Is it possible to reconcile the evolution theory with Buddhism?

Question

Is it possible to reconcile the evolution theory with Buddhism, or they are 2 things that simply cannot go along? In other words you have to choose one.

Answer 1

I'm really not sure what one has to do with the other. The Buddha taught the path leading to the cessation of suffering. Evolutionary theory explains what happens through the interplay of a given species and its surroundings. I think the example set by the Dalai Lama is very instructive in demonstrating how a Buddhist should approach science. He strongly embraces what science has to teach us about reality - which is what Buddhism seeks to do in it's own way. He even goes so far as to say that if science (and by science, I understand him to mean rigorous testing and reproducible evidence) could prove an aspect of Buddhism teaching false, a Buddhist would have to side with science. I'm really don't see anything in evolution that would impinge on the dharma.

Answer 2

Agganna sutta is accepted in most traditions. Here's some of what it says about the origins of the humans.

‘There comes a time, Vasettha, when, sooner or later after a long period this world contracts. At a time of contraction, beings are mostly born in the Abhassara Brahma world. And there they dwell, mind-made, feeding on delight, self luminous, moving through the air, glorious—and they stay like that for a very long time. But sooner or later, after a very long period, this world begins to expand again. At a time of expansion, the beings from the Abhassara Brahma world, having passed away from there, are mostly reborn in this world. Here they dwell, mind-made, feeding on delight, self-luminous, moving through the air, glorious—[5] and they stay like that for a very long time.

So most Buddhist traditions wouldn't agree that humans evolved from some sea creature. But the sutta says that humans looked much different compared to how they appear today. It also goes on to explain how they changed over time. So there's a similarity. But this change occurred due to the change in the mental states and due to the different types of food they consumed over time. Humans were intelligent beings at the start. Not single-celled organisms. And they didn't share any common ancestor with other species.

Answer 3

Buddhist theory of evolution and cosmology is covered in the Aggañña Sutta. There is a article The Origin of Life in the Universe: Buddhist Perspective which discusses this topic which might be of interest to you.

We have to consider this has been handed down as a oral tradition before it was written down. So there might be variations. Having said this Buddhism can can stand the test of scientific scrutiny. Buddhism is empirical.

Also see: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_cosmology_(Theravada)

Origin of Species

Aggañña Sutta is in complete agreement with scientific evolution. The Aggañña Sutta presents water as pre-existent to earthlike planets, with the planet forming with water and the life moving from the water onto the earth. The first life formed on the surface of the water and again, over countless millions of years, evolved from simple into complex organisms. . According to Buddhism, world systems always appear and disappear in the universe.

(Sourced: http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2010/01/27/the-origin-of-life-in-the-universe-buddhist-perspective/)

Above is exactly what Drawin also said. Though Buddhism goes beyond by describing who the whole world system formed and how biological life forms came to being from other life forms (non biological). Within the scope of biological life forms it is the same as Darwin.

Answer 4

This will not answer your question, but maybe it can help a lot:

"Thia samyutta is organized around questions that the Buddha left unanswered. Most of the discourses here focus on questions in a standard list of ten that were apparently the hot issues for philosophers in the Buddha's day: Is the cosmos eternal? Is it not eternal? Is it finite? Is it infinite? Is the body the same as the soul? Is the body one thing and the soul another? Does the Tathagata exist after death? Does he not exist after death? Both? Neither?

MN 72 lists the reasons why the Buddha does not take a position on any of these questions. In each case he says that such a position "is a thicket of views, a wilderness of views, a contortion of views, a writhing of views, a fetter of views. It is accompanied by suffering, distress, despair, & fever, and it does not lead to disenchantment, dispassion, cessation; to calm, direct knowledge, full awakening, Unbinding."

These reasons fall into two categories. The first concerns the present drawbacks of taking such a position: It is accompanied by suffering, distress, despair, and fever. The second category concerns the effects of such a position over time: It does not lead to awakening or Unbinding. AN 10.93 further explores the first category of reasons. MN 63 further explores the second.

Some of the discourses in this samyutta explore a third category of reasons for why the Buddha does not take a position on any of these questions: Such a position is based on attachment to and misunderstanding of the aggregates and sense media. When one sees these things for what they are, as they're actually present, the idea of forming them into any of these positions simply does not occur to one."

Source:Introduction to the Avyakata Samyutta (Undeclared-connected) Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Answer 5

From the standpoint of secular Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism there has been a focus on teachings as practical guidelines.

Quoting the Dalai Lama that:

“If scientific analysis were conclusively to demonstrate certain claims in Buddhism to be false, then we must accept the findings of science and abandon those claims.”

