use of technologies. Furthermore, by applying the natural dynamics of Not-self, Impermanence and Dukkha, we focus ourselves on the methods and dynamics of a process while avoiding attachment to theories, results and ultimate answers.

4. The Results of Following the Duty of Mind - True Society

Following the duty of nature in cooperation brings a natural freedom. Following the duty of mind brings about a freedom and independence of mind, thus creating a mental ecology in tune with the larger natural ecology of dhammadhatu. As we have noted, this freedom is neither selfish nor competitive but rather rests on the cooperative duties of living in interconnection with others. The special aspect of human nature is that we can actively choose to develop this cooperative capacity to greater heights. We have made incredible physical achievements through subsuming cooperation within competition like landing a man on the moon or running one hundred meters in less than ten seconds. However, our capacity for achievement through enfolding competition within cooperation is infinitely greater. When we act out of benefit for others, we are securing our own benefit in the cooperative order of beings who are all interdependent. The ultimate fruit of this freedom of the mind is a social and political freedom for all beings to enjoy.

a) Non-attachment to Views and Practical Benefit as Cultural Diversity

As we experience natural freedom in ecological diversity, so we may experience freedom of mind in diversity among cultures and peoples. When each person and each culture is allowed to perform its own unique task in the human and natural order, the world is enriched with diversity. This enrichment creates a sensitivity for the quality of each unique person and culture for the part they play in the cooperative order. This enrichment also creates a sensitivity for place and the differences in language and ecology, even within areas only a few square kilometers in size. This means a fundamental reforming of the modern structures which limit this natural diversity. We have already looked at how we can reform our practice of science to include the full diversity of the mind (all five khandhas). We consequently must also reform the containers of nation state, market and the modern individual which have arisen in this same culture of social Scientism.

In respecting cultural, linguistic and ecological diversity we must create more flexible forms of governance. Either as the creation of interlinked regions in a broad confederalism or as the expansion of autonomous regions within existing states, government must be increasingly based around bio-regions and cultural and linguistic groupings. The example of the Kurdish people divided and disenfranchised among the nation states of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Armenia is an example of the poor administration of people. The emergence of an integrated yet regionally autonomous European Community or perhaps the flexible federal model of the United States provide existing examples of larger groupings of people who have some local and regional flexibility.²⁵

Furthermore, the market needs to be re-embedded as a place in our societies. This is opposed to the massive, disembodied global market in which a decision by one man in Washington D.C. (Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Alan Greenspan) can effect the lives of millions of people around the world. The present conflicts between local governments and international monetary bodies like the World Trade Organization (WTO) highlight this battle over local economic autonomy.²⁶ Respecting economic diversity and consequently cultural diversity can involve the development of community banking and credit systems, social auditing, and local currencies.²⁷  It must involve the upholding of the political rights of communities to determine the rules by which foreign traders and business men can enter their locales.

By engendering such a sensitivity for diversity, we can begin to perceive and deepen our own cultural traditions while admiring the differences of others. We may still dabble in foreign tastes like food or art, but out of respect for others' and our own culture, clothing and other cultural consumables will not be blindly co-opted from one culture to another for the sake of personal aggrandizement. Personal identity will no longer constitute the collection and presentation of mass produced goods but rather the knowledge and experience of a place, a language, a culture and a history. In an increasingly small world, we may find people from one culture building an identity in another, but this identity will be deep and full of respect, not superficial and based on the gross forms of fashions and cuisine.

