Part 4 of 12. This talk by John Dunne, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Religion, Emory University and Professor, Center for Investigating Healthy Minds, University of Wisconsin, Madison, was given as part of the 2015 UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain research summit "Perspectives on Mindfulness: the Complex Role of Scientific Research" on May 21, 2015.
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Talk Abstract: One of the obstacles to research on mindfulness is the widespread assumption that a single definition can adequately characterize it. Often single, overarching definitions are derived from traditional Buddhist sources, but on closer inspection, these sources themselves turn out to be highly diverse and even contradictory. This talk begins by exploring the diversity of opinion within Buddhist sources and their relationship to contemporary accounts of mindfulness. In this context, a new phenomenologically oriented approach to mindfulness is proposed along with a model for characterizing mindfulness in its diversity. The model, a product of a long collaboration with Antoine Lutz, Amishi Jha and Clifford Saron (now in press in The American Psychologist), locates different styles of mindfulness and stages of development in relation to key phenomenological dimensions that can be used to generate hypotheses about the mechanisms and effects of mindfulness practice.
John D. Dunne , PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Religion at Emory University. In the upcoming academic year he will move to the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was educated at Amherst College and Harvard University, where he received his Ph.D. from the Committee on the Study of Religion in 1999. Before joining Emory’s faculty in 2005, he taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and held a research position at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. His work focuses on Buddhist philosophy and contemplative practice, especially in dialog with Cognitive Science and Psychology. His publications include a monograph on the Buddhist epistemologist Dharmakīrti and scientific studies of Buddhist contemplative practice with colleagues from various institutions, including the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds and the Mind and Life Institute. His current research and publications focus especially on the varieties of mindfulness and the contemplative theories that inquire into its nature.
Organizing Committee: Clifford Saron, Ph.D., Chair; Catherine Kerr, Ph.D.; David Meyer, Ph.D.; & Evan Thompson, Ph.D. Dr. Dunne is introduced by Clifford Saron.
Videography by George Rosenfeld of Sylvan Video -sylvanvideo.com/