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Mind and Life XXX - Perceptions, Concepts and Self
person
Don't believe everything you thinkThe liminal space Veteran
For those who like the convergence of Buddhism and science, the Mind and Life conference met for the 30th time with HHDL a few months ago, this time on the topics of perception, concepts and self. There are 8 sessions over 2 hours each, so there is a lot of good material here. I've just started watching but so far this looks like it will be really interesting.
You can stream the sessions or download them at HHDL's website
http://www.dalailama.com/webcasts/post/350-perceptions-concepts-and-self---mind-and-life-xxx
I'll update once I've watched it all, but I'd be interested to hear what anyone else has to say about it too.
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Comments
This meeting held up to my expectations, as far as these conferences go I think this one was probably my second favorite behind the 18th attention, memory and mind.
Don't be scared away by Thubten Jinpa's presentation during the first session, he uses lots of big philosophical words and was hard for someone without a strong background in the area to follow, the rest of the presenters were more accessible.
I especially liked the 4th session where the presenter Lera Boroditsky showed the ways that language and culture shape the way we perceive the world. For example, people who read from left to right conceive of time as progressing from left to right while those who read from right to left or top to bottom (Mandarin) conceive of time in that way. There are lots of ways that we perceive the world that we may take for granted but aren't actually baked into reality.
The 5th session was a couple really great presentations of no self and would probably qualify as Dharma teachings in themselves.
Then to finish up there were some presentations about how the Tibetan monastic community was integrating science into their curriculum. For me personally it was really nice to see some examples of how they are willing to modernize and face the world of today rather than retreat into their monasteries and cling to the past.
If anyone else decides to watch it I'd love to discuss some of the points raised, which were many.
Wow...what a good wrap up...I'm in!
My week-end watching, it will be!
Be back later to talk/discuss