What’s happening in (and to) my brain when I meditate? This question is asked time and time again by individuals undertaking contemplative practices, journalists writing articles about mindfulness, and scientists trying to figure out what is happening on a neurobiological level during these practices. A growing number of studies have been published in an attempt …
Topic Archives:
Keynote: Mindfulness Therapeutics in the Promotion of Mental Health
In the past 15 years, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) has achieved broad appeal and effectiveness for depressive and anxiety disorders. This presentation will trace the personal and scientific milestones behind MBCT’s development, including initial failures and subsequent revisions of the approach in advance of controlled evaluation. It will also highlight advances in MBCT dissemination achieved …
Continue reading “Keynote: Mindfulness Therapeutics in the Promotion of Mental Health”
Modern Interpretations of Zen Buddhist Teachings
Performing funerals is one of the duties of a Zen Buddhist priest, and so they normally must confront death several times each year. Although in today’s world, at least among developed nations, death and aging are isolated from most people’s daily lives, sensing our own aging and death and thus embracing the concept of non-permanency …
Continue reading “Modern Interpretations of Zen Buddhist Teachings”
Practicing the Presence of Compassion: Contemplative Christian Traditions
Christian contemplative-practice traditions offer a number of ways to address our many (often difficult) “inner movements” that include thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, imaginings, desires, fantasies and mental chatter. Some practices may highlight processes of “clearing.” Others ask that we deeply explore whatever emerges. Still others lead us to soak without word or thought in what …
Continue reading “Practicing the Presence of Compassion: Contemplative Christian Traditions”
Sustainable Compassion Training—Receiving-Care Mode of Practice
John Makransky will enter participants into two contemplative practices from his Sustainable Compassion Training (SCT) approach for developing stable care and compassion. In this contemplative session, we will do a meditation of receiving care as a kind of empowerment. We are empowered to participate in the perspective and flow of care and compassion first by …
Continue reading “Sustainable Compassion Training—Receiving-Care Mode of Practice”
Yoga of Sound: Indian Classical Music as Contemplative Practice
Indian classical music is rooted in the ancient philosophy of nada-yoga, or union through sound. Both theoreticians and practitioners appreciated the immediate appeal of music and song, but they also understood sound, particularly the elaboration of ragas, as a vehicle for spiritual growth and ultimately a path to moksha, or salvation. Ragas are unique melodic …
Continue reading “Yoga of Sound: Indian Classical Music as Contemplative Practice”
Opening Keynote, Contemplative and Neuroscientific Perspectives on Personal and Social Well Being: A Conversation with Matthieu Ricard and Richard J. Davidson
Join two renowned leaders in the field of contemplative studies for a conversation reviewing a 15-year history of collaboration between contemplatives and neuroscientists, with perspectives from both traditions. The discussion will explore the philosophical and scientific issues germane to the investigation of well-being. The possibility of cultivating well-being will be considered, along with the underlying …
Opening Keynote: Opening Welcome and Meditation
Closing Keynote “Where Is This All Going, and What’s Love—and Insight, Embodied Wisdom, and Community—Got to Do With It?”
In this closing keynote, Jon will ask some hard questions about the mindfulness explosion and contemplative studies at the intersection and cutting edges of science, scholarship, society, and the larger world. As background, it might be helpful to read his paper, linked below.
Catherine Kerr Award Ceremony and Lectures: “How to Choose Between Beautiful Stories”
Given the rising popularity of meditation and many scientific claims about its benefits, it seems important that we understand how and why contemplative practice works. Indeed, there are many wonderful, inspiring, and beautiful stories for why meditation is helpful, descriptions that often serve to justify a particular system of practice. Unfortunately, not all accounts agree …
