2019 Ligmincha Symposium for Contemplative Sciences a Success!
First of Three Annual Conferences at Serenity Ridge
2019 Symposium presenters: From left (back row): David Vago, Willa Miller, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, Ruth Wolever, Phuntsok Wangmo; (front row): Rob Patzig, Andrew Fort, Alejandro Chaoul-Reich and Michael Sheehy. Photo by Melissa Katz.Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, cutting-edge presenters and participants came together April 14–16, immediately following the Spring Retreat at Serenity Ridge, for the first of three annual conferences on the intersection of scientific and experiential knowledge of how practices of body, speech and mind affect our biology, psychology, neurology and more.
The goal of the symposium was to foster a deep and practical understanding of how the human physical and subtle bodies, breath and mind catalyze the cultivation of self-knowledge, resilience and well-being. Rinpoche and organizers Michael Sheehy, Ph.D. and Alejandro Chaoul-Reich, Ph.D., were joined by an incredible set of speakers and panelists representing the sciences, humanities, religion and Tibetan medicine.
Rinpoche kicked off the symposium with a guided practice, drawing on the Fivefold Teaching of Dawa Gyaltsen to lead everyone into a deeply felt experience of stillness, silence and spaciousness of body, speech and mind. After his guided practice, he and Dr. Sheehy engaged in a dialogue about the roles of these three doors. Rinpoche explained how, for most of us, the body is the easier door to control, and so we start by bringing it into stillness. Silence is more challenging and harder to bring into silence. And the mind, well . . . that is the hardest part for most of us. Rinpoche also introduced the idea that one of the key continuities among these three is the process of identity construction and self-identification. The more we think that we are someone, the more challenges we face in our lives.
On April 15, Dr. Ruth Wolever presented a study on tinnitus and how perceived but unreal sounds in the brain can be alleviated through mindfulness interventions. Many of the debilitating effects of tinnitus were found to be related to processes of identification, self-narrative and self-making. In the panel following, Lama Willa Miller helped participants look at how this study reveals that we often are not really inhabiting our dimensional body but, rather, are living in a fully conceptual one of our own imagining. Learning to reground ourselves in lived experience, without strong identification with who we think we are, can allow us to let go and to heal from real and perceived trauma.
Michael Sheehy, Willa Miller, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and Ruth Wolever. Photo by Melissa Katz.During the second panel of the day, Dr. Chaoul-Reich discussed his work in clinical settings, adapting Tibetan Bön-derived yogic techniques of movement and work with breath as interventions for cancer patients and their caregivers. He especially focused on the effectiveness in clinical settings of drawing attention to movement and breath done very purposefully and intentionally. Dr. Phuntsok Wangmo then explained the five kinds of breath or “winds” that operate as movements internally within a physical body. She described how these winds oscillate and flow along the channels of the physical and energetic body.
The evening session began with a presentation by Dr. David Vago about mapping neural activities to contemplative or meditative stages of development. His presentation opened up the conversation about the mind, moderated by Dr. Wendy Hasenkamp, and the limitations of both the scientific method to study awareness, and of awareness to know itself. Dr. Andy Fort called attention to the fact that the duality of the mind and body is a very new idea, and the idea of having this discourse is actually quite modern. Within classical Indic contexts, thinkers were more concerned with capacities of the mind such as intellect, psyche, consciousness, and identifying the multiple dimensionalities of the mind. This was, without doubt, the liveliest of the panels as the ideas presented were the most controversial; indeed, much was still theoretical. The audience had many questions and comments, and would gladly have stayed on discussing matters further had time not run out.
April 16 found participants practicing a very restful form of yoga as taught by Lama Willa Miller. An additional guided meditation was led by Rinpoche. In the final session, the capstone, Dr. Sheehy summarized the prior two days of activities and conversations, and then guided all presenters and Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche in a wide-ranging conversation on topics raised by members of the audience.
This year’s symposium inaugurated a new relationship between Ligmincha and the Contemplative Sciences Center (CSC) at The University of Virginia. Dr. Michael Sheehy, the Director of Scholarship at the CSC, joined the organizing committee, which includes Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, Alejandro Chaoul-Reich and Rob Patzig. UVA students supported the program as volunteers. Gryphon Corpus and Kathleen Michel worked closely to help with organizing activities, promotion, travel planning and more. Almost the entire event was livestreamed onto Facebook, and work is under way to post higher quality videos on the Ligmincha YouTube channel, so that everyone can watch what transpired at this wonderful event.
2019 Symposium Presenters: From left (back row): Michael Sheehy, Willa Miller, Phuntsok Wangmo, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, Ruth Wolever, Andrew Fort; (front row): David Vago, Alejandro Chaoul-Reich, Rob Patzig. Photo by Vicki Wheaton.
In 2020 the conference will take place at the end of Spring Retreat, from April 5–7, 2020. Organizers also intend to livestream everything and have a more immersive online experience available to those who cannot attend in person. More will be announced in Voice of Clear Light closer to the new year.
