This page contains talks at academic conferences and invited academic talks. For a complete list, see the full CV.

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​2018. “Exploring Yogācāra in the Laṅkāvatārasūtra.” National Meeting of the American Academy of Religion (Session A17-341).

2018. Respondent to panel entitled, “Critical First-Person Methodologies in Contemplative Studies.” National Meeting of the American Academy of Religion (Session A18-109).

2018. ​Presenter on panel titled, “The Student Flourishing Initiative in Higher Education.” International Symposium for Contemplative Research. Phoenix, Arizona.

2018. ​Presenter on panel titled, “Advancing the Science of Compassion: Investigating the Role of Mindfulness and Cognition.” International Symposium for Contemplative Research. Phoenix, Arizona. 

2018. ​“Widening the Circle: Buddhist Compassion Practices.” Mind & Life European Summer Research Institute, Chiemsee, Germany.

2018. ​“Pac-Man to the Rescue? Conceptuality and Nonconceptuality in the Dharmakīrtian Theory of Pseudo-perception.” Conceptuality and Nonconceptuality in Buddhist Philosophy Workshop. Center for Buddhist Studies. University of California–Berkeley. 

2017. ​“Constructing Emotion for Action in the World: A Buddhist Perspective.” National Meeting of the American Academy of Religion (Session A19-110). 

2017. ​“Two Forms of Buddhist Practice: Theories and Implications.” European Summer Research Institute, Mind & Life–Europe. Chiemsee, Germany.

2017. “Phenomenological Reduction as Therapeutic Technique: The Buddhist Theory and Practice of Dereification.” Conference on Buddhism’s Engagement with the World. Department of Philosophy, The University of Utah. Salt Lake City, Utah. PowerPoint Audio/Video.

2017. ​“Reflections on Contemplative Studies in Higher Education.” John V. Roach Honors College, Texas Christian University. Fort Worth, Texas.

2017. ​“Science & Buddhism: What and Why?” Keynote presentation. 10th Rangjung Yeshe Institute Symposium—Transnational Buddhism: Philosophical, Anthropological and Historical Perspectives. Kathmandu, Nepal. Video.

2017. ​“Śāntideva’s Cultivation of Compassion: Cognitive, Affective, Both, or Neither?” Readings of the Bodhicaryāvatāra. Princeton University. Princeton, N.J. 

2016. “Antidote or Suspension? Two Theories of Philosophical Practice.” National Meeting of the American Academy of Religion (Session A20-121). 

2016. ​“The Transdisciplinary Study of Contemplative Practices: Challenges and Opportunities.” 2016 International Symposium for Contemplative Studies. Video.

2106. ​“An Exploration of Buddhism and Neuroscience (Personal) Reflections on Contemplative Science.” Contemplative Studies Program, Texas Christian University.

2016. “Dharmakīrti & his Followers on Nonduality and the Nature of the Mind.” Center for Buddhist Studies, Kathmandu University / Rangjung Yeshe Institute, Kathmandu. 

2016. “Two Paradigms of Buddhist Contemplative Practice.” Mind & Life–Europe, European Summer Research Institute. Chiemsee, Germany.

2016. “Self, Desire, and Virtue in Romantic Relationships: A Novel Integration of Buddhist Philosophy and Relationship Science.” With P. Condon and C. Wilson-Mendenhall. 2016 Conference of the Self, Motivation & Virtue Project, University of Notre Dame

2016. “Buddhist Theories of Mindfulness: The Voices of South Asian Traditions.” Center for South Asia, University of Wisconsin–Madison.​Audio.

2016. “Neuroscience & the Humanities: the Problematic & the Promising.” Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, University of California–Santa Barbara. Audio.

2016. ​“A Phenomenological Model of Mindfulness.” Interdisciplinary Affective Science Laboratory. Northeastern University.

