Fostering meaningful dialogue about racism and other social justice issues is an urgent need in our increasingly polarized society. We hypothesized that kindness meditation (KM) may help participants maintain social connection, develop compassion, positive affect and altruism, while enabling them to manage the stress, negative affect and bias that can arise and derail these conversations. …
Topic Archives:
Liberation Through Memory and Storytelling
The Jewish springtime festival of Passover is known as the time of liberation. It is incumbent upon every person to retell the Passover story as if they were actually present and experiencing their own liberation. We are invited to have a visceral and somatic recreation of the experience of moving from bondage to freedom. Families …
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2016 International Symposium for Contemplative Studies
The Mind & Life Institute’s International Symposium for Contemplative Studies (ISCS) seeks to encourage and help shape a cohesive interdisciplinary field of contemplative studies in which basic and applied science, scholarship, education, the arts, and contemplative traditions collaboratively develop an integrated way of knowing.
In 2016 we gathered the most innovative thought leaders and present their ground breaking research in neuroscience, psychology, clinical science, the humanities, philosophy, and education – all with the goal of advancing our understanding of the mind, reducing human suffering, and enhancing our well-being.
Social Justice Breakout Session
This will be an experiential workshop that includes critical contemplative practice and dialogue through the lens of Radical Dharma (Kyodo williams, Owens, Syedullah, 2016). It will further expand one’s field of practice and develop the concept of a social justice orientation to extend more deeply into practice and related communities. The experience will highlight the …
Keynote: To Be of Benefit: The Promise of Contemplative Research and Practice
In 2002, His Holiness the Dalai Lama wrote, “The desperate state of our world calls us to action…We all are responsible for creating a better future.” Over 15 years later, those words inspire and alarm. Enormous suffering exists in our world today. Mental health problems and adversity are prevalent and impairing, including among children and …
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Master Lectures: Social Justice Panel: “From Awareness to Embodied Change: A Conversation Toward Contemplative Justice”
In her Keynote at ISCS 2016, Rhonda Magee posed the idea of “creating science that resonates with the suffering of the world” by considering how colorblindness and implicit bias impact contemplative research and practice communities. We are called to consider the ways in which it is necessary to move beyond identifying these individual factors toward …
Keynote “Toward A Transformed Vision of Contemplative Education Centering Social Justice”
Our world is currently being confronted with chilling social issues which call for a framework of contemplative education that fosters what Latina feminist theorist, Gloria Anzaldúa, called “conocimiento,” a high level of enlightenment fostered through creative contemplative practices such as art, poetry, dance and meditation. The path toward enlightenment connects inner work with public acts …
Keynote Panel “Contemplative Practice Enters the Digital Age”
Digital didactics, such as MOOCS and browser-based online programs have opened up realms of content to thousands who for reasons of geography, expense or convenience would otherwise not have had access to these materials. Allowing anyone around the world to take a course at Stanford or learn Geometry on Khan Academy has helped address educational …
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Community Engagement and Contemplative Neuroscience within a Diverse Contemplative Community
By 2044, more than half of the US population will belong to a racial or ethnic minority group, and health disparities exist between minority groups and the general population for many health conditions. Diverse contemplative sanghas are emerging that serve underrepresented populations to support social action, multiculturalism, and safe social spaces to address effects of …
What is the Role of Contemplative Practice When Social-Identity-Based Suffering and Structural Violence Has Happened?
In this session, I will discuss research on ways of bringing contemplative practices to bear in a variety of contexts to support teaching, learning and engaging with others confronting social suffering at personal, interpersonal, and systemic levels. Some practical and ethical considerations related to offering particular practices in a variety of contexts will be explored, …
