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Science and Buddhism

Shoji Mori
IntroductionI

am a student of Buddhism, mainly the Buddhism of Shakyamuni’stime, Buddhism in its oldest form as Shakyamuni expounded it morethan 2,000 years ago.
It may sound strange for someone exploring an ancient field of study
to talk about the most modern area of research, but that is the subject
that I would like to take up today: “How Buddhism relates to science.”
It may be that I was kindly invited to talk here today because I once
wrote a paper about bio-ethics in reference to the Buddhist thought ofkarma, looking at areas such as organ transplants, one of the greatest
problems facing the modern world. That paper attracted much more
attention than I expected. In addition, I have also presented an essay on“Buddhism and Science” which was, by chance, very similar to today’s
subject.
Even though the above-mentioned paper and essay both had relevance to science, I developed my discussions based purely on my own
field of Buddhism. I have no knowledge of modern science whatsoever,almost to the extent that I might be described as illiterate about science.
Therefore, I would like to remind you that, though correlating Buddhism with science, my lecture will primarily focus on the Buddhism ofancient times.
Shakyamuni’s Time and the Present TimeCompared with the time of Shakyamuni, we live in an age in which science has made incredible breakthroughs. Even Shakyamuni must nothave been able to imagine the arrival of such an age. Due to thisadvance of science, our livelihoods have become rich and our lives
more convenient. In Japan, people no longer suffer from hunger. The
average Japanese life span has lengthened to more than 80 years. In thenear future, we may be able to manipulate even our human genes freely.
On the other hand, we are exposed to the threats of nuclear war and theterrible deterioration of the global environment.
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If asked whether you would rather go back to the world of 30 years
ago or Japan of 100 years ago, it is likely that most of us would refuse
to do so. The truth is that a virulent poison lurks behind this affluenceand convenience, and we are now so strongly addicted that we could notsurvive without them.
If science continues to advance at such an accelerating speed, I fear it
may go beyond our control and give rise to an untenable society. At thispoint in time, however, we can still control this and prevent it from happening. I believe that we will be able to find a way to achieve compatibility between affluence and convenience on the one hand and environmental protection and conservation on the other.
Yet, when I look at recent scientific developments such as the manipulation of life and species through the artificial recombination of genes
and the major breakthroughs in computer technology, I can hardly
imagine what will happen to our society. We have steadily usurped
those functions that were always considered to be in the hands of God.
With the creation of a virtual world overlapping dream, reality and illusion, we find it more difficult to distinguish between the physical world
and the spiritual world. I strongly feel that here we have the underlying
cause of the spate of deadly crimes committed by juveniles that isafflicting Japan recently. We, modern people, appear to have eaten theforbidden fruit.
As is being promoted and advocated by the Institute of Oriental Philosophy, we need to deeply understand the present situation of scienceand its prospects at this time. Then based on this recognition, persons ofreligion like myself should establish a clear attitude toward science.
In order to do so, it is necessary for us to have the right sense of value
and promote this within society. It is said that ours is an age of thediversification of values, but this does not mean that all values are valid
without any exception. I am sure there is one uniquely right sense ofvalue pertaining to each individual human being, because for an individual to have multiple codes of value would be schizophrenic. On theother hand, if an individual lacks any sense of value, he will be like asleepwalker. Consequently, we are bound to live our day-to-day lives
according to a certain sense of value, although we may be unaware ofthis fact.
Next comes the problem of whether the sense of value is right or not.
Unless we can recognize that our values are rightful, we cannot promote
them to the world with confidence.
The question of which values are rightful and which are unrightful,
however, is a very difficult one. Recently I presented a report on the

