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SUMMARY:Lunchbox Lecture with Flavio A. Geisshuesler cancelled and resched
 uled!
DTSTART:20230124T111500Z
DTEND:20230124T124500Z
DTSTAMP:20260430T025557Z
UID:lunchbox-lecture-with-flavio-a-geisshuesler-9232@ceres.rub.de
CATEGORIES:
DESCRIPTION:Unfortunately the Lunchbox Lecture by Flavio A. Geisshuesler m
 ust be cancelled. The event is rescheduled for a later this year.\nInforma
 tion about the new date will be published soon.\n\n\nTitle: Between Predic
 tion and Surprise: Tantric Buddhism and the New Paradigm of Meditation Res
 earch\n\n Meditation\, particularly in the form of mindfulness-based prac
 tices stemming from Buddhism\, has become a spectacularly popular phenomen
 on in our times. It is not only practiced by many strata of society\, but 
 also studied empirically as part of a multidisciplinary research field ref
 erred to as “contemplative science” or “contemplative studies.” Am
 idst this enthusiasm\, it is quite easy to forget that this seeming famili
 arity with meditation is hiding a surprising fact\, namely that our cultur
 e’s appreciation of these Buddhist contemplative practices is rather sup
 erficial. This relative immaturity has given rise to critical voices\, bot
 h amongst students of the cultural-historical forms of meditation\, as wel
 l as amongst scientists investigating the cognitive-psychological effects 
 of the practice.\n\nScholars of Buddhism not only caution that the modern 
 concept of mindfulness diverges from classical definitions of meditation\,
  but also point out that it represents a relatively minor practice amongst
  the many contemplative exercises performed by Buddhists throughout the ag
 es. Neuroscientists\, in turn\, have gradually started to shift their inve
 stigation to include other techniques\, allowing them to investigate the r
 ole of memory\, perception\, imagination\, or arousal in contemplative pra
 ctices.\n\nThis project capitalizes on these existing discourses and bring
 s them together in a revolutionary manner to make sense of meditation in i
 ts manifold dimensions. More specifically\, the project offers an interdis
 ciplinary study of meditation practices in India and Tibet by moving diale
 ctically in between a classical historical-philological analysis of Sanskr
 it and Tibetan texts\, on the one hand\, and emergent theories from the co
 gnitive sciences\, on the other.\n\nThis methodology gives me the instrume
 nts necessary to achieve this study’s two primary objectives: 1) to pres
 ent “predictive coding” as a unified theoretical framework that can be
  applied to the bewildering range of different contemplative exercises fou
 nd in Buddhism (and beyond)\; 2) to apply the predictive coding paradigm t
 o the context of Indo-Tibetan tantra in order to outline a taxonomy of key
  practices found in this cultural-historical context.
LOCATION:CERES Palais\, room "Ruhrpott" (4.13)
URL:https://ceres.rub.de/en/events/lunchbox-lecture-with-flavio-a-geisshue
 sler/
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