IDP Blog

Featured Articles and Journals: Science & Technology

Contemplation Station #5: Tau Ceti
by Robert Colpitts
May 6, 2013
Good morning or afternoon or evening, Contemplation Station travelers. We took advantage of current research into warp drive technology and got the train ready for space travel. Now, as you can see, we are orbiting Tau Ceti — we are like another...
Arts and Media, Buddhism, Meditation Practice, Religion & Spirituality, Science & Technology     Link
Dharma (Dis)Connect: Taking Mindfulness Out of School
by Nancy Thompson
April 29, 2013
Lots of schools are using mindfulness meditation to help students improve their focus and ease stress. There's both empirical and anecdotal evidence that it works. But one Ohio school system is moving the other way, dropping mindfulness instruction...
Buddhism, Meditation Practice, Nutrition & Body Wellness, Science & Technology     Link
Dharma Connect: Bodhisattvas Protect the Earth
by Nancy Thompson
April 22, 2013
"Preserving the biodiversity and the ecosystems of our region should be like the effortless practice of dharma for us. Our basic motivation to protect the environment should come from the pure desire to benefit all sentient beings on earth since...
Buddhism, Science & Technology     Link
Psychoanalysis and Tantra: Towards a Healthy Self
by Paul S
April 9, 2013
I spend a lot of time thinking about what people need from each other in order to feel connected, cohesive, and resilient.  Buddhism, historically, has not taken a developmental view of how we reach a healthy baseline of functioning in work,...
Buddhism, Meditation Practice, Religion & Spirituality, Science & Technology     Comment (2)     Link
Crazy for Feelings: Psychotic & Mystical States
by Paul S
April 2, 2013
Caroline Brett conducts a detailed inquiry into how practitioners of Vajrayana, Zen, and Hindu Tantra natively distinguish between mystical and psychotic states.
Buddhism, Meditation Practice, Religion & Spirituality, Science & Technology     Link
The "P" Word: Background
by Paul S
April 1, 2013
As various thinkers attempt to position Buddhism in relation to "Western Psychology," I thought IDP folks might benefit from understanding some of the movements that are lumped into the latter.
Buddhism, Meditation Practice, Nutrition & Body Wellness, Religion & Spirituality, Science & Technology     Comment (1)     Link
Dharma Connect: What If Holden Caulfield Had Meditated?
by Nancy Thompson
March 17, 2013
A new study found that adolescents who participated in a mindfulness program at school reported reduced symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress up to six months later. Furthermore, these teen students were less likely to develop more severe...
Meditation Practice, Nutrition & Body Wellness, Science & Technology     Link
Dharma Connect: Finding Calm in a Cab
by Nancy Thompson
March 15, 2013
A Manhattan taxi cab is one of the last places you'd expect to find ease or to try shamata -- calm-abiding -- meditation. But if you take a cab this week, you may find yourself listening to guided meditations (in addition to honking horns and...
Arts and Media, Meditation Practice, Nutrition & Body Wellness, Science & Technology     Link
Dharma Connect: Harvard Offers Meditation Hotline
by Nancy Thompson
March 13, 2013
Imagine the stress faced by students at the nation's top universities, particularly one as competitive and proud as Harvard. Now imagine the pressure on the people who have to deal with them -- faculty, administrators, other Harvard employees.
Arts and Media, Meditation Practice, Nutrition & Body Wellness, Science & Technology     Link
Dharma Connect: Can Spirituality Benefit Technology?
by Nancy Thompson
March 10, 2013
It's clear, from the point of view of a dharma practitioner, that technology has been of great benefit to those who live a distance from practice centers. I've taken dozens of IDP's study-at-home classes and listened to hours of talks by teachers I...
Buddhism, Religion & Spirituality, Science & Technology     Link
Dharma Connect: The Interdependence of Coca-Cola
by Nancy Thompson
March 3, 2013
There's a Zen meal chant that says, "72 laborers brought us this food; we should know how it comes to us." If the meal involves a can of Coke, that's a serious understatement.
Arts and Media, Buddhism, Nutrition & Body Wellness, Science & Technology     Link
Searching for a Self, Scientifically
by Nancy Thompson
February 27, 2013