― Dalai Lama XIV, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality

In this way combining both Buddhism and Science, using each for it's strength's; seeing Buddhism as source on:

• the mind, meditation and morality and seeing
• meditation
• morality
• freeing suffering
• philosophy

And seeing Science as the expert on:

• The natural sciences
• Mathematics
• History
• Engineering
• Architecture

Edit, adding interpretation of Aganna Sutta

One the more skeptical interpretations of Aganna Sutta has been of Prof. Gobrich. That is was never to be taken literally, but as parody to the cosmology in the Veda, and trying to get across that both language and the caste system was of not divine origin.

He came to this conclusion because the Buddha had always been reluctant to posit a cosmology. Source Used:

http://www.dailynews.lk/?q=features/buddhas-universe-vs-western-science.

Original Source:

Richard Gombrich, Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo. Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1988, page 82-85.

Answer 6

Both Buddhism and the evolution theory agree that beings change with time. The conflicts are only in the details. Buddhism says that humans were much more pure and radiant at the beginning. Evolution theory says that humans were ugly and primitive at the start. Buddhism says, beings came to this world from another world. Evolution theory or modern science says that beings evolved from a single celled organism on earth.

Which one to pick is your personal choice. Some prefer to reserve judgement for various reasons. I pick Agganna Sutta since I take refuge in the Buddha instead of Darwin.

Answer 7

The thing about 10 000 years is mentioned as part of a long story in DN 26 about a wheel turning monarch who lived a very long time ago who passed on the throne to his son and things went wrong when he stopped caring for the poor, and as a result people started stealing, and the whole society began to degenerate into worse and worse virtue, humanity's life span began to decrease, and eventually it will be shortened to ten years of life and be plunged into great violence, some people will flee and change their ways, and their descendants begin to become better, regaining what was lost.

I don't take the story literally as even the other material given in this sutta is non-literal. For example the Buddha says that if they practice correctly things like their beauty, wealth, and power will increase, but the Buddha gives non-literal explanations of these things, being virtue, the four brahma-viharas, and liberation of the heart and wisdom.

Also the fact is that the Buddha often used similies and stories to make a point that was non-literal. I think that this particular sutta is mostly an extended parable, with lifespan symbolizing the stage of human development. The story in this sutta is very rich with meanings when understood properly. It is a story about human nature, and about society, good governance, and the effects of widespread immorality. I think trying to demand that it only be understood literally is totally missing the point on why the Buddha would have told this story in the first place.

Answer 8

There exists, for example, the notion of the "kalpa": which Buddhism may have inherited from Vedism.

If it were true that a kalpa is 4 billion years, and that the age of the earth is about 4 billion years, and that there have been several kalpas of existence, does that imply that ... Buddhism describes life on another (previous) planet?

Other religions, e.g. Judaism and Christianity, permit their members to view their "book of Genesis' as a metaphor; or as being informative on some subjects (e.g. the sequence of creation, light before matter, sea before land, land before animals) while not 'literally' true in other ways (e.g. that the world was created in 6 "days").

If some Buddhist texts and modern cosmology disagree, I don't think that's important: because IMO the reason why Buddhism is important is not because of what it says about cosmology. If I want to know how to mend my computer, I expect to read a modern book on that subject, not an ancient book. Similarly, if I want to learn more about the modern theory of evolution, I don't expect to find that in an ancient text.

What I can assume is:

• The Buddha lived about 7000 years ago
• The Buddha's teaching was insightful (into man's relation with the world), helpful (for people relating with the world), and general (useful to anyone who is able to understand and apply it)
• Human beings (we, the human species) have not changed/evolved so much in the last 7000 years that the Buddha's teaching is no longer relevant to us.

It would not be sensible to reject all Buddhist doctrine, just because its texts include one or two details that don't jibe with modern science: and especially when those texts are unimportant to the Buddhist doctrine.

The Parable of the Poisoned Arrow makes it very clear what's important:

• "Live the holy life with me"

• The four noble truths:

  And what is declared by me? 'This is stress,' is declared by me. 'This is the origination of stress,' is declared by me. 'This is the cessation of stress,' is declared by me. 'This is the path of practice leading to the cessation of stress,' is declared by me. And why are they declared by me? Because they are connected with the goal, are fundamental to the holy life. They lead to disenchantment, dispassion, cessation, calming, direct knowledge, self-awakening, Unbinding. That's why they are declared by me.

Questions answered by evolution (i.e. "On the Origin of Species") seem to me more academic, less personal: i.e. "not connected with the goal, not fundamental to the holy life; they do not lead to disenchantment, dispassion, cessation, calming, direct knowledge, self-awakening, Unbinding." In other words, it's unrelated to Buddhism.