b) The Affective Power of Kamma  in Society

1. Systematic Inquiry (yoniso-manasikara) as Self Reliance

The freedom of self-reliance provides one method by which we can develop such sensitivity and wholesome identity. This self-reliance develops from the duty of mind to systematically and independently investigate our lives. This contrasts the modern notion of "independence" which implies an individual able to stand by him/herself free of the support network of family and community. In this context, "independence" from others means a more impersonal and debilitating dependence on science as technology, state as social services, and market as consumable entertainment and connection. For example, scientific technology replaces local know-how and self-reliance as we become dependent on pharmaceutical drugs to lose weight, cure the common cold, and feel "happy". Inefficient and alienating state medical systems replace the personal care of local doctors, healers and mid-wives while providing quality care for only the rich. Private insurance, pharmaceutical and health companies use their significant capital resources to derail medical reform, further pushing out health alternatives and entrenching their own vested interests. Modern society offers the illusion of personal freedom and independence through cutting the individual lose from his/her natural duties. Yet it actually enslaves us to technologies which are value free and morally free and hence fosters no connection to the deeper meanings of natural ecology.

The Buddha offered a manifesto of self-reliance which helps us to reassert our connections with our own inner ecology and thus the larger outer ecology:

The Kalamas said to the Buddha:"There are some monks and brahmins who visit Kesaputta. They expound and explain only their doctrines, the doctrines of others they despise, revile and pull to pieces. There is doubt and uncertainty in us concerning them. Which of these holy monks and brahmins spoke the truth and which falsehood?"The Buddha responded,"It is proper for you to doubt, to be uncertain; uncertainty has arisen in you about what is doubtful. Do not follow what has been heard many times; nor is tradition; nor is rumor; nor is scripture; nor is surmise; nor is axiom; nor is specious reasoning; nor is something that seems good after thinking about is; nor in another's seeming ability; nor is based on,'S/he is our teacher.' Kalamas, when you yourselves know these thing are unskillful, blamable, not taken up by the wise, if followed lead to harm, abandon them. Kalamas, when you yourselves know these things are skillful, not blamable, taken up by the wise, if followed lead to benefit, take them up."²⁸

In this sutta, the Buddha is reminding us to rediscover true science. When we blindly become slaves to technology and engineering, we lose the essential rule of the scientific perspective, free and independent inquiry. Modern democracies make much noise of this idea of free and independent inquiry. Yet when our news is controlled by massive corporations like Time Warner and Rupert Murdoch and our universities are increasingly at the mercy of corporate sponsorship, free and independent inquiry becomes a multiple-choice test among what is offered on TV, in stores, in elections and so on.

The free and independent inquiry of the Buddha, however, is intimately connected to the psychic principle of kamma. This translates into the duty to benefit others in the natural cooperative order. Since Scientism does not contain this moral element, technology is developed with no sense of duty. It is hijacked by those who see man as the sum of his appetites and society as the balance of these selfish and competitive energies. In the end, the modern individual becomes a passive and disempowered slave to the energies of selfishness which have co-opted the truths of science.

The locus of this transformation to a more integrated science first must begin with the scientist. In his call for a basic restructuring of science, Willis Harman, the president of the Institute of Noetic Sciences and former senior social scientist at Stanford Research Institute International, has said science must expand beyond its attachment to "objectivity" and its narrow view of the mind and scientific methodology. As such, the scientist must transform from observer to participant. The scientist must become like a modern day shaman who pushes the frontiers of wisdom through her own process of transformation. Harman states,"A willingness to be transformed is an essential characteristic of the participatory scientist."²⁹  The recent resonances between quantum science and spiritual teachings like Buddhism have helped to begin such a process in which more and more scientists are recognizing, developing and employing their religious and spiritual viewpoints.

From the participatory scientist, we can transform our educational institutions and scientific laboratories into integrated centers of human transformation. The first step that can be taken is the integration of segregated scientific fields. Psychologist Dr. Kenneth Ring of the University of Connecticut has pointed to the dilemmas of researching the common aspects of shamanism (anthropology), near death experience (parapsychology and medicine) and psychedelic experience (transpersonal psychology) since they are all located in different fields of science. With a fine appreciation of idappaccayata and Not-self, he has called for "perspectives that can allow one to see not the identities, but the linkages and commonalties between these different types of experience."³⁰ The point here is not to shuffle all modes of inquiry together into one undifferentiated field, but rather to expand and integrate the linkages between all fields of endeavor. In such a way, we can envision students at universities doing integrated majors like art and physics. In particular, the social sciences could develop interactive laboratories for enacting and experiencing ideas in politics, sociology, philosophy, and so on. Such experiential components in their study would help to engender moral learning and personal transformation as well as intellectual study. Furthermore, we can envision the development of laboratories which include departments studying the moral and emotional ramifications of technological projects. As an integrative process, technologies developed by research laboratories would be well designed towards proper application and human benefit.