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dharma and adharma described in the sutras and the dharma andadharma in the vinaya, or the texts of rules of monastic discipline, at
the Nihon Bukkyo Gakkai (Japanese Buddhist Association). Adharmameans “unrighteousness” in behavior (unlawful/illegal act), and dharma
in this case means “righteousness” (lawful/legal act). Therefore, I thinkthese words can be used synonymously as “righteousness (rightful)”and “unrighteousness (unrightful).”“Righteousness” and “Truth” in Buddhism
I would like now to discuss what “righteousness” means in Buddhism.
In Buddhist terms, “righteousness” is found in the “eightfold rightpath.” The eightfold right path refers to the principles to be followed inorder to live a right life, namely right views, right thinking, rightspeech, right action, right way of life, right endeavor, right mindfulness
and right meditation. However, no Buddhist scripture explains what this“right” means. The first of the eight principles, “right views,” is likened
to the seeds of sugar cane, rice and wheat. When we sow seeds and irrigate them, we can harvest an excellent crop. Similarly, it is said that, if
we sow the seed of right views, then we can gain the harvest of theother eightfold paths from right thinking through right meditation (fromthe Miscellaneous Ógama Sutra, vol. 2 and the Increasing by OneÓgama Sutra, vol. 8). It is, therefore, clear from this that right views
forms the foundation of the eightfold right path.
This is quite comprehensible because if we can view things correctly,
from there, we can naturally produce right thinking, right speech, rightaction, right way of life, right endeavor, right mindfulness and rightmeditation.
The Sanskrit word for philosophy is darßana, which derives from theverb d®ß, which means to see or view. This indicates that the view ofthings is the underlying factor of all human behavior.
Then, the question arises as to what the correct view of things is. The
Buddhist scriptures explain that right views is to understand the four
noble truths as they are. As you may know, the four noble truths are thetruth of suffering, the truth of the origin of suffering, the truth of cessation of suffering and the truth of the path to the cessation of suffering.
The “truth” is satya in Sanskrit and sacca in Pali. Consequently, the correct view of things is to see the “truth” exactly as it is.
Because this “truth” carries an extremely Buddhistic connotation, andalso because it is closely concerned with “Science and Buddhism,” thesubject of this speech, I would like to explain it in more detail.
The word satya comes from the present participle of as in Sanskrit,

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which is equivalent to a verb of being in English. Literally translated, itmeans to “be coming into presence or existence.” The truth of “being
present,” or the real state of all things, is satya.
Another Sanskrit verb of being is bhË, whose past participle is bhËta.
BhËta also means truth. The quintessence of Mahayana Buddhism is theconcept of “the true aspect of all phenomena.” One of the Sanskrit
terms for the true aspect is bhËta. Thus, Buddhism defines truth as “trueaspect” or “real state.” In Chinese versions of the Buddhist scriptures,
truth is rendered as thusness, suchness or reality.
The Buddha is also called the Thus Come One. I think you probably
know that the Sanskrit form of this is tathågata. Tathå or tatha is translated as “thus,” and the Thus Come One means one who has come fromthe realm of truth. Tathå or tatha derives from a demonstrative pronoun
tad in Sanskrit, which means that or it in English. Therefore, the original meaning of tathå is thusness, or “as it really is.”I understand that the Sanskrit word for the “factor” of the ten factors
set forth in the Lotus Sutra is yathå. Yathå comes from a relative pronoun yad, which also means to “be present as it really is.”As mentioned above, Buddhism defines truth as the “true aspect” or“real state.” Viewed from the Buddhist perspective of truth, it indicatesthis thing or that thing, the concrete and tangible things or facts aroundus. I think that the word “truth” expounded in Buddhism should beinterpreted and translated as “fact” rather than “truth.”
In systems of thought such as Western philosophy and Christianity,
truth is defined as something profound and mysterious that lies behind
the realities of life, which only one who has a special ability can perceive. God is the embodiment of truth, which is invisible to us. God is
not an entity we can point to in the concept of this or that. In Buddhism,
however, truth is something closer to fact that lies in our daily life,
which we can point to, saying this or that. I am an entity of fact, and so
is every one of us. The building where we are now, the Nippon Seinenkan Hall, is also a fact.
In the Christian way of thinking, truth is good, beautiful and holy.
God is never evil, ugly or secular. To suggest such a thing would be
blasphemy and people have been submitted to the Inquisition andburned at the stake for such offenses. However, real facts in our immediate environment are not necessarily good, beautiful or holy. Bad anddirty things actually exist around us: that is the way things are.
Consequently, in the four noble truths, the truth of suffering clarifies
that all existence is suffering; we are born, grow old, suffer illness anddie, and all these facts are suffering. We who undergo these sufferings

