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 …
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Concurrent Session 4 – Remembering What We Need to Remember: Extending the Psychotherapeutic Application of Mindfulness
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 …
Concurrent Session 4 – Mapping the Mind: A Model Based on Theravada Buddhist Texts and Practices
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 …
Concurrent Session 4 – Cultivating Emotional Balance (CEB): Training, Research, and Future
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 …
Concurrent Session 4 – Debate as a Method of Contemplation: Deep Engagement with Science Through Tibetan Buddhist Debate
The Emory-Tibet Science Initiative, in partnership with the Dalai Lama and the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, is developing and implementing a comprehensive science curriculum for Tibetan monastics, and initiating a range of mutually beneficial exchanges, discoveries, and knowledge. Science and Buddhism offer two distinct methods of inquiry, and a critical challenge in this …
Concurrent Session 3 – Are We Ready to Investigate Non-Dual Awareness?
Non-dual awareness (NDA) has been identified as an important aspect of spiritual awakenings, from contemplative trainings practiced in both traditional wisdom traditions and in emerging contemporary “Dharma” teachings (such as mindfulness-based stress reduction and mindfulness-oriented recovery enhancement). Although NDA itself may not necessarily be an ultimate goal or destination, attaining NDA may signify an important …
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Concurrent Session 3 – Stages of Mind Training in Dzogchen: Contemplative and Neurocognitive Perspectives
This presentation will outline the progression of mind training in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of Dzogchen, from the ordinary distracted mind to the highest levels of mental balance, in terms of changes at four basic levels: motivation, attention, emotion, and consciousness. Within this framework, we will discuss the main markers of contemplative progress and possible …
Concurrent Session 3 – Half Empty: Measuring Indicators of Emptiness Awareness Through Contemplative Practice
Traditional Mahayana Buddhist teachings emphasize the importance of understanding emptiness — the absence of independent substantiality of phenomena — through contemplative study and practice. Contemplative practices are becoming more widely integrated into the fields of education and clinical training. While self-report methodologies for assessing mindfulness have allowed researchers to quantify some of the changes that …
Concurrent Session 3 – Heartfulness as Mindfulness: Affectivity and Perspective in Abrahamic and Dharmic Traditions
Current theories of mindfulness (Pali: sati) emphasize attention, emotional regulation, and meta-awareness. This interpretation de-emphasizes an original association of sati with remembrance in relation to cultivating virtue. Recovering remembrance reconnects mindfulness with narrative traditions of loving virtue. In practice, this occurs through cultivating both (1) affective awareness of the source of love, or ultimate reality; …
Concurrent Session 3 – Resilience and Compassion
This paper discusses the relationship between psychological resilience andcompassion. It will begin by looking at a particular set of techniques, drawn from the Tibetan Buddhist mind-training (lojong) tradition, in which the stresses, adversity, and suffering of the subject are the initial focus that eventually inspires empathetic identification with others. This type of compassion meditation training …
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