His Holiness at the Mind and Life conference
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama has been delivering a full programme of teachings and meetings during January, here in India.
He took part in the conference: Mind and Life XXVI: ‘Mind, Brain and Matter – Critical Conversations Between Buddhist Thought and Science’, held from January 17-22 at the Drepung Lachi Monastery in Mundgod Tibetan settlement, Karnataka state, where there were extensive discussions with some of the world’s top scientists and philosophers on topics ranging from quantum physics to neuroscience to Buddhist and Western understanding of consciousness.
The six-day event brought together 20 of the world’s foremost scientists and philosophers with His Holiness and other
Mind and Life Conference
senior Tibetan scholars in the attendance of several thousand monks and nuns from numerous Tibetan monastic centres of learning. The conference addressed questions of mutual interest, and challenges such as the fundamental nature of our physical world, the problem of consciousness, the nature and workings of our mind, and the interface of contemplative practice and scientific research.
It provided an opportunity to study the classical Buddhist philosophical methods of inquiry as well as topics in quantum physics, neuroscience, and Buddhist and contemporary Western views of consciousness. The conference also offered an educational forum, whereby monastic students can learn about the historical development of science, and how science has come to shape the way we understand our world.
The conference was jointly organised by Mind and Life Institute, Emory- Tibet Science Initiative, and the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama with Ven Prof Ngawang Samten releasing new books published by the Central University for Tibetan Studies
Earlier in January, His Holiness met a group of Vietnamese Buddhists at the Buddha Smriti Park, and attended the International Buddhist Sangha conference in Patna. Following this, He gave a four day teaching at Sarnath, near the Central University of Tibetan Studies, Utter Pradesh, based on Shantideva’s ‘A Guide to the Boddhisattva’s Way of Life’ (Chodjung), attended by many thousands of people. Bodhisattva vows were taken, and prayers said for His Holiness’s long life to which he responded: “For as long as I am able to serve, I aspire to live long”. On the last day of his teaching, he said, “Vasubhandu has divided the buddha’s teaching into the scriptural and the experiential and we’ll be able to preserve it if we engage in study and practice, which involves hearing the teaching explained and thinking it over again and again, then meditating on what you’ve understood.”
On 11 January, His Holiness addressed the Central University for Tibetan Studies, on the theme of ‘Seeing Jesus and the Buddha as teachers, and the role of the disciple’. He also visited the Alice Project School, and the Inaugurates Conference on ‘Buddhism and Society’ at Sarnath.
In Delhi on 14 Jan, he participated in the ‘Dialogue on Science, Ethics and Education’. In this Dialogue the discussion included business, human greed, corruption, education, and Tibetan relations with India on the preservation of Buddhism, violence and non-violence, and Indian secular ideas.
He then flew to Goa to visit Ling Rinpoche (the Reincarnation of His Tutor), who was recovering well after a recent road accident.
At the end of the month, His Holiness spoke at the prestigious DSC Jaipur Literature Festival held at the heritage property, Diggi Palace in the Rajasthani capital of Jaipur. The theme of this year’s Festival is ‘The Buddha in Literature’.
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