August 23-24, 2019: Shenzhen, China
The Interlaken OCT Hotel Shenzhen
Buddhism, Science, and Future
Brian Science and Mental Well-Being
Conference overview:
Neuroscience, genetics, artificial intelligence, and other new technologies are expanding the scope of our collective knowledge and revolutionizing our society. These changes further shape our personal and spiritual lives: our happiness, our well-being, our enlightenment. Buddhism’s long advocacy of “technologies of awareness” makes it instinctive to embrace these emerging technologies and incorporating them as an aid to attain greater wisdom.
However, more often than not, these very technologies contribute to increasing levels of stress and anxiety for many in our generation. We envision that mental well-being should be facilitated with cutting-edge technology and principles of mindfulness. This year, Woodenfish Foundation is hosting its third annual Buddhism, Science, and Future conference in Shenzhen to both cultivate the link between mindfulness and technology, and make more accessible the discourse of mental health to Chinese families.
We are honored to convene inspiring entrepreneurs, scholars, buddhist practitioners from around the world to discuss and testify the question:
How can Buddhism and technology work together to advance global mental well-being?
At our previous conferences in Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Seattle, we hosted entrepreneurs who developed technology closely linked to fostering good mental health, including wearable stress monitors to regulate stress, VR technology and ZenFlo’s floatation tank to facilitate mindfulness meditation. Along with mindfulness practitioners, Buddhist monks, and scholars, we tackled the concept of consciousness, from a scholastic as well as an experiential viewpoint.
For more information, please contact wfusa@woodenfish.org
Conference Details in Chinese
Daisy L. Hung 洪兰
Keynote Speaker
Daisy L. Hong holds a PhD in Experimental Psychology from the University of California. She is currently the director of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience of the Central University, the professor of the Institute of Neuroscience at Yangming University and the moderator of the Cognitive Neuropsychology Laboratory. Professor Hong has studied and lectured, and devoted herself to the translation of popular science books. She has translated more than 20 books on biotechnology and psychology. Recently, she has felt that education is the foundation of a country, and reading is the foundation of that education. So she has become devoted to the promotion of reading habits.
Featured Speakers
Mike Dannheim
Mike is an innovator and entrepreneur focused on helping others to reconnect to their hearts, embrace their feelings and optimize their health. He is the Founder of Sensie technology, measure how you feel and identify sources of stress you might be unaware of with smartphone sensors. Mike’s prior accomplishments include starting one of the first social media promotion platforms, helping to lead the international expansion of Groupon throughout Asia, running business development for a Y Combinator startup, teaching mindfulness and entrepreneurship to youthful offenders in the Miami prison system. My current focus is a reliable method for bringing awareness to sources of stress by acknowledging muscular tension. After 3 years of development with top researchers in the field, we're now able to share this method through a smartphone application called Sensie.
Tre Azam
Tre Azam is founder and CEO of MyndPlay, a UK based brainwave technology and media company and creators of the MyndPlayer mind controlled video and movie platform which allows viewers to control, direct or influence the narrative and outcome of a video using nothing but their mind and emotions. The technology and platform have been used to create interactive movie trailers, mind controlled sporting games, field based neuromarketing research, automated mental health and prisoner rehabilitation amongst other things. Prior to MyndPlay Tre spent 4 years with his production company Treite Labs which allowed him to travel around the world making documentaries and working with charities to help develop his ground experience as a mental health therapist.
Rainbow Ho
Rainbow is a registered arts therapist, medical technologist and somatic movement therapist, as well as a certified group psychotherapist, board-certified dance movement therapist, registered dance teacher in classical ballet, ballroom and Latin-American dance, and a licensed professional International adjudicator in Dancesport. Rainbow has been working as a researcher, therapist, teacher, and performing artist for many years. She has been the principal investigator of many research projects related to creative and expressive arts therapy in education and clinical settings, psychophysiology, psychoendocrinology, mind-body practices, complementary and alternative medicine, spirituality, and physical activity for healthy and clinical populations for all ages. She has more than 200 publications in revered journals, scholarly books and encyclopedia. Rainbow was once awarded as the “Fun Fearless Female” by Cosmopolitan H.K. and “Brave new Girl’ by Cosmo Girl H.K. in 2006. In 2015, she received the Outstanding Achievement Award and Research Award from the American Dance Therapy Association, and the Outstanding Teaching Award from the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Hong Kong. She also received the Research and Development Award from the Australia and New Zealand Arts Therapy Association in 2016.
Dr. Bashar Badran
Dr. Bashar Badran earned his Ph.D in neuroscience from the Medical University of South Carolina, and is faculty in the Brain Stimulation Division of the MUSC Department of Psychiatry in Charleston, SC. Dr. Badran is an expert in invasive and non-invasive neuromodulation techniques, specifically transcranial magnetic stimulation in the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders and vagus nerve stimulation to augment human performance. He is the inventor of E-Meditation, a neurostimulation-enhanced meditative practice. He is also the co-founder of Bodhi NeuroTech, an early stage technology company developing neurostimulation and wearables for meditation, human performance and psychiatric disorders.
Thomas Amiard
Thomas Amiard is a French therapist, sound engineer and multi disciplinary artist.
He has been exploring sound, consciousness & creative processes for the last 20 years.
