These are all the experiences, the kind of upper range of human experience-- flow states, states of awe, trance states, meditative states, contemplative states, psychedelic states.Back then, by the way, flow was treated as a mystical experience.
There's a badge reader over by the door. contemplative frame to that activity.
our purpose is here? Is there a reason for our existence? And it began to be more than contemplative ; it began to be a quest. And I realized that I came out of really a long tradition of making this sort of quest in terms of what I began to see as Agnosticism.And Agnosticism is something that's almost made into a joke. I mean, people of religion make it into a joke because you haven't made the leap of faith if you're an Agnostic; you
And it's also historically unprecedented in the coming together of those three circles that I talked about previously: psychology, neurology, and contemplative practice; the contemplatives being the Olympic athletes of mental training for millennia.And so I'm really excited about this. We're just at the beginning of it all. I think modern neuroscience is roughly where biology and medicine was about 100 years after the invention
think that, well, compassion and these things are wonderful. Because contemplative practice brings three gifts.
that don't feel true to you. In fact, that's going to happen pretty often. So I think with Aristotle in a way, the best example of this, even better than the expansion of contemplation is he thought that the contemplative life was something only a few people could do. So he had a definition of human happiness. It was really something for, you know, a handful of rich gentlemen, definitely men, definitely rich, probably Greek. And what to me is interesting is you can look at
Wisps like smoke from a seaborne fire drift around me. More in contemplative reflection at home-- I really do the writing writing.
Dr. Rick Hanson, he's a neuropsychologist, author and teacher at the intersection of psychology, neurology and contemplative practice. He co-founded the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom and he's the author of the book called Mother Nurture, which is one of very few books that I-I am aware of, maybe the only book, that is about taking care of, about taking care of mothers. And he's also an-an authority on how the arrival of children affect moms, fathers and marriages.
And I had this lunch a while back where I was telling one of my clients about the book, and he pulls out his cell phone. is middle-aged women who are contemplative and trying to sort of think back about their moms and about their life.
She is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Miami. She's also the Director of Contemplative Neuroscience for the Mindfulness Research and Practice Initiative also at the University of Miami. And she's a world-class scientist studying the neural basis of attention.
And as you can see from Mario's gracious introduction and the title of my talk, I'd like to share with you today work we've been doing and that the broader field of contemplative neuroscience has been doing around mindfulness. But I think that before I jump right in, it might be helpful to understand the perspective I take in the work that I do, to kind of frame
and contemplation and the staff it's not required but they're welcome to join and we have a 20 minute contemplative sit where we sit in silence for 20 minutes so it's a good way to start the day uh and here here's what I teach people I don't know but you know so often
Right? They should know. you were looking for something more contemplative .
agency, all of these things, we felt have their own merit and are important. It's a little more contemplative .
philosophies. In fact the vedant is more than 5,000 years old. It's the philosophy of the upanishets uh the relevant to our uh interest in consciousness studies today into contemplative psychology which we are
is it that makes great teams? that was my kind of aha and inspiration for combining these contemplative practices, integrating these with the world of work.
And there was nothing wrong with what they were doing. I was just looking for something far more contemplative . And so about halfway through, I quietly sat down.
This is what the tent looked like on opening night. And remember how I said we're trying to focus on contemplative activities? Very quickly the space turned into this.
agency, all of these things, we felt have their own merit and are important. A lot of classical Exploratorium exhibits chosen to be contemplative in a space that you do not want to be incredibly active in, because
health literature that how many how many people in here are kind of doing something with mindfulness now who's just thinking about it that's something who's practicing some kind of contemplative practice yoga mindfulness some kind of self-care broadly defined right so this is kind of the meeting point you know with the
Or Newton, in a contemplative mood in his garden, and suddenly the apple falls.
expressing concern is there in this world of multitasking in fact contemplative space when kids are offline we can come back
This is what I want to tell you because u I am a nun uh and I I do a lot of contemplation. The book is a result of contemplative practice and understanding. So, I hope it will make a lot of sense to people in the modern world, those who want to uh dive deep into the science of happiness. Thank you
She's an associate professor of psychology at the University of Miami and director of Contemplative Neuroscience for the Mindfulness Research and Practice
You're going to select a very specific sensation tied to the breath, whatever's most prominent for that period of time. Almost every major religious or spiritual tradition around the world has some aspect of contemplative practice in it.
