Two Paths to Insight
Exploring How Science and Buddhism Can Work Together
In The Art of Living, Thich Nhat Hanh (or “Thay”) writes that science and spirituality are two paths of inquiry both interested in understanding the nature of existence and the meaning of life.
Apart, the two disciplines have made incredible discoveries. But working together in the 21st century, Thay said, science and spirituality have an opportunity to conquer the root causes of suffering in human beings–in the body, heart, and mind.
“We want to discover who we really are, and we want to understand our suffering,” Thay writes. “Understanding our suffering gives rise to acceptance and love, and this is what determines our quality of life.”
Over the past few years, the International Plum Village Community has become increasingly engaged with scholars and researchers around the world seeking to study and apply Thay’s teachings in academic settings. Recent examples include the launch last year of Harvard University’s Thich Nhat Hanh Center for Mindfulness in Public Health, Deer Park Monastery’s ongoing The Buddha the Scientist Retreat, and Dr. Elli Weisbaums’ work to bring Plum Village mindfulness practices into healthcare settings.
On Wednesday, March 27, 2024, from 7-8:30 p.m. (EST), that collaborative work will take another leap forward when Weisbaum, Ph.D., a faculty member at the University of Toronto, and Brother Phap Linh, a senior monastic at Plum Village Monastery in France, co-present a special live-streamed event, “Science & Mindfulness: Pathways Towards Understanding & Healing.” To join in person at the University of Toronto, or online via Zoom, click here.
Co-sponsored by the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation, the free event will explore a study by Weisbaum that found positive outcomes for medical professionals who made use of Thay’s mindfulness practices.
Mark Miller, Ph.D., a philosopher of cognition and Senior Research Fellow at the Monash University’s Centre for Consciousness and Contemplative Studies in Australia, will serve as host and moderator for the event.
Following an overview of Weisbaum’s recent research, Weisbaum and Brother Phap Linh will share insights into how science and Buddhism can work in tandem, offer evidence-based data that support the effectiveness of mindfulness practices, and provide examples of how Thay’s teachings are being adapted for use in a range of professions, from healthcare and education to business.
The conversation will be followed by a Q&A session and will be presented in a way that’s accessible to everyone, from academic researchers and scholars, to lay practitioners and newcomers to mindfulness.
The event follows the publication last November of Weisbaum’s peer-reviewed article, “Improving physician wellness through the Applied Mindfulness Program for Medical Personnel: findings from a prospective qualitative study,” in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
The study, the first-ever in the world based specifically on Thay’s teachings, found that doctors at the University of Toronto who participated in a five-week mindfulness program reported personal benefits like a greater sense of wellbeing, as well as improved communications with their patients and colleagues.
Mindfulness, Weisbaum said in an article on her research, could be helpful in reducing burnout among medical professionals, as well as benefiting the people they serve.
“This research shows that mindfulness training benefits physicians at an individual level, through more effective management of occupational stressors,” she said. “It also shows potential benefits to the broader health care delivery system.”
Weisbaum is more than a researcher. Her roots in the International Plum Village Community run deep.
She grew up surrounded by a father who was a physician, and a mother who read Thay’s books and integrated some of his teachings into her work as a visiting artist in high schools. She and her parents attended their first family retreat with Thay in 1998, at the OMEGA Institute in New York State, and continued attending retreats each time Thay and his monastics came to North America.
Weisbaum later joined the new Wake Up movement for young adults and participated in the 2011 East Coast Wake Up Tour, where a group of monastics and lay friends in their twenties and thirties traveled to universities across the East Coast of the United States, including Yale, Harvard, and Brown.
An Order of Interbeing member since 2015, and a founding member of the Wake Up Toronto Sangha, Weisbaum continues to practice with the local and global Sangha and is part of the North American Wake Up Care Taking Council.
Mindfulness has played an important role in Weisbaum’s life in other ways, providing nourishing practices like Deep Relaxation to get through a difficult hospital stay, and as a central focus of her research as she pursued an academic career—particularly as it relates to the healthcare field.
In fact, an advisory team of monastics from Plum Village Monastery served as advisors for Weisbaum’s doctorate.
“They were invited to provide feedback across all phases of the research study, including program development/implementation, data analysis and final thesis write up–along with collaboration on future publications,” she said. “Their feedback helped to guide the study and ground the work in the teachings and language of Thay and the Plum Village community.”
EVENT SPEAKERS
Elli Weisbaum, BFA, MES, PhD, is acting program director for the Buddhism, Psychology and Mental Health Program (BPMH), in the University of Toronto Faculty of Arts and Sciences, with joint appointments in the Department of Psychiatry, the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health in their Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation. She is also an Order of Interbeing member in the International Plum Village Community and has worked internationally facilitating mindfulness workshops and retreats within the sectors of education, healthcare and business.
Brother Phap Linh, also known as Brother Spirit, is a Zen Buddhist monk, composer, and seeker. Before beginning his monastic training with Thich Nhat Hanh in Plum Village in 2008, he studied mathematics at Cambridge and worked professionally as a composer. Today, he is actively engaged in teaching applied mindfulness to climate activists, business leaders, artists, and scientists. As a leading voice in the new generation of Buddhist monastics in the West, he is passionate about exploring how meditators and scientists can help each other to go further on the path of understanding and discovery. He is also part of the core-curriculum team that designed and implemented the online international course Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet. [You can listen to a Dharma talk given by Brother Phap Linh on “Science and Spirituality Hand in Hand” during a 2019 Neuroscience Retreat at Plum Village Monastery in France.]
EVENT HOST
Mark Miller, Ph.D. is a philosopher of cognition. His research explores what recent advances in the cognitive sciences can tell us about happiness and well-being, and what it means to live well in our increasingly technologically-mediated world. Currently Mark is the Senior Research Fellow at the Monash University’s Centre for Consciousness and Contemplative Studies (Australia), and is cross affiliated at both the University of Toronto (Canada) and Hokkaido University (Japan). He is also the host The Contemplative Science Podcast.