6. Nyerere, the Dalai Lama, Gandhi

This article aims to trace and describe the bioethical threads in medical practice and the understanding of medicine among Tibetan refugees living in India. Taking up such a task results mainly from the fact that only traces of bioethical reflection are visible in Tibetan society, but without the awareness that it requires systematic reflection on its essence and changes that accompany modern medicine. I define the state of the discussion on Tibetan bioethics as preparadigmatic, i.e., one that precedes the recognition of the importance of bioethics and the elaboration of its basic concepts. In this paper, I will show how the Tibetan refugees today, in an unconscious way, approach bioethics, using the example of life-related topics, namely beginning and death. To this end, I chose topics such as abortion, fetal sex reassignment, euthanasia, and suicide. On this basis, I will indicate the main reasons that hinder the emergence of bioethics and those that may contribute to systematic discussions in the future. An introduction to Tibetan medicine will precede these considerations. I will show how medical traditions, especially the Rgyud bzhi text, are related to Tibetan Buddhism and opinions of the 14th Dalai Lama.

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Harvard Medicine Takes a Lesson from Dalai Lama

Science ◽

10.1126/science.206.4419.669-b ◽

1979 ◽

Vol 206 (4419) ◽

pp. 669-669

Author(s):

Eliot Marshall

Keyword(s):

Dalai Lama

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THE DALAI LAMA AND ACADEMIC RESEARCH TO THE 85TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 14TH DALAI LAMA

Journal of the Institute of Oriental Studies RAS ◽

10.31696/2618-7302-2020-4-149-161 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 149-161

Author(s):

Alla M. Shustova ◽

Keyword(s):

South India ◽

Academic Research ◽

Single Atom ◽

Altered States ◽

Common Goal ◽

Dalai Lama ◽

Buddhist Meditation ◽

Fundamental Knowledge ◽

The Common ◽

The Universe

The article is dedicated for the 85th anniversary of His Holiness Dalai Lama the 14th Tenzin Gyatso and considers his contribution to establishing the dialogue between academic research and spirituality. It depicts main points of Dalai Lama’s way in science, the results of which he described in his book ‘The Universe in a Single Atom. How Science and Spirituality Can Serve Our World’. In this book His Holiness tried to explain the possibility of reaching a unified vision of the world, based not only on science but also on spirituality. Dalai Lama is sure of the necessity of the dialogue between science and Buddhism; he believes that there are certain points, where science and Buddhist philosophy come very close to each other, and may form a good base for such a dialogue. It is for example non-theistic character of both science and Buddhism, the similarity of their methods of cognition, along with the common goal of attaining the truth. Dalai Lama raises one important question: Should there be a place for ethics in science? Giving the positive answer, he then proves it expressly. For several decades Dalai Lama has been undertaking active efforts to facilitate the dialogue between science and spirituality. Recently Russian scholars have also joined this process. By Dalai Lama’s initiative two big conferences were held under the aegis of the program “Fundamental knowledge: dialogues of Russian and Buddhist scholars”. As a result of these meetings the joint Russian and Buddhist research center was organized in South India to study the altered states of conciseness, basing on various types of Buddhist meditation.

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