High-quality social relationships help us live longer, happier and healthier lives — facts that hold true, as far as anyone knows, regardless of geography or culture. Although links between relationships and health have been observed for decades (if not millennia), the mechanisms responsible for them remain speculative. In this talk, Jim Coan will first describe …
Continue reading “The Other as Part of the Self: Empathy, Understanding and Support”
Academic psychology and neuroscience have typically centered viewpoints of the dominant culture (WEIRD: White, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic), which has influenced both the process and content of contemplative neuroscience. By incorporating more diverse perspectives through a lens of social justice, Helen Weng will present new lines of work that center viewpoints of meditators who belong …
Continue reading “Contemplative Neuroscience through the Lens of Diversity and Social Justice”
It is well known that human beings are both profoundly interdependent and profoundly unconscious—a dangerous mix. In our conscious and unconscious desires to protect ourselves, we “need” an enemy whom to fight against, control, or withdraw from. In Polly Young-Eisendrath’s decades-long professional experience as a Jungian psychoanalyst and a couples therapist, as well as her …
The 2018 Mind & Life Summer Research Institute extends the arc from the 2016 and 2017 programs that addressed themes of context, social connectivity, and intersubjectivity by engaging critical topics relevant to cultural difference and human diversity. The weeklong immersive program will examine social and psychological patterns, both implicit and explicit, to discuss how difference is constructed at personal, interpersonal, and socio-structural levels. Scientific, humanistic, and first-person contemplative perspectives will give attention to processes of othering and how we can overcome conflict by embracing difference.
Othering and Belonging is the problem of the 21st century. In this talk, the presenter will describe how the changes in the world are creating deep stress and anxiety. This process is likely to increase for the foreseeable future. This stress is both biological and ontological. The way we respond is social. The underlying issue …
This Mind & Life Digital Dialogue is an interactive multimedia site with video, presentations, and discussions from the 32nd Mind & Life Dialogue, Botho/Ubuntu: A Dialogue on Spirituality, Science, and Humanity, held in Gaborone, Botswana in August 2017. In this unique event, the Mind & Life Institute convened leading African humanitarian and spiritual leaders, scholars, …
This is the second of two blog posts describing recent Mind & Life Conversations with the Dalai Lama and prominent thought leaders on the topic of “Compassion, Interconnection, and Transformation.” Photos by Phil Walker and Tenzin Choejor. At a time of sweeping change and daunting global challenges, what’s needed is a whole world ethic to unite …
Continue reading “Toward a Whole World Ethic: The Role of Conscious Evolution”
This is the first of two blog posts describing recent Mind & Life Conversations with the Dalai Lama and prominent thought leaders on the topic of “Compassion, Interconnection, and Transformation.” Photos by Phil Walker and Tenzin Choejor. Clinical psychologist and social scientist Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela traveled thousands of miles from the southernmost tip of Africa to northern …
Continue reading “Transforming Lives and Communities with Compassion”
In this month’s Fellow Spotlight we are pleased to share the work of Jennifer Mascaro, Assistant Professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at Emory University. She will be presenting her work at the 2020 Mind & Life Summer Research Institute. Jennifer’s research interests center on human social cognition and the biology of …
The second session of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s conversations with key thought leaders on “Compassion, Interconnection, and Transformation” organized by the Mind & Life Institute at his residence in Dharamsala, India on October 30th and November 1st, 2019. Participants
