Tibetan monastics and a neuroscientist: Some lessons learned and others taught
By Guest Contributor Brian Dias, PhD Imagine your day starting out near the Northern Indian town of Dharamshala with thirty minutes of spiritual chanting and meditation among Tibetan Buddhist monastics. Now you follow that by spending the whole day teaching Neuroscience to these same monastics. “Bliss”, “introspection”, “questioning”, “challenging” and “why” are some of the words that may come to mind. They certainly did for me while I had the privilege of being a Neuroscience faculty member as part of the Emory Tibet Science Initiative (ETSI) this past summer in India. Other faculty members included Dr. Melvin Konner (Evolutionary Anthropology, Emory University), Dr. Ann Kruger (Developmental Psychologist, GSU) and Dr. Carol Worthman (Medical Anthropology, Emory University). An audience with His Holiness The XIV Dalai Lama, and teaching monastics in Dharamshala, India. I intend to use this blog post to shed light on the intersection of Buddhist philosophy and western science ...