On November 9, 2010 in Japan His Holiness the Dalai Lama was involved into a discussion with the noted Japanese brain scientist, Kenichiro Mogi, on the mind and the brain.
His Holiness began their conversation by distinguishing between what we take in with our senses, and what we take in with our mind, describing how “even physical pain can be subdued by a mental state of satisfaction. So therefore mental, inner experiences are more important than the physical, sensory plane.”
Then he started to ask Mogi one question after another, about whether neurologists can compare anger in a waking state with anger while dreaming, and whether to some extent consciousness can affect the brain, as well as the other way round.
His Holiness spoke about the Buddhist practitioners who had had their brains tested, and who had been found to be unusually calm. But when we talk about compassion, a tear comes in these people. Many people believe that consciousness comes from the brain, from the neurons. So when the neurons stop, consciousness stops. “But," he added, “some scientists believe that the consciousness can affect the brain. This is not a question of other lives, something like that. But, at another level, a more subtle kind of consciousness could affect the brain.” There were many cases, His Holiness said, in which expert monks were found to have signs of consciousness one week, two weeks, three weeks after death: their bodies were very fresh.
