"What is Mind?" – Perspectives from Buddhism & Science
| Location: | Aerial function centre Level 7 UTS building 10 235 Jones St, Broadway (see map) |
| Date: | March 17, 7 pm (doors open 6:30 pm) |
| Price: | Buy online: $25 / $20 concession At the door: $30 / $25 concession |
After the success of the "What is Mind?" event last year, Lama Ole Nydahl and three experts from the fields of medicine, neuroscience and healthcare return to explore, examine and debate the nature of mind in Sydney. The evening will be facilitated by a master of ceremonies who will field questions from the audience and encourage healthy debate.
Lama Ole will complete the program with a lecture on Buddhism following the panel session.
Doors open at 6:30 pm and the panel discussion will start at 7 pm sharp.
Online ticket sales are now closed, but you can buy a ticket at the door.
Lama Ole Nydahl
Almost every day Lama Ole is in a different city, passing on Buddha's teachings. Since he and his wife Hannah met the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa while honeymooning in Nepal in 1968, they have dedicated their lives to Buddhism. They spent three years in the Himalayas as Karmapa's personal students receiving Buddhist teachings and developing the needed experience in meditation.
Other than passing on vivid and authentic Buddhist teachings (always with a touch of dry Danish humour) in his frequent lectures, Lama Ole also gives longer meditation courses to teach the timeless practical methods of Diamond Way Buddhism, such as the foundational practices or Phowa, a meditation which is very useful at the moment of death. Since the death of the 16th Karmapa in 1981, Lama Ole Nydahl has kept the Diamond Way Centres of the Karma Kagyu Lineage around the world together. There are now over 600 centres in 44 countries worldwide, with thousands of friends meditating and studying in America, England, Australia and Canada, with active and energetic groups in South America, Russia, and all over Europe. Lama Ole continues to work with the centres under the spiritual guidance of the 17th Karmapa, Thaye Dorje.
Learn more about Lama Ole Nydahl
See Lama Ole's 2011 Australian Tour schedule
The Panelists
Professor Marc Cohen MD
After participating in the event in 2010, Professor Marc Cohen returns to delve deeper into the nature of mind with us this year. Professor Cohen is one of Australia’s foremost pioneers of complementary medicine (CM) in the academic arena has had a significant impact on education, research, clinical practice and policy in this discipline.
Marc is a registered medical practitioner (with honours), and has a Bachelor of Medical Science Degree (with honours). He also has a PhD in Traditional Chinese Medicine and a second PhD in biomedical engineering. He has a Fellowship of the Australian Medical Acupuncture Society as well as a Fellowship of the International College of Acupuncture and Electrotherapeutics.
Currently he’s the Foundation Professor of Complementary Medicine at RMIT University, a Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Medical and Health Sciences Education at Monash University and an Expert Advisor to the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s (TGA) Complementary Medicine Evaluation Committee (CMEC).
Professor George Paxinos
George Paxinos is an Australia Fellow (NHMRC) in Neuroscience Research Australia and a Professor of Psychology and Medical Sciences, The University of New South Wales. He was born in Ithaki, Greece and studied in the US, at Berkeley, McGill and Yale. He has published 42 books on the brain of humans and experimental animals. His first book, The Rat Brain in Stereotaxic Coordinates, is the third most cited scientific book and the most cited Australian scientific publication. His Atlas of the Human Brain received the American Association of Publishers Award for Excellence. His current research includes investigating the organisation of the rat, mouse and human spinal cords; homologies between the cortex of humans and other primates and tractography using tensor imaging.
Petrea King
Petrea King is the Founding Director and CEO of the Quest for Life Foundation, (est. 1989) where more than 80,000 people with cancer and other life-challenging illnesses and challenges have attended residential programs or counselling.
In 1983, Petrea herself was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia and was not expected to live. After retreating into a monastery near Assisi, Italy to meditate and integrate past traumatic experiences she was inspired to assist other people who are also going through crisis.
She’s the best selling author of eight books including Quest for Life and Your Life Matters as well as three children’s books. Petrea is a regular guest on ABC national and local radio plus she’s been featured in many television programs. She’s the recipient of numerous awards including the Advance Australia Award, the Centenary Medal, Citizen of the Year for 2008 plus she’s been amongst the nominees for Australian of the Year each year since 2003.
Master of Ceremonies
Alan Saunders
Alan Saunders was born in London. He studied philosophy at the University of Leicester, where he was president of the students' union, and Logic and Scientific Method at the London School of Economics. He came to Australia in 1981 to pursue research in the History of Ideas Unit at the Australian National University and was subsequently awarded a PhD.
Having joined the Science Unit of ABC Radio National in 1987, he now presents The Philosopher's Zoneand By Design. In 2008 he appeared as the food critic on the Nine Network’s reality series, The Chopping Block.
Alan has written has written widely on food and design. He is author of A is for Apple (Random House). His first novel, Alanna, was published by Penguin in 2002.
In 1992, Alan Saunders won the Geraldine Pascall Prize for critical writing and broadcasting. In 2007 he was awarded the Australasian Association of Philosophy’s Media Professionals' Award.
The Venue
Aerial Function Centre, Level 7 UTS Building 10, 235 Jones St Broadway
