Kalina Christoff is a Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Her work focuses on understanding human thought, using a combination of functional neuroimaging (fMRI), behavioral testing, and theoretical work. Her research spans the full spectrum of thought processes: from spontaneous thought, including phenomena such as mind-wandering and daydreaming; to goal-directed thought, including deliberate reasoning and problem solving; to creative thought, which combines deliberate and spontaneous modes of thought in a dynamic and interactive fashion. She also does work on introspection, meta-cognition, boredom, meditation, dreams, and different forms of self-experience. Her research relates all these mental phenomena to their neural correlates, by constructing neuroscientific models grounded in current scientific understanding of the dynamic interactions between large-scale brain systems, including the default, salience, and frontoparietal control networks. She is also a Mind & Life Fellow.

Genji Sugamura is Professor of psychology at Kansai University, Osaka, Japan. He is a charter board member of the Japanese Association of Mindfulness, and the Japanese Society for Mi no Iryo (medicine of a somato-psycho-social-spiritual unity). He specializes in embodiment issues in theoretical and scientific contexts. He has been trying to incorporate the East Asian philosophy into Western psychological science especially in terms of Buddhism, Taoism, and Shintoism. He has been conducting a series of experiments on the effects of physical postures, breathing, vocal behaviors, and other body movements on mood, motivation, and cognition. His recent interest is in how the Japanese traditional somatic education can be incorporated as a possible way to enhance attention and empathy for elementary students. His research group has developed the school-use chair, specifically designed to support Zazen-like upright posture. Curiously, this chair made students feel very relaxed and yet lively, regardless of students’ grade level, whereas the conventional chair made their mood neither positive nor negative. These findings suggest the potential of self-regulation training through physical posture by simply using redesigned chairs. He is now combining this postural approach with mindfulness training for the college students with neurodevelopmental disorder. On such topics, he has published almost 70 book chapters and journal articles, and made more than 150 conference presentations.

Tadashi Nishihira’s research interests have focused upon studies of human life cycle and spirituality. His recent interests include the Japanese traditional wisdom of human transformation. Nishihira’s main publications (in Japanese) include: Philosophy and Psychology of E. H. Erikson (University of Tokyo Press, 1993); Spiritual life-cycle in the work of Jung, Wilber, and Steiner (University of Tokyo Press, 1997); Inquiries into Psychology of Religion (co-editor) (University of Tokyo Press, 2001); Philosophical Investigation into the Zeami’s teaching of Exercise and Expertise (University of Tokyo Press, 2009); Care and Human Life (ed.), (Minerva-shobo, 2013); Dynamism of Mu-shin: No-mind-ness (Iwanami-gendai-sosho, 2014); Mysteries of Death and Birth in Childhood, (Misuzu-shobo, 2015); Japanese translation of E. H. Erikson’s Young Man Luther (Misuzu shobo, 2002); and Identity and Lifecycle (Seishin shobo, 2011). His teaching experiences include serving as a professor at Kyoto University from 2007 to present, associate professor at The University of Tokyo from 1997 through 2007, and associate professor at Rikkyo University in Tokyo between 1990 and 1997.

Barry Kerzin is a monk, doctor, and international teacher. He is founder and president of the Altruism in Medicine Institute (altruismmedicine.org) and is founder and chairman of the Human Values Institute in Japan (humanvaluesinstitute.org), as well as physician to the Dalai Lama. He holds several faculty positions and has written four books.

Marc-Henri Deroche is Associate Professor in Buddhist studies and cross-cultural philosophy at Kyoto University (GSAIS, Shishu-Kan), specialized in the philosophy of the mind-body and theories of meditation according to the Tibetan tradition of Dzogchen (“the Great Perfection”). Born in France, he received his Ph.D. (2011) in Asian studies (École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris) with a dissertation and forthcoming book (Une quête tibétaine de la sagesse: Prajñāraśmi (1518-1584)) on ecumenism in Tibet according to the threefold model of wisdom: “listening, reflection and cultivation.” He was main editor of Revisiting Tibetan Religion and Philosophy (2012), and as grantee of the scholarship of the Japanese Ministry of Education (MEXT), he has also researched in the Department of Buddhist studies at Kyoto University from 2008 to 2013. In 2013, he was appointed as Hakubi Assistant Professor in Buddhist studies at Kyoto University and has since then mainly published on the philosophy of the mind-body in Dzogchen (in particular: Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines 33, 44, etc.). Since 2012, he has become a collaborator with the Mind & Life Institute, especially co-organizing the 2014 Dialogue with H.H. the Dalai Lama in Kyoto. In 2015, he took his current academic position. His research now focuses on mindfulness and meta-awareness at the junction of Eastern and Western classical traditions, and cognitive and life sciences, while keeping a specialization on Dzogchen (JSPS Grant No. 17K13328, 2017-2020). Inspired by French philosopher Pierre Hadot and Kyoto School thinkers, his work tries to elucidate the lived articulations between philosophical reasoning and contemplative practice.

Senko Ikenobo is headmaster designate of Ikenobo, which has a history of over 555 years and takes its origin from of one aspect of Japanese traditional culture: ikebana. She serves as vice head priest of Shiunzan Chohoji (Rokkakudo) temple in Kyoto and as honorary consul of Iceland. Senko Ikenobo’s varied activities focus on life as emphasized through Ikenobo ikebana. In 2013, she conducted an ikebana workshop at Harvard University and performed a floral offering ceremony at United Nations Headquarters. In 2016, her ikebana work was displayed at the Shima Kanko Hotel The Classic to welcome prime ministers on the occasion of the forty-second G7 summit, held in Mie Prefecture, Japan.

Motoko Saito graduated from the medical department of Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University (now known as Toyama University) in 1991. Motoko worked as a gastroenterological surgeon for more than twenty years before shifting to the specialty of preventive medicine and terminal care. Saito has practiced Yoga since 2006. Among her mentors are Shri O. P. Tiwari from Kaivalyadhama Yoga Institute in Lonavla, India, and Paul Dallaghan from Samahita Retreat in Koh Samui, Thailand. She has taught yoga to patients at hospitals as a supportive medicine and founded the yoga studio Chandra in Fukui in 2011.