Does the Dalai Lama’s support for a ‘centre for investigating healthy minds’ compromise its scientific respectability?
At a time when the relationship between science and spirit seems characterised by mutual suspicion, common ground for enquiry is all the more refreshing. Like at last Sunday’s opening of the University of Wisconsin’s centre for investigating healthy minds, where the Dalai Lama shared a platform with the new centre’s director, Professor Richard Davidson.
The department is a hub of expertise in what is being called “contemplative neuroscience”, and a natural extension of Davidson’s ongoing quest to discover how various forms of meditation impact the brain. Among …