Can modern science make use of Buddhism's 2,500 years of investigating the mind? Building on 15 years of private meetings, "Investigating the Mind" aims to identify the common ground between two powerful empirical traditions-- Tibetan Buddhism and biobehavioral science--that are both deeply committed to understanding how the mind works, even as they investigate the mind in very different ways and out of very different motivations.

"Investigating the Mind" will consist of three sessions on dimensions of mental functioning that have been extensively investigated by both Buddhism and biobehavioral science: "attention and cognitive control," "emotion," and "mental imagery." Each session will begin with some orienting remarks by a senior scientist from the biobehavioral sciences and a senior scholar from Buddhist studies.

Following these presentations, the Dalai Lama -- speaking both as a teacher of his own tradition and an interlocutor of our own -- will comment on what has been said. All will then be joined in a panel discussion with an interdisciplinary group of scientists and scholars. A final session will aim to integrate insights across the three sessions and place them into a larger philosophical and ethical context.