Thursday 5:30-6:30pm – Opening Keynote: Jon Kabat-Zinn (1 CE/CME hour)
Upon completion, attendees will be better able to:
- Relate the history of the field of Contemplative Science in Western culture
- Describe some of the applications/benefits that have emerged thus far
- Discuss broad areas in the field represented at this conference and highlight importance of continued collaboration
Friday 9:30-10:30am - Keynote: Diana Chapman Walsh (1 CE/CME hour)
Upon completion, attendees will be better able to:
- Discuss insights into the meaning of the gathering
- Compare the Mind and Life Institute at its current stage with other organizations I know well
- Identify general directions and questions about the nature of contemplative studies now and the directions it could plausibly take in the years ahead
Friday 11am -12:30pm - Basic Science/Neuroscience and Humanities: Cliff Saron; Michel Bitbol
(1.5 CE/CME hour)
Upon completion, attendees will be better able to:
- Evaluate the common approaches to studying contemplative practice with neuroscience methodology
- Identify challenges for contemplative studies and propose ways to best move forward
- Provide an overview of the dialogue between humanities/philosophy and neuroscience
- Identify difficult points of intersection (e.g. consciousness, suffering, language)
- Discuss perspectives and insights on productive interdisciplinary dialogue
Friday 11am -12:30pm - Education and Humanities: Brian Stock; Harold Roth
(1.5 CE/CME hour)
Upon completion, attendees will be better able to:
- Discuss the functions of meditation in the ancient and post-ancient worlds
- Explain the outline of the medical (or therapeutic) uses for meditation that arise from traditional Western sources
- Describe the rôle played by the rise of a reading culture in the West in orienting Western meditative practice
- Describe the ways that contemplative practices have thus far been integrated into higher educational settings
- Identify challenges in instituting Contemplative Studies programs in higher education
Friday 11am -12:30pm – Clinical Science and Contemplative Practice: Sona Dimidjian; Roshi Joan Halifax (1.5 CE/CME hour)
Upon completion, attendees will be better able to:
- Identify the core elements of and evidence base for MBCT for depression prevention
- Summarize the rationale for the application of MBCT to perinatal depression
- Describe preliminary outcome data for the application of MBCT to perinatal depression
- Identify common challenges for clinicians caring for people with life-threatening conditions
- Identify strategies for using contemplative practices to transform care
- Discuss strategies for incorporating a mindful approach to professional and clinical care
Saturday 9-10am – Keynote: Marsha Linehan (1 CE/CME hour)
Upon completion, attendees will be better able to:
- Identify the key elements of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy.
- Describe the meaning and role of mindfulness and radical acceptance in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy.
- Discuss how Dialectical Behavioral Therapy has been utilized in the therapy?of persons with complex, serious disorders and high risk for suicide.
Saturday 10:30am- 12noon - Basic Science/Neuroscience and Contemplative Practice: Tania Singer; Brother David Steindl-Rast; Sharon Salzberg (1.5 CE/CME hour)
Upon completion, attendees will be better able to:
- List clear definitions of the scientific view of “empathy” and “compassion”
- Identify next steps for the field of Contemplative Studies
- Describe why it is important to include 1st-person perspective in scientific investigation
- Describe why it is important to have greater caution in the use of God-talk
- Describe the details and goals of compassion (metta) practice
- Contrast compassion practice with other forms of contemplative practice
- Describe the benefits of compassion practice
Saturday 10:30am- 12noon - Education: Kathleen McCartney; Jerry Murphy; Carolyn Jacobs
(1.5 CE/CME hour)
Upon completion, attendees will be better able to:
- recognize that the creation of contemplative planning in continuing the movement towards an educational institution that honors contemplative practice
- identify three personal strategies in understanding and transforming resistance to contemplative practices in an institution of higher education
- identify the opportunities and challenges of succession planning in continuing the movement towards an educational institution that honors contemplative practice
Saturday 10:30am- 12noon - Clinical Science and Humanities: John Teasdale; John Dunne
(1.5 CE/CME hour)
Upon completion, attendees will be better able to:
- Describe the Interacting Cognitive Subsystems (ICS) framework and its application to human cognitive evolution
- Identify how this framework provides a new perspective for understanding mindfulness, suffering (dukkha), and the transformation of suffering through mindfulness training
- Explain how this approach is consistent with traditional understandings of mindfulness, resolves important areas of confusion, and has implications for mindfulness training
- Discuss traditional Buddhist (Abhidharmic) view on mind and mental functions
- Explain the concept of “mindfulness,” and its many definitions
- Discuss broader intersection of Buddhist view with western cognitive science and its possible applications for both fields
Saturday 5:30-7pm - Keynote: Wolf Singer; Matthieu Ricard; Evan Thompson (1.5 CE/CME hour)
Upon completion, attendees will be better able to:
- Explain combining neuroscience and phenomenological approaches to consciousness
- Illustrate conceptual problems arising from trying to relate neuroscience and contemplative approaches to consciousness
- Describe how the mind-body problem looks from a cross-cultural and contemplative neuroscience perspective
Sunday 9-10:30am - Basic Science/Neuroscience and Education: Amishi Jha; Arthur Zajonc
(1.5 CE/CME hour)
Upon completion, attendees will be better able to:
- List a tutorial overview of the neurocognitive subsystems of attention
- Describe the overview of behavioral methods used to index attention and working memory
- Describe results of the impact of mindfulness-based training methods in high stress cohort
- Discuss a brief history of the Mind and Life Institute and describe co-founder Francisco Varela’s vision
- Describe the value of integrating first-person perspective from contemplative practice with third-person “objective” scientific approach, provide examples
Sunday 9-10:30am - Education and Basic Social Science/Positive Psychology: Mark Greenberg; Barbara Fredrickson (1.5 CE/CME hour)
Upon completion, attendees will be better able to:
- Define interpersonal aspects of mindfulness
- List the outcomes of mindfulness programs for children and families
- Explain how positive emotions change awareness and thinking
- Discuss how positive emotions promote growth of resources, health and well-being
- Identify the role of appropriate negativity in flourishing mental health
Sunday 9-10:30am - Contemplative Practice – Yoga: Richard Freeman; Stephen Phillips (1.5 CE/CME hour)
Upon completion, attendees will be better able to:
- Discuss the 8 limbs of yoga and relate to other forms of contemplative practice
- Discuss the benefits of yoga practice
- Describe challenges to yoga and give insights on integrating practice into lifestyle
- Review a philosophical framework for understanding yogic practice and the experiences to which it leads
- describe the ethical (karmic) dimension of yoga, overcoming obstacles of bad habits to make progress in yogic practice
- discuss the goals of yoga beyond the self – yoga as holistic health, a transformation and harmony of all the parts of our being to include both our highest selves and our bodies
Sunday 12 – 1:30pm - Closing Keynote: Richie Davidson (1.5 CE/CME hour)
Upon completion, attendees will be better able to:
- Identify the key brain systems important for emotion regulation and attention
- Identify different forms of meditation and how they impact different behavioral and brain systems
- Identify methodological conundrums in research on the neuroscience of meditation
