Part 1 in a weeklong series of blog posts written by undergraduate students from the 2017 spring-semester class, “Mindfulness & Compassion: Living Fully Personally and Professionally” at the University of Virginia. Transitioning to new environments is always difficult, especially for young adults entering adulthood. Many students find the transition from middle school to high school …
Perspective Type Archives:
Building a Humane Science of Intersubjectivity
Philosopher of cognitive science Hanne De Jaegher aims to put the humanity back in the scientific process of studying human experience. 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 …
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Meditating Together: Tania Singer on the Contemplative Dyad
As part of the work that she’s leading on the ReSource Project—a large-scale multi-methodological secular mental training program—Tania Singer is studying novel forms of intersubjective mental training practices that are performed with a partner. These contemplative dyad practices are aimed at boosting social closeness and perceived interconnectedness. In this video, Singer, who is the Director …
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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 …
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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 …
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How personal experience as a racial minority led to a career studying compassion meditation in diverse populations
An Interview with Mind & Life Fellow, Helen Weng, PhD. Helen Y. Weng, PhD is a Mind & Life Fellow and a postdoctoral scholar at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Helen is interested in how contemplative practices can improve communication within and between individuals, and how this in turn improves …
An interview with Eric Garland, Ph.D.
As a Mind & Life Fellow who received the Francisco J. Varela Research Grant in 2007 and the Mind & Life 1440 grant in 2013, Dr. Eric Garland has gone on to become the developer of an innovative, multimodal mindfulness-based intervention founded on insights derived from cognitive, affective and neurobiological science, called Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement …
ISCS 2016 marks coming of age for Mind & Life
For those who recently attended Mind & Life’s International Symposium for Contemplative Studies (ISCS) in San Diego, the experience provided an unusually intimate and affirming sense of connection and possibility — amid 1200 attendees. This was partly due to its timing, immediately following the presidential election, which prompted some of the speakers and panelists to …
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“Prayer is action”: Contemplative practice and social justice in Standing Rock, ND
On my first morning at Standing Rock, after a cold sleep punctuated by the sound of a helicopter in the night sky, a camp leader addressed newly arrived people in these words: “I see many of you who are new to camp walking around looking for action. Let me remind you that prayer is action.” …
