Most think of games today as encouraging violence or addiction amongst their players. However, there is a growing trend in the game industry towards the development of games that encourage a more contemplative, reflective form of game play. This presentation looks at the possibility of games becoming the modern form of meditation. Games are already …
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Concurrent Session 1 -Neurocognitive Processes of Addiction: A Therapeutic Role for Mindfulness?
Several neurocognitive processes have been implicated in addiction, including motivated attention, reward processing, emotion regulation, stress reactivity, delay discounting, and inhibitory control. These processes appear to depend on functionally integrated cortico-limbic-striatal circuits whose dysfunction supports the acquisition, maintenance, and reinstatement of addictive behaviors. Novel interventions that target the neurocognitive processes underlying addictive behavior may hold …
Master Lecture – Buddhism, Behaviorism, and the Brain
Buddhism, Behaviorism, and the Brain: Towards a Better Understanding of the Mechanisms and Mitigation of Craving, Grasping, and Addiction The seemingly intractable behavioral cycles and suffering of addiction offer a vivid and painful illustration of the necessity and challenge of behavior change. Decades of tireless research on the nature of, and mechanisms underlying, addiction have …
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ISCS 2014 – Master Lecture – Sarah Bowen, Judson Brewer
Buddhism, Behaviorism, and the Brain: Towards a Better Understanding of the Mechanisms and Mitigation of Craving, Grasping, and Addiction
The Peril and Promise of Selflessness
A psychologist explores the path into depression or anatta
The Dark Knight
For some, meditation has become more curse than cure. Willoughby Britton wants to know why.
The Craving Cycle
A former addict turned neuroscientist, Marc Lewis describes what happens in the brain when addiction sets in, and how Buddhist psychology helps explain it.
Longing After Loss
Out Of a great need We are all holding hands And climbing. Not loving is a letting go. Listen, The terrain around here Is Far too Dangerous For That. —Hafiz Falling in love can enliven us. Feeling seen and held can ground us; it can put us at ease. Love can also grant us a …
The Pharmacy of Desire
An American success story: A college graduate gets a good job and marries. The couple drives a beautiful car, a consolation for their terrible commute. Work pays well but requires callous decisions. Expensive vacations and a lovely home recompense for the sacrifice not only of time, but also of ideals. Contentment, however, remains elusive; an …
The Anxiety of Happiness
His life is a pursuit of a pursuit forever.It is the future that creates his present. All is an interminable chain of longing.—Robert Frost I’ve long thought that in this section of his poem, “Escapist–Never,” Robert Frost captures a lot of what contemplative traditions describe as craving, a source of great suffering. Craving is distinguished …