In many Indian philosophical contexts, contemplative context, dreamless sleep is not considered to be just a blackout state.
And so it's this way of where we become multi-dimensional beings through conscious contemplative practice.
over thousands of years in traditional, contemplative systems.
And there's a lot of literature about the fact that he was in a contemplative mood.
It's core application is one of never seemingly ending stream of contemplative ,
a definition of human flourishing, which he thought of as being not just a culmination of an individual life, but also something that political community had to aim at. And he has a couple of arguments that contemplation is happiness. So the best life is the contemplative life. And one of his arguments that the contemplative life is the best life is in terms of leisure. And the way he puts it is, work is for the sake of leisure, not the other way around. He also has another analogy.
And of course, the fourth was delineation of a contemplative practice that, if followed, had 2,500 years of empirical observation
Well, good afternoon. In kind of a contemplative -- and, actually, I think it's more and more happening here at Google and other places.
any era in our history-- the scenic wonders, the contemplative places, the heroic places,
think that, well, compassion and these things are wonderful. And this is why like mindfulness-type practices, like contemplative practices, are so powerful.
Well there are many alternatives to classic style, they-- Turner and Thomas describe contemplative style, oracular style, practical style, and a number of others.
pause for breath at the end of each one, do some few questions or comments, and then keep going, alright? I'm gonna be working a lot within one of these three circles: Buddhism or really contemplative practice generally, the one I'm trained the most in is Buddhism. I'm not here to push Buddhism or any ism, but it's a source of great insight into actually how the mind works, as well as psychology and neurology.
threat all-all around us, and that they miss long term things that are actually gonna very consequential. Well, first I wanna talk about three fundamental pillars of practice that show up in contemplative traditions as well as in Western psychology: mindfulness, virtue, and wisdom.
And they had all found ways to produce flow and use it to amplify performance. and every so-called mystical state you can possibly imagine, prayer states, contemplative states, states of awe, trance states, psychedelic states, et cetera, et cetera.
So what has been a big motivating factor for me in the research that I've taken on is to see if there's something we can do about it. Is there some way in which we could actually explore this systematically, rigorously, applying the tools of contemplative practice and mindfulness training to be of help? So let me just describe to you kind of the paradigm that I'm thinking about.
towards everyone. The prophet Muhammad was also born into a noble family and grew up to be rich but then turned contemplative .
window onto that comes through the kind of training of the mind, training of attention and awareness, that we see in various kinds of contemplative or meditative
a beautiful setting. And the idea is that while you're there, you spend most of your time in a silent, contemplative kind
For me personally, with my taste that has nothing to do with what I'm telling anybody else do, I find a quiet, contemplative space within that structure.
That is fascinating. This was one of the beginnings, the birth of contemplative neuroscience.
But if you learn their story, they're one of the most deliberate, intentional, contemplative bands ever.
And so what-what's there not to like about this book, right? That's why I'm happy today. Dr. Rick Hanson, he's a neuropsychologist, author and teacher at the intersection of psychology, neurology and contemplative practice. He co-founded the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom and he's the author of the book called Mother Nurture, which is one of very few books that I-I am aware of, maybe the only book, that
The knowledge about the brain has essentially doubled in the last 20 years. I mean, we live in an historically extraordinary time for many reasons, this is certainly one of them. And it's also historically unprecedented in the coming together of those three circles that I talked about previously: psychology, neurology, and contemplative practice; the contemplatives being the Olympic athletes of mental training for millennia.
Dr. Thompson has been an early participant in the Mind and Life conferences with the Dalai Lama, where leading scientists, scholars, and contemplatives
of your life to work; some amount to you know, family, love, relationship; some amount to doing something physical and healthy everyday; some amount to contemplative time to yourself.