I attended Wisdom 2.0 a pretty unusual conference in Silicon Valley California. The conference founded by Soren Grodhamer brings together Spiritual Teachers (mostly Buddhist) with people working in the Tech industry and explores the possible intersection between the two. The conference, at a hotel in Redwood Shores, consisted of two days of presentations interspersed with a bit of meditation and then, for two more days, there was an “unconference”, which took place on the  Google campus (really fun), where participants could get together in smaller groups and explore topics of their own choosing.

Overall, this was pretty cool. Bringing together key people from the mindfulness, meditation and compassion world like Roshi Joan Halifax, Eckhard Tolle, John Kabat-Zinn, Jim Doty and Thupten Jinba with scientists and technologists to discuss bringing together the best of the world’s ancient wisdom traditions and modern technology to help people is a great idea and something that most likely could only happen in this part of California.

In this video, Sogyal Rinpoche explains that we are usually lost in the appearance of mind, our thoughts and emotions, instead of recognizing the essence or nature of mind. Essentially, we are turned in the wrong direction. This is the root of suffering and dissatisfaction. But by turning our attention to the essence of mind itself and learning how to simply be, we can find true contentment.

In January, I was fortunate enough to speak to Diane Grady about meditation. Diane is one of the founding members of a group of business and community leaders in Australia called ‘Practical Wisdom’ and has herself been on the board of a number of large Australian public companies for over 15 years. The Practical Wisdom group began about 12 years ago following a dharma talk given by Sogyal Rinpoche at the Australian School of Management and a question he posed: “Is this relevant to business?” The response was an overwhelming “Yes” and since then the Practical Wisdom group has gathered each year to receive further teachings on meditation and Buddhist wisdom. In addition, the group also now meets for a few hours each month to practise meditation together.

These days there is all kinds of interesting stuff on the web about meditation and that's a good thing! After the jump you will find some links to recent articles and videos about meditation.

Marvin Minsky talks about the “sense of self”, awareness and consciousness.

Combining contemporary psychotherapy with the science and techniques of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Dr. Neale provides the conceptual maps, practical skills and emotional support that lead to optimal health and happiness. For more info check him out by clicking here.

Review of a bunch of different kinds of meditation cushions and one meditation bench.

Dr. Jonathan S. Kaplan speeks about the connection between mindfulness, meditation and therapy.

The other night I attended a talk at the Interdependence Project in New York. The talk was given by two psychologists who use mindfulness meditation in their practice.

In this video, Sogyal Rinpoche speaks about this awareness and how it relates to the three principles of shamatha or meditation.