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Articles and News

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.
Apparenza realta Ven Olivier Rossi
focus on February 2024

"Appearance and reality: dichotomy between the way of appearing and the way of existing" by Ven. Olivier Rossi

Understanding reality is at the heart of the Tibetan Buddhist path.
By dichotomy, I mean conceiving the impermanent as permanent, suffering as happiness, the impure as pure, and the non-self as having a self.
Percezione Geshe Dorji Damdul
focus on February 2024

"Perception in the Buddhist psychology of Nalanda" by Geshe Dorji Damdul

Buddha indicated that the mind is the chief as regards all our emotions and actions, and if it is driven by ignorance, it leads to all miseries. He taught the twelve links of dependent origination, pertaining to the evolution of three kinds of miseries in samsaric existence, all stemming from ignorance. The counter force for this ignorance is what the Buddha identified as wisdom, to remove the veil of ignorance which blinds the vison of reality.
MSA Attenzione
Consciousness and Inner Reality

Technologies of attention (3): exploratory bias

Attention is one of the higher-order cognitive processes. In the brain, it enables the selection of privileged neural signals by enhancing their intensity through neural feedback, thereby decreasing the relative intensity of competing neural signals. For example, attention allows a writer to focus on the topic at hand while neighbors are loudly arguing; their thoughts are highlighted (akin to the metaphor of a spotlight, albeit controversial today), at the expense of the neighbors' conversations.
What is consciousness? Federico Faggin
FOCUS ON JANUARY 2024

"What is Consciousness?" by Federico Faggin

I know within myself that I exist. This is a common experience to every human being. But how do I know? I know because I feel so within me. Thus, the feeling is the carrier of the meaning (I exist), and the capacity to have feelings and understand their meaning is the essential property that “explains” how we know.
Mind consciousness Robina Courtin
FOCUS ON JANUARY 2024

"Our mind, or consciousness, is not the handiwork of anyone else", by Ven Robina Courtin

The job of the mind is cognition, and clearly Buddhism asserts subtler levels of cognition not posited by neuroscience. Our potential – the enlightenment of buddhahood – it’s the very nature of our mind.
Cervello trino mappare emozioni
Body, Mind and Emotions

Mapping Emotions (4): Triune Brain

The trine model of the human brain first introduced by MacLean — seeing the human brain as evolved in three main waves, the first of which has created a reptilian complex at the core, the second a paleo-mammal limbic system and lastly the recent structures of the neo-cortex — is now considered anatomically obsolete and Damasio's work has clearly shown the most "primitive" structures to be vital to superior cognition. How much of this layered conception, made of levels, ancient and recent, primitive or cognitively superior, with interactions flowing in both senses (top-down or bottom-up), still survives in the debate?
Mind in Buddhism Berzin
FOCUS ON JANUARY 2024

"Mind According to Buddhism", by Alexander Berzin

Understanding the components that comprise a moment of our subjective experience enables us to deconstruct the moment. Such deconstruction methods also help us to understand what others are experiencing and to interact with them in a compassionate way.
"Come il respiro modula la coscienza e stati non ordinari di coscienza" di Gemignani respiro
FOCUS ON JANUARY 2024

"Breath and Consciousness: from ancient practices to neuroscientific discoveries", by UniPi

Slow breathing techniques seem to enhance autonomic, cerebral, emotional, and behavioral flexibility, leading to a range of benefits for the individual who practices them.
MSA Attenzione
Consciousness and Inner Reality

Technologies of attention (2): between mental and collective

Bernard Stiegler's philosophical reflection on attention (2010; 2014) illustrates how attention is more than just concentration or vigilance. Attention also concerns desire, waiting, active participation, interest.
Relazioni e narrazione
Relationships and Society

Values, relationships, and awareness. When reality is a matter of narrative

In an uncertain and complex world, human beings have a natural inclination to construct narratives: stories that weave together the most different threads of their experiences into a coherent puzzle of meaning.
MSA tecnologia attenzione
Consciousness and Inner Reality

Attention technology (1): introduction

In this series of articles we discuss some of the key reflections of Bernard Stiegler's analysis on the link between digital technologies and the destruction of attention; on its consequences for individual and collective life.
Mappare emozioni
Body, Mind and Emotions

Mapping emotions (3): body budgeting

The debate confronting the two paradigms partly relates to how we define that which is shared or universal. Even within its constructivist perspective, Barrett accepts the existence of universals. Indeed, his model envisages affects that are constantly fluctuating in valence (positive or negative).

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