29th April - Buddhism, Emptiness & Idealism #2

There are schools of Non-Duality that claim that awareness is fundamental - but some Buddhists claim even awareness is empty of inherent existence. They claim that advanced meditation and rigorous logic can show this to be inevitably true...

This debate has raged for centuries, and has profound implications to how we understand these ancient philosophies and spiritual practices. In December 2023, Bernardo debated Buddhist scholar Jay Garfield on this topic, which you can watch in the clip below.

As a follow up, we've invited a panel of scholar practitioners for an in-depth discussion on the topic.

Joining this discussion are:

Michael R. Sheehy: a PhD in Buddhist Studies who specializes in the Kālacakra and Dzogchen meditation traditions is research associate professor and director of research at the Contemplative Sciences Center at the University of Virginia.
Dr. Karl Brunnhölzl: an international teacher and translator of Buddhism, focusing on Yogācāra, buddha nature, Vajrayāna, Mahāmudrā, 
Andrew Holecek: a frequent subject in scientific studies on meditation and lucid dreaming, after completing a 3 year retreat. He is Resident Contemplative Scholar at the Institute for Advanced Consciousness Studies, and a research consultant for the Cognitive Neuroscience Program at Northwestern University

You can read more details here, and your questions related to this theme are welcome in the comments below... here is a guide to submitting questions.

If you want to watch an ad-free version of this, you can purchase access at https://dandelion.events/e/f3myp

There is a code for free access to this debate for With Reality in Mind members below.