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Open Presence, Selflessness and Compassion: Perspectives from Buddhism, Neuroscience, and Complexity Theory January 7-11, 2009, Upaya Zen Center

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Open Presence, Selflessness and Compassion: Perspectives from Buddhism, Neuroscience, and Complexity Theory January 7-11, 2009, Upaya Zen Center Open Presence, Selflessness and Compassion: Perspectives from Buddhism, Neuroscience, and Complexity Theory January 7-11, 2009, Upaya Zen Center Upaya’s 2009 program on neuroscience and meditation explores two core Buddhist practices: compassion and open presence (shikantaza in Zen, dzogchen in Vajrayana, choiceless awareness in Theravada). In recent years, neuroscientific studies of Buddhist meditators who practice the cultivation of compassion and non-referential presence, and the application of mathematical complexity theory in biology and neuroscience, have provided interesting perspectives on the Buddhist concepts of emptiness, impermanence, codependent arising, selflessness, and nonduality. In this retreat/seminar, Zen teachers, leading scientists who have contributed to this growing field of research (and are each long-term meditation practitioners), a philosopher, and a neuroscience writer, interactively share their perspectives on the relationships between Zen practice, Buddhism, neuroscience, and complex systems theory. Talks and discussion examine how these areas of scientific research are relevant for practice, and how experienced meditation practitioners can help sharpen the research questions being asked. Talks and discussion will be embedded with Zazen practice throughout each day. Science Journalist, author, and frequent New York Times contributor Sandra Blakeslee will provide an overview of how recent developments in neuroscience have changed the way we view the impact of various practices, including meditation, upon brain structure and function. Pathologist and biomedical scientist Neil Theise, M.D. (Albert Einstein College of Medicine) will explain how complexity theory has provided a new approach for understanding complex biological processes, and how these processes have intriguing relationships to Buddhist theory. Neuroscientist Richard Davidson, Ph.D. (University of Wisconsin) will provide an introduction to relevant aspects of brain science, and will describe his recent electroencephalographic and neuroimaging studies of long-term Buddhist practitioners, and of persons who receive short-term training in mindfulness-based stress reduction. In this description, he will explore the ways in which complexity theory may help in understanding the patterns of brain physiology he has observed, and the development of compassion in long-term meditators. Clinical neuropsychologist and neuroscientist Al Kaszniak, Ph.D. (University of Arizona) will provide perspectives on the relationship of neuroscience and complexity theory to the cultivation of empathy, compassion and realization of selflessness in Zen practice. Philosopher and cognitive scientist Evan Thompson, Ph.D. (University of Toronto) will discuss relationships between complex systems theory, the phenomenology and neuroscience of consciousness, and the development of insight in meditative practice. Clinical neurologist and neuroscientist James Austin, M.D. (Washington University and University of Colorado) will examine how neuroscience may help to understand the realization of selflessness in Zen practice, drawing from both his experience as a long- term Zazen practitioner, and as a clinical neuroscientist interested in relating brain science to an understanding of Zen transformative practice. Roshi Joan Halifax, Ph.D. will both guide Zazen practice periods throughout the retreat and provide reflection upon the relationships of scientific approaches to Zen tradition and practice. In discussions following scientific presentations, participants will have opportunities to both ask questions and to reflect on how the ideas and research described relate to their own experience in meditation practice. Bibliography Austin, J.H. (1998). Zen and the brain. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Austin, J.H. (2006). Zen-brain reflections. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Austin, J.H. (2009). Zen brain, selfless insight. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Begley, S. (2007). Train your mind, Change your brain. New York: Ballantine Books. Blakeslee, S., & Blakeslee, M. (2007). The body has a mind of its own: How body maps in your brain help you do (almost) everything better. New York: Random House. Davidson, R.J., & Harrington, A. (Eds.) ( 2002). Visions of compassion: Western scientists and Tibetan Buddhists examine human nature. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Davidson, R.J., Kabat-Zinn, J., Schumacher, J., Rosenkranz, R., Muller, D., Santorelli, S.F., Urbanowski, F., Harrington, A.,, Bonus, K., & Sheridan, J.F. (2003). Alterations in brain and immune function produced by mindfulness meditation. Psychosomatic Medicine, 65, 564-570. Ekman, P., Davidson, R.J., Ricard, M., & Wallace, B.A. (2005). Buddhist and psychological perspectives on emotions and well-being. