If you find scientific support for some Buddhist dogma, consider the possibility that you could also find scientific support for its opposite, if you approached it with the same degree of charity. For example, if the teaching of “no self” makes you say “yes, mind is composed of agents which are not themselves minds”, maybe a teaching of “all self” would make you say “yes, neurons are all over the human body, not just in brain; also our mood is influenced by gut bacteria and sunshine and talking to other humans”. Similarly, if the teaching of “impermanence” reminds you of changing moods, growing up, effects of sickness, etc., maybe a teaching of “permanence” would remind you of the stability and heredity of the OCEAN traits. So maybe the actual lesson is not “Buddhism is correct about so many things” but “for a sufficiently general statement one can always find a charitable interpretation”.
Also, non-self and impermanence are method frames as much as they are ultimate truths. (Which is not to say that I’d think they had no truth.) That is, they highlight some aspects of experience that are compatible with them. You adopt one of them to help explain some of your experiences and to guide your attention in a particular direction when practicing and see where that gets you. But then in other situations, you might adopt the exactly opposite frame, if that’s more useful for your purpose.
E.g. when I do insight meditation, I often adopt the frame that there is no self. When I do Internal Family Systems practice, I adopt the frame that I do have an essential core self. Both are useful ways of looking at things, but they achieve different results.
The analog worry then would be how would one know if one was using a counterproductive frame for the issue. It easy to imagine selecting a frame based on how much of a “fanboy” one is about it but comparing counterfactual fruits of different subtle patterns of attention seems really hard to evaluate.
Also, non-self and impermanence are method frames as much as they are ultimate truths. (Which is not to say that I’d think they had no truth.) That is, they highlight some aspects of experience that are compatible with them. You adopt one of them to help explain some of your experiences and to guide your attention in a particular direction when practicing and see where that gets you. But then in other situations, you might adopt the exactly opposite frame, if that’s more useful for your purpose.
E.g. when I do insight meditation, I often adopt the frame that there is no self. When I do Internal Family Systems practice, I adopt the frame that I do have an essential core self. Both are useful ways of looking at things, but they achieve different results.
The analog worry then would be how would one know if one was using a counterproductive frame for the issue. It easy to imagine selecting a frame based on how much of a “fanboy” one is about it but comparing counterfactual fruits of different subtle patterns of attention seems really hard to evaluate.