2015. ​“Consciousness, Reflexivity and Subjectivity: Perspectives from Asian Philosophy.” Conference on Cortex, Consciousness and Anesthesia.” University of Wisconsin-Madison. Video.

2015. ​“Understanding Mindfulness: Heuristic Accounts.” Perspectives on Mindfulness. Center for Mind and Brain, University of California - Davis. Video.

2015. ​“Mindfulness: A Case Study in Transdisciplinarity.” Department of East Asian Languages and Literature, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

2015. ​“Understanding Mindfulness.” Department of Religious Studies and Contemplative Science Center, University of Virginia.

2015. ​“Self-Transcendence, De-Reification & Flourishing.” With P. Condon. Interdisciplinary Moral Forum. Self, Motivation and Virtue Project. Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI. 

2015. Response to Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation and Philosophy by E. Thompson. American Philosophical Association, Pacific Division Meeting (G2D). Vancouver, BC.

2014. “Advayvajra on Nondual Awareness.” Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion (Session A23-316).

2014. ​Panelist for “Roundtable on Jonathan Gold’s Paving the Great Way: Vasubandhu’s Unifying Buddhist Philosophy.” Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion (A23-215). 

 2014. “Bad Good Translations: the History of the Tibetan Interpretation of Pramāṇvārttika 1.2.” Translation and Transmission Conference. Keystone, CO.

2014. ​“Key Features of Nondual Styles.” 2nd International Symposium for Contemplative Studies. Boston, MA.

2014. ​“Investigating the Phenomenal and Neurocognitive Matrix of Mindfulness-Related Practices.” With C. Saron, A. Jha & A. Lutz. 2nd International Symposium for Contemplative Studies. Boston, MA.

2014.  “Scientific Research on Meditation and the Cognitive Science of Religion: Anything Shared?” For “Workshop on Cognitive Science and Religion,” Center for Mind, Brain & Culture, Emory University. 

2014. “The Scientific Study of Buddhist Contemplative Practices.” Presented at "Buddhism, Mind and Cognitive Science," Center for Buddhist Studies, University of California-Berekely. Video.

2013. རིག་གཞུང་ཕན་ཚུན་ལྟོས་གྲུབ་དང་མི་རབས་ཕན་ཚུན་ལྟོས་གྲུབ་དང་ཚད་མའི་ཉམས་ཞིབ་ [“Cultural Relativism, Historical Relativism and Research on Buddhist Epistemology”]. Institute for Buddhist Dialectics, Dharamsala, India [Talk presented in Tibetan]. 

2013. སྦས་པའི་ཁས་ལེན་སྤང་པ་ཉམས་ཞིབ་གྱི་ཉེར་མཁོ་ [“Avoiding Hidden Assumptions: A Crucial Component of Research”]. Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute, Dharamsala, India [Talk presented in Tibetan].

2013. “Complexities of Mapping the Mind: the Problem of Theory-Driven Data.” Mind and Life Summer Research Institute. Garrison, NY.

2013. “Buddhism and Science: ‘Specialness,’ Modernity and its Dangers.” Central Tibetan Administration, Tibetan Policy Institute, Dharamsala, India. Video.

2012. “The Relevant and the Possible: Religion and Mental Time Travel.” Presented to the Center for Contemporary Religion, Aarhus University.

2012. “Resources for the Study of Svasaṃvitti in Ultimate Contexts.” Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion (Session A19-304).

2012. “A Buddhist Perspective on Emotions: the Abhidharma and Beyond.” Interdisciplinary Affective Science Laboratory, Northeastern University.

2012. “The Living Dead? The Ethical Ambiguities of Tibetan Death Meditation.” Zombies and Zombethics, Emory University Center for Ethics.

2012.  “Perennialism, Mindfulness and Buddhism.” Presented to the Department of Culture & Society, Aarhus University.

2012. “No Thought? Concepts and Mindfulness.” International Symposia for Contemplative Studies. Denver, CO. (Video available here).

