Transdisciplinary Research at Biology-Buddhism Intersections

Transdisciplinarity has emerged as a focal interest in academia over recent years and is conceptualized and applied in many ways. Transdisciplinary approaches aim to dissolve the traditional silos of academic fields, deeply integrating disciplines from the outset of a project.¹ We are a team of transdisciplinary scientist-scholars investigating species across the web of life that include trees, slugs, microscopic worms, and fungi. We frame our work at the intersections of Buddhism and biology as a form of transdisciplinary research. We were originally trained in the Western world of biology, and in recent years have integrated Buddhist philosophical perspectives and practice in our work. This research at biology-Buddhism intersections gravitates toward the Nicolescuian approach to transdisciplinarity, recognizing multiple levels of reality and synthesizing diverse knowledge systems and ways of knowing toward a more holistic understanding of our study systems.²

We work in a research team culture that integrates scientific and Buddhist views, approaches, and practices. Our team incorporates into our routines weekly group meditations, contemplative nature walks, and discussions of recorded dharma talks from Buddhist teachers representing diverse traditions such as Thich Nhat Hanh, Sebene Selassie, and Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche. We participate in graduate coursework, discussion groups, and regional conferences on how to incorporate contemplative frameworks in our biological research and teaching activities. Our book clubs focus on Buddhist texts and philosophy, such as our recent focus on Jay Garfield’s Buddhist Ethics: A Philosophical Exploration. We root our biological inquiries in Buddhist epistemological and ethical frameworks, such as through the conceptual framework of dependent origination (Skt. pratityasamutpada).³ Our understanding of the interconnected world posited by pratityasamutpada drives us to consider nonlinear, mutual cause-and-effect pathways in the natural world, reflexive webs of relationship building with stakeholders, and pluralistic meaning making of our study systems.

In August 2023, we visited Nepal to pilot and build bridges for projects using our contemplative transdisciplinary approaches. We engaged with Nepali partners to sketch out the beginning conceptualizations of a research project in mycology, or the study of mushrooms. We aimed to lay foundations for future coproduced research studying the intersecting cultural and ecological roles of the medicinal Reishi mushroom (members of the Ganoderma genus). All of our ethnobiological work and relationship building was done within the biology-Buddhist framework that guides our team’s activities. Beyond personal daily meditations, we adapted our contemplative routines to Nepal by engaging as a group in regular circumambulation at the Boudhanath Stupa of Kathmandu, coursework in Buddhist philosophy at Rangjung Yeshe Institute in Kathmandu, and a contemplative trekking experience in the Annapurna Conservation Area. Our contemplative approach in Nepal rooted us in thought, conversation, and reflection guided by Buddhist teachings and practices.

As a team of four American scientist-scholars culturally rooted in our Western ways, we entered Nepal with intentions to conduct our pilot research and build relationships in an anticolonial framework. Focusing on Buddhist principles such as non-self (Skt. anatman) and pratityasamutpada facilitates our abilities to recognize the epistemological biases of Western science and work to decenter ourselves from them. We engage in ongoing critical mindfulness to examine social structures of power and identity in our work.⁴ Our team strives to reorient our efforts away from Eurocentrism and toward anticolonial approaches that value multiple modes of understanding and root themselves in place-based knowledge.⁵ For this project, we accomplish our goal by equally prioritizing the cultural meaning making of the medicinal Ganoderma mushroom with biological analyses and perspectives. During this pilot trip to Nepal, we prioritized relationship building aimed toward coproduced and mutually beneficial research. We laid foundations for future collaborative research projects integrated with a new study abroad program that will advance the next steps of our transdisciplinary research goals at mycology-Buddhism intersections.

Fungi as Expressions of Buddhist Teachings

The mycological world is one of change. It is one of breakdown and buildup, of turnover and degradation and connection. This fungal world embodies the Buddha’s teachings. Mycelial webs of filamentous fungi weave their way through the forest floor, connecting the roots of trees to an underground network of nutrient flow and exchange. These trees communicate with the fungi, and even each other, through the fungal network.⁶ The mycelial network—the vegetative structure of many fungi—is a web of interconnectivity that underpins most of the forest ecosystems we know. It embodies the Buddhist concept of pratityasamutpada as demonstrated through the Hua-Yen Buddhist metaphor of Indra’s net. Originally a Vedic concept, the net is woven into Mahayana texts such as the Avatamsaka Sutra. It serves as a metaphor for the web of pratityasamutpada, with jeweled nodes reflective of all other jewels within. Everything within this net exists in mutual causation with everything else.⁷ The mycelium in the forest floor mirrors the linking fibers of this net, extending tree roots and connecting them to other life-forms in a continuous ebb and flow of nutrients.

