The modern world presents all of us, old and young alike, with many challenges as we face the environmental, economic, social, and moral dilemmas that we have brought upon ourselves. It is a time, perhaps more than ever before, when mental resilience is of paramount importance. In this lecture, Dr. B. Alan Wallace will discuss practical ways to develop such inner strength, clarity, and equilibrium through the cultivation of four aspects of mental balance: conative, attentional, cognitive, and emotional. Each of these psychological functions is thrown into a state of imbalance when they are excessive and deficient, as in the case of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder; and each of them can also manifest in ways that are dysfunctional, as in case of emotional disorders. An underlying theme of mental resilience is the cultivation of an authentic sense of meaning in one’s life, as eloquently argued by the psychiatrist Viktor Frankl in this classic work Man’s Search for Meaning. This lecture will examine what constitutes a meaningful life, highlighting the cultivation of genuine well-being, virtue, and understanding. Within this context, clear distinctions will be drawn between what the ancient Greeks called hedonia, stimulus-driven pleasures of all kinds, and eudaimonia, genuine well-being that stems from an ethical way of life, the cultivation of mental balance, and the pursuit of wisdom.

B. Alan Wallace began his studies of Tibetan Buddhism, language, and culture in 1970 at the University of Göttingen and then continued his studies over the next fourteen years in India, Switzerland, and the United States. During most of that time he trained as a Tibetan Buddhist monk, ordained by H.H. the Dalai Lama, for whom he has often served as interpreter. After graduating summa cum laude from Amherst College in 1987, where he studied physics and the philosophy of science, he went on to earn his Ph.D. in religious studies at Stanford University in 1995. He then taught for four years in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara and is the founder and president of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies (http://sbinstitute.com). He has edited, translated, authored, and contributed to more than forty books on Tibetan Buddhism, medicine, language, and culture, and the interface between science and Buddhism, including Meditations of a Buddhist Skeptic: A Manifesto for the Mind Sciences and Contemplative Practice, Mind in the Balance: Meditation in Science, Buddhism, and Christianity, and Hidden Dimensions: The Unification of Physics and Consciousness.

Dr Peter Fenwick is Emeritus Consultant Neuropsychiatrist, Maudsley Hospital and Emeritus Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry. His other appointments included Consultant Neurophysiologist at St. Thomas’s, Westminster and Broadmoor Hospitals. For ten years he was a Trustee of the Prince of Wales Foundation for Integrated Health. He is President of the Scientific and Medical Network and of the Horizon Foundation and is former Chair of the Board, The Study Society. He is the author, with his wife Elizabeth, of many books on consciousness and death, most recently The Art of Dying.

Dr Paramabandhu Groves worked for the National Health Service as a consultant psychiatrist specialising in addiction until 2017. He is a past chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrist’s Spirituality and Psychiatry Special Interest Group. Between 2003 and 2009 he was chair of the London Buddhist Centre where he helped to establish Breathing Space, the health and well-being wing of the centre that teaches mindfulness-based approaches to help with depression, addiction, stress and carers. He is author of Practical Buddhism: Mindfulness and Skilful Living in the Modern Era; with Valerie Mason-John (Vimalasara) Eight Step Recovery: Using the Buddha’s Teachings to Overcome Addiction; and with Jed Shamel Mindful Emotion: A Short Course in Kindness.