Last Updated on May 15, 2026 by pg@petergamma.org
For the event «Inner-flow», a spiritual event at the Volkshaus Zürich
I was one of the few Non-Tibetans among the Tibetans present at the Volkshaus. The star and main speaker was Lama Pema Wangyal from the Drukpa Center in Kollbrunn. I wondered on the morning of the event whether I would be able to stand listening to these speakers all day.
But that wasn’t a problem. I was impressed by the peace and serenity that Lama Pema Wangyal exuded. One could listen to him for hours without getting tired. Quite unlike the speakers I’m used to at academic conferences. You could sense the 17 years Lama Pema Wangyal spent meditating at the Rikon Tibet Institute. Yet, Lama Pema Wangyal strongly reminded me of the speakers at Catholic festivals in Switzerland. So, I’m unlikely to convert from the Catholic Church to Tibetan Buddhism.
Having now been exploring the topic of science and meditation for almost 20 years, I wondered at the “Inner-flow” spiritual event at the Volkshaus, whether these Buddhist teachings might one day be supplemented and enriched, and perhaps even simplified, by scientific studies using modern physiological equipment.
The Buddha’s teachings don’t comprise a fixed number of individual rules, but rather consist of a multitude of discourses recorded in over 5,000 volumes. According to traditional Buddhist texts, the Buddha delivered exactly 84,000 discourses during his 45 years of ministry.