Conversations at ESRI 2023: Professor Jay Garfield & Brother Phap Linh

In this deeply probing conversation, which took place at the 2023 European Summer Research Institute (ESRI), Professor Jay Garfield, distinguished professor of philosophy, logic, and Buddhist studies at Smith College, and Brother Phap Linh, beloved monastic, meditation teacher, and musician in the Plum Village lineage, show us what a dialectics between academic research and contemplative practice might look like in action.
Reflecting on the critical times in which we are living, they consider what is necessary to untangle ourselves from our “primal confusion,” as Professor Garfield puts it, and which qualities are most needed to fruitfully engage across different disciplinary conceits - trust, good will, epistemic humility, and the mind of practice. They also discuss the dangers of falling into a form of “naive realism,” as Br Phap Linh refers to it, mistaking our maps and models of reality, be they narrative, mathematical, or scientific, for reality itself. Ultimately, this allows them to examine the nature of experience itself, through the different lenses of their respective disciplines, and to argue for a more nuanced and non-dual understanding of conventional reality and ultimate reality.
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Resources:
✩ Professor Jay Garfield ➛ jaygarfield.org/
✩ Brother Phap Linh (Brother Spirit) ➛ plumvillage.org/people/dharma...
✩ European Summer Research Institute ➛ mindandlife-europe.org/events...
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✩ Republished with kind permission of Mind & Life Europe ➛ mindandlife-europe.org/ 🙏
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✩ Find more public talks on the FREE Plum Village App ➛ plumvillage.app/ Enjoy! 🙏
Help us caption and translate this video: web.plumvillage.app/subs?yt=l...
#contemplation #mindfulness #Buddhism

[@garotienrico1825]

So glad that the camera person decided to snipe in on Br Phap Linhs eyeball, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to hear him properly being so far away from his cornea and the other micro organs that make up the eyeball. The discussion complimented the eyeball well. Elaborate.

[@felicityhoyle7020]

Good thoughts and ideas - but some of the strange close up camera pictures were very odd!

[@chrisw7347]

So glad you had Jay to speak, he's uniquely clear on no self and Buddhist metaphysics. Just a joy to listen to these kinds of talks.

[@willgiorno1740]

Oh thankyou! ❤

[@GardenYourHeart98]

Interesting cinematography. To be honest, the closeups on the eyes made me uncomfortable 😄 but I love the chicada noises, we dont have them in egypt but it feels like a good background sound to meditate to, makes me think of heat and summer

[@nickp9996]

🙏 great video

[@natalie20835]

The difference between desire and aspirations

[@natalie20835]

Thank you dear brother

[@user-ug5ze2fn6s]

🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

[@viocalendula617]

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