Yet fungi exist beyond the forest floor. They are everywhere, and part of everything, forcing us to question our concept of an individual, separate self. Fungi are all over us, and even hidden inside us, composing what is called the “mycobiome.”⁸ They associate with almost all plants in an ecosystem, and can land on and enter plant leaves to assist in stress tolerance and modulate photosynthesis.⁹ They’re even in the air we breathe, with up to 10,000 fungal spores in every cubic meter of air.¹⁰ Fungi provide one of many biological avenues to breaking down the illusory binary of self and other, and provide a helpful example for understanding the Buddhist concept of anatman.

Mycelia of saprotrophic (decomposing) fungi spread through the forest floor and help decompose leaves and dead tissue.¹¹ They are nature’s recyclers, embodying the ever-changing processes understood through impermanence (Skt. anitya). Saprotrophic fungi can float their spores through the wind and land on dead trees, breaking down their tough woody tissues into building-block materials that are reconverted into new forms of life in the future. The tissues that were once one tree become converted into another. These wood-decay fungi decompose individual organisms in a process of continuous change, embodying the concepts of anatman and anitya.

Figure 1: Fungal biodiversity encountered in Nepal

Ganoderma Mushrooms in Nepal

One group of wood-decay fungi is the Ganoderma mushroom species complex, known commonly as Reishi. This mushroom grows in Nepal and is harvested from protected areas and community forests for its use in medicine and trade.¹² During our research trip, we explored how Nepali culture shapes the meaning and value attached to Ganoderma mushrooms. We interacted with community members to improve our understanding of its cultural role, helping to inform future qualitative research studies. 

Ganoderma mushrooms are renowned globally for their antiaging and anticancer properties.¹³ In Nepal, Reishi is known locally as rato chyau or “red mushroom,” although this name also refers to other similar-looking species.¹⁴ In recent years, Ganoderma has emerged as a high-value nontimber forest product in Nepal.¹⁵ The mushrooms are often traded to China and India, where they are highly valued for their medicinal properties and use in Traditional Chinese Medicine.¹⁶

Beyond its medicinal use, for thousands of years Ganoderma has also served roles in ornamental decoration, likely due to its unique varnished quality and shape.¹⁷ In Nepal, certain ethnic groups such as the Rai have fashioned Ganoderma and similar species into masks used to ward off evil spirits, sickness, or bad luck.¹⁸ These masks are hung protectively in rafters and used in Buddhist rituals such as the Cham dance, where negative forces are pushed away and protector deities are called.¹⁹ This mushroom therefore resides at a unique intersection of ecological, medicinal, and cultural value.

During our pilot research effort, we encountered Ganoderma sold in medicine and tea shops of Kathmandu, said by shop owners and local visitors to be collected seasonally from the Everest and Karnali regions. The mushroom was described as being dried and ground up as preparation for use in teas to treat diabetes and cancer. In Kathmandu, conversations with local shop owners suggested a belief in differential medical properties of various Reishi mushrooms depending on the appearance of fruiting bodies. One fruiting body was said to have medicinal value over the other based on its interior color, despite potentially being the same individual fungus growing in the same tree.

We also learned of other functional and decorative uses of Ganoderma in Nepal. In Kathmandu, we encountered a replica of a Ganoderma mask used as decoration in a shop. Shop owners indicated a growing interest in these masks and their replicas among those of younger generations, suggesting a continuation of future cultural relevance. In Ulleri, a small village in the Annapurna Conservation Area, we encountered Ganoderma used as both a lid and decoration on a large pot.

Figure 2: Ganoderma encountered in Nepal

Ganoderma mushrooms occupy multiple realms of culture, medicine, functional use, and spirituality in Nepal. This meeting place of biology and culture brings both tension and richness. On one hand, tension between a culturally significant mushroom and its bioavailability brings forth issues of conservation and sustainability. The recent emergence of Ganoderma in Nepal on the global market may threaten natural stands, as these mushrooms are often gathered prematurely, or in an unsustainable manner.²⁰ Out of this tension arises subsequent potential solutions, like the recent efforts toward cultivation of Ganoderma in Nepal.²¹ This may help protect natural growth but may come at a cost to community forest members, who rely on its cultivation for sale as a high-value nontimber forest product.²²

Following our recognition of these issues, we met with members of a nonprofit group, the Federation of Community Forest Users Nepal (FECOFUN), which works to advocate for sustainable and community-driven forest practices in Nepal. We discussed ways that this research project could benefit community forest users, such as contributing biogeographical data toward their development of an operational plan. This would help form cooperatives among community forests, enabling the collective self-management and trade of Ganoderma without middlemen. We also met with members of a community forest near Pokhara, Nepal, to learn from forest leaders about their goals and desires for mycological research moving forward. 

Our pilot work helped us establish a foundational cultural understanding of this mushroom in Nepal and establish key relationships for transdisciplinary research partnerships moving forward. Initial results from this study were critical to the successful launch of a collaborative transdisciplinary research project beginning in September 2024 in the Gaurishankar region of Nepal, in partnership with a Nepali mycologist, Dr. Shiva Devkota, and governmental conservation agency, the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC). Future transdisciplinary research will combine quantitative ecological studies of Ganoderma biogeography and genetics with qualitative ethnomycological studies of its cultural role.  

Reflections and the Path Forward

Through our initial research efforts, we developed an improved cultural understanding of Ganoderma mushrooms to help us co-construct a qualitative research plan. This work, beginning in September 2024, will continue for three years. We advanced our objectives of relational building by developing strong connections with Dr. Shiva Devkota and NTNC, and learned of community desires from FECOFUN and community forest leaders. We are in the process of coproducing an ethnomycological project and study abroad program at biodiversity and Buddhist intersections in Nepal starting in September 2024 with our Nepali partners.

Our experiences in Nepal suggest that our contemplative transdisciplinary approach contributed to our awareness about important issues in our work, setting the stage for future collaborative efforts with partners in Nepal. However, we acknowledge there are potential dangers of working at this intersection. Our research team is composed of American researchers predominantly trained in Western scientific frameworks, which will continue to influence our paths ahead. One way we confront this is by addressing our ways of thinking in juxtaposition to Buddhist epistemological frameworks, such as deconstructing Western individualism in moralistic interpretation.²³ We also understand the potential for misrepresented, miscredited, or misconstrued Western adoptions of mindfulness in our work. We incorporate mindfulness not as a remedy to the fast pace of academia, but as a ground-up approach to guide our research methodologies while rooting in its origins.²⁴ 

The outcomes of this pilot project enabled us to incorporate diverse stakeholders into this research process and coproduce research goals with Nepali scientists. We enthusiastically contribute to what we fondly call the mycelial web of pratityasamutpada, connecting researchers from diverse fields and different nations in transdisciplinary projects.

Works Cited

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Cotter. K. S. Adhikari, 2010. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271191008_Adhikari_M_K_2014_Mushrooms_of_Nepal_Second_edition_Edts_G_Durrieu_H_V_T_Cotter_Published_by_K_S_Adhikari_Kathmandu_GPO_Box_no_21758_Nepal_Pg.

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McGregor, Sue. “The Nicolescu and Zurich Approaches to Transdisciplinarity.” Integral Leadership Review (2015). https://integralleadershipreview.com/13135-616-the-nicolescuian-and-zurich-approaches-to-transdisciplinarity/.

Murray, Thomas. “Demons and Deities: Masks of the Himalayas.” Asianart.com, 2001. https://www.asianart.com/articles/murray/index.html.

Nicolescu, Basarab. “Methodology of Transdisciplinarity—Levels of Reality, Logic of the Included Middle and Complexity.” Transdisciplinary Journal of Engineering & Science 1 (2010). https://www.atlas-tjes.org/index.php/tjes/article/view/9. 

Raut, Jay Kant, Akash Bade, Sabin Khyaju, and Kuber Baral. “Ganoderma Industry in Nepal: Current Status and Future Prospects.” Journal of Mycology 5 (2022). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357656826_Ganoderma_industry_in_Nepal_current_status_and_future_prospects.

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Sarkar, Sohini, Abhijit Dey, Vinay Kumar et al. “Fungal Endophyte: An Interactive Endosymbiont with the Capability of Modulating Host Physiology in Myriad Ways.” Frontiers in Plant Science 12 (2021). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34659281/.

Wachtel-Galor, Sissi, John Yuen, John A. Buswell, and Iris F. F. Benzie. “Ganoderma Lucidum (Lingzhi or Reishi): A Medicinal Mushroom.” In Herbal Medicine: Biomolecular and Clinical Aspects, 2nd ed., 175–199. CRC Press / Taylor & Francis, 2011.

Walsh, Zack. “A Meta-Critique of Mindfulness Critiques: From McMindfulness to Critical Mindfulness.” In Handbook of Mindfulness, 153–166. Springer, 2016. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-44019-4_11.