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Nonduality Institute presents

The Nature of Mind: Clear Light Awareness
Implications for Scientific Research into Consciousness and Wellbeing


A recurring theme in Asian contemplative traditions is the teaching about clear light awareness as the nature of mind or consciousness that abides in the background of all our experience. This spontaneous, natural luminosity of our own fundamental nature is beyond cognitive constructs and emotional grasping. In contemporary neuroscience, consciousness is still considered somewhat of a mystery, something that has been challenging to research and difficult to conceptualize.

This panel brings together some of the leading thinkers in the fields of religion, philosophy and neuroscience to explore the relevance of Buddhist and Hindu views about clear light awareness for contemporary research in consciousness and wellbeing. An enhanced understanding of consciousness could optimize both the scientific research, and the clinical approaches to general well-being and treatment of various disorders.

With panelists:

Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, Founder and Spiritual Director, Ligmincha Institute
Robert Thurman, PhD, President, Tibet House, U.S.; Jey Tsong Kappa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Studies, Columbia University
Bernard J. Baars, PhD, Senior Fellow in Theoretical Neurobiology, The Neurosciences Institute
Jonathan Shear, PhD, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Virginia Commonwealth University

Moderated by
Zoran Josipovic, PhD, Founding Director, Nonduality Institute; Principal Investigator & Director, Contemplative Science Lab–New York University
Robert Thurman, PhD
Jonathan Shear, PhD
Bernard Baars, PhD
Zoran Josipovic, PhD

 

Wednesday, June 6, 7-9PM
General:$25 / Members$22      click here to register 

 

About the Panelist:

 

Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, founder and spiritual director of Ligmincha Institute, is an acclaimed author as well as a highly respected and beloved teacher to students throughout the United States, Mexico and Europe. Fluent in English, Tenzin Rinpoche is renowned for his depth of wisdom; his clear, engaging teaching style; and his ability to make the ancient Tibetan teachings highly accessible and relevant to the lives of Westerners.   

 

 

 

 

Robert Thurman is Professor of Indo-Tibetan Studies at Columbia University, President of Tibet House U.S., a popular lecturer on Tibetan Buddhism, the translator of many philosophical treatises and sutras, and author of numerous books including the national bestseller, Inner Revolution: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Real Happiness; Anger, the fifth book from a series on the Seven Deadly Sins, offered by The New York Public Library and Oxford University Press. His most recent book is titled Why the Dalai Lama Matters: His Act of Truth as the Solution for China, Tibet, and the World, published by Atria Books/Beyond Words.

 

 

 

Bernard J. Baars, PhD  is best known as the originator of the global workspace theory, a theory of human cognitive architecture and consciousness. Dr. Baars is an affiliated fellow in Theoretical Neurobiology at The Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla, CA. He co-founded the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness, and the Academic Press journal Consciousness & Cognition. Dr. Baars is the author of a number of books on consciousness, including the classic: A Cognitive Theory of Consciousness, and the textbook Cognition, Brain and Consciousness: An Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience. http://vesicle.nsi.edu/users/baars/

 

 

 

Jonathan Shear, PhD is affiliated associate professor of philosophy at VCU, where he has taught since 1987. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of California at Berkeley, and was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow there, and a Fulbright Scholar in philosophy of science at the London School of Economics. Since the early 1960’s his work has focused on the use of meditation practices and related scientific research to expand our knowledge of human consciousness. He has published and lectured widely in North America, Europe and Asia, and was the founding managing editor of the Journal of Consciousness Studies. http://www.has.vcu.edu/phi/Faculty/Shear.html

 

 

 

Zoran Josipovic, PhD is a founding director of Nonduality Institute, and the director of the Contemplative Science Laboratory at New York University. A research associate and adjunct professor in the Psychology Department and Center for Neural Science, NYU, Zoran is interested in states of consciousness cultivated through contemplative practice, what these states can tell us about the nature of consciousness and its relation to authentic subjectivity, and what relevance this may have for understanding the global and local organization in the brain. Zoran is a long-time meditation practitioner in the Dzogchen, Zen and Advaita Vedanta traditions. http://psych.nyu.edu/josipovic/

 

 

Nonduality Institute is a non-profit center in New York City dedicated to the practice and scientific study of nondual awakening. We offer a direct method of nondual realization that opens the body, heart and mind to nondual reality. Our scientific research into the neural correlates of nondual realization contributes to the understanding of the nature of consciousness, and the brain’s functioning in optimal states of wellbeing.  Visit us at http://www.nondualityinstitute.org/

  

 

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