Upcoming Partnership Events

More to come soon!

Previous Partnership Events

More information can be found under this table.

Date	Partner(s)	Event	Format
11th – 18th October 2025 Dharamsala, India	Mind & Life Institute	Dialogue XXXIX: Minds, Artificial Intelligence, and Ethics	Hybrid (online and in person)
13th – 25th March 2025	Pioneers of Change	9th Pioneers of Change Online Summit	Online
19th – 23rd June 2024 University of Padova, Italy	International Society for Contemplative Research, University of Padova & Italian Buddhist Union Research Center, Italy	2nd Annual Conference of the International Society for Contemplative Research	In person
May – December 2024	University of Iceland	Training Embodied Critical Thinking and Understanding International Programme	Hybrid (online and in person)
24th – 26th May 2024 La Hulpe, Brussels	MLE Association members: Valentine Goblet & Charles-Antoine Janssen	Dialogue Between Scientists and Tsoknyi Rinpoche	In person
24th – 26th May 2024 Upaya Zen Center, USA	Upaya Zen Center	VARELA INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM: Sentience and Intelligence: AI, the More-Than-Human, and Us	Online
7th – 19th March, 2024	Pioneers of Change	8th Pioneers of Change Online Summit	Online
21st – 23rd February 2024 University of Padova, Italy	University of Padova & Italian Buddhist Union Research Center, Italy	The Elephant in the Room International Conference	In person
18th January – 18th February 2024 Montegrande, Chile	Claudia Vásquez Gómez | Visual Artist	Road to Montegrande, regarding Francisco Varela Land art, urban art, and colloquia	In person
13th-16th November, 2023 Rome, Italy	International Conference on Environmental Mindfulness	1st International Conference on Environmental Mindfulness (ICEM)	Hybrid (online and in person)
25th September, 2023 University of Pardubice, Czech Republic	University of Pardubice	Enactive Ethics of Responsibility Workshop	Hybrid (online and in person)
July 16th – 23rd, 2023 Certosa di Pontignano, Italy	Cortona Friends	Cortona Week 2023: Science and the Wholeness of Life An interdisciplinary, international summer school retreat.	In person
May 25th – 27th, 2023 Upaya Zen Center, USA	Upaya Zen Center	VARELA INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM: Worldmaking/Sensemaking: Precariousness, Connectedness, Cooperation A 2-day workshop with leading researchers. Watch the recordings here	Hybrid (online and in person)
March 6th – 8th, 2023 Lorentz Center, the Netherlands	Lorentz Center	“The Computational Approach to Neuro-Phenomenology”A 5-day workshop with leading researchers.	In person
August 13th – 19th, 2022 Les Colloques de Cerisy, France	Les Colloques de Cerisy	“Francisco Varela, A Current Thought: Autopoiesis, Enaction, and Phenomenology” A week-long conference in French and English.	In person
August 11th, 2022 18:00 CEST Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, Germany	Tergar Meditation Community	“The Natural Qualities of the Mind” Panel Discussion with Mingyur Rinpoche, Dr. Antoine Lutz, and Dr. Marieke van Vugt, moderated by HolgerYeshe Watch the recording here	Hybrid
May 28th – 29th, 2022	Upaya Institute and Zen Center, Nirakara, and L’Association pour le Développement de la Mindfulness	Varela International Symposium 2022: Laying Down a Path in Walking (Mind in Life) Interdependance and Encation	Online
March 3rd, 2022	Umbrella Films and Studio 23a	‘Aware: Glimpses of Consciousness’ European Live-stream Premier	Online
October 23rd, 2021	Science & Wisdom LIVE	Science Day: “Appearance & Reality – Quantum Physics meets Buddhist Philosophy”	Online

Mind & Life Dialogue: Minds, Artificial Intelligence, and Ethics

Read the full page here!

In partnership with Mind & Life Institute, MLE’s involvement sponsored by the Italian Buddhist Union Research Centre.

