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The Victor Mansfield Memorial Speaker Series

The Victor Mansfield Memorial Speaker Series honors the memory and furthers the intellectual work of Vic Mansfield (1941-2008) whose dedicated research, heartfelt practice, and energetic teaching have been a great benefit to many. The Speaker Series events are free to the public and welcome a wide audience interested in the collaboration that His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama has called for between Tibetan Buddhism and “other important sources of knowledge and well-being” [The Universe in a Single Atom]. Each year this series will host a Western scholar who has enhanced the study of Tibetan Buddhism.

THE INAUGURAL EVENT: Friday, July 10, 2009

We are honored to have as inaugural speaker for the Series Dr. B. Alan Wallace, Founder and Director of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies. Wallace knew Vic Mansfield as a fellow writer working in the intersection of science and Buddhism and edited Buddhism and Science: Breaking New Ground (Columbia, 2003) which includes Vic’s article “Time and Impermanence in Middle Way Buddhism and Modern Physics.” Alan Wallace will offer the Friday evening presentation inaugurating the Victor Mansfield Memorial Speaker Series as part of a Namgyal Monastery weekend intensive on
The Way of Shamatha: Soothing the Body, Settling the Mind, and Illuminating Awareness.

THE INSPIRATION: Vic Mansfield 1941-2008

In the forward to Vic’s last book, Tibetan Buddhism & Modern Physics: Toward a Union of Love and Knowledge, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama described Vic as “someone who has reconciled his professional involvement with science with a deep interest in spirituality and Tibetan Buddhism in particular.” Vic was an exemplary western scientist, a transformative teacher, and a friend to Namgyal Monastery.

Born in Norwalk, CT, Vic attended Dartmouth College and completed his Ph.D. at Cornell University, leading to his thirty-five year career of teaching physics, astrophysics, and popular cross-disciplinary courses at Colgate University. His course, Core: Tibet, was particularly loved by his students. His brilliance as a teacher culminated in April 2008 in his receiving the Sidney J. and Florence Felten French Prize for inspirational teaching.

At his death in June 2008, Vic’s surviving family included his mother, Virginia Pepitone, who “lovingly raised me entirely by herself”; his wife and “best friend,” Elaine; and their sons, David and Anthony.

Vic and Elaine were founding members of Wisdom’s Goldenrod Center for Philosophic Studies where they were students of Anthony Damiani. In 1979, this group invited His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama to visit, beginning Vic’s ongoing relationship with HHDL and Tibetan Buddhism. Vic was also active throughout his life on behalf of social justice, peace, and ecology. He and Elaine felt that one of their most significant acts was to protect their 70 acres of property from development with a conservation easement with the Finger Lakes Land Trust.

Vic’s three books are Synchronicity, Science, and Soul-Making (Open Court, 1995), Head and Heart: A Personal Exploration of Science and the Sacred (Quest, 2002), and Tibetan Buddhism & Modern Physics: Toward a Union of Love and Knowledge (Templeton, 2008). In an online article in The Global Spiral, Soraj Hongladarom attests, “Mansfield’s Tibetan Buddhism & Modern Physics stands out for its lucid exposition of complex subjects and the author's sincerity in admitting areas of congruence as well as those that require further collaborative efforts.”

DONATIONS WELCOMED

For donations in support of this Speaker Series, please make your personal check, money order, or bank cashier's check payable to “Namgyal Monastery” and send to our mailing address.

For donations by credit card, please use the “Donate to Namgyal Ithaca” link on our Supporting Namgyal page. In the Comments field of the Payment Form, enter the name of the event for which you are making a donation.

Location

Human Services Building, 320 West State Street, Ithaca, NY 14850

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