Recent years have seen a steady increase in scientific research into Buddhist beliefs and practices, in particular, research on mindfulness, which was pioneered more than 30 year ago, continues to attract mainstream attention. The large majority of this research, however, is conducted by Western researchers or Western Buddhists at universities in the West, and one starts to wonder whether the pursuit of finding scientific evidence for Buddhism’s religious claims is in fact a Western pursuit. It certainly ties in with the often-discussed observation of Tibetan masters who have taught in the West, that Western Buddhist are very good with knowledge, with trying to understand the teachings, but are somewhat lacking in the area of practice.

Yeshi Dhonden, a Tibetan monk who earned renown after working for some 20 years as personal physician to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, today continues draws visitors from the Tibetan diaspora and all over the world seeking alternative treatments for a variety of health conditions ranging from back pain to cancer and degenerative diseases. “If the sick come to me, I will take care of them,” says Dhonden from his private clinic in McLeod Ganj, a suburb of Dharamsala in the far northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. (France 24)

I remember once, as a child, accidentally spilling some sugar over the table and wondering to myself, “How come each grain has its place?” I mean, the sugar did not seem to scatter randomly . . . the grains were kind of symmetrically arranged. I stared at my little arms, gazing at the hair that grew out of my skin. Each hair had its place. For the first time, I felt that some kind of greater intelligence had placed the grains of sugar, just as it had placed the stars and planets in space.

The Earth recently reached a grim milestone. On 24 October, the World Meteorological Organization reported in its annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin that a strong El Niño weather phenomenon, triggering droughts in tropical regions of the world, had led to a spike in atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) above 400 parts per million (ppm) for the first time in recorded history. Scientists estimate that the last time CO2 reached such concentrations was 3–5 million years ago. While human CO2 emissions remained relatively static in 2014–15, scientists point out that they remain a key factor in the overall increase, which was greater in the preceding 12 months than at any time in the past 56 years.

The benefits of spending time in the Great Outdoors are no secret. Throughout history, great teachers, thinkers, and poets have extolled the virtues and benefits of communing with nature and maintaining a connection with the natural world. Aiming to combat the information and stress overload that all too often accompanies contemporary urban life, a new well-being movement known as “forest bathing” has become one of the fastest-growing health trends in many cities around the world.

No man is an island unto himself, poets, philosophers, and teachers down through the ages have emphasized, and the same, it would seem, can also be said of trees. It is now understood that roots of trees in the wild are interconnected by extensive and complex “common mycorrhizal networks” of fungi—what researchers sometimes refer to as the “wood wide web.”

The Buddhist understanding of the illusory nature of a constant, unchanging sense of self, first posited thousands of years ago, has been validated by recent neuro-scientific research. And while neuroscience cannot yet offer a definitive answer as to exactly how consciousness relates to the brain, some cognitive scientists have begun to reference Buddhist thought in their research.  

Feb 12 -- One 15-minute focused-breathing meditation may help people make smarter choices, according to new research from researchers at INSEAD and The Wharton School. The findings are published in the February issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

January 03 - Millions of people in 'the developed world' visit therapists for all sorts of emotional and psychological problems they find difficulty in coping with by themselves. People who visit psychiatrists are usually very quickly diagnosed with some form of psychosis and treated with a mixture of cognitive therapies and antipsychotic medications. Various health insurance schemes around the world have greatly encouraged this growing practice.

Nov 14 -- DHARAMSHALA: Around twenty-five Tibetan religious and educational leaders from various monastery and nunneries will be attending the ‘International Conference on Knowing - Cosmology and Consciousness II' at Songtsen Library in Dehradun from November 15 to 17.