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possess earthly desires. This is also a fact that is real and true, and thetruth of the origin of suffering clarifies that suffering is caused by selfish craving.
On the other hand, we have the Buddha nature and the potential toattain enlightenment. This is also a fact that is real and true. There aresome who can realize the state of enlightenment. Thus, the truth of the
cessation of suffering clarifies that the eradication of selfish craving
brings about the cessation of suffering and enables one to attain enlightenment.
Perception of All Things Exactly as They Are
Right views, which forms the foundation of the eightfold right path, isto perceive all facts as facts, or exactly as they are. The eightfold rightpath urges us to make efforts to gain right views, teaching that only
when we have achieved this can we acquire the rest of the eightfold
right path.
Teachings such as this are set forth repeatedly in early Buddhist
scriptures. The doctrine of the four noble truths appears nearly 500
times in the Pali and Chinese versions of the early scriptures. It is said
that Shakyamuni expounded teachings for 45 years. Calculated in termsof months, this amounts to 540 months. Thus Shakyamuni taught thefour noble truths almost once a month. The reason he expounded it
repeatedly is that the people like us did not see or know things as they
really were. They assumed mistakenly that they had understood,
although in fact they had not.
The truth of suffering is explained as “the four sufferings and theeight sufferings.” The eight sufferings consist of the four sufferings ofbirth, aging, sickness and death, plus the suffering of having to partfrom those whom one loves, the suffering of having to meet with thosewhom one hates, the suffering of being unable to obtain what one
desires and the suffering arising from the five components that constitute one’s body and mind.
You may say you are of course aware that as long as you were bornin this world, you have to grow old and die some day. After all, the concept of death as we understand it is abstract, for we can experience it
only through others’ death, not through our own. As I advance in age, I
often hear of the death of friends and persons close to me, and the number of funerals I attend is steadily increasing. However, after having adrink or two at a vigil the night before a funeral, in which we pay ourlast respects to the deceased all night, I feel relaxed to the extent that I
no longer care so much who died. We are likely to take others’ funerals

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easy, because they are not our own.
Yet, neither have I attained the enlightened state in which I transcend
the concepts or birth and death, nor have I reached the state in which I
will have no regret about when I will die. This is proof that for me death
has not yet become a fact that I can indicate in the concrete and immediate concept of “this” or “that.” It must be for this reason that Shakyamuni repeatedly taught people like me that all human beings are destined to die.
The reason right views was interpreted to mean to perceive the four
noble truths exactly as they are is in order for us to really understand the
problem of death as our own destiny. In the famous words of Socrates,“Know thyself!” Ever since we were born with a mewl, the thing wehave kept company with longer than anything else is ourselves. But can
we say we know ourselves exactly as we are? In this sense, it isextremely difficult to recognize things for what they really are.
Therefore, when we perceive suffering exactly as we suffer, it must
follow that various functions arise within ourselves to relieve suffering.
When we perceive that suffering is caused by selfish cravings, we must
work to eradicate them, and when we perceive that we inherently possess the Buddha nature, we must have the urge to bring it forth. If ourattitude is “I know I shouldn’t do it, but I can’t stop doing it,” we havenot arrived at a true and valid perception.
When I say “we,” I do not intend to be rude to others: in my case, atleast, I still have not been able to perceive things exactly as they are.
This is partly because I have little or no time to reflect on myself due tothe busy schedule of my daily life.
Certainly, with the development of medicine, the suffering of sickness and death is becoming less immediate for us. According to Buddhist teaching, however, the greatest cause of our failure to perceive
things as they are lies in the idea “I am different from others; I am special; I can successfully control the problems of sickness and death.” It issaid that this idea has imperceptibly gnawed at our minds and become
deeply rooted in our hearts.
In short, it is said that we all have self, or åtman in Sanskrit, at birth.
This is an instinctive desire, which all human beings possess, fromwhich selfish, egocentric desires and impulses arise. But in fact it is truethat every individual is a form of temporary union of physical and spiritual components, that has no eternal core such as åtman within it.
Therefore, just as all that is born is destined to die, where there is cause
there is definitely effect. This is the concept of dependent origination or
dependent causation.

