International Shamatha Project
Endorsement by HH Dalai Lama

July 4, 2009

Dear Friends,

I'd like to share with you a correspondence I've had with His Holiness the Dalai Lama about a proposal I made to him called the "International Shamatha Project." I copy below my initial correspondence to him and his endorsement of this project, which I'm delighted to receive on this auspicious day, Independence Day.

With best wishes to you all,
Alan

Your Holiness,

I would like to propose the establishment of an international Buddhist research project modeled after the Human Genome Project, which was one of the most ambitious and successful scientific projects in recent history. It entailed the collaboration of many scientific laboratories throughout the world (including that of Eric Lander at M.I.T.) to map the human genome. Throughout the years that this project was conducted, researchers around the world shared their finding so that the project could be completed most effectively for the benefit of all of humanity.

As I suggested at the Mind and Life meeting last April, I believe the achievement of shamatha is essential for the preservation of Buddhism as a true science of the mind. While many people devote themselves to the practice of vipashyana and to Vajrayana, relatively few pay serious attention to the practice of shamatha and far fewer, it seems, actually achieve it.

Therefore, I would like to propose an International Shamatha Project, modeled after the Human Genome Project, that would bring together dedicated Buddhist teachers and meditators from both Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism to collaborate in exploring the most effective methods and conditions for achieving shamatha in today's world. Individual retreat centers could network with each other by way of the internet, sharing their experiences, problems, remedies, and insights. We may also collaborate with psychologists and neuroscientists conducting research on shamatha meditators to help discover which methods of shamatha are most appropriate for which kinds of people in the modern world. Scientists may also discover the objective psychological and neurological signs corresponding to the nine stages of development leading to shamatha, thus providing a scientific map of the gradual achievement of shamatha. We have begun such collaboration in the Shamatha Project, on which Dr. Clifford Saron reported during the Mind and Life meeting in April, and I am proposing that this work now be expanded worldwide, to include multiple teachers and traditions. Once shamatha is accomplished, it becomes far more feasible to achieve bodhicitta, vipashyana, and the stages of Vajrayana, and in this way, the significance of Buddhist mind science may become evident to the scientific community and to human society at large, including China.

If you agree that such an International Shamatha Project is worth establishing, might I request you to write a brief endorsement for this project and perhaps send me a list of Buddhist teachers who might be invited to join in such collaborative research?

I pray that you continue to enjoy excellent health and vitality as well as a very, very long life.

Your devoted student,

Alan

From: His Holiness The Dalai Lama:

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

Alan Wallace has devoted much of his professional life to the interface
between Buddhist meditation and science. Following on work already done with Dr. Clifford Saron in the Shamatha Project, he is proposing the
establishment of an International Shamatha Project, modelled on the Human Genome Project, that will bring together Buddhist teachers and meditators to explore effective ways of achieving shamatha, which, sometimes translated as calm abiding meditation, comprises concentration practices designed to enhance sustained voluntary attention.

I am happy to support his suggestion to expand existing collaboration amongst teachers and meditators worldwide to include multiple teachers and traditions.

I am also encouraged by the prospect that the Project may collaborate with psychologists and neuroscientists conducting research on shamatha meditators to discover which methods are most appropriate for which people to develop shamatha in the modern world. The prospect of Buddhist mind science becoming better understood both in the scientific community and in society at large is inspiring. I wish the Project every success.

July 3, 2009

His Holiness' Endorsement PDF

© 2005 Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies