Retreat/Seminar

Retreat Title: Zen Brain, Selfless Insight Dates: January 16 – 20, 2008 Location: The Upaya Zen Center 1404 Cerro Gordo Road Santa Fe, New Mexico 857501 www.upaya.org 505-986-8518 Organizers: Joan Halifax Roshi, Ph.D., Al Kaszniak, Ph.D.

Faculty: Joan Halifax Roshi, Ph.D. Zen Priest, Anthropologist and Author Founder and Abbot, Upaya Zen Center Alfred W. Kaszniak, Ph.D. Head, Department of Psychology Professor of Psychology, Neurology, & Psychiatry University of Arizona James Austin, M.D. Clinical Professor of Neurology, University of Missouri Health Sciences Center, and Emeritus Professor of Neurology University of Colorado Health Science Center Neil D. Theise, M.D. Professor of Pathology and Medicine Beth Israel Medical Center Albert Einstein College of Medicine Jason Buhle, B.A. Graduate Student Department of Psychology Columbia University

Attendees: Residents and practitioners in Upaya Zen Center Winter Ango

Brief Retreat/Seminar Description: Popular and scientific interest in the relationships between Buddhism and neuroscience has dramatically increased, accompanied by the publication of both theoretical proposals and new laboratory investigations relating Buddhist practice to the brain. In this retreat/seminar, Roshi and four scientists who have contributed to this growing field of research, and are each long-term Zazen practitioners, will interactively share with participants their perspectives on what has specifically been learned about Zen practice and the brain, how this research is relevant for practice, and how experienced practitioners can help sharpen the research questions being asked. During the retreat, discussion will be integrated with Zazen practice throughout each day. Rationale and Goals: There has been a dramatic recent increase in research and scholarship concerning Buddhism and neuroscience, as reflected in the publication of several recent books (e.g., James Austin’s Zen Brain Reflections [2006, MIT Press], B. Alan Wallace’s Contemplative Science [2007, Columbia University Press], Daniel Siegel’s The Mindful Brain [2007, W.W. Norton], Sharon Begley’s Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain [2007, Ballantine], and Richard Davidson’s and Anne Harrington’s [Eds.] Visions of Compassion [2002, Oxford University Press]). A major catalyst for this growing field of investigation has been the Mind and Life Institute efforts, including the annual Summer Research Institute, the Mind and Life meetings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Western scientists/scholars, a Research Fellowship program, and recent meditation retreats for scientists. The presently proposed “Zen Brain, Selfless Insight” retreat/seminar was organized to complement these Mind and Life Institute activities by focusing on theory and research relating neuroscience and Zen Buddhism, bringing together five scientists/scholars, each of whom have a long-term Zen practice, with Upaya Zen Center residents and other Zen practitioners in several days of interactive dialog and Zazen meditation practice. A central component in the rationale for this retreat/seminar is the desire to facilitate greater understanding of relevant neuroscientific research among experienced Zen practitioners, and enable the input of these practitioners into the planning of future studies. The format will include several periods of meditation practice each day, interspersed with seminar-style presentations/discussions led by the faculty. The goals of this retreat/seminar are: (1) To provide the venue for a contemplative exploration of the theoretical foundations, prior scientific observations, and future research opportunities relating Zen practice and neuroscience; (2) To mindfully examine the implications of neuroscientific research for Zen practitioners; (3) To enable experienced Zen practitioners to better understand the theories, research approaches (including demonstrations of the actual tasks of recent and planned experiments), and research accomplishments relating Zen and the brain, and to encourage their contributions to a sharpening of hypotheses and research methods for future studies; (4) To provide a written summary, delivered to the Mind and Life Institute Board of Directors, including new research directions that emerge from the retreat/seminar interactions; and (5) To submit for consideration, by the Program Committee for the 2008 Mind and Life Summer Research Institute (MLSRI), a proposal for a platform or poster presentation summarizing the retreat/seminar. Given Goal #5, a particular (although not exclusive) emphasis of the retreat/seminar will be on Zen and the neuroscience of attention and emotion (consistent with the thematic organization of the 2008 MLSRI). Success in meeting the above goals will be assessed by a written documentation of the advice of participants regarding both hypotheses and research methods for future studies, other participant verbal feedback, and written questionnaire completion by participants on the final morning of the retreat (including their evaluation of whether the retreat had enhanced their understanding of relevant neuroscientific approaches and had any impact on whether they would consider participation in future research). Feedback will also be requested from the Mind and Life Board of Directors. Dependent upon both the feedback received and the nature of what emerges during the retreat, consideration will be given to preparation of a summary manuscript, co-authored by the retreat/seminar organizers, to be submitted for publication.

