Concurrent Session 5 – Emory-Tibet Science Initiative: Sustained Engagement Between Contemplatives and Scientists Offer Insights for Contemplative Science

Over the past six years, the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative has created a science education program designed to bridge Western science and Tibetan Buddhism, and scaffold mutual engagement. The program will grow exponentially as it rolls out across Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in India and Nepal, cultivating the grounds for deep, sustained conversations between science and Buddhism. This comprehensive six-year science curriculum includes philosophy of science, cosmology, life sciences, and neuroscience, and the scope of the program represents the most significant change in the Tibetan monastic curriculum in more than 600 years. The panel will present insights for advancing contemplative science that have emerged from the journey of creating a unique pedagogy for combining two distinct traditions for active inquiry: the scientific method and contemplative practice. Specially, such encounters have suggested new lines for research, novel modes of inquiry, and expanded definitions of contemplative practice that open exciting opportunities for contemplative science.