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14, 59-63. Hameroff, S.R, Kaszniak, A.W., & Chalmers, D.J (Eds.) (1999). Toward a science of consciousness III: The third Tucson discussions and debates. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Kaszniak, A.W. (Ed.) (2001). Emotions, qualia, and consciousness. London: World Scientific. Lutz, A., Dunne, J.D., & Davidson, R.J. (2007). Meditation and the neuroscience of consciousness. In P. Zelazo, M. Moscovitch, & E. Thompson (Eds.), Cambridge Handbook of Consciousness (pp.499-551). New York: Cambridge University Press. Lutz, A., Greischar, L.L., Rawlings, N.B, Ricard, M., & Davidson, R.J. (2004). Long- term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 101, 16369-16373. Nielsen, L., & Kaszniak, A.W. (2006). Awareness of subtle emotional feelings: A comparison of long-term meditators and non-meditators. Emotion, Vol. 6, pp. 392-405. Siegel, D.J. (2007). The mindful brain: Reflection and attunement in the cultivation of well- being. New York: W.W. Norton. Theise, N.D. (2006). From the Bottom Up: Is science rewriting emptiness with the emerging field of complexity theory? What Buddhists can learn from ants, atoms, and physics. Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, 15 (2), 24 – 27. Theise, N.D. (2005). Now you see it, now you don’t. Nature, 435, 1165. Theise, N.D. (2003). Science as koan. Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, 12 (3): 81. Thompson, E. (2007). Mind in life: Biology, phenomenology, and the sciences of mind. Cambridge, MA: Belknap/Harvard University Press. Brief Faculty Biographies: Joan Halifax Roshi, Ph.D. Joan Halifax Roshi is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priest, anthropologist, and author. She is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya Zen Center, a Buddhist monastery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She received her Ph.D in medical anthropology in 1973. She has lectured on the subject of death and dying at many academic institutions, including Harvard Divinity School and Harvard Medical School, Georgetown Medical School, University of Virginia Medical School, Duke University Medical School, University of Connecticut Medical School, among many others. She received a National Science Foundation Fellowship in Visual Anthropology, and was an Honorary Research Fellow in Medical Ethnobotany at Harvard University. From 1972-1975, she worked with psychiatrist Stanislav Grof at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center on pioneering work with dying cancer patients, using LSD as an adjunct to psychotherapy. After the LSD project, she has continued to work with dying people and their families and to teach health care professionals as well as lay individuals on compassionate care of the dying. She is Director of the Project on Being with Dying and Founder and Director of the Upaya Prison Project that develops programs on meditation for prisoners. For the past twenty-five years, she has been active in environmental work. She studied for a decade with Zen Teacher Seung Sahn and was a teacher in the Kwan Um Zen School. She received the Lamp Transmission from Thich Nhat Hanh, and was given Inka by Roshi Bernie Glassman. A Founding Teacher of the Zen Peacemaker Order, her work and practice for more than three decades has focused on applied Buddhism. Her books include: The Human Encounter with Death (with Stanislav Grof); Shamanic Voices; Shaman: The Wounded Healer; The Fruitful Darkness; Simplicity in the Complex: A Buddhist Life in America; Being with Dying; and Wisdom Beyond Wisdom (with Kazuaki Tanashashi). James H. Austin, M.D. James Austin has spent most of his years as an academic neurologist, first at the University of Oregon Medical School and later at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. He is currently Clinical Professor of Neurology at University of Missouri Health Sciences Center. Dr. Austin's cultural background includes the first sabbatical spent in New Delhi, India; and the second spent in Kyoto, Japan, where he began Zen meditation training with an English-speaking Zen master, Kobori-Roshi, in 1974. He has a keen interest in the experimental designs and findings of investigators who are studying meditation and related states of consciousness. His early research background includes publications in the areas of clinical neurology, neuropathology, neurochemistry and neuropharmacology. Dr. Austin is the author of more than 140 professional publications, including three books on Zen and the brain (1996, 2006, 2009; All published by MIT Press). Sandra Blakeslee, B.A. Sandra Blakeslee received her undergraduate education at Northwestern University and the University of California at Berkeley. She is a regular contributor to The New York Times, specializing in the brain sciences. She has co-written several books,
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