What Is the Mind?
A Dialogue Between Neuroscience and Buddhist Insight
What a wonderful weekend it was at Dharma College! We were delighted to welcome more than 50 participants to Berkeley Circle #2 for What Is the Mind? A Dialogue Between Neuroscience and Buddhist Insight, featuring Professor David Presti of the University of California, Berkeley, and Khenpo Choyang Dorjee. Together they explored one of humanity’s oldest questions through the complementary lenses of neuroscience and Buddhist wisdom, leading to a rich and engaging evening of dialogue and audience participation. A few photos from the event are enclosed.
We also celebrated the 25th Anniversary of Khyentse Foundation with our 21 Tara Program, gathering together in practice, reflection, and community. It was inspiring to spend time together deepening our connection to the Dharma while honoring this important milestone and the vision of preserving and sharing the Buddhist teachings.
These gatherings beautifully reflect the mission of Dharma College—to bring people together in person to explore timeless wisdom, contemporary thought, and contemplative practice in a spirit of inquiry and community. Thank you for being part of this growing community. We look forward to seeing you at our next Berkeley Circle, upcoming classes, or retreat.
Date : Jul 3, 2026 | Time : 6.30 – 8.30 PM PDT | Location : Dharma College
What is the mind? Is it simply the activity of the brain, or is there something more subtle to discover through direct experience?
In this Berkeley Circle dialogue, neuroscientist David Presti and Buddhist scholar Khenpo Choying Dorjee explore one of the most enduring questions of human life. Drawing from neuroscience, contemplative practice, and Buddhist insight, they will examine how perception, identity, emotion, habit, and awareness shape our experience of reality.
This evening is not a debate, but an inquiry an invitation to look more closely at the mind we live with every day, and to ask how understanding it may open the way to greater clarity, compassion, and freedom.
Speakers Profile
David E. Presti
David E. Presti is a professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the University of California in Berkeley, where he has taught neurobiology and psychology for 35 years. For a decade he also worked in the clinical treatment of addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center. And for the last 25 years he has engaged in dialogue and teaching on science with Tibetan Buddhist monastic communities in India, Nepal, and Bhutan – this via Science for Monks & Nuns, a program initiated by the Dalai Lama.
He has taught and provided mentoring for the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) program in psychedelic therapy and research since the program’s inception in 2016 and is a founding faculty member of the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics (BCSP). His undergraduate education is in physics, chemistry, and mathematics, and he has doctorates in molecular biology from the California Institute of Technology and in clinical psychology from the University of Oregon. He is author of the books Foundational Concepts in Neuroscience: A Brain-Mind Odyssey (Norton, 2016) and Mind Beyond Brain: Buddhism, Science, and the Paranormal (Columbia University Press, 2018), and of the edX online public education course Psychedelics and the Mind (2023).
Khenpo Choying Dorjee
Khenpo Choying Dorjee is a Tibetan Buddhist scholar known for his fresh and engaging way of presenting Buddhist philosophy. He was a devoted student of the late Khen Rinpoche Kunga Wangchuk. Khenpo joined the Dzongsar Khyentse Chokyi Lodro Institute (DKCLI) in 1992, receiving his Khenpo title in 2002, and his Khenpo degree (the monastic education equivalent to a PhD in Buddhism) in 2004. He then spent many years in various teaching and leadership roles at DKCLI, and in 2010, was appointed as a teacher to Sakya Dungsay Avikrita Rinpoche.
In 2011 Khenpo was sent to UC Berkeley in the U.S. as a visiting scholar by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, and was also appointed by Rinpoche as the head principal of DCKLI for the 2013-2016 term. Since then Khenpo has been directed by Khyentse Rinpoche to give teachings and to lead practices around Asia, Australia, Europe, and the Americas. His rich knowledge and deep understanding of Buddhism have benefited the many students who have attended his teachings.
