APPENDIX

About the Mind and Life Institute

The Mind and Life dialogues between His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Western scientists were brought to life through a collaboration between R. Adam Engle, a North American businessman, and Dr. Francisco J. Varela, a Chilean-born neuroscientist living and working in Paris. In 1983, both men independently had the initiative to create a series of cross-cultural meetings between His Holiness and Western scientists.

Engle, a Buddhist practitioner since 1974, had become aware of His Holiness’s long-standing and keen interest in science, and his desire to both deepen his understanding of Western science and to share his understanding of Eastern contemplative science with Westerners. In 1983 Engle began work on this project, and in the autumn of 1984, Engle and Michael Sautman met with His Holiness’s youngest brother, Tendzin Choegyal (Ngari Rinpoche), in Los Angeles and presented their plan to create a weeklong cross-cultural scientific meeting. Rinpoche graciously offered to take the matter up with His Holiness. Within days, Rinpoche reported that His Holiness would very much like to participate in such a discussion and authorized plans for the first meeting.

Varela, also a Buddhist practitioner since 1974, had met His Holiness at an international meeting in 1983, the Alpbach Symposia on Consciousness. Their communication was immediate. His Holiness was keenly interested in science but had little opportunity for discussion with brain scientists who had some understanding of Tibetan Buddhism. This encounter led to a series of informal discussions over the next few years; through these conversations, His Holiness expressed the desire to have more extensive, planned time for mutual discussion and inquiry.

In the spring of 1985, Dr. Joan Halifax, then the director of the Ojai Foundation, and a friend of Varela, became aware that Engle and Sautman were moving forward with their meeting plans. She contacted them on Varela’s behalf and suggested that they all work together to organize the first meeting collaboratively. The four gathered at the Ojai Foundation in October of 1985 and agreed to go forward jointly. They decided to focus on the scientific disciplines that address mind and life, since these disciplines might provide the most fruitful interface with the Buddhist tradition. That insight provided the name of the project, and, in time, of the Mind and Life Institute itself.

It took two more years of work and communication with the Private Office of His Holiness before the first meeting was held in Dharamsala in October 1987. During this time, the organizers collaborated closely to find a useful structure for the meeting. Varela, acting as scientific coordinator, was primarily responsible for the scientific content of the meeting, issuing invitations to scientists, and editing of a volume from transcripts of the meeting. Engle, acting as general coordinator, was responsible for fundraising, relations with His Holiness and his office, and all other aspects of the project. This division of responsibility between general and scientific coordinators has been part of the organizational strategy for all subsequent meetings. While Dr. Varela has not been the scientific coordinator of all of the meetings, he has remained a guiding force in the Mind and Life Institute, which was formally incorporated in 1990 with Engle as its chairman.

A word is in order here concerning these conferences’ unique character. The bridges that can mutually enrich traditional Buddhist thought and modern life sciences are notoriously difficult to build. Varela had a first taste of these difficulties while helping to establish a science program at Naropa Institute, a liberal arts institution created by Tibetan meditation master Chögyam Trungpa as a meeting ground between Western traditions and contemplative studies. In 1979 the program received a grant from the Sloan Foundation to organize what was probably the very first conference of its kind: “Comparative Approaches to Cognition: Western and Buddhist.” Some twenty-five academics from prominent North American institutions convened. Their disciplines included mainstream philosophy, cognitive science (neurosciences, experimental psychology, linguistics, artificial intelligence), and, of course, Buddhist studies. The gathering’s difficulties served as a hard lesson on the organizational care and finesse that a successful cross-cultural dialogue requires.

Thus in 1987, wishing to avoid some of the pitfalls encountered during the Naropa experience, several operating principles were adopted that have contributed significantly to the success of the Mind and Life series. These include: choosing open-minded and competent scientists who ideally have some familiarity with Buddhism; creating fully participatory meetings where His Holiness is briefed on general scientific background from a nonpartisan perspective before discussion is opened; employing gifted translators like Dr. Thupten Jinpa, Dr. Alan Wallace, and Dr. Jose Cabezón, who are comfortable with scientific vocabulary in both Tibetan and English; and finally creating a private, protected space where relaxed and spontaneous discussion can proceed away from the Western media’s watchful eye.