• Date: 14th – 16th October 2025
• Location: Dharamsala, India (invite-only) or livestream (free, open to all)

Event Description

MLE was pleased to co-host another Mind & Life Dialogue: Minds, Artificial Intelligence, and Ethics, generously sponsored by the Italian Buddhist Research Centre, in collaboration with the Mind & Life Institute. This invitation-only gathering brought together leading scientists, scholars, contemplative practitioners, policy makers, and business leaders to explore the ethical, social, and scientific dimensions of minds, artificial intelligence, and ethics.

As AI becomes increasingly integrated into our lives, the Dialogue offered a timely opportunity to reflect on its potential to alleviate suffering and introduce new risks. Key questions included: How can AI development be guided by wisdom and compassion? What ethical principles are essential to ensure the flourishing of all beings? A highlight was a special session with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, honouring his legacy of bridging Buddhist wisdom and Western science, as part of a global tribute for his 90th birthday. The program also featured contemplative practices, Tibetan cultural experiences, and meaningful connection among participants.

9th Pioneers of Change Online Summit

In partnership with Pioneers of Change

• Date: 13th – 25th March 2025
• Location: Online

Event Description

MLE was a partner for the 9th Pioneers of Change Online Summit, held from 13th to 25th March 2025. At a time when our world is under immense pressure — and many of us feel that same strain — the summit offered a space to reflect on the possibilities that emerge when the old makes way for the new. It invited us to ask: How can we find orientation and direction in turbulent times? How do we access inner regenerative strength amidst challenge? And how might we strengthen and develop regeneration in the world?

With 30 outstanding speakers, including friends of MLE, Dr Jack Kornfield, and Dr Kristin Neff, this deeply inspiring event reminded us of our capacity to ‘become the change’. The summit was held in German, with eight interviews conducted in English.

2nd Annual Conference of the International Society for Contemplative Research

In partnership with International Society for Contemplative Research, University of Padova & Italian Buddhist Union Research Center, Italy

• Date: 19th – 23rd June 2024
• Location: In person – University of Padova, Italy

Event Description

MLE was a partner of the 2nd Annual “International Society for Contemplative Research” (ISCR) conference on “Embodied Cognition and Intersubjectivity in Uncertain Times: Interdisciplinary Frameworks for Contemplative Research and Education”, which took place in Padova, Italy, from 19th to 23rd June, co-organised by ISCR, the University of Padova, the Italian Buddhist Union Research Center, and MLE. This second annual conference with 380 participants aimed to foster the emerging field of contemplative research through a rich interdisciplinary dialogue that brings together clinical science, neuroscience, philosophy, religious studies, psychology, developmental science, and education, in the fully enculturated and intellectually rigorous study and integration of the profound insights of the world’s prominent contemplative traditions. Our focus was to delve together into pathways for scholarly research through emerging approaches such as “Embodied Cognition”.

Training Embodied Critical Thinking and Understanding International Programme

In partnership with University of Iceland

• Date: May – December 2024
• Location: Hybrid (online and in person) – University of Iceland

Event Description

MLE was a partner for the Training in Embodied Critical Thinking and Understanding (TECTU), an interdisciplinary European Erasmus+ training programme initiated by philosophers, computer scientists, cognitive scientists, and environmental designers, including numerous MLE members. It offers a fresh take and novel methodologies for students and researchers to think critically and creatively, contributing to the transformation and enrichment of the skill of critical thinking in the 21st century. The 2024 programme was hosted by the University of Iceland and included an online webinar series, a summer school in Iceland, and an independent project. (“Embodied Critical Thinking and Understanding in Times of Polycrisis”, May − December 2024)

Dialogue Between Scientists and Tsoknyi Rinpoche

In partnership with MLE Association members: Valentine Goblet & Charles-Antoine Janssen

