Session 2 (2): Universal Kinship and Buddhist Economics
Image: Matthieu Ricard
The last speaker on Friday afternoon was John Dunne, PhD, contributing to the panel from the Buddhist & contemplative side: Read more…
Session 2 (1): Chimpanzees & Trust Games
Image: Manuel Bauer
After having established in the previous session that altruism is indeed part of the human motivational repertoire and that the same neuronal networks are active when suffering from seeing someone else in pain, the afternoon session on Friday (9th of April) was dedicated to Read more…
Image: Mind& Life
After an introduction emphasizing the outdated views of economic theory based solely on the self-interested homo oeconomicus and recent research on the economic effects of altruistic behavior, the first session on Friday moring provided definitions and views on altruism and compassion from various disciplines.
I’m in Zurich now and just came back from the second day of the Mind & Life XX conference . Great speakers so far, and I hope to consolidate more than 25 pages of notes within the next week and gradually post a series of entries here on the various topics.
Here a little overview already of what is to come:
Examining The Social Enterprise Mark: Entrance Criteria
The Social Enterprise Mark, introduced by the Social Enterprise Coalition and RISE in the UK, has the objective “to develop knowledge and understanding of social enterprises across the wider public and communities by establishing a brand to represent businesses trading for people and planet” (Social Enterprise Mark, 2010).
It is an attempt to Read more…
Social Business vs. Social Enterprise
When delving into the area of social entrepreneurship, I often came across these two terms, initially assuming they were more or less the same, while in fact the difference is quite significant. At least to me.
Mindsight – A Mindful Mind is A Healthy Mind
After the much appreciated recommendation of a friend , I watched Dr. Dan Siegel‘s Google tech talk on “Mindsight” from April 2009 (video at the end of the post), who provides a more detailed explanation of the processes and structural foundations of mindfulness. Linking in nicely with the previous post, I found it a complementing science-focused addition to Ricard’s inspiring talk.
Metaphorical mindsight in Sweden, 2008
Siegel’s attempt of a working definition of the mind (something that 95% of mental health professionals have trouble coming up with or don’t remember having learnt in the first place) is a good starting point for exploring the topic further: The mind is an embodied process that regulates the flow of energy and information.
Dawn of the Mind – On Cultivating Attention and Happiness
Dawn in the desert, Morocco, 2007
An amazing video by a great speaker, this all-time classic talk from the Google Tech talks 2007 has to become the first entry on mindfulness in this blog (video at the the end of the post).
Matthieu Ricard, who got his PhD in molecular genetics from the Institute Pasteur and after completing it went on to become a student of Tibetan Buddhist practice with teachers such as Dilgo Khyentse. He is a board member of the Mind & Life Institute and a great advocate of the dialogue between meditation and neuroscience. Following is my summary of his talk on happiness:
Sustainovation
Today I came across an interesting video from the TEDx conference in Warsaw two weeks ago, where Sebastian Straube presents a recent study designed to promote sustainable innovation processes in the private sector.
Based on the open innovation model that advocates a collaborative approach to innovative technology instead of the closed system of exclusive research, production, marketing and distribution of new technologies, he has supervised a study on how this can be related to sustainability.
He presents some results of this “sustainovation” study (excerpt here) , such as a Europe-wide survey in which companies were asked how sustainability was incorporated in their business strategy. The results were:
A journey of a thousand miles…
starts with one step…and is even more amazing for every step of it that we experience in the present moment.
Welcome traveler, to my new blog!
Soon I will start to publish my thoughts, fascinations and critiques on various articles, videos and impressions related to either social entrepreneurship or mindfulness (or in the ideal case both!) on this site.
The crucial inspiration for starting this blog came to me when I read about the Mind & Life XX conference around the topic of “Altruism and Compassion in Economics” (more about this soon!), which once more brought together my fascinations for social change and mindfulness and consequently gave me the final nudge to begin sharing my enthusiasm for this topic with all of you. In the end it’s just another little step towards spreading the word and trying to promote positive change in our world . Looking forward to comments and feedback!
Thank you for visiting,
Vincent
