In cases where two human cultures disagree over fundamental ethical values, questions about what could make one or the other position correct arise with great force. Philosophers committed to naturalistically plausible accounts of ethics have offered little hope of adjudicating such conflicts, leading some to embrace moral relativism. This project develops an empirically grounded response …
Continue reading “Concurrent Session 5 – Grounding Ethics in the Qualities of Heart”
As a Christian who has spent many years practicing Buddhism, I have observed a strong parallel between the unfolding of experience that occurs in the Tibetan Lamrim (Graduated Path to Enlightenment) and in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. There is a natural and predictable arc to both (as there is in vipassana meditation), suggesting …
This presentation brings Buddhist teachings on anatta to research findings based on the Silencing the Self Scale to examine central concepts of self and selflessness from Buddhist and Western psychological perspectives. Anatta, realized through meditation, insight, and teachings, is an essential aspect of the Buddha’s teaching on liberation from suffering. In contrast, selflessness, and self-silencing, …
Over the past six years, the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative has created a science education program designed to bridge Western science and Tibetan Buddhism, and scaffold mutual engagement. The program will grow exponentially as it rolls out across Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in India and Nepal, cultivating the grounds for deep, sustained conversations between science and Buddhism. …
This unique presentation and performance experience will draw on Jay Rinsen Weik’s extensive experience with avant-garde music and the teachings of Zen. The Zen Arts Ensemble formed out of a series of workshops titled “Being Sound” that Rinsen developed to explore the intersection of sound and contemplative practice. The Zen Arts Ensemble is a chapter …
As Buddhist meditation practices have been transmitted and translated fromtheir traditional contexts to the modern secular domains of scientific research and clinical psychology, many of the normative dimensions of the tradition have been de-emphasized. In particular, the modern study and appropriation of Buddhist meditation practices have tended to downplay analytical, investigative practices in favor of …
This paper will present preliminary research findings from the “Varieties of Contemplative Experience” study being conducted at Brown University under Dr. Willoughby Britton (PI). The study is investigating the full range of experiences reported by contemporary contemplative practitioners within Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions. This paper will highlight our research into contemporary Theravadin Buddhist …
Mindfulness within Tibetan Buddhism is equated with the notion of “remembrance,” and distraction as its opposite is equated with “forgetfulness.” Psychologically, it can be said that suffering arises because the tendency to “remember the things we should forget and forget the things we should remember” has become habituated. Within psychotherapy, mindfulness can be utilized from …
We propose a functional model based on Theravada Buddhist texts and practices to show how the mind works in relation to our senses, and how we perceive the external world. Our model suggests that the mind acts as a common internal sense organ, receiving all sensory data from the five external senses. It shows how …
This panel presentation will bring the audience up to date on Cultivating Emotional Balance (CEB), a secular emotion regulation and meditation training designed by Drs. Paul Ekman and Alan Wallace at the request of His Holiness the Dalai Lama following the 2000 Mind and Life meeting on destructive emotions. CEB is a 42-hour training in …
