About Beyond the Robe
Beyond the Robe has many fascinating dimensions and makes a critical contribution to Tibet, to Buddhism, and to our world today. The space it opens is the world of the Tibetan Buddhist monastic universities, still thriving in Indian exile (after the originals were destroyed by the Chinese invasion and occupation o Tibet, and the culturecide being committed there). Within that world, we counter, in beautiful and through-provoking ways, the living tradition of Buddhist monastics, their realms of study, debate, prayer, and meditation, an their living intellectual and experiential encounter with the modern worldview, with its discovers, technologies, and anxieties. The story it tells is that of an ongoing project – Science for Monks – to mobilize Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns to learn about modern science, to teach it, and even to contribute to its progress, especially of its cognitive sciences, which include the disciplines of philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, and computer science, among others.
– Robert Thurman
