Paper short abstract:

This presentation will explore a few case studies that involve laboratory research on highly-advanced Tibetan Buddhist meditators to discuss the emergence of new epistemologies and a new model of being a scientist: the Buddhist scientist.

Paper long abstract:

As is well documented, the encounter between Buddhism and Western systems of thought has a long history that has unfolded through stages in many different directions. The relatively recent laboratory research experiments on contemplative practices derived from Buddhism conducted at major research institutions around the world point to a crucial moment in the history of this encounter. By bringing Buddhist contemplative practices to the laboratory, these research institutions have taken this encounter to a whole different level, creating a series of displacements (Latour 1983) that have upset seemingly well-established boundaries and hierarchies between the domains of religion and secularity, tradition and modernity, first-person and third-person observation and so forth. By exploring a few case studies that involve laboratory research on highly-advanced Tibetan Buddhist meditators in connection to the Mind & Life Institute, and their derivative inscribed products (scientific articles, dharma books, popular science books, articles in popular media), this presentation will discuss how, through various media, or better yet “layers” of translation, contemplative practices are apprehended as scientific objects differently in distinct contexts, engendering the creation of multiple networks, or realities (Mol 2002) in connection with the scientific, Buddhist, and popular spheres. Such realities, despite being intimately related to each other, do not entirely match-up. How these realities and actors connect, or partially connect (Strathern 2004 [1991]) points to the emergence of new epistemologies and a new model of being a scientist: the Buddhist scientist.