He specialised in therapies and traditional practices based on the healing and heuristic potential of non-ordinary states of consciousness such as Holotropic breath work “ The process itself uses very simple means: it combines accelerated breathing with evocative music in a special set and setting with close supervision. With the eyes blindfolded and comfortably lying on a mat, each person uses their own breath and a specially designed set of music played in the room, to enter a non-ordinary state of consciousness . This state activates the natural inner healing process of the individual’s psyche, bringing him or her a particular set of internal experiences. ”
Judith Pennington
Judith Pennington is one of many visionary thinkers stepping forth to help bring about the flowering of peace on Earth. She teaches what she knows best: how to listen to the inner voice of truth for creative insights that lead to a self-actualized life of health, happiness, and prosperity. An internationally published journalist, author, singer, and world authority on EEG and the Awakened Mind, Judith is the founder and director of Eagle Life Communications, her personal spiritual outreach, and the Institute for the Awakened Mind (IAM), an international consortium of consciousness trainers using the Mind Mirror EEG to guide people to the ideal self's Awakened Mind state for meditation, creativity, insight, healing, and peak performance. She is also the co-developer and driving force behind the Vilistus Mind Mirror 6, a scientifically proven fast-track to meditation and consciousness development
Julianna Raye
Julianna Raye is devoted to deepening people’s understanding of research-supported mindfulness and empowering anyone to guide others in its practice. She has been training individuals and groups in the Unified Mindfulness system for nearly two decades. She received her BA in psychology from Duke University. As CEO, lead content developer and head trainer at Unified Mindfulness, she is dedicated to disseminating Shinzen Young’s comprehensive mindfulness meditation system through the creation and presentation of educational programs and teacher-training certification programs. Read More
Alvaro Guirao
EmpaticaXR is an evolutionary transformative collective designing the world’s first immersive XR (MR+VR) collaborative and cinematic interactive game to spread empathy and compassion in physical and virtual space. Through biofeedback-based intersubjective game mechanics, storytelling-based virtual embodiments and audiovisual reactive inner symbolic representations, EmpaticaXR is designing the translation of cutting-edge neuropsychological knowledge and ancient spiritual wisdom into shared experiential narrative XR experiences aimed towards regenerative human enlightenment and flourishing. The EmpaticaXR “empathic Reactive Media Lab (eRMLab)” is created with the mission to do research and application on the progressive and holistic adaptation and personalization of XR experiences via biometric technology and deep data gathering to read and react to users based on their body rhythms, emotions, preferences, and data points.
Venerable Ding Kong 定空法师
Venerable Ding Kong holds the first Ph.D. in psychology in Buddhism, is the abbot of Gule Temple in Gutian, Fujian; the deputy secretary general of the Fujian Buddhist Association; the president of the Gutian County Buddhist Association; the founder and dean of the Oriental Buddhist Psychology Institute; and the visiting professor at the Witten International School in Canada ; Chairman of the Yan Yan College. Venerable Ding Kong is committed to the integration of Buddhist culture and psychology, and the promotion of the development of Buddhist psychology in modern society. Venerable Ding Kong has a particular focus on autism.
Yijun Liu 刘毅君
Yijun Liu is the Deputy Chief Physician in the department of Adult Psychiatry at the Hunan Second People’s Hospital. He focuses on sleep disorders, tumor physical and mental recovery, schizophrenia, affective disorder, depression, anxiety, and college entrance examination. He is the author of best seller “Second Sleep”, and is domestically well-known as the sleep decompression expert. He also holds a psychiatrist and counselor dual license. He holds a master of Mental Health from Central South University, is a visiting scholar of the Florence Department of Health. Founder of the Barbaric Evolutionary Psychology Center.
Dipen Barua
Dipen Barua, PhD is an up-and-coming scholar at the Centre of Buddhist Studies at The University of Hong Kong. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree from Calcutta University and his first Master’s degree in Pali from University of Pune (now Savitribai Phule Pune University), India. He received a second Master and his doctorate in Buddhist Studies from HKU. He is an author of a book and has published many articles in both Bengali and English. In addition to his research, he is a prolific writer on Buddhism and society and is also a regular contributor to Buddhistdoor Global (www.buddhistdoor.net). His academic interest is Theravada Buddhism’s perspective on the mind, mental fetters, and cognitive functions.
For more information, contact us at:
wfusa@woodenfish.org
Friday, August 23, 2019
10:00 - 10:30
10:30 - 12:00
12:00 - 2:00
2:00 - 4:00
4:00 - 4:30
4:30 - 5:30
Opening Ceremony
Main Speech: Daisy L. Hong, PhD
Afternoon Break
Panel Discussion
Tea Break
Round Table Dialogue
Saturday, August 24, 2019
8:30 - 9:30
9:30 - 10:30
10:30 - 11:00
11:00 - 12:00
12:00 - 2:00
2:00 - 3:30
3:30 - 4:00
4:00 - 5:00
5:00 - 5:45
5:45 - 6:15
Main Speech: Matthieu Ricard
Panel Discussion
Tea Break
Round Table Dialogue
Afternoon Break
Panel Discussion
Tea Break
Round Table Dialogue
Youth Science Symposium
Closing Ceremony