On August 5th, over 30 participants from various professions gathered at Fo Guang Shan San Bao Temple to attend the talk “Meditation is not magic: what neuroscience can tell us about meditation.” by Winson Yang, a member of San Francisco YAD. The talk is the first public lecture organized by SFYAD and given by a fellow member.
Winson has been studying neuroscience for 4 years and is beginning his PhD specializing in Neuroscience and Mediation at Texas Tech University. He has been studying and practicing Buddhism for over 20 years. Through the talk, he shared the neuroscientific evidences that are supporting the benefits of meditation, covering research studies that investigate brain activities of experienced meditators, beginners and non-meditators, and also children. He utilized a great variety of storytelling medias to deliver the complex studies; including interactive exercises, graphs, diagrams and videos.
The findings overwhelmingly reported positive effects of meditation; including increase in focus, alertness and awareness; higher positive affects and motivation to help others through compassion instead of empathy. He showed studies that demonstrated toddlers’ natural inclination towards pro-social behaviors, and that meditation can help us reflect and rediscover our natural inclination to bring compassion to others. One key message that Winson would like his audience to take away: Meditation is not magic, it works! And it’s never too late to meditate. The audiences were deeply intrigued by the talk and had an active discussion over Q&A on other studies and how to start meditating.
Check out his talk in the video below!
SFYAD will be hosting another talk by Winson Yang on the coming Sunday, August 12th 2018, where he will be giving a Chinese talk to further discuss on the overlaps between Neuroscience and Buddhist Concepts. English translation will be available for the talk.
Sign up for the next talk here: https://www.sfyad.org/events/understand-buddhism-through-neuroscience-nao-shen-jing-xue-yu-fu-jiao-de-gai-nian
舊金山青年分團在8月5日首次在三寶寺主辦了禪修與科學系列的講座，由分團的Winson Yang主講，吸引了超過30位來自各個領域的人士參加，并贏得了熱烈的討論和迴響。
主講的青年Winson Yang來自新加坡，即將在美國德克薩斯州攻讀腦神經科學領域的博士學位，自幼學佛至今將近二十餘年的他對禪修富有經驗和興趣，於是因緣之下決定藉此機會與大家分享自己對這兩方面的結合理解。本週的講座作為第一場，以英文舉行，圍繞“禪修不是魔法：從腦神經科學角度看禪修”進行。講座以問題帶出，尋找常年禪修的人的成功與他們日常禪定修行有沒有關係的答案，Winson借用了多項科學研究，從數據、圖表、影片等多種方式，以互動形式提出禪修對成功的正向作用；藉助未受教育的兒童仍偏向善良行為說明人性本善；區別了同理心與慈悲心，在於慈悲心不僅在感覺理解對方的感受，更重要在於能主動地發揮正能量幫助對方；最後升華，總結禪修幫助我們反思，回歸本性，在安定沉著內心的同時把慈悲喜舍帶給身邊人。
大家也紛紛討論更多禪修的意義與技巧，志在從現在開始每天修行禪定。舊金山青年分團將在下週繼續進行第二場中文講座，進一步討論“腦神經學與佛教的概念”。