On September 29 our monthly Science & Buddhism Discussion was based on material gathered from Malcolm Gladwell’s new book, “Talking to Strangers - What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know.” Our discussion was led by Jikoji’s Jennifer Setsuho Hohman.

“Something is very wrong," Gladwell argues, "with the tools and strategies we use to make sense of people we don’t know”. What are the mistakes we make with strangers? We will discuss things like default to truth, transparency and coupling in relationship to behaviors coupled to a particular context.

The book covers some controversial real life examples and we discussed how we get past assumptions we make that aren’t even accurate. We also considered how we use our Buddhist practice to make our interactions with strangers less about our assumptions and more about the living human being in front of us? Wellness goes deep into the truth of a stranger’s real life experience and we should learn something from that even if we can’t apply it everyday.

___________________________________

As always, our “Last Sundays” Science & Buddhism discussions are quite open and informal with all invited to participate.

All are welcome. No prior experience with science, Buddhism, or meditation is necessary. Hope to see you there!

Sunday Program: We also invite you to join us that Sunday morning for our 10 am Sunday Program, Dharma Talk, and social lunch, ahead of our 2 pm Science & Buddhism session. Our 11:30am Sunday Dharma Talk was also by Jennifer Setsuho Hohman on a subject related to her Science & Buddhism discussion later that afternoon.