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Everything in this world comes into existence in response to various
direct and indirect causes. Nothing can exist independently of otherthings or arise in isolation. The ideas that we might live forever or that
nothing exists after death are also wrong. The correct view is based on
the Middle Way that transcends polar extremes, indicating the true
nature of all things.
If we base our understanding on the views of non-self, dependent
origination and the Middle Way, we would be able to see things correctly, equally and impartially without thinking “I am special; I will neverdie.” We could completely get rid of our self-centeredness. This is thefoundation for us to perceive things exactly as they are, out of which isborn wisdom.
This is the wisdom to perceive all things and their true nature. The
term yathåbhËtaµ pajånåti is often found in early Buddhist scriptures,
meaning to “perceive things exactly as they are.” As you can probably
surmise, this pajånåti is a verb form of paññå, that is, wisdom. This
Pali word paññå is used as a part of the Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra. Because paññå leads to enlightenment, it is regarded as
being synonymous with right views in Buddhism.
Consequently, “righteousness” in terms of Buddhism means to get ridof self-centeredness and perceive things exactly as they are, equally andimpartially, from the standpoint of non-self. This view corresponds tothe viewpoint of dependent origination and the Middle Way. Rightviews give rise to right thought, right action and right livelihood. The
truths discovered while perceiving things exactly as they are boil down
to the concept of the four noble truths. All in all, the Buddhist teachings
are what Shakyamuni discovered by observing things exactly as they
are and perceiving their true nature, and Shakyamuni expounded themfor the sake of people.
Changes in Perception of Things and Phenomena
I have so far developed my discussion based on the earliest Buddhist
teachings known as early Buddhism. In the time of Shakyamuni, science was insufficient and the economy was immature. On the other
hand, when people had a meal, they knew who produced the rice andwho made the bowl. In those days, they maintained a so-called “relationship with a human face” with one another. It is recorded that medicine was so developed in ancient India that J¥vaka, the physician
responsible for Shakamuni, performed a brain operation on a king, but
in fact the level of surgical treatment of the time was limited to theremoval of worms. People, however, could live as a part of nature and inJ/Orient/02 03.1.17 1:26 PM ページ 72

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close relationships with one another.
In contrast, human beings today live as a part of society, and indeed
can no longer live apart from the society. This tendency is spreadingworldwide. We also live in a world of highly developed science andtechnology. When we eat bread at breakfast it is absolutely impossible
to know where and by whom the wheat was produced, even if we wanted to. Perhaps the wheat was harvested in a remote foreign country, or it
might be mixed with some genetically modified and enhanced wheat.
Therefore, the things and phenomena seen as they were in the time of
Shakyamuni are extremely different from those surrounding us today.
What people saw as it really was in the age of early Buddhism can be
defined as individual human beings, and this was entirely sufficient at
the time. Now, however, our sphere of livelihood has greatly changed
and expanded far and wide. With the development of science, the economy and society, all the things and phenomena in our environment havebeen subjected to a variety of changes.
Buddhism developed from early Buddhism through Abhidharma
Buddhism (Hinayana Buddhism) and then through the introductory
period of Mahayana Buddhism and the intermediate period of
Mahayana Buddhism to the period of Esoteric Buddhism. I think Buddhism’s worldview has expanded in proportion to its development. Thus
the object people tried to perceive exactly as it was in early Buddhism
was the realm of sentient beings, while Abhidharma Buddhism added tothis the world and the universe where we are now living. With theprogress of science, the analysis of people’s mental activities and thematerial world became more precise and detailed. Even so, at this stage,
the enlightened state of Buddhas and bodhisattvas was not the object ofperception.
However, with the rise of Mahayana Buddhism, the Buddhalands
such as the Pure Land of Perfect Bliss and the Buddhas’ enlightenment
were positively preached in various scriptures. One of the major
Mahayana schools, called the Yogåchåra school, or the ConsciousnessOnly school, succeeded in analyzing the mind more precisely.
Chinese Buddhism and Japanese Buddhism have each developed intheir own ways. In India, new scriptures have been produced in accordance with changing times, that is, changes in things and phenomena.
These were the crystallization of perceiving things and phenomena
exactly as they were. If new Buddhist scriptures could not be created, itwould mean the death of Buddhism. The more new scriptures were created, the more it proved how vividly Buddhism took an active part inpeople’s real lives as a living philosophy.

