The Science of Buddhism
Dr. John Ambrosiano
Buddhism, considered one of the world’s four great religions, is at its core not a religion at all. Professed to be non-theistic (neither atheistic nor agnostic) it is a blend of spirituality, eastern philosophy, and empirical psychology. Its spiritual roots lie in the mystical traditions of India, to which the historical Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama) added his own unique perspective. Migrating east, Buddhism acquired much from the Taoist sages of China, and then carrying both Indian and Chinese wisdom to Japan, became Zen.
Buddhism was included in Aldous Huxley’s book, “The Perennial Philosophy” where he asserted commonalities among a number of spiritual traditions, including the mystical threads of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, concerning the direct experience of oneness.
The science of Buddhism comes from the empirical investigation of the mind, using the only instruments available in ancient times, the minds of investigators themselves. Equipped with exquisite powers of observation derived from meditation practice, Buddhist monks were able to discover ways in which the human mind works that are only now being rediscovered by neuropsychologists. And applying their understanding to direct experience of the world around them, they made further discoveries that echo those of modern physics.
This talk will give a brief summary of how Buddhism came about, and then explore the parallels between empirical Buddhist thought and principles of modern psychology and physics.
John Ambrosiano, PhD
John is a retired physicist who worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1997 until his retirement in 2019. In 2003, having become curious about Buddhism, he visited several centers in the Santa Fe area, including one in Los Alamos guided by Henry Finney, an artist and Zen teacher affiliated with the Unitarian Church of Los Alamos. In Santa Fe, he met Buddhist teacher and author Matthew Flickstein, and became his student in 2008. A few years later, he began training as a teacher himself, and has been teaching Buddhism and meditation at the Unitarian Church since that time. The group, called Los Alamos Dharma Friends, meets online and at UULA Thursday evenings and Sunday mornings.