Interconnection, Inclusivity and Transdisciplinary Collaboration in Contemplative Research

Each year, the Mind & Life Institute hosts the Summer Research Institute to bring together scholars, researchers, professionals and practitioners from a variety of fields who share an interest in contemplative research. The purpose of this program is to bring students, recent graduates, junior faculty and postdocs into conversation with established investigators in order to …

Is Technology Interfering with Our Most Intimate Relationships?

Psychology professor David Sbarra explores what technology addiction is doing to our in-person relationships from an evolutionary perspective. Editor’s Note: The 2017 Mind & Life Summer Research Institute took place from June 5 – 11 at the Garrison Institute in New York. This year’s program, focused on the theme of “Intersubjectivity and Social Connectivity,” brought together …

The PhenoTank: A Mind & Life Think Tank on the Microphenomenology of Contemplative Experience

What happens when an experience is described?  Does the very effort to find words deepen practice, sharpen awareness, clarify an experience? Imagining a lens through which to deepen access to contemplative experience, these were among the questions that drove the conversation at a Mind & Life-funded Think Tank entitled the “PhenoTank,” held at the École …

An in-depth look at a Mind & Life Think Tank on Abrahamic traditions

To date, the traditions and techniques that have been most substantively researched in the field of contemplative science have largely derived from Buddhism and Buddhist-inspired movements. While there have been tremendous advances and developments due to this collaboration—indeed there would be no field without it—a natural consequence of this specific alliance is that insights from …