The marriage of science and Buddhism (mysticism)

Scientist, and physics writer, John Gribbin, in his book, Schrdinger's Kittens, and the Search for Reality, said that all scientific models are simply Kiplingesque justso stories that give us a feeling that we understand what is going on (p. 222). What caught my attention was the last part, a feeling that we understand what is going on. I think at a much deeper level we all have the sneaking suspicion that we really dont know what is going onbut we are made to feel like we do.

Let's be frank, our scientific models don't go deep enough; they dont even include the observer. It doesn't matter if we try to describe what we don't know, let's call it X, with points or vectors. This amounts to scaffolding which never actually touches X, or the thing-in-itself, of Kants philosophy.

Yes, science gives us often great stories and technology, too, which permits us to zip around in metal and plastic vehicles from point A to B or destroy half of the human race. It even supplies us with the ability to create new fictionsand yes, new, exciting stories. Science in the distant future, I am sure, will even provide us with the ability to zip around from one planetary system to another almost instantaneously, or visit interdimensional worlds right under our nose.

But as far as exactly what is the stuff of our universe, from which even our thoughts and dreams are made, it takes the mystical path to get us there. Every other means falls short. This brings me to an important point. While presently we place great emphasis on science, science doesn't claim to take us to where the Buddha went. Nor should it. There is no lion's roar from science, in other words.

Science helps us to live and navigate in our impermanent, fictional cosmic reality. But when combined with Buddhism, which goes to the heart of what matter really is, we will enter a new world that no previous generation of mankind, that we know of! , has dr eamt of. However, as long as science and Buddhism are kept apartI should say science and mysticismwe shall advance not an inch in terms of real progress. Of course, we can delude ourselves with great science fictions stories about the future: our brave new science world. Still, there can be no bright future for mankind without the addition of mysticism and further more, the marriage of science and mysticism. Short of this, we shall remain high tech barbarians.

In order to bring about the marriage of science and Buddhism one thing needs to be clear: Buddhism doesnt need to remake itself or let go of a single tenet. Nor does Buddhism need reformers to help make its image acceptable. These reformers are only too willing to declare that most of the Buddhist canon is mumbo jumbo, especially, when it comes to karma, rebirth and Mind as spirit. In my opinion, these reformers are antiscientific. They dont understand the most rudimentary definition of science which Buddhism adheres to: The state or fact of knowing ... (O.E.D.). Naturally, this takes us to gnosis, a term little understood these days except by the mystic.