• Date: 24th – 26th May 2024
• Location: In person – La Hulpe, Brussels, Belgium

Event Description

Two MLE members, Valentine and Charles-Antoine generously hosted and co-organised a dialogue with Tsoknyi Rinpoche in Brussels on 24−26th May. The event was titled “Radical Resilience: Embodying Fearless Compassion for Ourselves, Others, and our Planet”. It included teachings and practices led by Tsoknyi Rinpoche, and two panels of dialogue between Rinpoche, scientists (Dr Elena Antonova, Dr Perla Kaliman, Dr Olaf Blanke, and Dr Giuseppe Pagnoni), and social activists (Sandrine Dixson-Declève, the President of Club of Rome, and Laila Martins from the Inner Development Goals) on “Inner Awareness, the key component for global sustainability”. The programme ended with a circle entitled “Bringing the sacred into our work: How to engage from the inside-out to engage in life-sustaining behaviours”. The participants (appr. 50 people) learnt, in a deeply felt way, the importance and relevance of cultivating our “essence love”, as Tsoknyi Rinpoche called it − that it is from this inner dimension that our resilience can take root so that we make progress collectively, and bravely, towards life-sustaining choices and behaviours.

VERALA INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM 2024

“Sentience and Intelligence: AI, the More-Than-Human, and Us” 

In partnership with Upaya Zen Center 

• Date: 24th – 26th May 2024
• Location: Online

Event Description

Over the weekend of 24th − 26th May, we held the Varela International Symposium − co-organised with the Upaya Institute and Zen Center. This hybrid event was titled: ‘Sentience and Intelligence: AI, the More-Than-Human, and Us’. It brought together a remarkable faculty to explore cutting-edge areas of science, philosophy, and contemplative practices. In the programme participants had the opportunity to explore the profound questions around ‘Sentience and Intelligence’.

Faculty members:

Onsite: Roshi Joan Halifax, PhD; John Dunne, PhD; Molly J. Crockett, PhD; Adam Frank, PhD.
Online: Luc Steels, PhD; Gábor Karsai; Amy Cohen Varela; Richard Davidson, PhD; Evan Thompson, PhD; Kristin Andrews, PhD.

The recordings are available on the MLE YouTube channel as a playlist here.

8th Pioneers of Change Online Summit 

In partnership with Pioneers of Change

• Date: 7th – 19th March 2024
• Location: Online

Event Description

MLE was a partner in the 8th Pioneers of Change Online Summit, which took place from 7th to 19th March, 2024. As the world moves towards system collapse, many look away, entrenching themselves in everyday normality and virtual distraction. But where the threat grows, the need for solutions also grows! This summit encouraged us to understand how profound the change we are experiencing is; how we can be part of the new world that is being created; and what our individual contributions can be. With 40 outstanding speakers, amongst them MLE members, and honorary Board members, Matthieu Ricard and Roshi Joan Halifax, this free online event was deeply thought-provoking and to inspired us all to ‘become the change’.

The Elephant in the Room International Conference 

In partnership with University of Padova & Italian Buddhist Union Research Center, Italy

• Date: 21st – 23rd February 2024
• Location: In person – University of Padova, Italy

Event Description

MLE was a collaborating partner of an exciting conference on “The Elephant in the Room. Investigating Consciousness Beyond Reductionism”, taking place in person at the University of Padova, Italy, from 21st February to 23rd February, organised by the Italian Buddhist Union Research Center. The conference hosted international scholars from various fields of research (including neuroscience, physics, philosophy of mind, and contemplative research) to foster interdisciplinary collaboration regarding consciousness – one of the great unresolved mysteries of our time. Participants in the conference included MLE members, Dr Giuseppe Pagnoni, Dr Steven Laureys, Dr Elena Antonova, and Dr Sebastjan Vörös.