Wikipedia on the Agganna Sutta says that the main purpose of that Sutta is to stand in contrast to some brahminical claims about the caste system, and in contrast to a specific Vedic hymn. If so then perhaps that Agganna Sutta was skillful then, at the time when it was written, and for that audience, but not intended/important for me.

Evolution theory and Buddhism don't need to be reconciled because they're different subjects:

• Evolution theory talks about how species evolve, for example because of competitive pressure (survival of the fittest) combined with inheritance of semi-random genetic mutation.

• Buddhist theory talks about personal suffering, attachment, cessation, and a path of practice.

Answer 9

theory of evolution by natural selection.

This is two things. Plain idea of 'evolution' supposes progress and positive development of species. Buddhists probably should not hold such position, as species could regress as result of bad karma. And about 'natural selection' part, why not? Idea of selection, natural or not, doesn't coincide or contradict idea of karma. Idea of genetic engineering either.

Answer 10

Isn't the question really asking is science and Buddhism compatible or are they like oil and water, never finding common ground? Buddhism teaches that all sentient beings can eventually be free. This process called evolution has led to self-conscious beings with the potential to evolve and awaken into what Buddhists call awakened consciousness. What science also says is that 4% of the universe is visible. And 96% is dark matter or energy that is not visible and is unknowable with the mind. The problem is that science is a theoretical field and Buddhism has many certainties in its teachings. However some branches of Buddhism introduce the concept of uncertainty. This very much corresponds to the 96% unseen part of the universe. So if we use the intellect we are only capable of describing the visible universe. Buddhism seems to imply that the seen is not the power of the universe, but the unknown is the source of uncertainty and power. Getting back to evolution, it describes the visual universe. Buddhism does not deny evolution as the Dalai Lama tries to reconcile religion and Buddhism, but Buddhism goes far beyond the theory of evolution because it infers the existence of awareness not subject to the laws of form. Science and Buddhism look at existence and non-existence with different lens, but one does not exclude the other.

Answer 11

Evolutionists take the view that consciousness arises from a material cause. Buddhists cannot accept this. You have to divide the cause into two: the main or substantial cause and the cooperative cause. Matter can only be a cooperative cause, never the main or substantial cause for consciousness. According to the Buddhist view of evolution, there is an infinite universe. In Buddhist cosmology, any world system will go through phases. Sometimes it is destroyed, sometimes it arises, sometimes there will be gross matter, sometimes no gross matter, but really there is no beginning or end to it. And there is always subtle consciousness. So what is a sentient being? A sentient being is an entity designated upon the basis of a body and a mind, and fundamentally what is referred to by the mind here is the extremely subtle mind, which is continuous through all the cycles. Note: In the tantric Buddhist tradition of Tibet, it is regarded as possible for an accomplished practitioner to transfer his consciousness into the body of an animal that has just died if the body remains essentrially intact.

Answer 12

Based on the Parable of the Poisoned Arrow, Parable of the Leaves in the Forest, the Discourse on Unconjecturable Things and DN 24, the Buddha would definitely put the creation or non-creation of the world and living things, and the evolution or non-evolution of living things into the category of "unimportant for the ending of suffering".

In other words, Buddhism would neither support nor oppose Darwin's Theory of Evolution, because Buddhism considers it to be irrelevant to the goal of ending suffering.

That said, you shouldn't be surprised if many Buddhists, in their personal view, choose to accept as true the mainstream consensus of the scientific community, that is based on the scientific method.

---

On page 81 of the book "How Buddhism Began: The conditioned genesis of the early teachings" Second Edition by Richard F. Gombrich, the indology professor and Founder-President of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, explained the predominant scholarly opinion that the Aggañña Sutta is a satirical sutta. I quote below:

The long passage in the Pali Canon which makes fun of brahminical cosmogony is the Aggañña Sutta (DN sutta xxvii) (see Gombrich, 1992b for details). The whole story of the origin of society, which forms the bulk of the text, is a parody of brahminical texts, especially the Rg Vedic ‘Hymn of Creation’ (RV X, 129) and the cosmogony at BAU 1, 2. The formation of the earth at the beginning of a world-cycle, its population by beings, their gradual social differentiation, the origins of sex and property, and finally the invention of kingship and the creation of the four brahminical varna (social classes) – all are a parodistic re-working of brahminical speculations, and at the same time an allegory of the malign workings of desire.

_{Gombrich, Richard, 1992b: ‘The Buddha’s Book of Genesis?’, lndo-lranian Journal 35, pp. 159–178.}