2012. “Neurophenomenological Data: First-Person Reflections.” Neuropheno 2.0: Exploring First, Second And Third Person Perspectives. Conference convened by Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University.

2012. “The Role of the Humanities in Contemplative Neuroscience.” Tibetan Medicine and Meditation Symposium, University of Virginia.

2012. “Unmaking & Remaking Worlds: Emotion Regulation in Mindfulness.” New Horizons in Emotion Regulation and Resilience, National Cancer Institute, Rockville, MD.

2o12. “Derealizing Self: Frontiers of Contemplative Neuroscience.” Root Lecture Series, Washington and Lee University.

2011. “Buddhist Meditation: A Case in Point for Collaborative Research.” Symposium on Neuroscience and Religious Contemplation, Lubar Institute for the Abrahamic Religions, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

2011. “Opening the Black Box of Meditation.” Mind and Life Summer Research Institute, Garrison, NY.

2010. “The Nature of Mindfulness: Dual, Nondual, Both or Neither?” Presented to the Department of Philosophy, Oregon State University.

2o10. “Focused Attention, Open Monitoring and Open Presence: Three Styles of Meditation and their Relevance for the Study of Consciousness.” Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness XIV. Toronto, Canada.

2010. “Briefly on Nondual Mindfulness.” Integrating Clinical and Neuroscience Perspectives on Mindfulness Training In Health and Disease. Center for Investigating Healthy Minds. University of Wisconsin-Madison.

2010. “Buddhism as Science?” Researching Buddhism and Modernity: Conceptual and Methodological Issues. Conference convened by the research group, “Buddhism and Modernity: Global Dynamics of Transmission and Translation,” University of Aarhus, Denmark.

2010. Response to Paper Session, “Mind in Modern Yoga” Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion (A31-230).

2009. Response to Paper Session, “Mind in Modern Yoga” Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion (A31-230).

2009. “The Science of Meditation? Findings, Problems and Future Potential.” Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion (session A7-116).

2009. “Bitter Blueberries & Objectifying Epistemology: Problems for Phenomenology?” Symposium on Self-No-Self. Center for Subjectivity Research, University of Copenhagen.

2009. “The Impact of How It Feels: Neurophenomenology and the Cognitive Science of Religion.” American Academy of Religion Online Video Conference: New Scientific Approaches to the Study of Religious Experience.  (Video available here)

2009. “Mental Causation and Agency: a Buddhist Perspective.” Mind and Life Summer Research Institute, Garrison, NY.

2009. “Contemplative Transformation and Buddhist Models of Mind.” Conference on Definitions of Compassion. Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE), Stanford University. (Video available here). 

2008. “Attention in Buddhist Theory of Mind.” Mind and Life Summer Research Institute. Garrison Institute, Garrison, NY.

2008. “Mindfulness: Authority, Translation and Practice.” Presented at the Sixth Annual Ranjung Yeshe Institute Symposium on Buddhist Studies. Kathmandu, Nepal.

2008. “Reflexive Awareness as non-Egological: the case of Dharmakirti. Presented for “The Reflective Self: Egological versus non-Egological Approaches to Consciousness.” Columbia Society for Comparative Philosophy. Columbia University.

2007. “Contemplative Studies: Practical and Theoretical Issues.” Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion (session A19-102).

2007. “Mindfulness and Buddhist Contemplative Theory.” Keynote address, Integrating Mindfulness-Based Approaches and Interventions into Medicine, Health Care and Society—5th Annual Conference for Clinicians, Researchers and Educators. Center for Mindfulness, UMass Medical School. Download audio here.

2007. “More on the Buddhist Cognitive Model.” Mind and Life Summer Research Institute. Garrison Institute, Garrison, NY.

2007. “Meditation and Spirituality in Modernity.” NCCAM-sponsored Conference on Meditation and Spirituality: Scientific, Conceptual Applied Perspectives. Indiana State University.