2. Moral Action (sila) as Renunciation

 From this systematic inquiry, our internal stance towards material life and technology is radically altered, and we begin to learn the value of renunciation. Renunciation is an experience rich in diversity from culture to culture. Its essence is the letting go of certain pleasures for the chance to experience a higher meaning or to perform a higher task. By adopting basic practices of renunciation, we begin to reassert the value of simplicity into our societies such as learning how to transform the highly defined desires and needs of the market and state into "requisites". As a direct teaching of the Buddha, "requisites" form one possible method of practicing renunciation.

A "requisite" is something that is "necessary or essential". When we look at "essential" we find it is "part of the nature of something, inherent, basic, indispensable." Thus this idea of "requisite" is tied to idappaccayata as part of the cooperative order of nature. When we define our acquired material goods as "requisites" instead of "needs", we move away from the destructive, competitive and selfish modern order and head towards the integrated, duties of cooperation and moral action. This is not like returning to the stone age with no technology, but rather that we ourselves become transformed in the way we approach and use technology. This will result in the emergence of a different kind of technology, one that empowers humans to use their skills and energy.

In the code of Vinaya or rules by which monks must live, the Buddha stipulated four material requisites: food, clothing, shelter and medicine. Living by these four material requisites doesn't mean that life loses its flavor and joy by living as strictly as a monk with one meal a day, one pair of clothes, one small room, and basic medicines. It does mean that as these requisites are basics for life, we should be simple, frugal and direct in our treatment of them. As others depend on these for their livelihood as well, they are things to be taken seriously and not to be wasted or treated selfishly. Further, since they are the foundations for our life, we should use them as means to building our mental and spiritual ecology and not as ends for personal entertainment. In consumer society, we waste so much time indulging in cuisine, interior decorating, fashion, and intoxication in drugs and alcohol that we leave no time for developing our minds and hearts towards the more fulfilling goal of peace and harmony. As a mundane level physical practice, the material requisites help clear and develop the mind towards wisdom and compassion.

Beyond our physical requisites, we obviously have emotional and spiritual requisites. These are the food, clothing, shelter and medicine for our spirits which give us sustenance towards reaching our higher goals. Humans have a fundamental requisite of connection, to feel comforted and nurtured by the world around them. The four material requisites provide this on a physical level. On the spiritual emotional level, we also require this comfort and nourishment. Although the Buddha never stipulated such spiritual requisites beyond the joy experienced in Dhamma practice, we can consider three such requisites as Life, Society and Nature.³¹  Life, Society and Nature become three fundamental ways for the individual, society and all phenomena to experience their interconnection and to practice the duty of cooperation. In modern culture, Life has become the "need" for personal indulgence in media, entertainment and technology; Society has become the "need" for sex and consumer experience; and Nature has become the "need" for environment as consumable experience. As requisites, Life becomes making the personal connection with one's own inner nature through solitude, meditation or prayer, and art and learning. Society is the way people connect together and reaffirm their cooperative nature through proper partnership, family and community. Nature is the way all beings connect, and this is practiced through a constant immersion where environment no longer exists as something "out there" but as something we are swimming in. In this way, the spiritual requisites further develop the inner ecology of wisdom and compassion into connection with the outer ecology of dhammadhatu.

