Source: San Francisco Chronicle

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/06/MNGE0FJU5I1.DTL

On November 6, 2005 the San Francisco Chronicle reported, "Some 1,700 people held their breath Saturday in the presence of the Dalai Lama at Stanford University's Memorial Auditorium... [in] an audience-participation neuroscience experiment to demonstrate the nature of craving. Stop breathing, and you'll quickly crave respiration, neuroscientist Howard Fields aptly demonstrated.

The exercise was part of a daylong dialogue between red-robe-clad Buddhists and suit-and-tie scientists on how the brain works, with the lofty goal of joining both traditions' wisdom to alleviate human suffering.

But after two hours of discussing neuroscience and Buddhism's perspectives on craving and choice, even the eminent 14th Dalai Lama pronounced himself 'so confused.' It took the panelists that long to conclude that craving means entirely different things to those who study the brain and those who use it to reach a greater state of mindfulness.

Where the scientists and religious scholars did agree is that they have much to learn from each other.

'This is not about trying to apply scientific method to religion or faith or applying faith to science,' said Dr. Philip Pizzo, dean of the School of Medicine, which sponsored the conference. 'These are all part of the human experience. It's about boundaries and where they overlap and connect.'"