Road to Montegrande, regarding Francisco Varela

Land art, urban art, and colloquia 

In partnership with Claudia Vásquez Gómez | Visual Artist 

• Date: 18th January – 18th February 2024
• Location: In person – Montegrande, Chile

Event Description

MLE was a collaborating partner of a cutting-edge Land Art event and scientific colloquium which took place in Montegrande, Chile from 18th January to 18th February. These works of art, integrated into the spectacular landscape of the Andes mountains, celebrated the work of Francisco Valera (1956 − 2001), Chilean neurobiologist, philosopher, and Buddhist meditator, and specifically the notions of impermanence, memory, and experience. There, art was understood as a journey, as an organic creative action that has its own spirit. Participants in the colloquium included MLE Board Chairperson, Amy Cohen Varela, along with several other esteemed collaborators of Francisco Varela.

1st International Conference on Environmental Mindfulness (ICEM)

In partnership with International Conference on Environmental Mindfulness

• Date: 13th-16th November 2023
• Location: Hybrid (online & in person) – Rome, Italy

Event Description

MLE was a supporting partner of the 1^st International Conference on Environmental Mindfulness (ICEM), which aimed to provide anopportunity for researchers and contemplatives to meet and share ideas on the subject of mindfulness and sustainable behaviours. It brought together a community of environmental psychologists, mindfulness experts, and neuropsychological scientists interested in those crucial topics to set the research agenda for the coming years. ICEM aims not only to define the state-of-the-art research about mindfulness and environmental science, but also to create a community of passionate scientists, environmentally conscious people, and human beings.

Distinctive Features:

• Fostered dialogue between disciplines that have developed separately in the last decades, including contemplative science and environmental psychology.
• Each conference day began and ended with a guided meditation on the themes of human nature, connectedness and environmental engagement, to foster awareness and biophilic empathy in attendees.
• The conference was held in Rome and those attendees who could not attend in person were able to follow the conference remotely.

Enactive Ethics of Responsibility Workshop

In partnership with University of Pardubice

• Date: 25th September 2023
• Location: In person – University of Pardubice, Czech Republic

Event Description

An enactive perspective on the scope and possibility of human responsibility toward cultivating the collective good is more relevant today than ever, with the many crises and wars that are damaging and destroying the life of human and non-human beings worldwide. Fighting against the temptation of exemption, complicity, and inertia, an enactive approach to caring for life stresses that there is something that we humans can and should do together. This workshop considered the value of enactive approaches for tackling human responsibility from an anti-individualistic perspective. New dialogues between enaction, situated affectivity, critical phenomenology, hermeneutics, practice theory, and metaethical constitutivism were explored to identify new conceptual tools and resources for thinking about shared responsibility and joint action in caring for life. For instance, we critically reflected on what it means to care for life from within our embodied shared sentience and what the role of loving attention, empathy, and compassion is in caring for others’ flourishing. We also focused on the role of interpretation, imagination, and critical thinking in the ethics of sense-making. The main aim of this workshop was to generate new questions and answers to further develop the research field of enactive ethics in a participatory and action-oriented manner.

Speakers:

• Carla Bagnoli (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, IT)
• Laura Candiotto (University of Pardubice, CZ)
• Geoffrey Dierckxsens (Czech Academy of Science, CZ)
• Antony Fredriksson (University of Pardubice, CZ)
• Gabor Karsai (Mind and Life Europe, HU)
• Imke von Maur (University of Osnabrück, DE)
• Martin Weichold (University of Dresden, DE)

Cortona Week 2023: Science and the Wholeness of Life

In partnership with Cortona Friends

• Date: 16th-23rd July 2023
• Location: In person – Montegrande, Chile

Event Description

Cortona Week 2023 was an interdisciplinary, international summer-school-retreat, where students and other participants mingle with teachers and experts in physical and humanistic sciences, with ecologists, spiritual leaders, artists and musicians – a group from all over the world, discussing fundamental questions about life and our world. Workshops, lectures, and discussions in the lavish setting of a beautifully restored old monastery in Tuscany offered a sublime diversity of perspectives to delve into, challenge and stimulate the emergence of new insights in a group of dedicated and curious minds, spanning disciplines, nations and generations. The aim was to form a new class of world leaders acquainted with a brighter awareness and an increased capacity to efficiently tackle the problems of our world today. The 2023 Cortona Week took placebetween July 16th and July 23rd in the beautiful Certosa di Pontignano, near Siena, Tuscany, Italy. The Week’s theme was Science and the Wholeness of Life.

