There is an urgent need for a rigorous empirical qualitative description of African contemplative practices in terms of the current science and Buddhist frameworks, in order to bring the African academic community into the global research efforts to alleviate suffering and enhance human flourishing. The discussion over the 3-day retreat will center on defining contemplative …
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Designing and implementing a contemplative practice-based program for ex-combatants in Colombia’s peacebuilding process
This think tank will develop a meditation-based curriculum for peacebuilding along with guidelines for its implementation as a component of Colombia’s ongoing peacebuilding process. We will draw on Mind & Life’s model to bring together scholars, scientists, and contemplatives across institutional and geographical boundaries for this immediate opportunity to promote individual and societal flourishing in …
Concepts and Nonconceptuality in Buddhist Philosophy
This workshop focuses on Buddhist philosophical accounts of concepts and nonconceptuality. Understanding these accounts is crucial for the proper investigation of Buddhist contemplative practices. Buddhist practitioners and contemplative scientists often claim that various meditation practices induce nonconceptual modes of experience. But without a precise understanding of concepts, it is impossible to know what it means …
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Microphenomenology and Contemplative Experience: Exploring the Intra- and Intersubjective Dynamics of Language and Embodied Experience
We will host a two-day meeting of scholars from the humanities and sciences and contemplative practitioners to explore and develop the use of microphenomenology in the study, practice and application of contemplative practice. The meeting will bring together core members of the PhenoPilot project, with a small group of other scholars and practitioners in order …
Effects of open monitoring on visual search: Evidence from eye-tracking, electrophysiology, and phenomenology
Whereas many studies have explored the impact of meditative training on the ability to sustain a narrow attentional focus, few have investigated the impact of such training on the ability to expand the window of attention. The present study will investigate the influence of long-term open-monitoring (OM) practice on visual attention. In line with contemplative …
Neural and physiological correlates of Tibetan energy-channel meditation in highly trained practitioners
The goal of this grant is to investigate how advanced practitioners of gTum-mo (inner heat) meditation are able to tap into and manipulate the body’s homeostasis mechanisms―classically considered to be beyond voluntary control. In particular, we are interested in how this practice relates to the central and autonomic nervous systems. We propose to measure brain …
Investigating the neural basis of spontaneous thought with real-time fMRI and contemplative mental training
Scientific investigations of human thought usually equate it with only the deliberate, goal-directed mental processes that occur during problem solving and reasoning, while spontaneous thought processes that occur without individuals’ volition or direct control have largely been neglected. Given that spontaneous thought takes up as much as one-third of people’s waking lives, this other side …
Attending to clinical social work practice: Mindful attention as holistic competence background and relevant literature
This study aimed to understand the structure of paying attention to better train mental health clinicians in their client sessions. The study focused on expert meditators who are also psychotherapists because meditators are specifically trained to pay attention to their experience. This study provided rich descriptions of the meditators’ experience using a specific interview method. …
The effect of mindfulness meditation on sleep electrophysiology and duration
I was looking at how meditation affects the sleeping brain. The results were paradoxical, in that the more a person meditates, the better they report sleeping, but the worse they sleep on pretty much any objective measure of worse (as in, measured by polysomnography). I think this points to how meditation creates 24-hour vigilance and …
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Exploring the role of self-compassion in the establishment and maintenance of a meditation practice
Although the benefits of meditation for physical and psychological well-being are well-known, little is known about factors that contribute to the successful completion of a meditation program and establishment of a regular meditation practice. Beginning meditators are often frustrated by the difficulties that they have meditating. Self-compassion, or treating oneself kindly in the face of …