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In China and Japan, however, it was established as a peculiar agreement that scriptures other than those produced in India are not authentic, and as a result, the people of both countries lost the good and legitimate tradition of making new scriptures for themselves. Notwithstanding this, I believe that the writings produced by such founders of Japanese Buddhism as Shinran, DØgen and Nichiren have played the role ofscripture instead.
Buddhism and Science
If Buddhist scriptures were produced as a result of perceiving thingsand phenomena surrounding us exactly as they were, then how was
Buddhism related to science? According to the KØjien dictionary, thedefinition of science is as follows: “systematic rational recognition concerned with a part of the world as its area of study, which is experientially demonstrable. According to the object or method of study, it isclassified into several categories such as natural science and social science, natural science and mental science, and natural science and cultural science. Science is generally distinguished from philosophy, butboth disciplines should have the same certainty in common. From thispoint of view, such approaches as scientific philosophy and philosophical science are available.”
To put is more briefly, “systematic rational recognition that is experientially demonstrable” can be interpreted to mean to perceive thingsand phenomena in our immediate surroundings exactly as they are.
If my understanding is correct, it follows that there is no difference
between Buddhism and science in their approach toward things andphenomena.
Early Buddhism and Abhidharma Buddhism focused on the realworld of illusion, that is, this world in which we actually live, and in
this sense they can be defined as very rational religions. It is no exaggeration to say that Abhidharma Buddhism is compatible with science.
Its teachings contain various scientific elements such as physics, astronomy, geology, psychology and medicine. Some 1,500 years ago, when
Abhidharma Buddhism was expounded, microscopes, telescopes andother scientific tools to observe things and phenomena as they really are
did not exist. In the light of modern science, there are several misconceptions in its concepts. In astronomy, for example, the geocentric theory was believed instead of the heliocentric theory, and Earth was understood as not spherical but cylindrical.
Even so, Buddhism was trying to make a rational interpretation of the
motions of the sun and the moon and of seasonal changes. Our solar

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system belongs to the galactic system, and according to modern astronomy there are other galactic systems outside of ours, such as theAndromeda nebula, and several hundred or thousand such galactic systems form a cluster of galaxies. Nearly 10,000 galaxy clusters havealready been discovered.
Buddhism called one galactic system a “major world system” or a“thousand-millionfold world,” and conceived that countless major
world systems exist in the ten directions, that is, in all directions
throughout the universe. 1,000 worlds (a world being similar to today’s
concept of a solar system) make a minor world system; 1,000 minor
world systems compose an intermediate world system; and 1,000 intermediate world systems form a major world system. Therefore, one
major world system comprises one billion worlds. This concept might
be compared to modern cosmology.
In the field of physics, meanwhile, Buddhism conceived that basically submicroscopic particles were combined to constitute matter. The
particles might be compared in modern terms to the concept of molecules or atoms.
At first glance, it seems that the scriptures of Mahayana Buddhism
describe a completely different world or realm than that described byscience. This is because they resulted from a perception of the world of
the Buddha exactly as it was. The world of the Buddha is on a different
level from that of us ordinary people, because of which originally noword can express it. The world or realm of the Buddha is depicted so
abstrusely in Mahayana Buddhist scriptures that ordinary people could
hardly understand it with their discriminating-consciousness. Consequently, we would rather regard it as the world that can only be understood and shared between Buddhas.
In the final analysis, I believe that Buddhism and science never contradict or conflict with each other: rather, they have much in common.
Buddhism is polytheistic, quite different from monotheistic religions
such as Christianity. Christianity has caused various complications with
science, and their discord still continues up until the present. In several
states of America, for example, it is prescribed according to state lawthat the same amount of time as is spent at schools on the instruction of
the theory of evolution and the heliocentric theory be given to creationist theories. In short, the truths of science and religion are at variancewith each other, which gives rise to complications.
In contrast, Buddhism has developed in response to the progress ofscience. As I have mentioned already, the further people’s worldview
has broadened and their scope of observing things and phenomena as

