Buddhism and science have increasingly been discussed as compatible, and Buddhism has entered into the science and religion dialogue. The case is made that the philosophic and psychological teachings within Buddhism share commonalities with modern scientific and philosophic thought. For example, Buddhism encourages the impartial investigation of Nature — the principal object of study being oneself. Some popular conceptions of Buddhism connect it to discourse regarding evolution, quantum theory, and cosmology, though most scientists see a separation between the religious and metaphysical statements of Buddhism and the methodology of science. In 1993 a model deduced from Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development was published arguing that Buddhism is a fourth mode of thought beyond magic, science and religion.
Phra VisuddhisamvaratheraAM, known as Ajahn Brahmavaṃso, or simply Ajahn Brahm, is a British-Australian Theravada Buddhist monk. Currently Ajahn Brahm is the Abbot of Bodhinyana Monastery, in Serpentine, Western Australia, Spiritual Adviser to the Buddhist Society of Victoria, Spiritual Adviser to the Buddhist Society of South Australia, Spiritual Patron of the Buddhist Fellowship in Singapore, Patron of the Brahm Centre in Singapore, Spiritual Adviser to the Anukampa Bhikkhuni Project in the UK, and the Spiritual Director of the Buddhist Society of Western Australia (BSWA). He returned to the office on 22 April 2018 after briefly resigning in March, following a contentious vote by members of the BSWA during their annual general meeting.
Buddhism in Singapore is practiced by approximately 33% of the country's population. In 2015, out of 3,276,190 Singaporeans polled, 1,087,995 (33.21%) of them identified themselves as Buddhists.
Chin Kung, AM is a Buddhist monk from the Mahayana tradition. He is the founder of the Corporate Body of the Buddha Educational Foundation, an organization based on the teachings of Pure Land Buddhism. He is also the great teacher that revert buddhism back to education, philosophy and wisdom. He has been known actively promote equality amongst religion and multicultural harmony. Having a track record of uniting 5 religions in Singapore together with other religions leaders as well as building the harmony city in TooWoomba Australia that is proudly acknowledged by Unesco for binding all religion and race into one humanity. He’s also a good friend of The Great Muslim leader in Indonesia, the late president Abdurahman Wahid, together they promoted religious harmony that have been benefiting and influence Indonesia and many countries for the effort of peace creation
Bhante Henepola Gunaratana is a Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhist monk. He is often affectionately known as Bhante G.
Matthieu Ricard is a French writer, photographer, translator and Buddhist monk who resides at Shechen Tennyi Dargyeling Monastery in Nepal.
Phra Dharmavisuddhimangala , commonly known as Ajahn Maha Bua or in Thai Luang Ta Maha Bua, born as Bua Lohitdee, , was a Thai Buddhist monk. Bua is one of the best known Thai Buddhist monks of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. He was regarded by many followers to be an Arahant — a living Buddhist saint. He was a disciple of the esteemed forest master Ajahn Mun Bhuridatta, and was himself considered a master in the Thai Forest Tradition. Following the death of Ajahn Thate in 1994, he was considered to be the Ajahn Yai, or the head of the Thai Forest Tradition lineage until his death in 2011.
Joseph Goldstein is one of the first American vipassana teachers, co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) with Jack Kornfield and Sharon Salzberg, contemporary author of numerous popular books on Buddhism, resident guiding teacher at IMS, and leader of retreats worldwide on insight (vipassana) and lovingkindness (metta) meditation.
The World Buddhist Forum was held in Hangzhou City and Zhoushan City, Zhejiang Province, China, from April 13 to April 16, 2006. It was the first major international religious conference in China since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.
David Robert Loy is an American scholar, author and authorized teacher in the Sanbo Zen lineage of Japanese Zen Buddhism.
Thubten Chodron , born Cheryl Greene, is an American Tibetan Buddhist nun, author, teacher, and the founder and abbess of Sravasti Abbey, the only Tibetan Buddhist training monastery for Western nuns and monks in the United States. Chodron is a central figure in the reinstatement of the Bhikshuni ordination of women. She is a student of the 14th Dalai Lama, Tsenzhab Serkong Rinpoche, Lama Thubten Yeshe, Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, and other Tibetan masters. She has published many books on Buddhist philosophy and meditation, and is the only nun who has co-authored a book with the Dalai Lama—Buddhism: One Teacher, Many Traditions.
Piya Tan Beng Sin, also known as Piya Tan or Piyasilo, is a Peranakan full-time lay Buddhist writer-cum-teacher in Singapore. He actively teaches the Buddha's Dharma, meditation and Pali to various Buddhist groups and organisations, and also works as a meditation therapist and counsellor at The Minding Centre (TMC). He is the first full-time lay Dharma worker ("Dharmacari") in Singapore to be supported by donations from the Buddhist community.
The International Buddhist Temple is located in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. It is a Chinese Buddhist temple run by the International Buddhist Society.
Robina Courtin is a Buddhist nun in the Tibetan Buddhist Gelugpa tradition and lineage of Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. In 1996 she founded the Liberation Prison Project, which she ran until 2009.
The 14th Dalai Lama is the current Dalai Lama. Dalai Lamas are important monks of the Gelug school, the newest school of Tibetan Buddhism, which was formally headed by the Ganden Tripas. From the time of the 5th Dalai Lama to 1959, the central government of Tibet, the Ganden Phodrang, invested the position of Dalai Lama with temporal duties.
Clark Strand is an American author and lecturer on spirituality and religion. A former Zen Buddhist monk, he was the first Senior Editor of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. He left that position in 1996 and moved to Woodstock, NY, US to write and teach full-time.
Most Ven. Kaṭukurunde Ñāṇananda Maha Thera was a Sri Lankan [Sinhala] Bhikkhu and a Buddhist scholar. He is best known for the research monograph Concept and Reality in Early Buddhist Thought and the exploratory study The Magic of the Mind. Ven. Ñāṇananda was the abbot of Pothgulgala Aranya, a small forest monastery in Devalegama, Sri Lanka.
Khenpo Sodargye was born in the eastern region of Tibet known as Kham in 1962, and was ordained in 1985 at the renowned Larung Buddhist Institute, the largest Buddhist academy of its kind in the world., also in present-day Sichuan province of the PRC. He trained closely with Khenchen Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche, who was himself one of the great luminaries of his generation.
The Mind & Life Institute is a US-registered, not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1991 to establish the field of contemplative sciences. Based in Charlottesville, Va., the institute provides a home for scholars and scientists from different disciplines around the world to incorporate contemplative practices into various fields of study. Mind & Life unifies and catalyzes this community by funding research projects and think tanks, and by convening academic conferences and dialogues with the Dalai Lama.
R. Adam Engle is an American social entrepreneur who initiated and developed the Mind and Life Dialogues between the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet and panels of prominent scientists in the 1980s. Over the 22 years of his subsequent tenure as chief executive of the Mind and Life Institute, which he co-founded in 1990, his work contributed significantly to the establishment of contemplative science as a new field of research.
