Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche

Seventh Incarnation in the Dzogchen Ponlop Lineage

Founder, President, & Spiritual Director

Nalandabodhi International

Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche is acknowledged as one of the foremost scholars and meditation masters of his generation in the Nyingma and Kagyu schools of Tibetan Buddhism. He is a widely celebrated Buddhist teacher and the author of Rebel Buddha, Mind Beyond Death, Wild Awakening, and other books. A lover of music, art and urban culture, Rinpoche is also a poet, photographer, accomplished calligrapher and visual artist. Rinpoche is known for his sharp intellect, humor, and easygoing teaching style, for launching the kindness initiative #GoKind, and for his outreach to communities internationally. Rinpoche holds lineages in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism’s two most profound meditation traditions: Mahamudra (the Great Seal) and Dzogchen (the Great Perfection). Under the close personal tutelage of the greatest masters of the 20th century, Rinpoche trained intensively in the wide variety of methods that these traditions offer for gaining a thorough understanding of mind and the realization of its true nature.

Dr. David Vago

Director, Contemplative Neuroscience and Mind-Body (CNMB) Research Laboratory

Research Associate Professor, Department of Psychology

Vanderbilt University

Dr. David Vago is a Research Associate Professor and Director of the Contemplative Neuroscience and Mind-Body (CNMB) Research Laboratory in the Department of Psychology at Vanderbilt University. He is core training faculty for the Vanderbilt Brain Institute and Vanderbilt Institute for Infection, Immunology, and Inflammation. Dr. Vago maintains a research associate position in the Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Vago is also Research Lead for the mental health and well-being platform, Roundglass. Dr. Vago has previously held the position of Research Director at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Vanderbilt and Senior Research Scientist for the Mind & Life Institute. Dr. Vago is currently a Mind & Life Fellow, supporting the Mind & Life mission by advising on strategy and programs. He is also a consultant for the mindfulness, well-being, and psychedelic research and industry community. He received his Bachelors Degree in Brain and Cognitive Sciences in 1997 from the University of Rochester and his Ph.D. in Cognitive and Neural Sciences, with a specialization in learning and memory from the department of Psychology, University of Utah in 2005. Dr. Vago has completed post-doctoral fellowships in Biological and Social Psychiatry, Neuropsychiatric Neuroimaging, and Mind and Body Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Weill Cornell Medical School, and University of Utah School of Medicine.

Dr. Maria Kozhevnikov

Associate Professor of Psychology, National University of Singapore

Visiting Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School

Associate in Neuroscience, Massachusetts General Hospital

Dr. Maria Kozhevnikov is an Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore and a Visiting Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School. Her research focuses on the neurocognitive bases of creativity and visualization, as well as ways to boost creativity and cognitive capacities through innovative technologies and traditional meditative practices. She examines how individual differences in visualization ability affect more complex activities, such as spatial navigation, learning and problem solving, and also designs three-dimensional immersive virtual environments that can accommodate individual differences and learning styles. Maria received her PhD from Technion (Israel) jointly with UC Santa Barbara. Before joining NUS,  she held faculty positions at Rutgers and George Mason Universities. During 2005-2007, she served as a Program Director for the Science of Learning Centers Program at the US National Science Foundation, where she managed awards for large-scale Centers that study learning across multiple disciplines.

Michael R. Sheehy, PhD

Director of Scholarship

Research Assistant Professor

Contemplative Sciences Center

University of Virginia

Michael R. Sheehy is a Research Assistant Professor in Tibetan and Buddhist studies and the Director of Scholarship at the Contemplative Sciences Center at the University of Virginia. His research specializes in contemplative practices detailed in Vajrayāna Tibetan Buddhist yoga and meditation manuals. He studied extensively in Buddhist Asia, including three years in a monastery in far eastern Tibet, and worked for over a decade to preserve rare manuscripts across the Tibetan plateau. He has taught at The New School in New York City, was a Visiting Scholar at Harvard Divinity School, and served as the Director of Programs at the Mind & Life Institute, facilitating two international dialogues with the Dalai Lama. A regular collaborator in the interface of Buddhism and science, Michael’s work integrates meditation research with the interdisciplinary humanities, cultural psychology, and the cognitive sciences. For the University of Virginia Press he serves as Series Editor of both the Contemplative Sciences and Traditions and Transformations in Tibetan Buddhism book series. He is co-editor of The Other Emptiness: Rethinking the Zhentong Buddhist Discourse in Tibet (SUNY 2019), and his forthcoming monograph focuses on the history and doctrines of the Jonang school of Tibetan Buddhism.