Topic Archives:
Why We Need Contemplative Education More Than Ever: An Unfolding at Mind & Life’s 2025 Summer Research Institute
Mind & Life periodically invites guest writers to contribute to the blog as a way of deepening dialogue and understanding around key themes related to our mission. In this post, a participant at our 2025 Summer Research Institute reflects on her experience. I have performance anxiety. I thrive in groups of two—me and one other …
Celebrating His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s 90th Birthday
Today, it is with great joy that we celebrate His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s 90th birthday. This milestone invites us to reflect on an extraordinary life of compassion, wisdom, and enduring curiosity in exploring profound questions about what it means to be human and our responsibility to the planet and all lifeforms that share this …
Continue reading “Celebrating His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s 90th Birthday”
What is Contemplative Research?
Contemplative research is a field bridging academic inquiry with contemplative wisdom traditions to explore the nature of the mind, human flourishing, and the potential for personal and societal transformation. Rooted in disciplines across the sciences, social sciences, humanities, and arts, contemplative research investigates the roots and contexts of contemplative traditions, and examines the effects of …
The Dalai Lama—Our Inner Value
Exploring What’s Next in Contemplative Research: 15 Questions to Consider
Against a backdrop of mighty oaks in their fall glory, Mind & Life’s “Envisioning the Future of Contemplative Research” event on October 28-31 invited roughly 50 established and emerging scholars and contemplatives to step away from their daily demands to ponder the future of the field. In his opening remarks, education scholar Ed Taylor introduced …
Continue reading “Exploring What’s Next in Contemplative Research: 15 Questions to Consider”
Envisioning the Future of Contemplative Research – Grounded in an Ethics of Compassion
Upon arrival at Mind & Life’s “Envisioning the Future of Contemplative Research” conference on October 28-31, I was filled with a sense of not knowing, part nervous anticipation and part excitement. Not knowing the contour of the phenomenological experiences due to the boundless and ephemeral nature of our encounter. Not knowing the climate of the …
A Mantra Meditation with Geshema Yenchin
Living into a Story of Care and Compassion at Mind & Life’s 2024 Summer Research Institute
The Mind & Life Summer Research Institute (SRI) is a collective experience in which all members bring their individual experiences together to build a community. This personal reflection, from the 2024 SRI held June 2-8 at the Garrison Institute, is but one perspective of many. Because I am a visual thinker, this piece includes digital …
Why Dialogue Is More Important Than Ever
At a time of unprecedented complexity, deepening polarization, and rapid technological transformation, fostering genuine dialogue has never been more critical. One need only consider the ethical implications today of humanity’s vigorous pursuit of artificial intelligence with its vast potential contributions—and risks. Over 37 years, the Mind & Life Institute has created a model for dialogue …
