Dharamsala, October 19 – Hollywood star Richard Gere today attended a meeting between Buddhists and groups of scientists here. The objective of the conference is to “create an atmosphere conducive to building inter-disciplinary bridges for research on the mind and life, using contributions from Buddhism and western sciences.”
Asked by mediapersons about what he thought of Dharamsala, Gere said he had been coming here for years now. He refused to answer any more questions.
The Mind and Life Institute has been organising the conference since 1987. Nearly 130 delegates, including scientists and academics from various countries, especially the USA, have come to McLeodganj to take part in the closed-door conference.
The five-day conference began yesterday and the Dalai Lama is expected to attend all its sessions. No other celebrity from Hollywood arrived for the conference today, but several noted educationists are already in McLeodganj, said an official of the Central Tibetan Administration.
The themes for the conference include an overview of the cellular and synaptic substrates of plasticity; latest developments in neurogenesis, the capacity of the brain to generate new neurons which have been found to critically impact learning and memory; the nature of practice and skill development to address issues of how mental skills can best be acquired; the role of pre-existing individual differences and their impact on methods of skills development; Buddhist perspectives on learning and transformation; developmental issues and the importance of early experience.
