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Tuesday 30 October 2018

The Current Issues of Tibetology and Buddhology

 
This event marked the third in a series of international conferences on Tibetology and Buddhology, that the Institite of Oriental Studies (the Russian Academy of Sciences) had organized since 2014.

The issue of the interrelation amid science and religion in striving to comprehend the world remains fundamental in the cultures of the East and the West. This existential problem is determined  by epistemological tasks of science and religion and the interest of the scientific community in history, philosophy, and religion. In the recent past the relationship amid science and religion has been viewed only in terms of confrontation. Although the current level  development of the exact and natural sciences, as well as the humanities, shows an increase in the amount of evidence  of a contact point existence in between science and religion.

Buddhism is perhaps the closest religion to modern science. In many ways, the methodology of Buddhism is consistent with the scientific methods; it supports them and, along with the authority of the Scriptures, it considers the criterion of truth its empirical verification, that is coherent with the verification of the truth criteria in science.

In the recent decades, considerable progress has been made in the empirical verification of a number of Buddhist views by scientific methods based on leading research institutions in Europe and America. Russian scientists, who visited India in 2017 and 2018 to discuss these problems with the Buddhist scientists, were also interested in Buddhist methods of working with consciousness.

In Russia, where Buddhism is one of the recognized traditional religions, such research is being developed in a number of areas with the assistance of the Russian Academy of Sciences, including both the aspects of philosophical understanding and the study of Buddhist heritage, and in the aspect of empirical study of phenomena and processes interpreted by Buddhism and science within the methodologies accepted by them.

The following issues were discussed at the conference:

• Connections between Tibet and the neighbouring states
• Buddhist studies in Kalmykia, Buryatia, Tuva, other regions of Russia, as well as in Mongolia and other countries
• Activities of the 14^th Dalai Lama on preservation of Buddhism and development of relationships between religion, science, and secular ethics
• Role of Tibetan diaspora in preservation of Buddhism and Tibetan culture
• Buddhism and science

 List of participants:

1. Murat Aubakirov (Kazakhstan)
2. Sergei Averyanov (Russia)
3. Timur Badmatsyrenov (Russia)
4. Elsa Bakaeva (Russia)
5. Ookhnoi Batsaikhan (Mongolia)
6. Andrey Bazarov (Russia)
7. Baazr Bicheev (Russia)
8. Tenzin Desal (India)
9. Sergei Dmitriev (Russia)
10. Yuly Drobyshev (Russia)
11. Olga Guttenlokher (Kazakhstan)
12. Baatr Kitinov (Russia)
13. Sergei Kuzmin (Russia)
14. Sergei Lepekhov (Russia)
15. Elena Lepekhova (Russia)
16. Alexey Loschenkov (Russia)
17. Anastasia Lyulina (Russia)
18. Bembya Mitruev (Russia)
19. Sergei Nesterkin (Russia)
20. Liu Qiang (China)
21. Rustam Sabirov (Russia)
22. Tatiana Shaumyan (Russia)
23. Alla Shustova (Russia)
24. Ilya Spektor (Russia)
25. Surun-Khanda Syrtypova (Russia)
26. Karma Tenzin (India)
27. Andrey Terentyev (Russia)
28. Telo Tulku Rinpoche (Russia)