VERALA INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM 2023

“Worldmaking/Sensemaking: Precariousness, Connectedness, Cooperation” 

In partnership with Upaya Zen Center 

• Date: 25th-27th May 2023
• Location (hybrid): Online and in person at Upaya Zen Centre, Santa Fe, NM, USA 

Event Description

How do we make sense of our experience and our place in this very precarious world? Powerful recent approaches have appreciated the mind as a complex system, deeply connected with the experienced world. Sensemaking, in this view, is interdependent worldmaking and includes the experience of intersubjectivity arising in complex, cooperative social interactions. Sensemaking as worldmaking is thus grounded in the interactions of a sensing, moving, living organism and its environment being and acting in the world. In this view, all of life is worldmaking and sensemaking, with the complex dynamic systems of life interdependently giving rise to the world in which each being exists. These complex dynamic systems are in constant flux, existing precariously on the edge of chaotic disorganization.

The remarkable faculty for the 2023 Varela International Symposium includes leaders in the philosophical, cultural, and scientific exploration of this view and its implications related to the precarious processes throughout the universe, the cultural embeddedness of worldviews, and the emergence of moral action.

The symposium honors, and is named for the seminal contributions of neuroscientist, philosopher, and Buddhist practitioner, Francisco Varela, who, with colleagues Evan Thompson, and Eleanor Rosch, initially challenged the then-dominant models in cognitive science, establishing the groundwork for the research and scholarship that the symposium faculty will explore.

Presentations and panel discussions occur along with contemplative practice during this unique program which is organized and sponsored by Upaya Zen Center and Institute, Santa Fe, NM and Mind and Life Europe.

WATCH THE RECORDINGS OF ALL THE SESSIONS HERE!

“The Computational Approach to Neuro-Phenomenology”

A 5-day workshop at the Lorentz Centre, the Netherlands, with 25 researchers in the fields of phenomenology, neuroscience, philosophy, and computational modeling. 

• Cooperation partner: Lorentz Centre (The Netherlands).
• Type of event: Workshop (in-person). Click here to see the program.
• Dates: March 6th – 10th, 2023 

About the event:

The intention of this workshop is to explore the possibilities to naturalize phenomenology using modeling techniques developed in computational neuroscience and biology. Specifically, we intend to develop a new version of neurophenomenology as ‘generative passages’ (Lutz, 2002; Roy et al., 1999; Varela, 1997), based on methodological innovations that have emerged recently under the rubric of generative modeling (Friston, 2019; Hesp et al., 2021; Sandved-Smith et al., 2021). This approach represents a distinctive formulation of computational phenomenology because it applies methods from computational modeling directly to phenomenology. The aim of this workshop is to present a specific application of computational phenomenology to what phenomenological philosophers have called ‘constitution’, see Sokolowski (1964). The aim of such model is to map phenomenological constitution onto the notion of inference, as it is used in generative modeling to infer the (causal) structure of the process generating some data or, more simply, making sense of data.

During this workshop we will come together with 25 researchers in the fields of phenomenology, neuroscience, philosophy, and computational modeling to discuss how the recent advancements in computational modeling–specifically bayesian mechanics and the active inference framework–may inform the study of lived experience and vice versa. The program during these days will consist of one or two keynote lectures per day, discussion rounds, and working groups that are aimed to translate our discussions into a special issue for the neuroscience of consciousness journal. 

Find out more here!