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they really are has expanded, the wider the Buddhist teachings havespread and the deeper people’s understanding of Buddhism has become.
However, the world we live in today is changing so greatly that wecannot comprehend this reality with the knowledge of our Buddhist tradition. As the enigma of the creation of the universe is being investigated, the mysteries of life are solved and the revolution of information
technology advances, our whole attitude to life is also changing completely. We are in danger of confusing reality with a dream or an illusion. Doubtless, such breakthroughs in the area of science will have agreat influence on our mental life and spiritual culture.
Buddhism seeks to perceive reality exactly as it is, but the reality has
undergone qualitative changes. Buddhism basically displays a flexible
stance toward this phenomenon, never giving way to the desire to row
against the stream and return to the ancient times. Far from looking
back to the past, it welcomes the fact that the ways we observe things as
they really are evolve, and that new discoveries increase with theprogress of science. It is a Buddhist tradition that new scriptures areproduced on the basis of new perspectives of perceiving all things
exactly as they are.
All things and phenomena nowadays are changing rapidly and drastically. If a Buddha were to appear in this world today, he would surely
be puzzled. I wonder what kind of scripture he would make perceiving
the nature of this world exactly as it is. This is far beyond the capacity
for imagination for me, an ordinary person. My biggest anxiety, as an
ordinary person, is about what will become of our world in the future. I
cannot clearly envision our future. No one can get a clear picture of our
future world even in 50 years or 100 time, even though that is not distant future.
Recently I read a newspaper article that reported the results of a survey questionnaire conducted by the National Institute of Science andTechnology Policy of the Science and Technology Agency. The question was: “What kind of new technology and what changes in life andsociety do you think will come into existence, or do you hope will comeinto existence, in the 21st century?” The article says that 1,200
researchers working in the field of science and technology in the academic and business world replied to the questionnaire.
There seem to have been a wide variety of answers, including fanciful tales and nightmarish delusions. For example, “people can solve
food and population problems by downsizing the human body,” or “thehuman body will be composed of artificial organs through the generalization of regenerative medicine.” In any event, our world in the 21st

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century is not one that we can easily visualize.
I think this is because natural science, life science, social science,
human science and information technology are all developing in completely different directions, lacking in interdisciplinary unity, whichmakes it extremely difficult for us to get a holistic worldview. As aresult, we are now confronted with various problems, such as what will
happen to the future of humankind due to the development of medicine
and reproductive technology, how genetic engineering or cloning technology will change the world of plants and animals, and how the online
revolution will influence our mental activities and culture. Things andphenomena, the objects we should perceive exactly as they are, arebecoming ambiguous and intangible, like blurred photographs.
Expectations and Concerns for Science
What I expect most of science is a comprehensive analysis of the present situation in which we are living and of the direction we are headingin the future. To achieve this, input from all fields of science, including
natural science, social science and human science, is required.
At any rate, scientists must begin by viewing things exactly as theyare. On this basis, I hope they will show us a clear vision of the future.
They should make a study on the appropriate perception of the present
situation and the forecast of future developments not only in their specialized fields but also from a broader perspective. Their studies should
include futurology as well as analysis of existing circumstances.
In Buddhism, mystic powers such as forecasting the future, which are
far beyond the abilities of ordinary people, are called supernatural ortranscendental powers. The original word for them is abhijñå in Sanskrit and abhiññå in Pali. This derives from a verb abhijånåti, whichmeans “to see.” When one sees things as they really are, one isinevitably equipped with transcendental powers. Therefore, if scientists
could perceive the “present situation exactly as it is,” it would be easierfor them to forecast the future. I believe herein lies their obligation as
scientists.
Just as new scriptures and founders’ teachings have come into existence according to the times, correct new systems of value should naturally be created in harmony with the present situation of the 21st century.
This expectation may be too optimistic. Of course, there are someconcerns as to whether science can perceive things exactly as they arein the true sense. I mentioned before that according to the doctrine of
the four noble truths we can relieve suffering and eradicate our earthly
desires by viewing things as they really are. However, I still doubt

