The Dharma in DNA- Insights at the Intersection of Biology and Buddhism

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I n 2004, biologist Dee Denver heard the Dalai Lama speak in Bloomington, Indiana. The famous Tibetan monk's speech that day exposed him to the centrality of impermanence in Buddhist thinking, a topic that directly connected to his mutation research in evolutionary biology. He left the event shocked and startled by the unexpected parallels between Buddhism and biology. This experience is not wholly unique to Denver. Spirituality and science are two inherently humane ways to approach our world. Why shouldn't more people look at them in tandem?

In this book, Denver shares Buddhist ideas and the tradition's colonial and more recent interactions with biology. He then applies the scientific method to Buddhist principles. He draws connections between Buddhist ideas and current research in biology. In doing this, he proposes a new approach to science, Bodhi science, that integrates Buddhist teachings and ethical frameworks. Denver's research supports a connected synergy between biological and Buddhist thinking.

This scientific approach to Buddhism offers strong evidence supporting the validity of fundamentally Buddhist principles and logic. The book builds on historical evidence from Sri Lanka, Japan, and Tibetan Buddhism to illustrate these connections.

This book resulted from the love, support, wisdom, and kindness offered to me by countless family members, colleagues and coworkers, teachers, students, and friends over the last decade.

Gratitude goes to Stephanie Swenson, Amani Swenson Denver, and Hirut Swenson Denver for supporting me, putting up with my ever-distracted mind, and keeping the family functioning during my writing retreats. More appreciation goes out to my nuclear family for the many conversations we have had about this book, and for their willingness to allow me to share our family's experiences in it. Thank you. I love you.

More gratitude extends to other corners of my family that include my mother, Kay Denver, and my recently passed father, Phil Denver, Sr., who provided me with the kindness, support, encouragement, and confidence needed to pursue an effort such as this. More thanks go to my brother and sister, Phil Denver, Jr. and Tammy Horn, and to my Aunt Jan Kauffman for their ever-present support and love. Appreciation goes out to my father-in- law, Mike Swenson, for reading and providing feedback on an early draft of the book and for teaching me about aspens. More thanks go to Jan Swenson, Kristen Swenson, and Matthew Mills for their love and support over the years. Appreciation goes out to my St. Joseph, Missouri high school friends who have shown me companionship, adventure, laughter, and joy throughout my life. Special thanks go out to Colin Mullins, Sona Pai, and Mike Schurke for reading and commenting on an early draft of the book. More gratitude extends to our family friends here in Oregon, and especially the Bland family and the McQuillan family; thanks to Lon and Lex McQuillan for letting me stay in their Waldport beach house for two writing retreats.

This book would not have been possible without two sabbatical leaves granted by Oregon State University. The first sabbatical, during 2012-2013, allowed me to learn about Tibetan Buddhist philosophy and epistemology at Maitripa College in Portland. The second, during 2019-2020, allowed me to travel to Bodhgaya, India, to perform research and compose the final two chapters of the book. Gratitude goes to the OSU Spring Creek Project, which granted me a 2016 writing retreat in the Shout pouch Creek cabin, hidden away in the Oregon coastal range mountains. Special thanks go out to Brian Atkinson, now at the University of Kansas, for co-instructing an experimental Buddhism and science course with me at OSU in 2016. Gratitude goes to Nana Osel-Kofi, Bradley Boovey, and my fellow 2017 Difference, Power, and Discrimination Academy cohort members for helping me better understand and teach about the nature of power and oppression. I thank my many colleagues and friends in the OSU Department of Integrative Biology, College of Science, and those with the Contemplative Studies Initiative for their engagement and support.

Big thanks go out to the members of my evolutionary genetics research team as it has evolved over the years. Dana Howe, the most skilled scientist I have ever encountered, has been a central and essential source of friend- ship, support, and wisdom as I have navigated this effort. Eight graduate trainees-Michael Raboin, Emily Bellis, Riana Wernick, Danielle Tom, lan Morelan, Anh Ha, Sushovita Pal, and Lex Anderson-provided important honest feedback on various versions of this book and its ideas over the last decade. More gratitude goes out to a ninth graduate trainee, Sulochana Wasala, and her wonderful family for hosting me during a 2017 trip to Sri Lanka, where I learned about Theravada Buddhism. Thanks extend to Amila Liyanage for insightful conversations and his willingness to share remarkable photos of Bodhi trees. Two postdoctoral scholars, Amanda Brown and Katie Clark, along with many dozens of undergraduate trainees over the years, provided important insights that helped make this book what it is.

Gratitude goes out to the many teachers and mentors I have encountered and learned from in the world of Buddhism. These include Yangsi Rinpoche, Jim Blumenthal, Bhikkuni Kusuma, Venerable Sarana, Venerable Yifa, Abby Mushin Terris, and the Dalai Lama. Gratitude also goes out to the many teachers and mentors I have encountered and learned from in the world of science. These include Kelley Thomas, Michael Lynch, David Lambert, Lindsey Hutt-Fletcher, and Barbara Taylor. Appreciation extends to my past and present collaborators in biological research that include Charles Baer, Suzanne Estes, Rory Mc Donnell, and Inga Zasada.