FRANCISCO VARELA,

A CURRENT THOUGHT

AUTOPOIESIS, ENACTION, PHENOMENOLOGY

• Cooperation partner: Les Colloques Cerisy (France).
• Type of event: Conference (in-person). Click here to see the program.
• Dates: August 13th (7pm) – 19th (2pm)
• Language: French 

About the event: 

Francisco Varela contributed significantly to the development of the field of cognitive sciences by proposing, as early as the 1970s, with his professor Humberto Maturana, the formulation of his theory of life, autopoiesis, whose resonance has been decisive, even beyond the field of biology, in the artistic and educational fields. In the 1980s and 90s, from the theories of emergence, he built a new theory: enaction. In contact with phenomenology, he forged an innovative approach to consciousness from neuronal dynamics while being irreducible to it: neurophenomenology. At the same time, he founded the Mind and Life Institute, a place for dialogue with the Dalai Lama and reflection on the possible links between science and contemplative practices, including meditation.

20 years since his passing, it is essential to revisit his thought and measure his influence in the many current fields and disciplines that make his thought bear fruit. He was present in Cerisy, especially at the 1981 meeting “Self-organization: from physics to politics” (Seuil, 1983), which opened a research program to which he contributed and drew many of his inspirations.

This symposium offers a dialogue between natural sciences and humanities, art and science, science and philosophy. It will also be an opportunity, through various artistic performances, to reflect on the practice of interdisciplinarity. Open to all those interested in Francisco Varela’s thought, it is about studying its strength and international influence by giving voice to loved ones, scientific collaborators and philosophers, as well as Buddhist “meditators”. Finally, videos will be broadcast testifying to the life contexts in which his work has deployed and matured, according to his multiple interactions.

NB: Since this symposium was originally scheduled for 2021, you can access its 2021 presentation: click here.

Scientific Committee:

Michel Bitbol, Amy Cohen-Varela, Natalie Depraz, Ivan Magrin-Chagnolleau, Claire Petitmengin, Jean Petitot

 “The Natural Qualities of the Mind”

A panel discussion with Mingyur Rinpoche, Dr. Antoine Lutz and Dr. Marieke van Vugt, moderated by HolgerYeshe

in partnership with the Tergar Meditation Communtity

Date: Thursday, August 11th, 2022 

Location: Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, Germany (for ticket holders)

In a panel discussion, Mingyur Rinpoche and scientists from Mind and Life Europe explore The Natural Qualities of Mind. What are the natural qualities of mind? How can we study them from both the third- and first-person perspectives? What do the Eastern and Western traditions have in common (or not) when it comes to the cultivation of a healthy mind? How can these two traditions interface with each other in light of the most recent advances in the study of the human mind?

In this evening of dialogue, we’ll take a cross-sectional look at the natural qualities of the human mind, reaping insights from Western neuroscience and the age-old wisdom of Buddhist thought and practice. Mingyur Rinpoche, known throughout the world as a clear and charismatic Tibetan Buddhist teacher, has long been interested in Western science and psychology. In this unique encounter, he will co-investigate the natural qualities of mind with two prominent European scientists who specialize in the neuropsychology of meditation practice. Dr. Antoine Lutz, who was trained by Francisco Varela and worked extensively with Dr. Richard Davidson, has been a pioneer in Europe for his work on the neurophenomenology of mindfulness and compassion meditations. Dr. Marieke van Vugt will offer key insights from her own body of work on mind-wandering and the cognitive processes underpinning meditation and mindfulness.

This conversation will be an important step in extending the long tradition at Mind & Life Europe of exploring how to integrate the third-person perspective of Western science with the first-person perspective of serious contemplative practice. We hope you’ll join us for the exploration.

Faculty:

• Mingyur Rinpoche, Tibetan Buddhist meditation master
• Dr. Marieke van Vugt, Bernoulli Institute of Mathematics, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence of the University of Groningen
• Dr. Antoine Lutz, French Medical Research Institute (INSERM) in the Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (CNRL)

The panel discussion was moderated by HolgerYeshe.

