Talk
In this talk, Dr. B. Alan Wallace lays out the historical Buddha’s radically and uniquely empirical attitude towards spiritual matters, and compares it to the radical empiricism espoused by various notable scientists, such as William James, Thomas Huxley, and Richard Feynman. He then contrasts this willingness to test one’s beliefs against experience with the blind faith advocated by some religious traditions and the dogmatic assertions of scientific materialism, whose orthodoxy rarely gets challenged due to modern science’s increasing entanglement with wealth, power, and prestige. He then makes the case that the Buddha’s discoveries can be considered a kind of contemplative science, because he used the existing technology of meditative concentration (samādhi) in an unprecedented way, unifying it with his unique form of contemplative inquiry (vipaśyanā) to yield novel insights into the nature and origins of consciousness and wellbeing.
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