SCIENCE OF MEDITATION – Neuroscientists measure alpha brain waves of a Buddhist monk, deep in meditation. (Courtesy photo)
The event follows a two-day private summit, held at the request of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, focused on building a closer collaboration between meditation and neuroscience, featuring a panel discussion with professors from Emory, Stanford and the University of Michigan, examining key concepts such as compassion, suffering, mindfulness and other terms from a multidisciplinary standpoint. The conference comes at an important time, as the increasing sophistication of neuro-imaging and other tools are exploring questions of mental life that interface with the Buddhist contemplative tradition, which has a long history of systematic inquiry into the nature and functions of the human mind.
Led by Geshe Dr. Thupten Jinpa Langri of CCARE, Tibetan scholar and chief translator for the Dalai Lama, and co-directed by Dr. Richard Davidson, Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin, the conference is gathering esteemed members of the psychology, neuroscience and contemplative scholarship community to forge a lexicon on the language of mental life, one that can aid future research by better defining key terms, concepts and practices into a common framework.
The July 9 public presentation will feature presentations from Geshe Dr. Thupten Jinpa, Dr. Brian Knutson, Dr. David Meyer and Dr. Philippe Goldin; it will be moderated by the founder and director of CCARE, Dr. James R. Doty.
The public event will offer an engaging evening, with appetizers, cash bar and an opportunity to mingle with conference participants and hosts following the presentation. The public event is free, but space is limited and seats are expected to fill up fast.
For anyone especially interested in this conference and actively engaged in the disciplines of Buddhism, neuroscience, psychology, or related fields, or in supporting CCARE in this Lexicon Project, please apply to be a VIP participants for invitations to some or all of the private conference events. Call the reservation number and specify your interest as a VIP, or, contact Jonathan Barfield at 970-708-5149 or by emailing Jonathan@tellurideinstitute.org. For more information contact Teresa Frank at teresadelamesa@gmail.com. Make your reservation today with the Telluride Institute to ensure your presence by calling 970/728-8312.
The J. Craig Venter Institute recently announced the successful creation of a synthetic bacterium, prompting comprehensive review by the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical issues - with findings and recommendations to be reported within six months to President Barack Obama. On May 27, 2010, the U. S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce held hearings entitled "Developments in Synthetic Genomics and Implications for Health and Energy."
"Given the importance of this issue, I request that the Commission consult with a range of constituencies, including scientific and medical communities, faith communities, and business and nonprofit organizations." - President Barack Obama.
Creation of synthetic bacteria in the age of cosmic genealogy on Earth has far-reaching meaning and import ranging from human genomics and reverence for life to all spectra of bioscience and biophilosophy. (In 1859, Louis Pasteur's pivotal work in disproving spontaneous generation of life began the age of cosmic genealogy on Earth, increasingly more pronounced in modern times owing to emergent astrobiology (merging biology and astronomy) as pioneered and led by the late Sir Fred Hoyle, by Chandra Wickramasinghe, Brig Klyce, Halton C. Arp, and others.)
"Craig Venter's successful implantation of a digitally determined genome sequence into a bacterium has been widely reported (29 May, p 6). Now imagine a future where a successor to Venter is able to digitally reconstruct a set of the best possible sequences of human genomes and incorporate them, in pieces, into bacteria that could autonomously reproduce the sequences.
If these bacteria were then launched into space, the fragmented genome could be reassembled on countless habitable planets in the galaxy. This would be a process similar to that outlined in the theory of directed panspermia proposed in 1973 by Francis Crick and Leslie Orgel (Icarus, vol 19, p 341).
Carried on comets, these bacteria could travel from one planetary system to the next, where the genome could reproduce. The legacy of human life could then be thought to have been given an eternal existence in the cosmos." - Intergalactic Legacy (New Scientist, 9 June 2010) by Chandra Wickramasinghe, Director, Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology.
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"The first message from an intelligent extraterrestrial civilisation may not emerge from a radio telescope but, instead, from a DNA sequencing machine." - John Walker, Fourmilab Switzerland.
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"Life comes from space because life comes life." - Brig Klyce, Astrobiology Research Trust.
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"The greatest discoveries of science have always been those that forced us to rethink our beliefs about the universe and our place in it." - Robert L. Park, University of Maryland (in The New York Times, 7 December 1999).
In keeping with the promise and gift of intelligent life, universal forelaws of empathy and compassion - empirical attributes of cosmic genealogy seated within the genome of humankind and all intelligent life - expressly highlight and define reference for life underlying: evolutionary panaltruism and human unity, the age of cosmic genealogy on Earth, the cosmic community of intelligent life, and intelligent life reciprocally propagated from infinity to infinity by intelligent life. www.forelawsonboard.net/
In forelawsship on board,
Robert E. Cobb
Forelaws on Board
www.forelawsonboard.net