The Buddha the Scientist Symposium invites scientists from around the world to explore the intersection of Buddhism, psychology, and neuroscience through the embodied practice of mindfulness. The symposium combines mindfulness practice with groundbreaking scientific inquiry and discussion.
May 20 / 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Turn Your Inbox into a Dharma Door
Subscribe to our Coyote Tracks newsletter on Substack to receive event announcements, writing, art, music, and meditations from Deer Park monastics.
Support Deer Park
Donations are our main source of support, so every offering is greatly appreciated. Your contribution helps us to keep the monastery open to receive guests throughout the year.
DonateThe Symposium will be hosted in person at University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada) and also livestreamed via Zoom. Click here to register for just the livestream event if you cannot make it in person.
Inspired by “The Buddha, the Scientist” series held at Deer Park Monastery (2022, 2023) and Dartmouth College (2025), this symposium brings Thích Nhất Hạnh’s vision of integrating mindfulness into scientific communities to life.
Attendees will experience the unique format of practicing mindfulness alongside scholars, who then present their research in a reflective, inspirational symposium. Following the presentations, a panel Q&A will offer opportunities for meaningful dialogue.
Our aspiration is to support you in deepening your mindfulness practice while offering profound insights into how Buddhist wisdom and scientific discovery can unite to create lasting solutions for the world.
This event is co-hosted by UBC’s Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Program in Buddhism and Contemporary Society, The BC Children’s Hospital Centre for Mindfulness, and Monastics from Plum Village and Deer Park Monasteries
Brother Pháp Lưu (Brother Stream) was ordained in 2003, and received the Transmission of the Lamp from Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh in 2011.
He helped start Wake Up, the Plum Village movement for young people, and has been working with Wake Up Schools since its inception in 2012 to bring mindfulness to schools.
Br. Pháp Lưu also helped to establish Happy Farm, Plum Village’s organic farming community. He is the advisor and editor of the Mindfulness Bell, co-chair of the Thích Nhất Hạnh Foundation and Parallax Press board, and has served as the monastic editor for a number of Thầy’s books, including Happy Teachers Change the World, Stepping Into Freedom, The Admonitions and Encouraging Words of Master Guishan, How to Focus, and Cracking the Walnut.
He initiated The Buddha the Scientist retreat and symposium series and leads mindful backpacking retreats in nature around Deer Park Monastery in Escondido, California; Joshua Tree National Park; the Sierra Nevada; and on the Appalachian Trail.
His new book on mindful walking in nature, Hiking Zen, co-written with Brother Pháp Xa, will be released in the spring of 2025.
Sister Hội Nghiêm was born and raised in Vietnam. Before becoming a nun, she was a school teacher and wished to incorporate mindfulness in her teaching in order to help her students transform suffering into happiness.
At the age of 25, she came to Plum Village, France and ordained as a novice with Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh in 1999. She became a Dharma Teacher in 2007. Sister Hội Nghiêm translated The Buddha Body, the Buddha Mind, encompassing Thích Nhất Hạnh’s teachings offered during the first neuroscience retreat in Plum Village in 2006.
She is currently the Abbess of the Lower Hamlet of the Plum Village monastery and continues to teach mindfulness at Plum Village, France as well as around the world. She enjoys meditation, nature, poetry and inspiring people to practice.
Brother Pháp Liệu was born in Vietnam and grew up in France. He ordained as a novice monk with Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh in 2003, and became a Dharma teacher in the Plum Village tradition in 2010.
Previously trained as a cardiologist, Br. Pháp Liệu is a pioneer of the Plum Village “Health and Mindfulness Meditation retreats.” He has enjoyed leading these retreats in Plum Village France, throughout Europe, Asia, Australia and Canada since 2008. Following the path of his teacher, Br. Pháp Liệu tries to find ways to connect Buddhist psychology teachings with research in neuroscience.
He currently resides in Healing Spring Monastery, a Plum Village practice centre in the East-Paris area, recently established in October 2018.
Are you in or around Vancouver and want to attend in person? Register for the in-person symposium here.
Dr. Michelle A Williams, Professor of Epidemiology & Population Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health & Stanford University
Dr. David R. Vago, Research Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Lynn Quarmby, Professor and Chair of the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at Simon Fraser University
Dr. Dzung X. Vo, Clinical Associate Professor & Adolescent Medicine Specialist, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia & Co-Director, BC Children’s Hospital Centre for Mindfulness
Dr. Elli Weisbaum, Assistant Professor, Buddhism, Psychology and Mental Health Program (BPMH) and Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
Brother Pháp Liệu, A cardiologist before ordaining as a novice monk with Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh in 2003. Became a Dharma teacher in the Plum Village tradition in 2010.
Sister Hội Nghiêm, A former school teacher, ordained as a novice with Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh in 1999 and became a Dharma Teacher in 2007. Translator of The Buddha Body, the Buddha Mind, encompassing Thích Nhất Hạnh’s teachings offered during the first neuroscience retreat in Plum Village in 2006.
Brother Pháp Lưu, Ordained in 2003, and became a Dharma Teacher in the Plum Village Tradition in 2011. Co-chair of the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation and Advisory board member for Harvard University’s Thich Nhat Hanh Centre for Mindfulness in Public Health.
In 2011, the University of British Columbia had the honor of hosting Thích Nhất Hạnh for a residential meditation retreat and public Dharma Talk. Building on this meaningful experience, we are very grateful that UBC has invited our sangha back for a retreat and public symposium featuring scholars, scientists, and other practitioners. This event will offer a unique opportunity to deepen mindfulness practice and explore the intersection of Buddhist wisdom and scientific discovery. All are warmly invited to join this transformative gathering.
From time to time we offer multi-week courses related to mindfulness, the teachings and life of Thich Nhat Hanh, and a variety of similar subjects. Please see our schedule of upcoming courses.
Take the Deer Park Monastery and Plum Village community with you wherever you go. The Plum Village app is designed to cultivate mindfulness, compassion, and joy through guided meditations, deep relaxations, practice poems, bells of mindfulness, and other practices — all through a mobile device.
