Accessing Wisdom

“Enlightened beings only appear to come and go, making themselves available for a time in this faltering world, but in reality they are never gone. Enlightened beings are always present here and now if you truly yearn to see them.”

—Ven. Tenzin Priyadarshi

On the occasion of the launch of his memoir, Running Toward Mystery, the Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi—the President and CEO of the Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology—shares the story of his spiritual quest. Together with neuroscientist Dr. Christopher Moore from Brown University, Priyadarshi talks about the fragile and robust nature of how teachings are transmitted in the Buddhist tradition. Is it a tradition that will stand the test of time?

This program is followed by a book signing with Ven. Tenzin Priyadarshi.

About the Speakers

The Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi is an innovative thinker, philosopher, educator, and a polymath monk. He is President and CEO of the Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a center dedicated to inquiry, dialogue, and education on the ethical and humane dimensions of life. The Center is a collaborative and nonpartisan think tank, and its programs emphasize responsibility and examine meaningfulness and moral purpose between individuals, organizations, and societies. Six Nobel Peace Laureates serve as the Center’s founding members, and its programs run in several countries and are expanding. Venerable Tenzin entered a Buddhist monastery at the age of ten and received his graduate education at Harvard University with degrees ranging from philosophy to physics to international relations. He is a Tribeca Disruptive Fellow and a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.

Dr. Christopher Mooreis Associate Director of the Carney Institute of Brain Science and Professor of Neuroscience at Brown University.

His laboratory studies neocortical dynamics, changes in activity that occur on millisecond to second time scales. They seek to understand the meaning of these dynamics for perception, and the mechanisms that generate them. They are currently testing hypotheses as to the computational value and origins of neocortical oscillations, and the role that non-neuronal systems (e.g., the vasculature) may play in information processing. To address these questions, they integrate behavior, optogenetics, electrophysiology and imaging. This is his second Brainwave at the Rubin.

Lead support for Brainwave is provided by Science Sandbox, an initiative of Simons Foundation, and by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Major support is provided by Gerry Ohrstrom, Rasika and Girish Reddy, and Noah P. Dorsky.

Program support is provided by Eileen Caulfield Schwab, Eva and Yoel Haller, Cheryl Henson, and Heather Beth Henson.