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The Buddha the Scientist Symposium @ UCSD
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The Buddha the Scientist Symposium @ UCSD

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The Buddha the Scientist Symposium (TBTS) is a 1-day event hosted at UCSD inviting scientists from around North America to explore the intersection of Buddhism, psychology, and neuroscience through the embodied practice of mindfulness.


October 5

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REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN

 

About the Symposium

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. 

As a continuation of “The Buddha the Scientist” series held in 2022, 2023, and 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 University of California San Diego.

Register Here

Scientists & Speakers

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DHARMA TEACHERMeena SrinivasanMeena Srinivasan/True Seal of Peace (she/her) is a lay Dharma teacher in the Plum Village tradition of Engaged Buddhism and has been an active member of the community for nearly two decades. She serves on the working board of the Thích Nhất Hạnh Foundation, is a founding board member of the Thích Nhất Hạnh School of Interbeing and is a resident of Simplicity Hamlet at Deer Park Monastery. An internationally recognized leader in Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) and mindfulness in education, she is a former public school administrator and National Board Certified Teacher.Meena is the author of Teach, Breathe, Learn: Mindfulness In and Out of the Classroom and SEL Every Day: Integrating Social and Emotional Learning with Instruction in Secondary Classrooms, named one of the best books for educators by UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center. She also authored the Integrating SEL into Every Classroom Quick Reference Guide.A Hemera Foundation Contemplative Education Fellow, Meena serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Social and Emotional Learning, the leading journal for SEL policy, research, and practice. She teaches graduate-level SEL courses at UC Berkeley and is a sought-after keynote speaker.Her TEDx talk, “Unlocking the Secret Powers of Tenderness,” sharing the story of her first encounter with Thich Nhat Hanh, became one of the most-watched TEDx talks of 2024 with over two million views. Meena is the Founding Executive Director of Transformative Educational Leadership (TEL), where she pioneered a fellowship for educational leaders that centers personal growth as a catalyst for systemic change. She was honored as one of Mindful magazine’s Ten Powerful Women of the Mindfulness Movement and recognized by Educational Leadership magazine for insights into mindful leadership and the benefits of meditation for school leaders.Learn more at meenasrinivasan.com.Read
James floman
SCIENTISTDr. James FlomanDr. James L. Floman is an Associate Research Scientist at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. He received his PhD at the University of British Columbia, where he studied the effects of mindfulness and compassion meditation on teacher emotion regulation and prosocial behavior with Dr. Kimberly Schonert-Reichl. He received his MA in Psychology at Rutgers University, where he studied appraisal theory and discrete positive emotions with Dr. Ira Roseman.Dr. Floman has three core research streams: 1) The assessment of dynamic social-affective processes (i.e., developing and validating EI and well-being measurement tools); 2) EI, mindfulness, and well-being training (i.e., developing, optimizing, and scaling EI and well-being-enhancement interventions for real-world applications); and 3) Affective neuroscience (studying mental training-induced changes in ‘emotional brain’ function and structure). Dr. Floman’s research aims to foster healthy developmental trajectories in adults facing high emotional labor by drawing on innovations from psychology, affective science, education, philosophy, and neuroscience. Read
Brother Phap Luu
DHARMA TEACHERBrother Pháp LưuOrdained as a monk since December 13, 2003, Brother Chân Pháp Lưu (Brother Stream) received Transmission of the Lamp from Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh to teach in 2011. He helped start Wake-Up, the international movement for young people, as well as the Happy Farm, Plum Village’s organic farming community, and has been working with Wake-Up Schools since its inception in 2012 to bring mindfulness to schools. He has served as a monastic editor several of Thích Nhát Hạnh’s books including Happy Teachers Change the World, Stepping Into Freedom, Cracking the Walnut, The Admonitions and Encouraging Words of Master Guishan, and How to Focus. Brother Phap Luu leads mindful backpacking retreats in nature around Deer Park Monastery in Escondido, California and recently co-authored a book with Brother Phap Xa called Hiking Zen.Brother Stream has been working lately with scientists at Dartmouth College and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health to develop research on the effect of Plum Village mindfulness practices on children. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the Thích Nhát Hạnh Center for Mindfulness in Public Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.He is the 201st disciple of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh and belongs to the 43rd generation of the Lâm Tế lineage and the 9th generation of the Liễu Quán school.Read

Retreat

The Buddha the Scientist Retreat

This mindfulness retreat will prepare you for the Symposium. Please register for the retreat separately. 

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Symposium FAQs

The Buddha the Scientist Symposium will be held on Monday October 5 from 9:00 AM–4:00 PM.

The Buddha the Scientist Symposium will be held at the Sanford Consortium in San Diego. 
Address: 2880 Torrey Pines Scenic Drive, La Jolla, CA 92037

Parking is available at the Sanford Consortium, but participants should expect to pay for parking. Parking fees are not included in registration. Visit the Sanford Consortium website for more parking information. 

No. Participants are responsible for arranging their own transportation from the retreat venue to the symposium. Carpooling is encouraged.

The Buddha the Scientist brings together a remarkable community of researchers, educators, healthcare professionals, neuroscientists, and Dharma teachers who are exploring the meeting place of contemplative wisdom and modern science. Drawing from leading universities, medical centers, and the Plum Village tradition, our speakers investigate topics such as mindfulness, compassion, neuroscience, emotional intelligence, social and emotional learning, education, medicine, and human flourishing. Together, they offer both rigorous scientific insight and decades of personal mindfulness practice, illuminating how the Buddha's teachings continue to inspire research, healing, and compassionate action in today's world. View the full speaker lineup here.

Explore Online Courses

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.

Upcoming Courses
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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.

Open Plum Village Mobile App in the App Store
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