Upcoming Confernce on NonDuality

[Guest guest]

from Jerry Katz nondualitysalon

 

..a conference is scheduled to be held in San Francisco in October, 2009. It

will be open to the public.

 

 

There is a section called Buddhism, Nonduality, and Science. Below are some

potential speakers. None of them have been contacted and they may be neither

available nor interested. Let me know your opinions and suggestions for other

speakers in this area. Looking for speakers coming from nonduality more than

higher consciousness or self-development. They should be in the Buddhist

tradition, highly qualified, and preferably scientists with the academic

credentials, considering the nature of the conference. Send this to anyone who

you think is qualified and have them contact me. Thank you. --Jerry Katz

 

 

 

The Dalai Lama, Robert Thurman, Jack Kornfield, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche: any one

of them would be great in this category, if we could book one of them. Other

people more directly in the sciences, along with a brief quote from each one,

include

 

 

 

James H. Austin, M.D. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_H._Austin

 

Q. What is your opinion of the current explosion of scientific work on

consciousness, and of the many books which now attempt to explain it?

 

Your question underlines a current dilemma. We already suffer from too many

things to do, to read, to listen to, and to see. Again, part of the problem is

that many writers in field start with their own different definition of

consciousness. (The same Webster's dictionary lists five.) One outcome is our

present information overload. This confusing situation was anticipated by

Ehrensvard, when he said: "Consciousness will always be one degree above

comprehensibility."

 

Zen has been available for centuries. But until recent decades, the scientific

community did not understand the message, or chose to ignore it. In what way can

Zen make its age-old contribution to the study of consciousness? By inviting us

to ask the naïve and seemingly incredible question: what is this world really

like without our self-referent self witnessing the picture? Putting it another

way, suppose a brain drops off all its subjective veils of self-consciousness.

What then does the rest of its awareness -- pure, objective consciousness --

perceive?

 

 

 

B. Alan Wallace http://www.alanwallace.org/index.htm

 

"The theory of emptiness is relatively simple, whereas the Buddhist theory of

karma, or of actions and their results from life to life, is extremely complex.

A satisfactory understanding of the process underlying the commonality of our

experience and of the causal interactions among phenomena can be gained only

through prolonged study and contemplative inquiry. As one's insight into

emptiness deepens, understanding of the interdependent nature of events is

enhanced. And as one investigates more closely the interactions among phenomena,

their lack of inherent existence becomes increasingly apparent."

 

Arthur Zajonc http://www.arthurzajonc.org/About.php

 

 

"But you discover with the Buddhist scholars and the Dalai Lama that you don't

get pieties. The response you get is the fruit of thousands of years, literally

2,000 years, of contemplative practice and intellectual effort, with lots of

sophistication. All the big issues are present in their treatment of mind or

ethics, together with a nuanced discussion of consciousness. So a kind of joy

starts to creep in that sometimes becomes almost intoxicating in the small group

discussions. You'll start to experience the way the Buddhists are handling the

question, the way the Dalai Lama is chiming in, the way the scientists are

performing right at the top of their level. They're asking all the hardest

questions of themselves and everyone is willing to be vulnerable. The Buddhists

are not taking advantage of the scientist's vulnerability. They're speaking

right into it with their most precious thoughts and their own questions. You

think, "This is research. This is research at the highest possible human level.

This is what we're designed to do, not just think clever thoughts, but deep

thoughts, large thoughts, and compassionate thoughts, to act compassionately,

and be good to one another. And have fun while we're doing it."

 

Who else would you recommend?