Following the panel discussion we will show the film “Wandering… But not lost” in the presence of the filmmaker Paul MacGowan. (For in-person attendees only).

The film is a personal account of Mingyur Rinpoche’s four and a half year retreat, interspersed with Rinpoche’s own guidance on applying Buddhist wisdom to our daily modern lives, which will touch and inspire audiences everywhere. Info about the film HERE.

Watch the recording on the MLE YouTube channel here!

VARELA INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM 2022

in partnership with Upaya Institute and Zen Center

 Date: 28th – 29th May 2022

Laying Down a Path in Walking (Mind in Life) – Interdependence and Enaction (Online 2022)

Over the past three decades, a transformative view of life, now known as “the enactive view,” has been developed and expanded by thinkers in philosophy and the sciences of mind; prominent among them was the late Chilean neuroscientist, philosopher, and Buddhist practitioner, Francisco Varela, for whom this symposium is named. The Varela International Symposium, 2022, with its extraordinary international faculty of scientists, philosophers, and contemplatives, explores the enactive view that living beings are fundamentally sense-making creatures that bring forth meaning in their interactions with their physical and social environments. As such, a subject enacts the world he or she is part of, including the physical environment, and this world reflects social, ethical and political values and structures. Recent contributions within the enactive framework by faculty in this year’s Varela Symposium have expanded how we understand social cognition, social interaction, and cultural institutions, including science, medicine, politics, and our relationship to the natural world. The 2022 Varela International Symposium will explore the potential outcomes and psychosocial impacts of shifting our extractive, reductionistic, mechanistic, predictive views to an enactive view that could be profoundly transformational at a personal as well as global level. Presentations and panel discussions will occur along with contemplative practice during this unique program which is organized and sponsored by Upaya Zen Center and Institute, Santa Fe, NM and Mind & Life Europe.

Varela International Symposium 2022 | Recordings

All recordings of the Varlea International Symposium are available to view on the MLE YouTube channel here. 

Date	Title	Speaker
Saturday, May 28th, 2022Morning Session 1	“Enaction and the Dialetics of Nature”	Ezequiel Di Paolo
Saturday, May 28th, 2022Morning Session 2	“Enaction: An Engaging Epistemology”	Hanne De Jaegher
Saturday, May 28th, 2022Afternoon Session 1	“The Enactive View: Looking Back, Looking Forward”	Evan Thompson
Saturday, May 28th, 2022Afternoon Session 2	“Science, Practice, and Encaction: Reminiscences of Francisco and Reflections of Embodied Engagement”	Richard Davidson
Sunday, May 29th, 2022Morning Session 1	“On Doing Physics and Being a Subject”	Adam Frank
Sunday, May 29th, 2022Morning Session 2	“Complexity and Machine Learning”	Abeba Birhane
Sunday, May 29th, 2022Afternoon Session 1	“The Enactive Perspective”	John Dunne
Sunday, May 29th, 2022Afternoon Session 2	Participant Q&A Session	Faculty

‘AWARE’ EUROPEAN LIVE-STREAM PREMIER

in partnership with Umbrella Films and Studio 23a

‘AWARE: Glimpses of Consciousness’

In partnership with Umbrella Films and Area 23a, MLE invited our community to the European Live-Stream of “AWARE” on Thursday, March 3rd at 7:00 PM CET (6 PM London Time, 1 PM NYC)

What is consciousness? Is it in all living beings? Why are we predisposed for mystical experience? And what happens when we die? With haunting cinematography, AWARE follows six of the world’s most brilliant researchers approaching the most mysterious of enigmas, consciousness, from radically different perspectives, from within and without: through high-tech brain research and Eastern meditation, by scientifically exploring inner space through psychedelic substances and delving deep into the consciousness of plants. Scientists are arriving at new insights – some which have been integral to Indigenous knowledge for millenia.

