Buddhism and Complexity
A project realised with the support of the 8xmille funds from the Italian Buddhist Union
In 2026, the “Buddhism and Complexity in Dialogue” programme continues with a series of online sessions leading up to the residential workshop in June. Through a dialogue between complex thought and Buddhist perspectives, these sessions explore key concepts that can help us navigate the present, from non-linearity to sustainability.
2026 Series – Buddhism and Complexity
Four evening online meetings and an in-person residential workshop.
- February 19, 2026 – Buddhism and Complexity in Dialogue (Dr Enrico Cerni and Dr Chiara Mascarello): read some brief reflections from the speakers.
- March 12, 2026 – Non-linearity and Karma (Prof. Pierluigi Gentili and Dr Francesco Tormen): read some brief reflections from the speakers.
- April 22, 2026 – Sustainability and Social Commitment (Dr Ines Giunta and Prof. Massimo Raveri)
- May 20, 2026 – Uncertainty is… (Prof. Giuseppe Zollo and Master Tetsugen Serra)
- June 12–14, 2026 –In-person residential workshop “Buddhism and Complexity: Uncertainty is…” at the SanboJi Zen Monastery (Berceto)
The Research Center of the Italian Buddhist Union collaborates with the Complexity Institute and Il Cerchio Monasteri e Centri Zen on a research and training program dedicated to dialogue between Buddhism and complex thinking. This collaboration is grounded in a shared interest in ways of interpreting reality that can hold together processes, relationships, and transformations, with close attention to the concrete conditions in which people and communities act.
In the lexicon of complexity, themes include interdependence, nonlinearity, the emergence of phenomena, and the dynamics of change. In Buddhism, in different forms and languages, similar questions recur: the relational nature of experience, impermanence, the responsibility of actions, and the training of attention and awareness. The project takes a theoretical and practical approach, supported by academic rigor, with the aim of offering concrete tools for facing the challenges of everyday life.
The Buddhism and Complexity project unfolds through public events and training sessions. In 2025 it found an initial expression in a residential workshop at the SanboJi Zen monastery (Berceto), conceived as an intensive laboratory: times devoted to practice, listening, and shared work made it possible to deepen the theoretical content and, at the same time, to observe how certain dynamics become more legible when experienced in a residential setting.
The first meeting of the 2026 series, with Marinella De Simone and Chiara Mascarello, introduces the program’s framework and its main thematic strands.
To take part, please visit this page, where booking details for individual events will be published in due course. For further information, please email complex.institute@gmail.com.
