About 130 delegates, including scientists and doctors from the US, UK, Russia and China, besides India and Nepal, attended the conclave. A group of Tibetan monks, 12 from Dharamshala, seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile, and 17 from other parts of India also participated.

The 12th conference on "Mind and Life" provides a forum for bridging the gulf between the reams of science and religion as regards the human brain. Two sessions were held on each day with delegates presenting their views on construction and development of the human brain in the morning session, while the Dalai Lama discussed issues related to science and Buddhism during the afternoon session. The Dalai Lama also presided over a closed door meeting on neuroplasticity.

"The neuroscientists coming to this conference bring a great deal of research to it, having studied the brain. The Buddhist bring to it a great deal of mind training, how it can be used to influence the brain and its functioning," said B. Alen Wallece of the Conscious and Studies Institute in California, US.