“To Be of Benefit: The Promise of Contemplative Research and Practice” with Sona Dimidjian In 2002, His Holiness the Dalai Lama wrote, “The desperate state of our world calls us to action…We all are responsible for creating a better future.” Over 15 years later, those words inspire and alarm. Enormous suffering exists in our world …
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Engaging in a Socially Unjust World with Love, Compassion, and Resolve
“It requires something more than personal experience to gain a philosophy or point of view from any specific event. It is the quality of our response to the event and our capacity to enter into the lives of others that help us to make their lives and experiences our own.”—Emma Goldman The relationship between contemplative …
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2018 SRI Reflections: “I judge less. I understand more.”
Nourished. Connected. Validated. Protected. Challenged. Humbled. Grateful. These were just a few of the words used by participants at Mind & Life’s 2018 Summer Research Institute (SRI) to describe their experience. In keeping with the event’s theme, “Engaging Cultural Difference and Human Diversity,” Mind & Life’s 15th annual SRI was the most diverse ever, bringing …
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Why It’s Time: “Engaging Cultural Difference and Human Diversity”
Uncomfortable, even risky questions lie at the heart of the Mind & Life Institute’s 15th annual Summer Research Institute (SRI), which begins June 2. Given the human capacity for empathy and intrinsic interdependence with others, what is it that drives us apart? “If we’re all so good at connectivity and inclusivity, then why are we …
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Sharon Salzberg: Love is a Verb
Paying attention, asserts famed meditation teacher, best-selling author, and Mind & Life Fellow Sharon Salzberg, isn’t a skill one is simply born with. Like flexibility and physical stamina, it’s developed over time: a muscle to strengthen; a practice to nurture; a series of neural pathways to establish and expand. But it takes very real work …
A Golden String: Mind & Life 2018
“I’m imagining a golden string that is connecting Everything but especially, beings where love has been. I’ve imagined it again and again so often, it isn’t even imagining, it is making it happen.” -Devon Sproule At the Mind & Life Institute, we greet 2018 ever more committed to our mission and its relevance to healing …
Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives at Mind & Life
Historically, the Mind & Life community has been dominated by a select and largely racially and ethnically homogenous group of scientists, scholars, and practitioners from a handful of academic institutions. This homogeneity reinforces societal imbalances and biases, running counter to Mind & Life’s mission to alleviate suffering and to promote human flourishing. Furthermore, it diminishes …
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Ubuntu/Botho Leadership: An Ocean that Rejects No River
The Mind & Life Institute Dialogue in Gaborone, Botswana this August brought together African humanitarian and spiritual leaders, scholars and healers into conversation with international neuroscientists about the African worldview of Ubuntu/Botho. Peter Bonanno, writer and learning designer on topics of spirituality and science, attended the Dialogue and shares his thoughts on the value of …
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MLI XXXII Session 5
Session #5 of The Mind and Life XXXII Dialogue at Botho University in Gaborone, Botswana held on August 17-19, 2017. African youth presentations Donald Molosi: 6:08 Justine Hamupolo: 20:19 Landa Mabenge: 25:07 Leonard Annan: 29:39 Agostine Ndung’u: 34:03 African youth panel discussion: 43:13 Presentation by Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela: 1:00:59 Panel discussion: 1:48:07 Audience Q&A: 2:07:33 Closing …
MLI XXXII Session 4
Session #4 of The Mind and Life XXXII Dialogue at Botho University in Gaborone, Botswana held on August 17-19, 2017. Presentation by Carsten de Dreu: 3:06 First panel discussion: 42:14 Presentation by Theo Sowa: 1:14:41 Second panel discussion: 1:35:58 Audience Q&A: 1:59:25 Program Description: The Botswana Dialogue brings African humanitarian and spiritual leaders, scholars and …
