Mind & Life Institute, Co-Founded by the Dalai Lama, Says Summer Research Institute Explores Mind, Behavior & Brain Function to Nurture Scientific Exploration
Adam Engle, Chairman and co-founder of the Mind and Life Institute with the Dalai Lama, said, The Summer Research Institute hopes to advance training of a new generation of behavioral scientists, neuroscientists, Buddhists and other contemplatives to explore the influence of contemplative practice on mind, behavior, brain function, and health.
Garrison, NY (PRWEB) June 27, 2005 -- The Mind and Life Institute announced
that its Summer Research Institute this week brings together leading behavioral
scientists, neuroscientists and biomedical researchers with Buddhist and other
contemplative scholars and practitioners to explore developments in mind,
behavior and brain function study.
The Mind and Life Summer Research
Institute takes place from Sunday June 26 through Saturday July 2 at the
Garrison Institute, in Garrison, New York. The summer forum brings accomplished
leaders in science and contemplative practice together with young scholars to
nurture research in vitally important areas of science.
The Mind and Life
Summer Research Institute consists of a week of presentations by contemplatives
and science researchers on their findings and methodologies; dialogue and
discussion; meditation sessions; small groups and one-on-one meetings with
faculty. There will be 140 people in attendance, all selected from applications.
The Mind and Life Institute, co-founded by the Dalai Lama in 1987, is a
non-profit organization seeking to create a dialogue and research collaboration
between modern science and Buddhism. The Mind and Life Summer Research Institute
is supported by grants from the John Templeton Foundation, Lostand Foundation
and the Mental Insight Foundation.
Adam Engle, Chairman and co-founder of
the Mind and Life Institute with the Dalai Lama, said, “The Summer Institute is
an important program that hopes to advance the training of a new generation of
behavioral scientists, neuroscientists, Buddhists and other contemplatives
interested in exploring the influence of contemplative practice on mind,
behavior, brain function, and health.”
Engle said the annual summer
program grew out of the Institute’s public dialogues between the Dalai Lama and
the scientific community. He noted that on November 8-10 in Washington, DC, the
Mind and Life Institute will host “Mind & Life XIII: The Science and
Clinical Applications of Mediation,” a public dialogue with the Dalai Lama and
leading scientists, co-sponsored by Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and
Georgetown University Medical Center, at the DAR Constitution
Hall.
Summer Institute faculty includes scientists from Harvard
University, Princeton University, University of Wisconsin at Madison, UCSF
Medical Center, University of Toronto, Naropa University, Shechen Monastery, the
Insight Meditation Society, Upaya Zen Center, the Santa Barbara Institute and
Centering Prayer and contemplative scholars and practitioners. Senior
Investigator presenters come from Brown University, Columbia University, the
University of Pennsylvania, University of British Columbia, University of
California-Davis and the University of Arizona.
Engle said, “The summer
program is based on the model developed at the Cold Springs Harbor Laboratory
and nurtures dialogue to encourage and mentor young scientists to advance
collaborative research of contemplative practices on the mind, behavior and
brain function—all focused on building an understanding of how to create and
maintain a healthy mind. Among themes to be discussed are functional
neuroimaging research regarding experience during meditation and alterations in
brain function; neuroplasticity and its implications for understanding
transformations in brain and behavior; affective and cognitive traits effects of
meditation and methods to interrogate these changes in brain and behavior, among
others. Scientific exploration and meditative practices are typical of the
content.
Student participants, on tuition or scholarship, include
Research Fellows, such as postdoctoral fellows in behavioral science,
neuroscience and biomedicine and graduate students, and Senior Investigators,
primarily academic researchers at Assistant Professor level or higher.
The Mind and Life Institute, based in Boulder, CO, is a 501 C3
non-profit organization co-founded in 1987 by the Dalai Lama, entrepreneur Adam
Engle and an acclaimed neuroscientist, the late Franciso J. Varela, to create a
rigorous dialogue and research collaboration between modern science, Buddhism
and other contemplative traditions. The Mind and Life Institute operates through
four divisions: Meetings and Dialogues, Publications, Scientific Education and
Grants for Collaborative Research. Since 2000, the focus of MLI has been the
creation of an interdisciplinary field of science that asks and answers the
question: how do we create and maintain a healthy mind?
For more
information visit the websites, www.mindandlife.org and www.investigatingthemind.org or contact Brian Dobson at Dobson
Communications at 203-894-9240.
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/6/prweb255338.htm