UPCOMING TALKS
The Metro-Area Research Group on Awareness & Meditation (MARGAM) presents researchers and scholars discussing their current and emerging studies on contemplative practice. MARGAM aims to facilitate dialogue and collaboration between neuroscientists, psychologists, philosophers, and scholars of Buddhism engaged in research on meditation and related topics.
A SPECIAL PRESENTATION FROM NONDUALITY INSTITUTE:
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 6, 7:00 – 9:00pm
The Nature of Mind: Clear Light Awareness
A discussion and panel exploring implications for scientific research into consciousness and wellbeing
With panelists:
- Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, Founder and spiritual director, Ligmincha Institute
- Robert Thurman, PhD, President, Tibet House, U.S.; Jey Tsong Kappa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Studies, Columbia University
- Bernard J. Baars, PhD, Senior Fellow in Theoretical Neurobiology, The Neurosciences Institute
- Jonathan Shear, PhD, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Virginia Commonwealth University
Moderated by:
- Zoran Josipovic, PhD, Founding Director, Nonduality Institute; Principal Investigator & Director, Contemplative Science Lab–New York University
A recurring theme in Asian contemplative traditions is the teaching about clear light awareness as the nature of mind or consciousness that abides in the background of all our experience. This spontaneous, natural luminosity of our own fundamental nature is beyond cognitive constructs and emotional grasping. Nondual traditions of Dzogchen, Mahamudra, and Advaita Vedanta emphasize the freedom and completeness inherent in this level of our mind. In contemporary neuroscience, consciousness is still considered somewhat of a mystery, something that has been challenging to research and difficult to conceptualize.
This panel brings together some of the leading thinkers in the fields of religion, philosophy and neuroscience to explore the relevance of Buddhist and Hindu views about clear light awareness for contemporary research in consciousness and wellbeing. An enhanced understanding of consciousness could optimize both the scientific research and the clinical approachs to general well-being and treatment of various disorders.
Tibet House
22 West 15th St,
New York, NY
Fee: $25
Click here to register
Bernard J. Baars, PhD is best known as the originator of the global workspace theory, a theory of human cognitive architecture and consciousness. Dr. Baars is an affiliated fellow in Theoretical Neurobiology at The Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla, CA. He co-founded the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness, and the Academic Press journal Consciousness & Cognition. Dr. Baars is the author of a number of books on consciousness, including the classic: A Cognitive Theory of Consciousness, and the textbook Cognition, Brain and Consciousness: An Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience. http://vesicle.nsi.edu/users/baars/
Zoran Josipovic, PhD is a founding director of Nonduality Institute, and the director of the Contemplative Science Laboratory at New York University. A research associate and adjunct professor in the Psychology Department and Center for Neural Science, NYU, Zoran is interested in states of consciousness cultivated through contemplative practice, what these states can tell us about the nature of consciousness and its relation to authentic subjectivity, and what relevance this may have for understanding the global and local organization in the brain. Zoran is a long-time meditation practitioner in the Dzogchen, Zen and Advaita Vedanta traditions. http://psych.nyu.edu/josipovic/
Jonathan Shear, PhD is affiliated associate professor of philosophy at VCU, where he has taught since 1987. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of California at Berkeley, and was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow there, and a Fulbright Scholar in philosophy of science at the London School of Economics. Since the early 1960’s his work has focused on the use of meditation practices and related scientific research to expand our knowledge of human consciousness. He has published and lectured widely in North America, Europe and Asia, and was the founding managing editor of the Journal of Consciousness Studies. http://www.has.vcu.edu/phi/Faculty/Shear.html
Robert Thurman, PhD is Professor of Indo-Tibetan Studies at Columbia University, President of Tibet House U.S., a popular lecturer on Tibetan Buddhism, the translator of many philosophical treatises and sutras, and author of numerous books including the national bestseller, Inner Revolution: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Real Happiness; Anger, the fifth book from a series on the Seven Deadly Sins, offered by The New York Public Library and Oxford University Press. His most recent book is titled Why the Dalai Lama Matters: His Act of Truth as the Solution for China, Tibet, and the World, published by Atria Books/Beyond Words.http://www.bobthurman.com/
Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche is founder and spiritual director of Ligmincha Institute and an acclaimed author and master of the Dzogchen meditative tradition of Tibet. Rinpoche was born in India after his parents fled the Chinese invasion of Tibet. He completed an eleven year course of traditional studies in the Bön tradition at the Bönpo Monastic Center, Dolanji, HP, India, whereupon he qualified for the Doctorate Degree of Geshe, the highest degree in the Tibetan spiritual tradition. He is an accomplished scholar in the Bönpo and Buddhist textual traditions of philosophy, exegesis, and debate.https://www.ligmincha.org/
Nonduality Institute is a non-profit center in New York City dedicated to the practice and scientific study of nondual awakening. We offer a direct method of nondual realization that opens the body, heart and mind to nondual reality. Our scientific research into the neural correlates of nondual realization contributes to the understanding of the nature of consciousness, and the brain’s functioning in optimal states of wellbeing. Visit us at http://www.nondualityinstitute.org/
CHECK BACK LATER THIS SUMMER FOR MARGAM’s FALL 2012 SCHEDULE
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All meetings are Thursdays at 7:00pm, located on NYU campus, except where noted.
NYU Stern, Martin J. Gruber Conference Room
Kaufman Management Center Rm. 9-191
44 West 4th Street, New York, NY 10012