Following the film screening there will be a live discussion with Directors Frauke Sandig & Eric Black; Roland Griffiths, Ph.D., Director, Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research; Monica Gagliano, Professor of Plant Behavior & Cognition, University of Sydney; and Dr. med. Andrea Jungaberle Medical Director OVID Clinics I Co-founder of MIND Foundation.

‘AWARE’ reviews 

“The most moving and beautiful depiction of deep understanding of consciousness and of who we are that I have seen depicted through film.”

-Jack Kornfield, author, and Buddhist teacher

“Consciousness-elevating food for thought.”

– Michael Rechtshaffen, Los Angeles Times  

“Stunningly Deep, Wise and Visually Arresting, the most Mind-Blowing Film the Maui Film Festival has presented in Twenty Years!”

-Barry Rivers Maui Film Festival Founder/Director

 

Science and Wisdom LIVE 

October 23 14:00 – 22:00 CEST

‘Science Day’ online public event: “Appearance & Reality – Quantum Physics meets Buddhist Philosophy”A dialogue with Prof. John Dunne, Dr. Michel Bitbol, Dr. Carlo Rovelli, Geshe Tenzin Namdak, and Scott Snibbe.This event was open to the public.

online

About Science and Wisdom LIVE

Science & Wisdom LIVE brings meditation practitioners in conversation with scientists to address the problems of contemporary society and come to new possible solutions.

The dialogue between science and contemplative traditions can inspire positive action and inform an ethical response to the challenges of our times, grounded in the human values of cooperation, compassion and equality.

Website: https://www.sciwizlive.com/

MLE Dialogues & Conferences

MLE Conferences

Mind & Life Europe regularly organizes a pan-European symposium to foster the interdisciplinary dialogue in the context of contemplative science. With this symposium, Mind & Life Europe seeks to link diverse disciplines and traditions of knowledge in order to foster an intercultural exchange between new audiences and changemakers in the area of contemplative studies and practices. For the latest MLE conference, please visit our Mind & Life Europe Calendar.

The overall aim is to bring together academics, practitioners and other interested attendees for presentations, discussions, and collaborative networking in the emerging field of contemplative studies, which can include neuroscience, clinical science, contemplative philosophy and the humanities, contemplative education, economics, and those domains of contemplative practice that relate to and interact with these fields of research and scholarship.

Dialogues with H.H. Dalai Lama

Mind & Life Dialogues are conversations between His Holiness the Dalai Lama and leading scientists and scholars, addressing critical issues of modern life at the intersection of scientific and contemplative understanding. The dialogues began in 1987 as intimate discussions and have grown to include large public and private events at locations around the world. The dialogues have resulted in a global community dedicated to a rigorous exploration of the mind.

In September 2020, MLE held a dialogue with the Dalai Lama themed “Our common Humanity amidst Uncertainty”

In June 2021, as part of our Varela 20/30 anniversaries, the Dalai Lama held a special meeting with MLE themed “Dialogue for a Better World – Remembering Francisco Varela”. Watch the recording here on the MLE YouTube channel. 

CSS 2019

The Contemplative Science Symposium (CSS) themed “Beyond Confines – Integrating Science, Consciousness and Society” took place in 2019 in Fürstenfeldbruck, Germany.

In this pan-European symposium, new audiences and changemakers were encouraged to personally engage in the evolving issues and apply an interdisciplinary perspective.

Power & Care 2016

The last Mind & Life Europe Dialogue was themed “Towards Balance for Our Common Future – Science, Society and Spirituality in Dialogue”.

The symposium took place in Brussels, 2016 with around 2,500 participants.

The insights were collected and published in a book edited by Tania Singer and Matthieu Ricard together with Kate Karius.

Symposium 2013

The first pan-European symposium for contemplative science took place in October 2013 in Berlin, Germany.

World-renowned presenters from neuroscience, social sciences, and contemplative traditions presented on “Personal and Societal Change from the Contemplative Perspective”.

Matthieu Ricard shares his view on the first MLE symposium on his personal website.