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MindScience Academy curates a series of articles with the intention to gloss and approach the ongoing exchange between scientific research and contemplative traditions. Through such endeavor, we shall try to expand the tools at the disposal of the critical reader and researcher, without the pretense of exhausting debate, on the contrary, multiplying and hybridizing its languages. This way, our column resembles the laboratory itself; critical, enzymatic, open to surprise and transformative experience.
focus on september 2024
As of today, there is no basis for claiming that current forms of artificial intelligence possess a greater degree of consciousness than that which can be attributed to a toaster. Getting to the bottom of the mystery of consciousness is an extremely urgent and crucial task for humanity, and failing to do so would expose us to serious risks.
focus on september 2024
Tutti gli esseri, inclusi umani e intelligenze artificiali, possono ampliare i propri confini cognitivi lavorando su un meta-obiettivo di cura per risolvere le difficoltà altrui. Il voto del Bodhisattva esemplifica questa espansione, sottolineando l’importanza della cura come concetto invariabile.
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The central question could be: how can we ensure that artificial intelligences and robots are developed with consideration for the well-being of all sentient beings?
focus on july 2024
Research indicates that some altered states of consciousness can have significant therapeutic applications. (...) The ability to control dreams can help people confront fears and traumas in a safe and controlled environment.
focus on july 2024
Non-ordinary states of consciousness are considered glimpses into the ultimate truth, where the limitations presented by our clouded and deluded mind are transcended, revealing the luminous, empty nature of reality, which is the ordinary mind. These moments are seen as windows into the fundamental qualities of clarity, peace, and non-duality inherent in the ordinary mind.
focus on july 2024
The term "non-ordinary" avoids any prejudice or implicit idea of abnormality or apparent and suspicious strangeness, emphasizing instead the diversity of these conditions compared to what is conventionally admitted.
focus on july 2024
A fascinating example of research in the field of contemplative science, and specifically the study of advanced meditation.
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Tenzin Palmo embarked on an incredible journey: she undertook a twelve-year retreat in a secluded cave in the Himalayan mountains. At over 4,000 meters above sea level, she dedicated herself to spiritual practice and deep meditation.
focus on june 2024
In my view, we can perhaps compare poetry to mystical realization and prose to meditation. Two sides of the same coin, both practicable and with interdependent values, otherwise, they would be removed from the Buddhist vision (...) of interdependence, and no less from that of cause and effect.
focus on june 2024
The concept of ‘religious experience’ has enjoyed varying degrees of prominence in religious studies, influenced partly by shifting interpretive trends and partly by the diverse ways in which these studies have engaged with, and been influenced by, different religious traditions.
focus on june 2024
If one wants one's mind to dwell happily, one must rely on the antidote to the conception of a self and, in this regard, one must meditate on the absence of a self.
focus on june 2024
Both the "nothing" of John of the Cross and the Buddhist emptiness imply a detachment from material and psychological attachments. In both cases, detachment is a means to achieve a deeper understanding of reality.