3. Confidence (saddha) as Energy & Empowerment

The final fruit of this Dhammic freedom is energy and empowerment. From the grounding in cooperative and diverse locality and the establishment of self-reliance in mind and moral action, energy and empowerment follow as natural results. In modern society, our selfish, disembodied beings have become increasingly alienated, fearful and disempowered from dependence on state and market mediation. However, Dhammic freedom reasserts all the connections of our world. Such connection often manifests itself as the discovery of new ideas, friends, or teachers who present new perspectives on life. The connections made with such people can develop further into spiritual friendships (kalyanamitta) and a supportive community (sangha) which are essential parts of sustaining and nurturing our lives. Kalyanamitta are not just a group of people who say "yes" to what you think and are too afraid to point out your attachments. Kalyanamitta means "a person who is well prepared with the proper qualities to teach, suggest, point out, encourage, assist and give guidance....even though they may be younger."³²  As such, saddha  reminds us to seek connections with people who embody the qualities of systematic inquiry, moral action and confidence and who can support and challenge us in our work and lives.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we have traced an integrated multi-level system of 1) study, 2) practice, and 3) engagement, a kind of Dhammic Pedagogy if you like. This is the first step (Right Understanding) in a Noble Eightfold Path towards social transformation. One level is the transcendent which connects us to the deepest truths of nature and existence. A second level is the more mundane which connects us to each other and thus society at large. We come to an understanding of this transcendent nature (dhammadhatu) through 1) studying the natural law of idappaccayata), 2) practicing cooperative evolution and 3) enacting an ecology of natural diversity and spiritual freedom. We come to an understanding of the more mundane mind (wisdom & compassion) through 1) studying the liberative science of the mind in the laws of idappaccayata and kamma., 2) practicing the preventative religion of moral action (sila), reasoned faith (saddha), and systematic reflection (yoniso manasikara) which guide the application of our true science in the world, and 3) enacting the curative society of social and political freedom through cultural diversity, self reliance, renunciation, and energy & empowerment. Within this system, science and religion are understood as methods and processes. Their ivory towers of Scientism, dogma and fundamentalism are torn down, and their liberative processes are freed to find their proper roles. Pushing upward into a new, wider arena, science and religion cease to be separate totalities. Rather they become individual processes working together in larger matrix of unity. These words may strike us empty imaginings but simply the envisioning of such an integration of our beings is the first concrete step towards such a realization.

THE THREE METHODS OF PERSONAL PRACTICE:
panya (the wisdom of ethical benefit)-->
sila (virtuous action) -->
samadhi (awareness and concentration) -->
panya  II (the wisdom of liberation)

THE THREE PILLARS OF DHAMMIC SOCIETY:
Dhammic Pedagogy (systematic education for benefit)-->
Dhammic Culture (society with healthy structures)-->
Dhammic Interrelation or Politics (society with proper dynamics)-->
Dhammic Society (a healthy global society)

Jonathan Watts
Think Sangha - Coordinator
E-mail: jonaomi@ari.bekkoame.ne.jp
http://www.igc.apc.org/bpf/think.html
C/O INEB Secretariat
P.O. Box 19
Mahadthai P.O.
Bangkok 10206
THAILAND
 

