This talk explores a well-known writing in the area of meditation in the Japanese Zen tradition entitled Yasenkanna (夜船閑話, or Idle Talk on a Night Boat), one of Hakuin’s autobiographies, written in 1757 by the Zen Master Hakuin Ekaku (1686–1769), a seminal figure who occupies a prominent place in the history of Japanese religion today. …
Continue reading “Old Insights for A Hectic World: What Does Hakuin Teach Us Today?”
The process of observing the mind in Buddhism is called samatha and vipassanā, and involves placing attention on a certain object (or objects) with awareness. Important facets of this type of observation, also called mindfulness, are noticing objects without using language, and accepting them as they are. According to Buddhism, suffering emerges from a state …
Continue reading “Observation of the Mind in Buddhism and Mindfulness”
Meditation practices are increasingly being adapted into secular formats such as “mindfulness.” In these new contexts, the spiritual or soteriolog- ical aspects of meditation have been largely put aside and the putative benefits of meditation in terms of physical and mental health are empha- sized within a scientific (and especially neuroscientific) framework. For instance, invoking …
Continue reading “Neuroscience as a Modern Context for Studying Meditation: How Far Are We, Really?”
As the “cultural heart of Japan,” Kyoto is home to longstanding traditions of contemplative practice, philosophy, and scientific research. Inspired by this setting, and its location at the Zen temple complex Myōshin-ji, the theme for this Mind & Life International Research Institute is Contemplative Practice in Context: Culture, History, and Science. This five-day immersive program brings together leading scholars in the sciences and humanities, contemplatives, and artists to examine contemplative epistemologies within a variety of contexts.
This keynote lecture proposes that mindfulness includes cultural practices, habits of attending, and ways of using the body in the social and material world. Current neuroscience conceptions of mindfulness as an inner mental state or trait that can be correlated with unique patterns of brain activity are therefore inadequate because they leave out the wider …
Continue reading “Closing Keynote: What is Mindfulness? An Embodied Cognitive Science Perspective”
Sharon Salzberg and Roshi Joan Halifax will lead a guided practice on kindness and compassion. This practice session will be directed toward cultivating prosocial mental qualities.
Mindfulness training is growing in its mainstream popularity. This keynote panel will discuss the promises of offering mindfulness training to cohorts across many major societal institutions such as healthcare, business, higher education and military/first responder communities. Paralleling its popular rise have been growing concerns regarding mainstream dissemination of contemplative training, including the ethical framework within …
This workshop will involve three methods of engaged contemplation in Islamic Sufism, consisting of silent and vocal forms of “remembrance” (dhikr) and “remembrance in life.” The ultimate purpose of these methods is to retrain the individual’s consciousness to respond — at each moment in one’s daily life — toward one’s consciousness and whatever appears in …
Continue reading “Engaged Contemplative Practice in Islamic Sufism: Vocal, Silent, Living”
The implementation of mindfulness-based training programs for school administrators and school leaders, classroom teachers and staff, and Pre-K to grade 12 students has grown rapidly during the past decade and a half. This lecture will present a brief history of the work in education, a summary of the state of the science, and thoughts about …
Continue reading “Master Lectures: School Systems, Educational Reform and Mindfulness Training”
This talk will describe attentional, emotional and physiological processes modified over the course of three months of full-time training in, and practice of, meditative quiescence (Shamatha) and beneficial aspirations for self and others (loving kindness, compassion, empathetic joy and equanimity). This multidisciplinary longitudinal, randomized wait-list controlled study is known as The Shamatha Project. Scientific measures …
