Mindful Presentations

Marcia Cano
Insights from a series of co-design workshops with children, exploring the conditions that enabled engaged participation. Rooted in participatory and enactive approaches, the work emphasises an ethics of care and awareness of the asymmetries between researchers and participants. 

Monica Spalvieri
Reflections on her journey, weaving together biochemistry, martial arts and Zen meditation. Her talk explores how environment, habits and inner states influence gene expression through epigenetic mechanisms and how meditation can shift our physiology and harmonise body, mind, and environment.

Martin Weichold
Wise Serenity as a Basis for Mindful Activism in a Breaking World
Our world is full of crises, uncertainties, and contradictions. Philosophers have long recommended serenity for such times, yet serenity is suspected of fostering indifference and passivity. However, those who are permanently swept up in outrage and anxiety burn out — overwhelming affect undermines the very engagement it is meant to fuel. Drawing on enactive cognitive science, this talk explores wise serenity as mastery in sense-making — a balanced “holding loosely” between clinging and letting go. Rooted in informed self-trust and world-trust, wise serenity allows strong emotions while embedding them in a calm, spacious framework. This — it will be argued — makes wise serenity an ideal foundation for mindful activism in a breaking world.

Gurpreet Kaur & Nirmal Govindaraju
Eikas, Oneness in the Inner and Outer Worlds
The word Eikas in Punjabi translates into “oneness” or “unity.” This talk explores the grassroots experiences of the Eikas Foundation’s founders in the domains of wellbeing and STEM. Anecdotes and personal experiences are shared which seem to reflect the essential humanity of all endeavours, and how seemingly disparate domains such as wellbeing and science, technology, engineering and math in fact share a common thread of beauty, simplicity, awe and humility. The presentation seeks to probe and ideate different ways in which such a thread can be woven in different contexts and conditions to make people’s lives better.

David Mebane & Pavel Chvykov
Rethinking Academia Beyond Disembodied Intelligence: Building towards a Vision of a “Research Monastery”
David and Pavel discuss the ways in which disembodied intelligence distorts academic research, pulling it away from its most idealistic goals. After illustrating this with concrete examples, they dive into the work they are now doing to create alternative professional, research, and academic environments. This is part of their efforts at the Complexity Science and Contemplative Studies Consortium (CSCSC), building towards a vision of a “Research Monastery”.