Dr. Ram, Preetha — Can Buddhism And Modern Scientific Thought Meet?
Can modern scientific methods and meditative spiritual theory compliment each other? In the past it may have seemed that Buddhist beliefs in re-incarnation, dharma and karma might not entertain scientific areas like ‘neuroscience’ or ‘evolution’ but a new project endorsed by the Dalai Lama is doing just that. The Emory-Tibet Science Initiative launched in February 2006, at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia is a historic initiative whose goal is to develop and implement a comprehensive science education curriculum for Tibetan monastics. Dr. Preetha Ram, our guest in this edition of Radio Curious, is the co-director of the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative. In our conversation we discuss how Buddhist monks respond to the modern science curriculum, how the program came to be, and how Emory University professors have responded to working with the monks, whose personal backgrounds are so vastly different from the professors’ academic backgrounds.
We spoke with Dr. Preetha Ram from her home in Atlanta on July 27, 2009 and began by asking how she enables Buddhists to understand the latest scientific discoveries as suggested by the 14th Dalai Lama.
The book recommended by Dr. Preetha Ram is “The Universe In An Atom,” by The Dalai Lama.