2007. “Tantric Blends and Mindfulness.” Perry Lecture, Northwestern University.

2007. “Buddhist Education as Perceptual Transformation.” Presented at the Fifth Annual Ranjung Yeshe Institute Symposium on Buddhist Studies. Kathmandu, Nepal.

2006. “Cognition and Consciousness in Buddhist Epistemology.” Mind and Life Summer Research Institute. Garrison Institute, Garrison, NY.

2006. “Thinking Without Ether: Apoha as Cognitive Model.” Conference on Apoha Semantics and Human Cognition. Crêt-Bérard, Switzerland.

2006. “The Neuroscientific Study of Tibetan Contemplative Practice: Methodological Issues and Details of Practice” (plenary paper). Toward a Science of Consciousness 2006. Tucson, Arizona.

2006. “Mixing Concepts, Mixing Minds: Two Strands of Buddhist Mysticism.” Presented to the Department of Religion, Emory University as part of the lecture series, “Persuasion: Rhetoric and Practice."

2005. “On the Buddhist Concept of the Person.” Invited by the Department of Philosophy and the Department of Religion, University of Iowa.

2005. “Yogipratyakṣa: the Perception of Universals?” Fourth International Dharmakīrti Conference. Vienna, Austria.

2003. “Does Nāgārjuna Have Something to Say?” Invited by the Department of Philosophy, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, Michigan.

2003. “Real Hallucinations: Buddhism, Experience and the Study of Religion.” Invited by the Faculty of Religious Studies, McGill University.

2002. “On Zombies and Cyborgs: Interpreting Tibetan Buddhism.” Conference on the Future of Tibetan Studies. University of California, Santa Barbara.

2002. “Buddhism, Politics and Modernity: a Contemporary Tibetan Voice.” Conference on the Place of Theology in the Liberal State and the Globalized World. Institute for Legal Studies, University of Wisconsin Law School.

2002. “A Justification for Violence: Aum Shinrikyo, Tibetan Buddhism and Beyond.” Invited by the UW-Madison Religious Studies program as part of the 9/11 Day of Remembrance and Reflection, UW-Madison.

2001. “Svabhāvapratibandha, Yet Again.” International Conference on Argument and Reason in Indian Logic. Oriental Institute, Warsaw University. Warsaw, Poland.

2001. “On Interpreting Emptiness: A Critical Appraisal of Burton’s Emptiness Appraised.” 30th Annual Conference on South Asia. Madison, Wisconsin.

2000. “Is Dharmakīrti Foundationalist?” 36th International Conference on Asian and North African Studies (ICANAS).

2000. “Licensed to Kill: Ethics, Authority, and the Bodhisattva Assassin in Tibet.” Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion.

2000. “Literature as Philosophy in Indian Buddhism.” American Academy of Religion, Regional Conference.

2000. “Instrumentality in Dharmakīrti.” Invited by the Philosophy of Religion Series, University of Chicago.

2000. “Dharmakīrti and the ‘Buddhi-s’ on Antarjñeyavāda.” Yogācāra Seminar. Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion.

1999. “Vasubandhu’s Trisvabhāvanirdeśa.” Panel Participant, Yogācāra Seminar. Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion.

1997. “Overcoming Confusion: An Interpretation of Dharmakīrti’s View of External Objects.” Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion.

1997. “Buddhism and Healing.” Presentation on a panel entitled Religion and/as Healing. Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion.

1996. “The Centrality of Arthakriyā.” Conference on Buddhist Studies in Honor of Masatoshi Nagatomi. Harvard University.

1996. “Towards a Buddhist Theory of Social Justice.” Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion.

1995. “Obsessions and Holy Truths: The Ultimate as Conventional in Dharmakīrti.” Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion.

1994. “The Iconic Canon: On Reference and Meaning in the Translation of Buddhist Texts from Sanskrit to Tibetan.” National Meeting of the Association of Asian Studies.