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THE SNOW LION NEWSLETTER
Two monk-scholars exploring phases of the moon
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Math For Monks by Avery Solomon
According to what he writes in Universe in a Single Atom, His Holiness the Dalai Lama has been interested in the nature of the universe since he was very young. Over the years he has taken a great interest in the explorations of Western Science, and has had conversations with some of the great scientists.
Sometime in the 1990's His Holiness began suggesting that monks in his monasteries start learning more science. Implementation of this science for monks program became the project of the director of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives (LTWA), Achok Rinpoche. The first workshop with two Western science educators, translators from the LTWA, and about 50 monks from around India took place in the spring of 2000 in Sera monastery. |
At an audience I attended with about 50 people in Sweden in May 2000, His Holiness spoke about his new program of science for monks, and his great desire that the dialogue between science and Buddhism continue after he is gone. He felt its value for scientists, and he wanted science instruction to eventually be part of monastic programs. And by the way, he joked in the middle of his talking—what was I doing in Sweden now, not America? (I thought: joining his science program, of course!) After the audience, I spoke to His Holiness. I have known him since 1979, when he dedicated the library of a philosophic study group Wisdom's Goldenrod near Ithaca, NY. He knew I had talked to his personal secretary the day before, and learned that the science educators felt the program needed a math component. I said to His Holiness: "OK, sign me up." I really had not much idea what I was getting into, but I felt strongly this was an opportunity to do something in return for all his kindness over the years.
In March 2001 I taught two weeks of math activities to about 60 monks at Ganden Monastery in Karnataka, south India. I didn't know then that this was to become a yearly part of my life, continuing with workshops in Drepung, two near Dharamsala, and two near Dera Dun.
Why math and science for monks? From private audiences and public talks I gather the following. His Holiness wants the dialogue between Buddhism and Science to continue when he is gone. He made clear it is not for him personally that he has gotten involved in these dialogues. He feels that Buddhism has a unique perspective to offer the scientific community: in terms of its ethical perspective, and in terms of guidance exploring the science of mind. |
A monk-scholar deep in calculation
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And he also feels that science has something important to offer his Buddhist monastic community. Finally, His Holiness often speaks of the great Indian Buddhist masters, and the tremendous value of the ancient university of Nalanda. It seems that he has a vision of the re-creation of such a university, where science, comparative studies, meditation, inspired action, all go together. Maybe such a university would be like the vision of Plato in The Republic, where he writes about the education of the philosopher king.
From the beginning, Achok Rinpoche invited monasteries from all the lineages to send monks, and we have Gelugpa, Kagyu, Sakya, and Bon participants. He invited older monks, well along in their studies, and at present several of the monks are Geshes and many of the others are close to attaining their degrees.
His Holiness explicitly said that any monk with an interest in science should be included, regardless of the weakness of their secular math/science background. Perhaps 2/3 of the monks have at most a third grade mathematics background. A few have mathematics understanding at a good high-school level. Most do not speak or understand enough English for instruction, and so we have had the great fortune of having Tibetan Children Village math and science teachers in the program. They are an indispensable part of the program, translating and helping with the activities. At the same time, they are learning the techniques and pedagogy of inquiry, and several of the Western teachers including myself have given workshops for the TCV schools.
Our program has a Western and an Indian sponsorship. The Western component of the program—expenses of transporting and caring for the Western teachers and organizing the program—is sponsored by the generosity of the Sagar foundation, whose founder Bobby Sagar has been to every one of the programs in India. The Indian component—transporting and housing the monks—is sponsored by His Holiness, and administered by the LTWA, previously Achok Rinpoche, and now carried on by his successor Geshe Lhakdor.
A second program invited by His Holiness has also begun a few years ago. "Science meets Dharma" started by a Swiss group places two volunteer science teachers in Sera monastery for six months at a time to provide ongoing science instruction during the week. We have contact with the program and many monks attend both. Teachers from that program have begun interacting with us to coordinate our activities to some extent.
The author and TCV teacher Pema-la explaining statistics in Dharamsala
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In my view, the purpose of the math component of the program is to support the science that the monks are learning and to give the students a sense of the "big ideas" in mathematics, and the power of mathematical thinking.
Due to the diversity of backgrounds and the way that mathematics tends to build its knowledge, it has been a challenge to find content and activities that are interesting to the monks as well as accessible to most. I have thought of the program as a kind of adult education, with very intelligent students having weak math skills. Most of the activities are aimed around middle school level mathematics. But we often go deeply into the meaning of concepts, exploring such questions as what likelihood means, infinite sequences, and the shape of space in different geometries. Monks are especially interested when the mathematics is done in the context of scientific questions about cosmology, astronomy, atoms, cells and perception. |
Within the Tibetan tradition there is a great deal of geometry done in the construction of mandalas and the ratios used for thangka painting. Tibetan astrology uses much calculation. The ancient texts also have passages on very small numbers and very large numbers. But unfortunately, not many of the monks have studied these topics in any depth. In addition, there is a strong component of Buddhist logic as well as debate which has sharpened the monks thinking abilities, and with which they are very familiar. So while the content of mathematics is foreign, some of the aspects of mathematical logic and reasoning are quite familiar, and we have had good discussions about proof, reason and meanings.
We have made scale models of the solar system, explored population problem models, talked about the possible shapes of space based on geometries on sphere and cylinder. We viewed the movie "Powers of Ten" and discussed the scales of perception suggested in there. One year we did many activities based on a presentation at a Mind/Life conference on the completion of the human genome sequencing. Another year we timed how many prostrations an average monk could do in an hour!
Although it has been clear to me from the beginning that this program was experimental, when the program moves into monasteries there will have to be much thought about the best materials and approaches to fit with the busy schedule of the monks. A few years ago, I could not help but voice my concerns about the mathematics progress of the monks to His Holiness. "Don't worry," he consoled "maybe we will see the results of these programs in a hundred years." A comforting perspective! He also repeated his interest in a revival of the idea of a university like Nalanda that would include scientific and mathematical thought. I offered: "Wouldn't you like some personal math instructions, your Holiness?" "Oh, too complicated! And I'm too old." He laughed. I thought: But for the man who visualizes 722 deities in the vast Kalachakra mandala, how difficult could a little chik, nyi, sum (a 1 and a 2 and a 3) really be?
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Links for the program:
Science for Monks, www.scienceformonks.org/index.html
Sager Family Foundation, www.teamsager.org
Science meets Dharma, www.sciencemeetsdharma.org
Avery Solomon, averysolomon.com
If you would like to find out more, or would like to be part of the program, click the "contact" button at the Science for Monks website.
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