Tentative Retreat/Seminar Schedule: Wed., 1/16 Thurs., 1/17 Fri., 1/18 Sat., 1/19 Sun., 1/20 7:00 am Zazen Zazen Zazen Zazen 8:00 Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast Breakfast 9:00 – Samu Samu Samu Samu 10:30 10:30- Rest Rest Rest Rest 11:00 11:00 Zazen Zazen Zazen Council/ –1:00 Feedback 1:00 Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch 2:00 – Zazen Zazen Zazen Departures 2:30 2:30 – Arrivals Research Research Research Departures 3:30 Presentation Presentation Presentation (Zen & (Attention, (Biological Neuroscience, Emotion & Zen, Complexity & led by J. Austin) led by A. Zen Practice, led Kaszniak & J. by N. Theise) Buhle) 3:30 – Orientation Demonstration Demonstration Demonstration 4:30 to Retreat of Research of Research of Research Schedule, Methods Methods Methods Goals, & (Neuroimaging) (Attention & (Neuroendocrine Teachers & discussion Emotion) & & Cellular) & discussion discussion 4:30 – Rest Rest Rest Rest 5:30 5:30 – Zazen Zazen Zazen Zazen 6:30 6:30 Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner 7:45 – Zazen Summary Summary Summary 8:30 Comments; Comments; Comments; Zazen (Roshi) Zazen (Roshi) Zazen (Roshi) 8:30 Retire (or Retire (or Retire (or Retire (or optional optional Zazen) optional Zazen) optional Zazen) Zazen)

Faculty Brief 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).

Alfred W. Kaszniak, Ph.D. Al Kaszniak, received his Ph.D. in clinical and developmental psychology from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1976, and completed an internship in clinical neuropsychology at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago. He is currently Head of the Department of Psychology, Director of Clinical Neuropsychology, Director of the Arizona Alzheimer's Consortium Education Core, and a professor in the departments of psychology, neurology, and psychiatry at The University of Arizona. His research, published in over 150 journal articles, chapters and books, has been supported by grants from the NIH, NIMH, and several private foundations. His work has focused on the neuropsychology of Alzheimer's disease and other age-related neurological disorders, memory self-monitoring, the biological bases of emotion, and emotion response and regulation in long-term Zen and Vipassana meditators. His 2006 paper (co-authored with Lis Nielsen) in the journal Emotion is entitled, Awareness of subtle emotional feelings: A comparison of long-term meditators and non-meditators.

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: Zen and the Brain: Toward and Understanding of Meditation an Consciousness (The MIT Press, 1998); Chase, Chance, and Creativity: The Lucky Art of Novelty (Columbia University Press, 1979, 1985); and most recently Zen-Brain Reflections (The MIT Press, 2006). His forthcoming book is entitled, Zen Brain, Selfless Insight.

Neil D. Theise, M.D. Neil Theise is a diagnostic liver pathologist and adult stem cell researcher in New York City, where he is Professor of Pathology and of Medicine at the Beth Israel Medical Center of Albert Einstein College of Medicine. His research revised understandings of human liver microanatomy, which, in turn, led directly to identification of possible liver stem cell niches and the marrow-to-liver regeneration pathway. He is considered a pioneer of multi-organ adult stem cell plasticity and has published on that topic in Science, Nature, and Cell. Subsequently, while continuing laboratory and clinical research, he has extended his work to areas of theoretical biology and complexity theory, defining a "post-modern biology." These ideas suggest that alternate models of the body, other than Cell Doctrine, may be necessary to understand non-Western approaches to the body and health. Current laboratory investigations focus on nerve-stem cell interactions in human livers, melatonin-related physiology of human liver stem cell and regenerative processes, and aspects of human liver stem cell activation in acute, fulminant hepatic failure. His 2004 article in Tricycle magazine is entitled, From the Bottom Up: Is science rewriting emptiness with the emerging field of complexity theory? What Buddhists can learn from ants, atoms, and physics.

Jason Buhle, B.A. Jason Buhle is a graduate student in the Department of Psychology at Columbia University in New York, conducting functional brain imaging research within the Social/Cognitive/Affective Neuroscience Unit of Columbia University. He is the recipient of a 2005 Francisco J. Varela Memorial Grant from the Mind and Life Institute, to study attention and emotion regulation in advanced Zen meditators. His 2006 paper (co-authored with Dr. A. Raz) in the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience is entitled, Typologies of attentional networks, and his presentation at the 2007 annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society was entitled Expert meditators show enhanced vigilance, alerting and conflict resolution.