IDP's Fall 2012 class series, "In Search of the Self," explored the many ways we construct ideas about who we are and reviewed several Buddhist theories on how we create a sense of self and why we cling to it. It's a fascinating subject, of course...
Buddhism, Nutrition & Body Wellness, Science & Technology     Link
What Is Real Anyway?
by Nancy Thompson
February 16, 2013
On Valentine's Day, Facebook asked me if I wanted to send my spouse "a real Facebook gift." What does that mean? I asked myself (and then my Facebook friends -- who are almost real world friends). Does a "real" Facebook gift exist offline, ie IRL?...
Arts and Media, Buddhism, Meditation Practice, Religion & Spirituality, Science & Technology     Link
Fearless Times Blossom the Mind
by Ash Faith
February 6, 2013
  "Fear is a natural reaction when moving closer to the truth"--Pema Chodron Imagine gratitude & growth as a result from venturing into the unknown.  When repetition compulsion creates a sense of fear in our brain waves, ...
Science & Technology     Link
Daily Connect: Brain Changes Last After Meditation Ends
by Nancy Thompson
November 14, 2012
  The changes that take place in the brain during meditation -- reduced activity in the amygdala, which regulates stress response, for instance -- continue after a meditation session ends, according to a research study published this month in...
Meditation Practice, Nutrition & Body Wellness, Science & Technology     Link
Daily Connect: This is Your Brain on Zen
by Nancy Thompson
October 10, 2012
Meditators are able to bring various areas of their brains in synchrony, working together in near lock step, Scientific American reports.
Buddhism, Meditation Practice, Nutrition & Body Wellness, Science & Technology     Link
Wired Feature: Buddhist Steve Jobs -- a Genius or a Tyrant?
by Patrick Groneman
October 2, 2012
At what cost did Apple's founder and visionary bring these devices into the world?
Buddhism, Science & Technology     Comment (1)     Link
Buddhist Statue Brought to Germany Has Extraterrestrial Origin
by Patrick Groneman
September 27, 2012
"Given the extreme hardness of the meteorite — “basically an inappropriate material for producing sculptures” the paper notes — the artist or artists who created it may have known their material was special, the researchers say."
Buddhism, Science & Technology     Link
Daily Connect: Newsflash: The Whereabouts of Steve Jobs
by KimberlyBrown
September 3, 2012
(follow Kimberly on Facebook or Twitter) Steve Jobs is now a type of warrior-philosopher deva, living in a mystical palace near his old offices at Apple headquarters in California. 
Arts and Media, Buddhism, Science & Technology     Comment (4)     Link
Daily Connect: You Are Here
by Nancy Thompson
August 22, 2012
That, then, is loveliness, we said, Children in wonder watching the stars.
Arts and Media, Meditation Practice, Science & Technology     Comment (1)     Link
Infinitely Profound and Subtle
by Patrick Groneman
August 20, 2012
From basic science class, I knew that I was actually looking at the light from stars as they shone thousands, millions and billions of years ago, many of which were now extinct.
Religion & Spirituality, Science & Technology     Link
Humanism as Activism – Rediscovering Nightmares
by Robert Colpitts
August 10, 2012
After about two years of meditation practice, two years of off and on, here and there, but sitting in my bedroom by myself, meditation practice, a heavy blanket of confusion has been dissipated in my life, and I am able to handle life with a bit...
Activism and Politics, Buddhism, Meditation Practice, Religion & Spirituality, Science & Technology     Comment (1)     Link
Daily Connect: Do You Make Your Bed?
by Nancy Thompson
August 8, 2012
Making your bed trains the mind and makes the magic possible.
Meditation Practice, Nutrition & Body Wellness, Religion & Spirituality, Science & Technology     Comment (4)     Link
An Ancient Wisdom More Modern than Modern Science
by Dr. Joe Loizzo
July 11, 2012
I began to realize that what I’d been taught was not just science, but science woven into a cultural view of the world based on assumptions that were now centuries old.
Buddhism, Religion & Spirituality, Science & Technology     Link
Back to the Future: The Time-Machine of Indic Contemplative Science
by Dr. Joe Loizzo
July 3, 2012
Of all human cultures, India long ago foresaw the need for teaching the art of contemplative living not just to spiritual elites but to average people of all inclinations, backgrounds, and walks of life.
Buddhism, Meditation Practice, Religion & Spirituality, Science & Technology     Link

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