Some people meditate to reduce everyday stress. Others do it to achieve nirvana. If the Dalai Lama is striving for the latter, should he be a spokesman for meditation research taking place in neuroscience labs at Harvard and Princeton universities?
"Without investigation, you cannot see reality," the Buddhist leader declared last November at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Washington, D.C., which drew more than 30,000 researchers. The conference included six presentations on meditation research, including a study by Richard Davidson of the University of Wisconsin that was supported by the Dalai Lama's Mind and Life Institute, in which the brain waves of meditating Tibetan monks were monitored and compared with those of novice meditators.
At a time when many scientists feel under siege by proponents of intelligent design, the Dalai Lama's championing of science provoked polarized responses. Some attendees saw his speech as a refreshing attempt ...
