Rebirth and the Western Buddhist - Khamkoo

Buddhism, Science and Scientism 53
actions with matter. As Spinoza said, "Neither can the
body determine the mind to think, nor the mind determine
the body to motion or rest or anything else (if such
there be)." 96 And yet, we seem to be responsible for our
own deeds! Schrodinger considers this a paradox which
can probably be overcome only by recognising that subject
and object are one, but for practical purposes, in
everyday life and scientific research, we have to discriminate
subject and object. His system is thus comparable to
the Buddhist Mind-Only system (Citta-matra), with a
similar presentation of the two levels of truth; however,
he avoids speculating on the causes of sensory perceptions.
Thus it is quite in order that scientists should make the
conscious decision to confine their studies to the objective
world, to avoid extreme conceptual difficulties; in
which case, in relation to that science, mind does not
exist. It is also to be expected that some, not fully understanding
the above reasoning, will draw exaggerated
conclusions from the lack of objective evidence of mindmatter
interactions. Monod, for example, claims: "Objective
analysis obliges us to see that this seeming duality
[of brain & spirit] within us is an illusion," 97 evidently
not realising that the question is beyond the scope of
objective analysis.
It is interesting to note that another scientist, Franklin
Merrell-Wolff, was led by meditative realisations to adopt
a thoroughly Cittamatrin view-point. Making the important
point,
There seems to be but one fact of experience
that affords the explanation of this attribution
of reality-value to the material of physical
science and that is that this material is relatively
common and constant with respect to the
vast majority of observers, and that so far as is