|
|
 |
|
| |
Program Overview
Can medicine and science benefit from a collaborative bi-directional dialogue with Buddhism and other contemplative traditions about attention and awareness, meditation, mindfulness, mind/body interactions, the nature of pain and suffering, the cultivation of compassion and self-compassion, and the potential for the training of human faculties for learning, growing, healing and emotion regulation across the lifespan?
Background
Science is the dominant paradigm in modern society for understanding the nature of reality and providing a knowledge base for improving lives and conditions on this planet.
Buddhism began 2,500 years ago with largely the same goals — to understand the nature of reality and to use that understanding to improve lives and conditions on the planet.
Buddhism uses the human mind, refined through meditative practice, as its primary instrument of investigation into the nature of reality. While this method of investigation is based on observation, very rigorous logic and experimentation, science has traditionally viewed it as subjective and at odds with the objectivity of the scientific method.
In the past twenty five years, an extraordinary confluence has emerged, the converging of the streams of modern science and medicine on the one hand, and the venerable and long-flowing stream of meditative investigation and inquiry on the other.
These streams are flowing into the greater river that is the human longing for deeper understanding of what it means to be, and to be human, to be aware, to be alive, and to be healthy and whole, to know who and what we are and how we might live in greater harmony and wisdom
One manifestation of that convergence is the integration of Buddhist meditative practices, in particular, mindfulness, into the mainstream of medicine in the form of mindfulness-based approaches for dealing with stress, pain, and chronic illness as a complement to allopathic treatment within the health care system. Another is the growth of collaborative dialogues and experimental investigations now underway involving neuroscientists and psychologists and Buddhist contemplatives, catalyzed in large measure by the Mind and Life Institute and His Holiness the Dalai Lama's personal interest in science and in promoting such dialogues and investigations. These collaborative studies are beginning to elucidate the extraordinary capacity of the human brain for plasticity that may underlie the development and cultivation of positive human qualities such as compassion.
Mind and Life XIII is an opportunity to review some of the work that has been unfolding in these areas over the recent past, and to map out the potential for both broadening and deepening these investigations and inquiries as a way to further our understanding of the nature of the mind itself, the mind-brain-body connection, and the potential for healing and assuaging suffering and eliminating the root causes of that suffering and its downstream consequences when possible.
Meditation is becoming Mainstream in Western Medicine and Society
Applications of meditation are now common in the treatment of stress, pain, and a range of chronic diseases in both medicine and psychiatry, and some approaches are currently the subject of NIH-supported clinical trials and research studies. At the same time, the power of our non-invasive technologies have made it possible to investigate the nature of cognition and emotion in the brain as never before, and to begin to explore the interfaces between mind, brain, and body, and the implications of particular forms of meditative practices for modulating and regulating biological pathways to restore or enhance homeostatic processes and perhaps extend the reach of both mind and body in ways that might potentially promote rehabilitation and healing as well as greater overall health and well-being.
Recent studies are showing that meditation can result in stable brain patterns and changes over both short and long-term intervals that have not been seen before in human beings and that suggest the potential for the systematic driving of positive neuroplastic changes via such intentional practices cultivated over time. These investigations may offer opportunities for understanding the basic unifying mechanisms of the brain, mind and body that underlie awareness and our capacity for effective adaptation to stressful and uncertain conditions.
Scientific Studies of Meditative Practices
There have been concerted efforts to scientifically study the clinical application of meditative practices as well as the physiological effects of meditation in both novice and advanced practitioners. This meeting is an opportunity for scientists who have been active in this field to present their approaches to the Dalai Lama and a panel of other scientists and contemplatives. The Dalai Lama, scientists and other contemplatives will then review the strengths and weaknesses of the current science and clinical approaches, and based on the intersection of these different but complementary epistemologies and traditions, identify new lines of research for potential clinical applications within medicine and psychiatry.
These exchanges will also provide an opportunity for scientists whose research is focused on basic mind-brain-body interactions to learn more about meditation and to contribute to an ongoing dialogue about the mechanisms by which meditation may influence physical and mental health.
The assembled scholars, clinicians and contemplatives will engage in a collective inquiry about what is known within a broad range of contemplative traditions that might be relevant to a deeper understanding of mind-brain-body connections, improved clinical interventions, and future directions for research. They will also explore potential biological mechanisms through which mental training, as instantiated in brain circuits, might influence peripheral biology in ways that are beneficial for health.
|
© Copyright 2005 Mind and Life Institute, Boulder, CO, USA. All rights reserved.
The Mind and Life Institute privacy policy statement is available for your review. |
| |
|
|
|
