Celebrating Spring's Beginning - Floriade, South Australia

Science and the Teachings of the Buddha

PART THREE

“Mind over Genes”

Changing our Perceptions

  Recently, the Complete Health Chiropractic website published an article written by Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D. © 2003: “Mind Over Genes: Nature and Nurture Revisited.“

  “. . . consider the consequences of world changes that were brought about by civilization’s last paradigm upheaval. This occurred around 1925 when physi­cists left behind the dated concept of a Newtonian material-based universe and recognized the energy-based reality revealed in Quantum Physics.

  “Well, brace yourselves! for we are in for a wild ride. Frantic research in cell biology has finally acknowledged the mechanisms by which perception controls behavior, selects genes, and can even lead to a rewriting of the genome. Rather than being the victim of our genes we have been the victim of our perceptions. . . We are on the verge of a most radical and most wonderful upheaval of human civiliza­tion. . .

  “As we become more conscious and rely less on automated subconscious programs, we become the masters of our fates rather the victims of our programs. Conscious awareness can actively transform the character of our lives into ones filled with love, health, and prosperity by its ability to rewrite limiting perceptions and beliefs. . .”

  In “We Are Meant to be Here” found at Salon.com/books website, Steve Paulson interviews physicist Paul Davies:

  “More and more physicists point to various laws of nature that have to be calibrated just right for stars and planets to form and for life to appear. For instance, if gravity were just slightly stronger, the universe would have collapsed long before life evolved. But if gravity were a tiny bit weaker, no galaxies or stars could have formed. If the strong nuclear force had been slightly different, red giant stars would never produce the fusion needed to form heavier atoms like carbon, and the universe would be a vast, lifeless desert. Are these just happy coincidences? The late cosmologist Fred Hoyle called the universe “a put-up job.” Princeton physicist Freeman Dyson has suggested that the universe, in some sense, “knew we were coming.” British-born cosmologist Paul Davies, “argues for a grand cosmic plan. The universe, he believes, is filled with meaning and purpose. . .”

  Words above clearly resonate with teachings of the Buddha. Now indeed is the very time to transform our perceptions—of who we really are, to realize “in some sense, the universe knew we were coming.” The greatest heresy is to believe we are separate from one another. We and the whole “organism” of life—the earth and all that evolves with the earth—are interconnected and interdependent. Opening heart and mind each moment of our lives, responding to others free of our own ego’s demands, being alive and contributing to the advance of the human condition—is not this our ultimate destiny?

  The Buddha teaches us how to respect one another, to celebrate life with intent to continue. We all are caused to live by the great life-force of the universe. The “great perfection,” the enlightened nature, exists within all living beings. Hidden perhaps, but here, and thus we all are equal in terms of the value of our existence.

  When Shakyamuni Buddha in ch. 2 of the Lotus Sutra sees his “sons and daughters” with reverent hearts draw near to him, seeking the Buddha-way, he conceives this thought – “the reason why the Buddha appears in the world is for preaching the Buddha-wisdom – now is the very time.”