The Polish Mindfulness Association conference on Practical Application of Buddhism in Western Psychology
A Conference on Mindfulness and its practical applications will be held in Warsaw, Poland November 26-28th, 2008.
The Conference is meant to be the platform of inspiration for scientific research, workshops, and training programmes on mindfulness and other Buddhist techniques. That is why the term practical application has been used instead of theoretical and philosophical concepts of psychology and Buddhism.
See Link HERE.
When Worlds Collide: The Study of Religion in an Age of Science Buddhism and Science: Tibetan and Zen Buddhist Perspectives (April 2007)
George Dreyfus, Professor of Religion at Williams College and first westerner to be given the title of geshe, and Eshin Nishimura, former president of Hanazono University, Kyoto, Japan, each spoke, with a Q&A moderated by Donald K. Swearer following the two talks. This event was sponsored by Harvard Divinity School (with a special grant from Richard Watson); the Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School; and the Boston Theological Institute. This was the third event in the “When Worlds Collide: The Study of Religion in an Age of Science” lecture series; for more information, visit the series webpage.
Check out the Video of the talks HERE.
The Science of Buddhist Meditation
The University of Liverpool is sponsoring an event concerning the science of Buddhist Meditation November 09, 2008. The Link is HERE. The abstract follows:
Increasingly scientific investigations suggest that Buddhist meditators are happier, have improved cognitive abilities and that meditation practice leads to measurable changes in brain activity. Four experts from psychology, psychotherapy, neuroscience and philosophy present and discuss the evidence from a scientific as well as Buddhist perspective, also drawing on their experience with meditation practice and as Buddhist lay teachers.
From 28 July to 01 August 2008 an International Summer School on Buddhism entitled Buddhism into the 21st Century will take place in Hamburg, organised by the prestigous Center for Buddhist Studies. This summer school is open to everybody interested in the topic. Peter Malinowski will be teaching on “Buddhism and Science – Neuroscientific and Psychological Perspectives”.
For more information visit: www.summerschool-buddhism.de/
Watch Peter talking about Meditation techniques and their relevance in everyday life on UK Future TV:
Uk Future TV
direct link to the stream [wmv 700kbps]
Zen Meditators Show faster return to resting state
Giuseppe Pagnoni, a Neuroscientist in the dept. of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University just recently published a study on Zen Meditators and fMRI.
Using fMRI and a simplified meditative condition interspersed with a lexical decision task, they investigated the neural correlates of conceptual processing during meditation in regular Zen practitioners and matched control subjects. While behavioral performance did not differ between groups, Zen practitioners displayed a reduced duration of the neural response linked to conceptual processing in regions of the default network, suggesting that meditative training may foster the ability to control the automatic cascade of semantic associations triggered by a stimulus and, by extension, to voluntarily regulate the flow of spontaneous mentation. See the entire article published in PLoS ONE HERE.
The article received press in The New Scientist. “The closest thing to Jedi Mind Tricks” See HERE.
Tibet House in Germany
The Tibet-Haus in Germany supports scientific, non-sectarian, research and scholarship throughout Europe and is a great resource for anybody interested in Buddhist or contemplative programs in Germany.
Check it out HERE.
Contemplative Mind in Life 