This event will be both in-person & online. The "go to online event page" on your Ticket will give you access the Zoom link as well as directions for in-person attendance at Manglam Research Center in Berkeley, CA.
To register for the entire series on "Mind, Death, & Rebirth," please go here.
*If tickets are sold-out, you can choose "Donate (any amount)" in the "Get Ticket" options for in-person or online entry.
A recording of this talk will be shared via email a few days after the event.
Description: In the study and practice of Buddhism in the West, attempts are often made to “naturalize” Buddhism, that is, to bring Buddhist ideas about karma and rebirth into alignment with culturally specific, modern and scientific ideas about the “natural.” While this has some practical virtues, it is is often motivated by the assumption that consciousness depends on the brain and body and so must necessarily end with the death of the body. However, as we are exploring in this series of conversations on “Mind, Death, and Rebirth,” there are phenomena (such as children who remember previous lives, near-death experiences, and tukdam) that suggest consciousness may exist beyond the brain and body. This talk will reflect on how we can make sense of these phenomena in light of traditional Buddhist views, as well as how some aspect of traditional views may be challenged by diversity of experiences surrounding death and rebirth across cultures.
Karin Meyers is Academic Director of Mangalam Research Center. She received a PhD with distinction from The University of Chicago for her dissertation on free will in light of Buddhist theories of karma and causation. She has taught Buddhist studies at several colleges and universities in the US and abroad, including Rangjung Yeshe Institute in Nepal, where she directed the masters program in Buddhist Studies. Karin’s scholarly work focuses on bringing Buddhist perspectives to bear on cross-cultural and interdisciplinary inquiry into fundamental metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical questions. Her most recent work focuses on Buddhist contemplative practices, Buddhism and the imagination, as well as ecologically engaged Buddhism. She co-directed the 2022 NEH Summer Institute, "The Imagination and Imaginal Worlds in the Mirror of Buddhism," hosted at Mangalam, and is currently editing a book on the topic for Mangalam Press.
