My presentation develops an understanding of the art of traditional healing as one pillar of the lived community experience of Botho/Ubuntu cosmology. Such healing holistically addresses afflictions at multiple levels — self, community, 11 nature and spirit. It signifies the co-agencies of God (creator/life-giver), ancestors (guiding/protecting), spirit-mediums (messengers between spirit/ material worlds), chiefs (custodian of …
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Session I – The History and Contemporary Frame of Botho/Ubuntu: Philosophical and Sociocultural Complexities
The common conception of Botho/Ubuntu is that it is a theory of African humanism. Many reasons suggest however, that its application and understanding in the contemporary socio-political imagination in societies where Botho/ Ubuntu is preached, is merely as a practical ideology. Viewed as an ideology, its role as an ethical guide for conduct is also …
Welcome
The welcome session featured a performance of the National Anthem of Botswana, introductory remarks, official welcomes from Botho University, the Republic of Botswana, and Mind & Life, and a video message from the Dalai Lama. Participants Mind & Life Connections
2017 Mind & Life Dialogue XXXII
The Botswana Dialogue brings African humanitarian and spiritual leaders, scholars and healers into conversation with international neuroscientists about the African worldview of Botho/Ubuntu, during five sessions followed by a concert performance by Vusi Mahlasela.
Defining humanity through our connections with one another, Botho/Ubuntu is expressed as: “I am because you are.” Examining African values and healing practices in light of new scientific research on social connection and trauma, the Dialogue in Botswana explores the potential of Botho/Ubuntu as a framework for healing the legacy and trauma of wars and colonialism, and advancing social justice and women’s equality.
Evaluation and Implementation: Challenges and Opportunities for Human Flourishing
Day Five brings the Dialogue to its crescendo with a discussion about implementation and evaluation of learning in the classroom. The session begins with a presentation on the biological stress response in brains that produce stress hormones that influence memory and emotion regulation. Studies are cited to demonstrate how perceiving a situation to be threatening …
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Ethics and Compassion in Education Research
The program continues with the scientific research on education and discussion of the psychology of ethical development, including moral reasoning, compassion, moral motivation, and issues of community and culture. Moving from these theories, there will be examples of how they can be translated into educational experiences. Widening the frame, Buddhist understandings of compassion are presented …
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Meta-Awareness and Attention Training in Education Research
On Day Three, having discussed topics relevant to education practitioners, the Dialogue brings recent scientific findings into conversation with Buddhist understandings of the mind. The first presentation in this session surveys the current scientific research on meta-awareness and attention. References are made to the influence of mindfulness and compassion training in a broad range of …
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Social and Emotional Learning and Education in the Classroom
Continuing our discussion of social and emotional learning, Day Two begins by illustrating how social and emotional learning (SEL) has expanded over the past decade around the world and is being integrated into the very fabric of educational policy and practice. Education practitioners will explore the important question of how His Holiness’ vision of educating …
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Early Childhood Development and Social Emotional Learning
Day One begins with an overview of key insights derived from developmental, affective, and contemplative neuroscience on the processes of change, epigenetic influences on development, early brain development, and the nurturing of social and emotional skills over the first 20 years of life. This will provide scientific background for the Dialogue and raise fundamental questions …
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2018 Mind & Life Dialogue XXXIII
The “Reimagining Human Flourishing” Dialogue has a central focus on education, especially in light of His Holiness’ longstanding prioritization of secular ethics education initiatives. It includes a mixture of both scientific and practice-oriented discussions to catalyze the synthetic and integrative opportunity provided by the meeting, taking up crucial questions on how to gain better scientific understanding of key constructs like “attention,” “meta-awareness,” and “emotion regulation,” as well as the practical issue of how to expand the Social Emotional Learning framework to incorporate the teaching of compassion and secular ethics more fully.
