(Hybrid) Sit & Dharma Talk – Rick Maddock – How intentions shape our experience: Converging views from neuroscience and early Buddhism

How intentions shape our experience – Converging views from neuroscience and early Buddhism

Sit & Dharma Talk with Visiting Teacher Rick Maddock

* The teacher will present remotely via Zoom.
Hybrid events can be attended via Zoom or in-person at the Sacramento Dharma Center.

How intentions shape our experience – Converging views from neuroscience and early Buddhism.

Saṅkhāra is a word with many levels of meaning in early Buddhism. This talk will focus on its meaning as one of the five aggregates (skandhas), where it is often translated with such terms as volitions and intentions. People often strongly identify with their volitions and intentions. The Buddha taught about the dangers of clinging to and identifying with sankharas. The Foam Sutta describes sankhara with the analogy of a carpenter in need of heartwood who goes to a forest and cuts down a plantain tree. But when he cuts into the tree trunk, he finds it is only layers of sheaths. There is no heartwood there. The perspective of modern neuroscience leads to a similar understanding of volition and intentions.

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RICK MADDOCK, MD, is a professor of psychiatry who teaches and conducts neuroscience research at the UC Davis School of Medicine. A long-time dharma practitioner with a focus on the teachings of early Indian Buddhism, Rick has completed Spirit Rock’s training programs for senior students and teaches dharma in the Sacramento area and Sierra foothills. His teachings explore the convergence between contemporary scientific insights about the human brain and the wisdom traditions and practices of Buddhism.

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