The Project "Science meets Dharma"
In 1998, H.H. the Dalai Lama asked the Tibet Institute Rikon for help in implementing a new idea: to provide monks and nuns in Tibetan exile monasteries in India with access to scientific education. This led to the foundation of the Tibet Institute Rikon’s project "Science meets Dharma". During the first project phase (2001 - 2011) it could be shown in eight monasteries in South India that science classes are well accepted. In the meantime, science education became an integral part of monastic reforms initiated by H.H. the Dalai Lama.
From 2012 onwards, this education program is organized by the monasteries themselves. The project "Science meets Dharma" is supporting the monasteries by coaching the local teachers, by the creation of the new syllabi and by the preparation of teaching material. Further the project is organizing yearly study weeks in the two big monastic locations Bylakuppe and Mundgod. More and more monasteries are integrating science education in their programs. The project management is in the hands of a Tibetan project manager in India and a Swiss co-manager.
Since many years I have been interested in modern science, which has made great contributions to the improvement of the quality of life. I have personally been engaged in dialogues with scientists for many years and have been found it to be extremely useful and enriching. I also believe that modern science can benefit from Buddhist perspectives.
Today, science means a valid method of explaining the observed reality. The well-founded disciplines of modern science are in a way related to Buddhism since Buddhist philosophy also searches and establishes truth through rational analysis, similar to that of science.
The Tibetan Institute in Rikon, Switzerland, has accepted to implement a project of training Tibetan Buddhist monks in modern scientific disciplines and thus further opening the dialogue. The project is called "Science meets Dharma" and will help to provide the infrastructure and human resources needed for such implementation. I believe the "Science meets Dharma" project has great potential and I sincerely hope you will extend all your help to the Institute in its endeavour.
5 January 2002
The Dalai Lama
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 1989
© Tibet Institute Rikon, 18. Jun 2012
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