Quoting myself...

Hey, recycle, reuse... This is something I just posted on my metaphysics site:

The Dalai Lama at MIT: Science meets Spirit

While Christian leaders in the US fight against the teaching of evolution in our schools, the leader of the Tibetan Buddhist community embraces modern science.

Winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, the Dalai Lama has joined forces with MIT and the Mind and Life Institute to study the effects of Buddhist meditation on human cognition, mental imagery and emotion.

"(T)he Dalai Lama has said that the nature of Buddhism is open to exploration and change. And should the collaboration with science disprove the benefits of meditation, he has said, he would always be willing to rethink thousands of years of Buddhist tradition.

"If science proves facts that conflict with Buddhist understanding, Buddhism must change accordingly. We should always adopt a view that accords with the facts," he wrote recently in the forward to a book about the most recent scientific collaborations."

Now results of the studies are coming out, and it's clear that a habit of meditation effects one's mental abilities positivitely. In fact, " long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice" (whatever that means!)

The Dalai Lama is clearly secure enough in his spirituality that he needn't feel threatened by advances in scientific understanding. Would that more people did likewise.

Commentary too bitter for metaphysics:

If science discovered a health benefit of following Christianity, do you suppose its most vocal proponents in the US would be equally generous? Say, if taking communion cured cancer? Or would they rather reserve the benefit for their faithful, and require a 'faith check' to include an audit to insure your 'dues' were fully paid up before allowing you to partake?

Follow link above for more links to cool 'mind and spirit' type articles.