The first Mind and Life Conference took place in October of 1987 in Dharamsala. The conference focused on the basic groundwork of modern cognitive science, the most natural starting point for a dialogue between the Buddhist tradition and modern science. The curriculum for the first conference introduced broad themes from cognitive science, including scientific method, neurobiology, cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence, brain development, and evolution. In attendance were Jeremy Hayward (physics and philosophy of science), Robert Livingston (neuroscience and medicine), Eleonor Rosch (cognitive science), and Newcomb Greenleaf (computer science). At the concluding session, the Dalai Lama asked that the dialogue continue in biennial conferences. Mind and Life I was published as Gentle Bridges: Conversations with the Dalai Lama on the Sciences of Mind, edited by Jeremy Hayward and Francisco Varela (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1992). The volume has been translated into French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Japanese, Chinese, and Thai.

Following Mind and Life II (the subject of the present volume), Mind and Life III was held in Dharamsala in 1990. Daniel Goleman (psychology) served as the scientific coordinator. He chose to focus on the relationship between emotions and health. Participants included Dan Brown (experimental psychology), Jon Kabat-Zinn (medicine), Clifford Saron (neuroscience), Lee Yearly (philosophy), and Francisco Varela (immunology and neuroscience). Mind and Life III was published as Healing Emotions: Conversations with the Dalai Lama on Mindfulness, Emotions, and Health, edited by Daniel Goleman (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1997). That volume has been translated into French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Japanese, Chinese, Dutch, Italian, and Polish.

During Mind and Life III a new mode of exploration emerged: participants initiated a research project to investigate the neurobiological effects of meditation on long-term meditators. To facilitate such research, the Mind and Life network was created to connect other scientists interested in both Eastern contemplative experience and Western science. With seed money from the Hershey Family Foundation, the Mind and Life Institute was born. The Fetzer Institute funded two years of network expenses and the initial stages of the research project. Research continues on various topics such as attention and emotional response.

The fourth Mind and Life Conference met in Dharamsala in October 1992, with Francisco Varela again acting as scientific coordinator. The dialogue focused on the areas of sleep, dreams, and the process of dying. Participants were Charles Taylor (philosophy), Jerome Engel (medicine), Joan Halifax (anthropology, death and dying), Jayne Gackenbach (psychology of lucid dreaming), and Joyce McDougall (psychoanalysis). The account of this conference is now available as Sleeping, Dreaming and Dying: An Exploration of Consciousness with the Dalai Lama, edited by Francisco J. Varela (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1997). That volume has been translated into French, Spanish, German, Japanese, and Chinese.

Mind and Life V was held again in Dharamsala in October 1994. The topic was altruism, ethics, and compassion, with Richard Davidson as the scientific coordinator. In addition to Dr. Davidson, participants included Nancy Eisenberg (child development), Robert Frank (altruism in economics), Anne Harrington (history of science), Elliott Sober (philosophy), and Ervin Staub (psychology and group behavior). The volume covering this meeting, Visions of Compassion, was published by the Oxford University Press in December 2001.

Mind and Life VI opened a new area of exploration beyond the previous focus on life sciences. The meeting took place in Dharamsala in October, with Arthur Zajonc as the scientific coordinator. This conference focused on the new physics and cosmology. The participants, in addition to Dr. Zajonc, were David Finkelstein (physics), George Greenstein (astronomy), Piet Hut (astrophysics), Tu Weiming (philosophy), and Anton Zeilinger (quantum physics). The volume covering this meeting, The New Physics and Cosmology, was published by Oxford University Press in March 2004.

The dialogue on quantum physics was continued at a smaller meeting held at Anton Zeilinger’s laboratories at the Institute for Experimental Physics in Innsbruck, Austria, in June 1998. Present were His Holiness, Drs. Zeilinger and Zajonc, and interpreters Wallace and Jinpa. That meeting was written up in the cover story of January 1999 issue of GEO magazine of Germany.

In March 2000, the next meeting was held in Dharamsala, with Daniel Goleman as scientific coordinator. The discussion returned to cognitive sciences, with a focus on destructive emotions.