From Thoughts Without a Thinker
Forward by the Dalai Lama
Recently, psychotherapists, with their background in science and medicine, have begun to explore the possibilities of employing Buddhist techniques in a therapeutic context. I feel this is entirely consistent with the aim of overcoming suffering and improving the welfare of all sentient beings. Living experience of Buddhist meditation has given practitioners a profound knowledge of the workings and nature of the mind, an inner science to complement our understanding of the physical world. On its own, no amount of technological development can lead to lasting happiness. What is almost always missing is a corresponding inner development. This is an area in which there is increasing evidence that Buddhist assertions and modern findings have to potential to be valuable to one another.
--December 1994The school where I teach is currently in the process of choosing new laptops for the academy 1:1 laptop program. As I provide more freedom in my English assignments to take advantage of the laptops versatility, the projects that result are a multi-media extravaganza. These students don't just know how to write descriptively about dead tiger sharks that wash up on the beach; they can email internationally with shark specialists, assemble powerpoint presentations of tiger shark videos borrowed from youtube, or make their own movies based on interviews with marine biologists.
I'm just not sure if they know how to breath.
This concept of the inner development necessary to process the whirl of technological development intrigues me. For me, that processing come with rules about when to shut down the machine and go outside, correcting my work posture, and recognizing when my eyes are growing fatigued from looking at a screen for so long.
Like now.
There are many attitudes technology between the poles of technophobe and automaton. Are students aware of them?
3 comments:
This realm of blending Buddhist thought, neuroscience and therapy brings it all together in a way that makes sense and now has resaerch to substantiate it. I think that for most of us as humans, relationships are the most important aspects of life. We focus so much on meeting goals (not a bad thing) and striving to acheive what we think will bring value to ourselves, but we very often neglect an intentional focus on that which means the most to us.
That's a nice quote from the Dalai Lama. You are right on in focusing on human interaction as an absolute, key tool for teaching and learning. Scott
Hey Scott,
Thanks for your thoughtful comment!
Have you found any more of the research to substantiate these connections between neuroscience, Buddhism and therapy? I have started to poke around looking for more info on this front and haven't stumbled on a massive amount...
but I'm sure it's out there!
A couple of great writers/researchers are Daniel Goleman and Daniel Siegel. Goleman wroet "Emotional Intelligence" and "Social Intelligence." Both are really good. The latter book is more current and has great stuff on brain research. Goleman also has a book "Destructive Emotions" which is his narration of a series of meetings among scientists and Eastern philosophers/monks, including the Dalai Lama. Very trippy. Siegel is at UCLA and also does training in mindfulness.
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