What if the solution to our most pressing environmental, educational, and emotional crises was hiding in plain sight—in the trees, the silence of a forest, or the stillness of our own breath? As a researcher and educator, I’ve spent years exploring how contemplative practices and nature, two ancient sources of wisdom, can come together to …
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Bridging Science and Buddhism: The Dalai Lama’s 100 Year Vision
It was a starlit winter evening in southern India as we barreled down a rural road through a Tibetan settlement village in our tuk-tuk, a three-wheeled motorized taxi. The sputter of the motor was interrupted only by the joyful laughter of our Tibetan Buddhist monastic friends as they raced us in their own tuk-tuk on …
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Embodiment and Intersubjectivity: Empirical and Phenomenological Approaches, Pt 1
Two themes that have become prominent in studies of consciousness and cognition: embodiment and intersubjectivity. We will begin by discussing recent work in embodied cognition, informed by both science and philosophical phenomenology.
Results of the Shamatha Project
We will explore recent findings from our work at this interface between contemplative and research traditions. Together with Alan Wallace and three-dozen collaborating researchers, we are investigating how attentional, emotional and physiological processes change over the course of three months of intensive training in meditative quiescence and emotional balance, in a study known as “The Shamatha Project.”
Attention-Emotion Interface, Pt 2
Can meditation practice increase our capacity to understand the primary role of emotion in cognition and attention?
Attention-Emotion Interface, Pt 1
Can meditation practice increase our capacity to understand the primary role of emotion in cognition and attention?
The Utility of Improving Attention and Working Memory with Mindfulness-Based Training
What is the role of memory in contemplative development? Is there evidence in the tradition of elders showing extremely good memory given years of practice?
Paying Attention to Awareness: “Attention” (manasikārā), “Mindfulness” (sati) and “Clear Comprehension” (samapajañña)
How can we understand the relation between attention and memory in the practice of mindfulness?
The Buddhist Contribution to First-Person Cognitive Science
While Buddhism lacks any quantitative behavioral science or neuroscience, it has developed highly sophisticated methods of introspective inquiry based on the refinement of attention and metacognitive skills. These methods allegedly result in reliable, replicable observations regarding the origins, nature, and potentials of consciousness, as well as the inner causes of mental suffering and genuine happiness.
Daniel Morris
Daniel Morris is a Ph.D. student in Dr. Ken Paller’s cognitive neuroscience lab at Northwestern University. His research focuses on sleep and dreaming, aiming to understand the neurophysiological correlates of lucid dreaming and contemplative sleep practices. He has worked with the Emory Tibet Science Initiative to train three cohorts of Tibetan Monastic Scholars during Northwestern’s …