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whether science is developing in that direction.
Although we can say that our physical and material sufferings arebeing diminished and alleviated with the progress of science, as long as
earthly desires remain, our sufferings are not eradicated. Thus, whenviewed from the Buddhist perspective, the eradication of selfish craving
brings about the cessation of suffering and enables us to attain emancipation.
Furthermore, as a condition for perceiving things exactly as they are,we need to see things based on the concepts of dependent originationand the Middle Way and from the standpoints of non-self and non-substantiality, or emptiness. I wonder if modern science is capable of fulfilling these conditions.
Simply put, scientists may not be solely motivated by a purely scientific desire to perceive things as they really are. Some of them may be driven by ambition or dreams of making a fortune at a stroke with thedevelopment of science. Needless to say, the progress of science has been
driven by our contemporary society that seeks convenience and affluence. If this is the case, science is open to question. Is this really worthyof the name “science,” or is it no more than “scientific technology?”
Abhidharma Buddhism teaches that the birth, decline and disintegration of our globe all depend on our karma or actions. This is referred toas common karma, or the deeds of the community. It explains how our
world is destroyed and disappears, as follows. First, war rages, then epidemics prevail, and finally famine attacks. These are called the threelesser calamities. Their causes are defined as greed, indulgence in dainty food and negligence. Consequently, these three calamities are manmade disasters, and it is said that they can be prevented by deeds suchas not killing and offering medicine and food.
When these three calamities occur repeatedly, a great fire takes placeand burns up the world. This fire marks the end of the kalpa of decline.
Then, there is a sweeping flood, and finally a great storm demolishes
everything in the universe. These calamities of fire, water and wind arecalled the three greater calamities. In short, the remote causes of thesedisasters are also defined as common karma shared by humanity. Our
globe and universe decline and disappear entirely due to the responsibility of us, sentient beings. If the three lesser calamities do not occur, neither do these three greater calamities. Therefore, we have only to prevent the lesser calamities.
As stated above, Abhidharma Buddhism holds that the destruction ofthis globe and universe is nothing but the result of common karma created and shared by sentient beings, at the root of which lies excessive

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and insatiable desire. I strongly feel that various problems facing ourmodern world are proving the validity of this teaching.
Excessive desire or greed has brought about a worsening of the global environment, ozone layer depletion and global warming. One of ourserious problems is exhaustion of natural resources. If nuclear war
should break out on our planet and the total arsenal of nuclear weapons
explode all at once, our planet is certain to shatter into pieces.
The world economy has developed with the spreading of the freeeconomy. The free economy is based on the premise that, as represented
by Adam Smith’s exposition, if a market freely conducts economic
activities based on individual desire, the “invisible hand” of competition
guides the economic system and maintains harmony. Smith was a professor of moral philosophy at the University of Glasgow, and in thiscapacity he thought desires should be suppressed. However, he felt it
was necessary to overlook this for a while and instead place priority on
economic development.
Nowadays people tend to think that the greatest value is to fulfill
desires. There are some indications that, far from reflecting on the selfserving satisfaction of desires, they even claim that it is their fundamental right as human beings. This phenomenon is spreading to the sphereof the spiritual, as well as the material world. In the virtual reality experience, people can manipulate and conquer the entire world as theirown. Eventually, someone may develop a scheme to make this a reality.
In Abhidharma Buddhism, the concepts of good and evil are divided
into the four stages of primary meaning, self-nature, conjunction andemergence. The “primary” non-good or evil is the suffering of birth anddeath, and the “self-nature” evil is regarded as shamelessness, regretlessness, greed, anger and foolishness.
The three poisons of greed, anger and foolishness essentially assume
their self-nature of evil or non-goodness. Thus, Buddhism teaches that
excessive greed lies at the root of all evil. In Buddhist scriptures, avirtue is expressed as “little desire and contentment with a little gain.”
Although this idea seems so old-fashioned and hackneyed that it may be
hardly accessible to people today, I believe it is the basic concept of all
religions as well as of Buddhism.
Buddhism is compatible with science. I think Buddhism has neverexcluded the scientific approach of “perceiving things exactly as they
are,” and rather has in fact welcomed it.
However, people have given free rein to their desires, and, at themercy of earthly desires and impulses, have lost sight of the fundamental concepts of non-self, dependent origination and the Middle Way that

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enable them to perceive things exactly as they are. As a result, most
likely, they have made light of the areas of futurology and the analysisof existing circumstances, and have given higher priority to technology
and methodology.
If modern science is defined as science that aims to seek convenienceand affluence, it has strayed from the right track of perceiving things
exactly as they are. This is totally wrong, and modern science cannot
really work to bring happiness to humankind, living beings and theentire world.
For this reason, we must eradicate the source of excessive desires,
encourage the concepts of non-self, dependent origination and the Middle Way, and thereby create an environment conducive to the perspective of perceiving things exactly as they are. On this basis, we need tosee all things and phenomena for what they really are in our present
time. I am convinced that in our efforts to do so, we will be able to naturally realize what we need to correct and remedy and what we can get
the most out of and develop. Moreover, we will be able to naturally findthe path we should follow. This is due to the practice of perceiving
things exactly as they are. It is the role of us, persons of religion andBuddhists, to put all the conditions into place and create an appropriate
environment to restore and actualize the perspective of perceiving
things exactly as they are in our contemporary society.