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Researchers Take Cognitive Science to Buddhist Monks

August 30, 2017

Two UC Merced cognitive scientists spent part of their summer in India this year, teaching neuroscience to a group of exiled Tibetan Buddhist monks.

Professors Ramesh Balasubramaniam and David Noelle each made their second trips to southern India, where they taught at two of three monasteries that take part in the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative (ETSI), a six-year summer science program that contributes to the monks’ advanced degrees.

“This year was even better than last year,” Balasubramaniam said. “This time I knew what to expect and knew better how to teach them. They were just as warm and welcoming as earlier, and it felt like we had earned their respect.”

Initiated in 1998 by the 14th Dalai Lama, the affiliation between Emory University and Drepung Loseling Monastic University has grown into a multidimensional organization that helps advance the Dalai Lama’s directive that scholarly monastics study science and promote the convergence of science and spirituality.

Each year’s ETSI summer sessions offer about four weeks of courses on the philosophy of science, physics, biology and neuroscience, taught by faculty members from Emory and other universities. Students spend six hours a day in class, hearing lectures, holding discussions and debates, and participating in demonstrations and experiments.