Transformation is a mind-body endeavor. Yet in the quest for enlightenment, meditation can overlook body-based practices, while modern yoga can omit the training of the mind and emotions. This talk focuses on the body’s role in transformation. We examine the significance of the body in mindfulness-based practices such as interoception and self-compassion. Drawing from emerging …
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Concurrent Session 5 – Externally-Induced Contemplation: A Neuroscience Study of Architecture
Neuroscience research on contemplation usually considers only internally induced (self-directed) methods for attaining mindfulness (e.g., meditation, prayer). We explored other “external methods” for cultivating mindfulness, focusing on architecture that we design and inhabit. Our study evaluated if buildings designed for contemplation would elicit brain activation patterns similar to those found under contemplation. We used a …
Concurrent Session 2 – Contemplative Neuroscience, the Phenomenology of Attention and the Mereology of the Subject
In this paper, I argue that results from contemplative neuroscience can help resolve a dispute between Husserl and Gurwitsch regarding whether attention is endogenous or exogenous. The empirical results indicate that attention is endogenous, i.e., that we are subjectively aware — and to a certain extent in control — of the direction of our attention. …
Concurrent Session 2 – Transforming Moral Distress: Lessons from Philosophy, Neuroscience, and Contemplative Practice
For clinicians exposed daily to pervasive suffering, death, and moral conflict in their work, maintaining composure, courage, and resilience is especially difficult and can lead to moral distress. In this experiential, interactive workshop, we will present collaborative work, supported by the Mind & Life Institute, between clinicians, philosophers, and leaders in contemplative practice and neuroscience. …
Concurrent Session 1 – Distinctions of Contemplative Practice in Different Religious Traditions and Relevance to Neuroscience
Contemplative practices of the many traditions of the West and of the East have different characteristics. For example, the absorption of mystics (in Christian or Sufi traditions) has a different character than does Buddhist contemplation. Whereas the mystic enters into the subtle domain of mind in the experience of a higher power (in the face …
Embodiment and Intersubjectivity: Empirical and Phenomenological Approaches, Pt 1
Two themes that have become prominent in studies of consciousness and cognition: embodiment and intersubjectivity. We will begin by discussing recent work in embodied cognition, informed by both science and philosophical phenomenology.
Results of the Shamatha Project
We will explore recent findings from our work at this interface between contemplative and research traditions. Together with Alan Wallace and three-dozen collaborating researchers, we are investigating how attentional, emotional and physiological processes change over the course of three months of intensive training in meditative quiescence and emotional balance, in a study known as “The Shamatha Project.”
Attention-Emotion Interface, Pt 2
Can meditation practice increase our capacity to understand the primary role of emotion in cognition and attention?
Attention-Emotion Interface, Pt 1
Can meditation practice increase our capacity to understand the primary role of emotion in cognition and attention?
The Utility of Improving Attention and Working Memory with Mindfulness-Based Training
What is the role of memory in contemplative development? Is there evidence in the tradition of elders showing extremely good memory given years of practice?
