The purpose of this Dialogue is to compare the epistemologies of two major intellectual traditions: Western science culminating in modern quantum physics, and Eastern contemplative sciences as represented by Tibetan Buddhism. What are the roles of observer and consciousness? Are there fundamental limits to what can be said about the world? What are the foundations …
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2002 Mind & Life Dialogue X
At the outset of his famous 1943 lecture What Is Life?, the physicist Erwin Schrödinger posed the question, “Can that which takes place inside a living organism be accounted for by physics and chemistry?” In this Dialogue, we explore the perennial question concerning the nature of life and its relationship to matter. Schrödinger’s question is asked …
Mind & Life 2020 President’s Call
Earlier this year Mind & Life completed a strategic visioning and planning process, to guide our expanding work through a lens of interconnection. We also began developing our digital efforts to have wider reach and greater impact on pressing contemporary issues. As such, Mind & Life is primed and eager to show up fully and make …
2012 Mind & Life Dialogue XXIV
In this private dialogue, six young scientists were chosen to represent the Francisco J. Varela Grant program, a catalyst for seeding the field with young scientists investigating contemplative practice. These researchers, representing a new generation of scientists, presented the Dalai Lama with their recent research outcomes. LOCATION: Rochester, Minnesota Participants
2003 Mind & Life Dialogue XI
From its inception Buddhism has probed the nature of mind, using the mind itself as its instrument of investigation, especially with the aid of refined meditation methods. For the past millennium, Tibetan Buddhists have pursued this investigation in monastic universities with rigor and exacting scholarship. Until now, science has been skeptical of this course of …
2007 Mind & Life Dialogue XIV
In addition to being a scientific autobiography, the Dalai Lama’s book The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality highlights those issues he feels are most important in the “convergence of science and spirituality.” In his book, the Dalai Lama includes ethical, philosophical, and metaphysical reflections prompted by science. These issues and questions …
2009 Mind & Life Dialogue XVIII
The discussions during this Dialogue will primarily focus on the subjective phenomenology, information-processing operations, and neural mechanisms of attention, memory, and conscious awareness from both scientific and Buddhist perspectives. Special attention will be focused on the distinctive characteristics and interactions of attention, memory, and metacognition as seen from diverse viewpoints, including the possibility of multiple dimensions …
2012 Mind & Life Dialogue XXV
For some years now, there has been a great deal of interest in the ways that contemplative practices with roots in spiritual traditions may also provide a range of emotional and physical benefits to practitioners. We now have a substantial body of experimental and clinical work focused both on outcomes and on the neural, cognitive, …
2010 Mind & Life Dialogue XXII
The impetus for this Mind & Life meeting stems from the Dalai Lama’s wish to have a Mind & Life meeting in Asia, particularly India. To this end, the conference brings together scientists, philosophers, and contemplative scholars and practitioners to discuss the benefits of contemplative science. In doing so, it provides a context for scientists …
2011 Mind & Life Dialogue XXIII
The slow meltdown of Earth’s capacity to sustain much of life, as we know it, poses an urgent challenge for both spiritual traditions and science. These two ways of knowing have developed distinctive responses, which are potentially synergistic. The goal of the meeting is to provide an opportunity to articulate an engaged environmental ethics. This …