¹Buddhadasa, "Conserving the Inner Ecology", a talk given at the International Network of Engaged Buddhists (INEB) annual conference, March 4&7, 1990, trans. Santikaro Bhikkhu.
²Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, "Conserving the Inner Ecology".
³Buddhadasa, "Conserving the Inner Ecology".
⁴Talbot, Micheal,The Holographic Universe (New York: Harper Perennial/Harper Collins, 1992), 32-58.
⁵"ecology" in The American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1982).
⁶For a detailed discussion of differentiation, integration and evolution see Wilbur, Ken, The Marriage of Sense and Soul: Integrating Science and Religion (New York: Random House, 1998).
⁷Bohm, David, "Hidden Variables and the Implicate Order" in Quantum Implications, ed. Basil J. Hiley and F. David Peat (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1987), 38.
⁸Buddhadasa, "Conserving the Inner Ecology".
⁹from Buddhadasa, "Conserving the Inner Ecology".
¹⁰"chie" in the Japanese-English Buddhist Dictionary, Revised Edition (Tokyo: Daito Shuppansha, 1991),31.
¹¹"jihi", the Japanese-English Buddhist Dictionary, 148.
¹²Buddhadasa, "Conserving the Inner Ecology".
¹³Bohm, David, Causality and Chance in Modern Physics, 1957 & Harman, Willis W., "The Persistent Puzzle: The Need for a Basic Restructuring of Science," Noetic Sciences Review, no.8 (Autumn 1988), 23.
¹⁴Bhikkhu P.A. Payutto, Towards Sustainable Science: A Buddhist Look at Trends in Scientific Development, trans. B.G. Evans (Bangkok: Buddhadhamma Foundation, 1993), 48-49.
¹⁵Samyutta Nikaya, III. 47 & 166.
¹⁶Bohm, Causality and Chance in Modern Physics .
¹⁷For a look at how development based on pure technology has been inappropriate to a variety of cultural settings see Cernea, Michael M., ed., Putting People First: Sociological Variables in Rural Development, second edition revised (Washington D.C.: Oxford University Press & World Bank Publications, 1991).
¹⁸see the experiments of Prof. Robert G. Jahn and clinical psychologist Brenda Dunne in which humans influenced a random event generator to create patterned outputs through concentration in Jahn, Robert G. & Dunne, Brenda, Margins of Reality: The Role of Consciousness in the Physical World (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1987), 91-123.
¹⁹Majjhima Nikaya, Dvedhavitakka Sutta: Two Kinds of Thought, 19:6, 11 (I.115-116).
²⁰Payutto, Towards Sustainable Science, 44-45.
²¹For an indication of how some felt less than inspired about the landing of the first man on the moon, listen to the song "Whitey on the Moon" by Gil-Scott Heron on the album The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.
²²Majjhima Nikaya, Culamalunkya Sutta: The Shorter Discourse to Malunkyaputta, 63 (II. 426-32).
²³At a news conference on March 10, 1998, the executive director of the state of Rhode Island (USA) Community Food Bank stated that 42% of clients reported having to choose between paying rent and buying food during the last year.  Almost all of these clients, which include 10% of the children who were served by the food bank, reported skipping meals in the last month because they couldn't afford to eat.
²⁴Samyutta Nikaya, Sisapa Sutta, V. 437 (66) quoted from Payutto, Towards Sustainable Science, 65.
²⁵For a discussion of this issue as well as the self-determination of economies, see Jones, Ken, ^{Beyond Optimism: A Buddhist Political Ecology (Oxford,UK: John Carpenter Publishing, 1993).
26}The State of Massachusetts (USA) passed legislation in 1996 banning trade with any businesses doing trade in Burma as a protest against the repressive military regime there. This has precedence in the divestment campaign against apartheid in South Africa during the 80s. Now, however, the Japanese government is using the WTO to try to overturn Massachusetts state law since it has significant business interests in the state and in Burma as well.
²⁷For more information on such work, contact the New Economics Foundation: Vine Court 112-116 Whitechapel Road, London E1 1JE, Tel: +44 (0)171 377 5696, Fax: +44 (0)171 377 5720, e-mail: neweconomics@gn.apc.org, http://www.sosig.ac.uk/neweconomics/newecon.html
²⁸Anguttara Nikaya, Kalama Sutta, 65.
²⁹Harman, Noetic Sciences Review, 25.
³⁰Talbot, The Holographic Universe, 280.
³¹The inspiration for these three comes from Buddhadasa Bhikkhu who developed the idea of an extra requisite to the four material ones. This is the extra requisite of intellectual-emotional-spiritual fulfillment. From this idea, he constructed a spiritual theatre at his temple filled with paintings and art which teach Dhamma.
³²Phra Prayudh Payutto, Buddhadhamma: Natural Laws and Values for Life, trans. Grant A. Olson (Albany,NY: State University of New York SUNY Press, 1995), 224-25.
 

Jonathan Watts

Think Sangha Coordinator