International workshop on Buddhism and Science at Toronto in April 2013

[U of T Buddhism & Psychology Student Union]

Dear BPSU Members,

There will be a graduate level workshop on Buddhism & Science in Toronto in April 2013. Dr. Geoffrey Samuel has graciously offered a few limited seats for very seriously committed undergraduate students. Please refer to message below. If interested, please email Dr. Geoffrey Samuel <Sam...@cardiff.ac.uk> and cc to Ms. Sarah Richardson <sarah...@gmail.com>. 

Thank you,

Joseph 

BPSU President. 

International workshop on Buddhism and Science at Toronto in April 2013. 

The workshop, which is organised by the Department of Historical and Cultural Studies at the University of Toronto Scarborough with the generous support of the Tung Lin Kok Yuen Perspectives on Buddhist Thought and Culture Series, will run from Friday the 12^th to Sunday the 14^th of April, 2013. It will consist of presentations by a small number of invited participants, with the emphasis on providing extended time for discussion. Graduate students from the University of Toronto and other local universities will also be invited to attend and join in the discussion. 

The intention of the conference is to look critically at the dialogue so far between Buddhism and contemporary science, with particular focus on the Mind and Life Institute dialogues, and to examine specific areas where it appears difficult to resolve the conflicts between Western scientific and Buddhist approaches. The event is deliberately pluralist and interdisciplinary, in terms of the different approaches of the participants, including scientists, social scientists and humanities scholars. Our central focus is however on the possibilities of a mutual, non-reductionist translation between Buddhist and Western scientific modes of understanding of consciousness and its place within human society and the planetary ecology.

 

We are particularly hoping to encourage dialogue in relation to the following areas, though this list is not intended to exclude other possible areas of contribution.

 

1.    Neuroscience and the cognitive science of religion: what have they achieved. In what ways are they (in)adequate as an account of human consciousness? How can they contribute to a meaningful dialogue?

2.    Mindfulness-based and other therapies; how far can these be translated into Western terms? What might get lost in the process?

3.    Tibetan medicine, particularly its religious aspects (e.g Tantric healing, medicine empowerment), shamanic healing and spirit healing. Can we make sense of these in a scientific context?

4.    Tibetan and other Buddhist understandings of consciousness (including meditational and yogic processes, the subtle body and issues of rebirth, and of mind as not dependent on a material base). How can we make sense of these within?

5.    Tibetan and other Buddhist understandings of emotions (again including meditational and yogic processes) and neuroscience (including neuroendocrinology).

6.    “Non-neurotypical” modes of consciousness (e.g. on the autistic spectrum; perhaps also “alternate states of consciousness” more generally). How might we incorporate these alternative modes of human engagement with the world within Buddhist and/or scientific understandings of consciousness?

7.    Non-dual Śaiva tantra as a parallel basis to Buddhism for illuminating and extending Western science.

Research Group on the Body, Health and Religion (BAHAR)
School of History, Archaeology and Religion, Cardiff University,
Humanities Bldg, Colum Drive, Cardiff CF10 3EU, UK
http://www.bodyhealthreligion.org.uk/BAHAR/
2012-13 Tung Lin Kok Yuen Visiting Professor at University of Toronto Scarborough
http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/~hcs/projects/tlky.html
New book: Introducing Tibetan Buddhism, out May 2012.
http://www.taylorandfrancis.com/books/details/9780415456654/