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Sera Jey Monastic University, Bylakuppe, Karnataka, India, August 2019. Photo by Marieke van Vugt.
Neuroscientists Marieke van Vugt, PhD, and Amir Moye, MSc, visited Sera Je Monastic University in South India on August 7-21, 2019, to continue their research into the brain functions of debating monks. Ven. Tenzin Gache, a Sera Je geshe program student and resident of Shedrup Zung Drel Ling (Sera IMI House), an International Mahayana Institute monastic community, and Marieke van Vugt, PhD, assistant professor, Cognitive Modelling Group, University of Groningen in the Netherlands, share the story.
Starting in 2016, Marieke van Vugt of University of Groningen, Netherlands, and her colleague Amir Moye from the University of Bern, Switzerland, have been coming to Sera Je to examine the brains of monks as they debate. Originally Marieke connected through the nonprofit organization Science for Monks with Geshe Ngawang Norbu, director of the Sera Je Science Centre, who encouraged her to take on this project.
Marieke van Vugt and group at Sera Je Monastic University, Bylakuppe, Karnataka, India, August 2019. Photo by Amir Moye.
Geshe Ngawang Norbu pointed out that just as scientists test meditating monks they should likewise examine the state of monks debating because debate at advanced levels becomes a kind of analytical meditation. In their first joint paper with the Sera Je Science Centre monks, they introduced this form of meditation to the scientific field. A second paper is currently under review and, based on the brain activity of debating monks, suggests that monastic debate helps to cultivate attention.
Of course debate is likely to have many more effects. In an attempt to measure those effects the team also subjected more and less experienced monks to a battery of tests routinely used in the Western psychology laboratory. However, the results of those studies were fairly confusing. This prompted Marieke and Amir to begin thinking about designing tasks grounded in the monastic education system (rather than a Western modern education) that would demonstrate these positive changes in an observable fashion.
Sera Je Monastic University, Bylakuppe, Karnataka, India, August 2019. Photo by Marieke van Vugt.
Marieke realized that as a part of this undertaking she and Amir would need to become more familiar with the system of debate. Thus during her most recent visit, she requested Ven. Tenzin Gache and Ven. Losang Donyo, two American monks studying at Sera Je, to give basic instruction in the fundamentals of debate—in English.
Ven. Tenzin Gache and Ven. Losang Donyo put together a short course syllabus and over the course of several weeks taught Marieke and Amir about the basic debates that monks learn in the initial months of the monastic education program. However, they soon recognized that these scientists had much greater fluency with scientific systems of thought, and therefore training in debate using modern scientific paradigms allowed them to quickly incorporate more complex subjects.
Ven. Tenzin Gache and Amir Moye debating at Sera Je Monastic University, Bylakuppe, Karnataka, India, August 2019. Photo by Marieke van Vugt.
This video is an example of one of the attempts to use the traditional debate format to discuss an issue in modern cognitive science: the nature of mindfulness.
Watch Ven. Tenzin Gache and Amir Moye debate in this YouTube video:
https://youtu.be/ThoFSuJWOmg
To learn more about the International Mahayana Institute visit the website:
http://imisangha.org
Supporting Sangha, which includes the Supporting the Ordained Sangha Fund, is part of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s Vast Visions for FPMT:
https://fpmt.org/fpmt/vast-vision/#ordainedlay
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