Event In Search of Reality – Western Science and the Asian Contemplative Tradition, will have invited the Venerable Jampa Lungtok, a monk in the tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, from the Center for Higher Tibetan Studies - Rabten Choeling, from Switzerland. He will give a lecture in English (with Romanian translation), on October 5, from 18 pm in the "Ioan Curea" Aula Magna of the Western University of Timișoara. The conference will be moderated by university professor Dr. Claudiu Mesaroș from the Faculty of Political Sciences, Philosophy and Communication Sciences - UVT, and in the second part of the event there will be a question and answer session.
The theme focuses on the points of convergence but also those of divergence between the two great traditions of the world: modern Western science and the almost 2500-year-old Asian Buddhist tradition, at the origin of which is Siddhārtha Gautama, known as the "Awakened One" (Buddha). .
The fact that this spiritual tradition has easily entered into dialogue, especially in recent decades, with the multiple branches of modern science, especially with cognitive sciences and quantum physics, is due to some principles that are a cornerstone in the Buddhist tradition, namely, critical thinking and proving reality through direct experience.
In particular, "wisdom" or "knowledge" (in Sanskrit prajñā/jñāna), represents the most precious quality of the mind, which must be cultivated and perfected as an "antidote" against "ignorance" (avidyā) or erroneous knowledge which is identified to be the root of all suffering and problems of a physical or mental nature.
After the great exodus of Tibetan monks, who arrived in India in the mid-1959s, the actual dialogue between outstanding personalities in the field of modern science and the great scholars of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition began to take shape, beginning to take shape in the 80s, period when many scientists from the West traveled to India and, conversely, many Tibetan masters began to travel to America and Europe, especially the political and spiritual leader of the Tibetans, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who from the very beginning clearly an interest in the sciences of the West.
Venerable Jampa Lungtok, originally from Austria, is an electronics engineer and graduated in 1976 from the prestigious Federal Technical University (ETH) in Zürich, studying electrical engineering, and a year later he became a monk and began to study the Tibetan language and Buddhist teachings under the direct guidance of one of the foremost Tibetan masters, Geshe Rabten Rinpoche.
Between 1979-1995, Venerable Jampa Lungtok was the official German language interpreter of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, thus being among the first to mediate these dialogues, such as the 1986 and 1993 meetings with the renowned physicist Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker , student of the great physicists Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg.
Starting from 2013, the Venerable Jampa Lungtok is annually invited to Romania to share his knowledge and experience acquired with the great Tibetan masters, having inter-disciplinary dialogues with many professors from the universities of Iasi, Cluj, Brașov and Bucharest. This year it will be in Timișoara for the first time.
Order date: October 5, 2023, 18.00:20.00 p.m. – XNUMX:XNUMX p.m
Location: Aula Magna Ioan Curea, West University of Timișoara
Organisers: West University of Timișoara and arttouching
partners: Radio Romania Timișoara, TVR Timișoara
