A catalyst for human flourishing

How to understand the mind and cultivate the heart

Every day, we support vital work that transforms our scientific understanding of the human mind and its capacity to develop positive mental states. We believe that when contemplative wisdom and practices are fully integrated into modern day science it has the power to act as a catalyst for human and societal flourishing. This is the promise of what we call contemplative science.

Together with the world’s leading scientists, contemplative scholars, and healthcare, educational and management practitioners, we create an open and interdisciplinary dialogue between modern sciences and contemplative practices and share our findings with the world.

To learn more about our current activities and initiatives, click here or on one of the information boxes below.

 

The main message, to me, is the importance for human beings to learn how to become experts on their own mind.

(Francisco J. Varela)

Congratulations to our EVA 2018 Awardees!

EVA 2018 Awardees

Contemplative Science Symposium 2019

“Beyond Confines - Integrating Science, Consciousness and Society”

MLE Symposium
October 25 - 27, 2019
in Fürstenfeldbruck, Germany
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Out now: Activity Report 2018!

Each year, we publish a report about all of the MLE Activities and a preview for the following. This includes community meetings, initiatives and news from the association. Check out the latest report!
Activity Report 2018

Contemplative Science Symposium 2019

 

Join us for our second Pan-European symposium in October near Munich (Germany). Book your tickets now!

From Enactive to Enlightened AI

Tuesday , 05.03.2019 , 14:48
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From Enactive to Enlightened AI

 

© Elena Antonova, Ph.D. (Association Member, Mind & Life Europe) The Embodied Mind, a book co-authored by Francisco Varela, Evan Thompson and Eleonor Rosch, directly engaged with the field of Artifical Intelligence (AI) and robotics by critiquing a cognitive representationalist model of the mind and presenting an embodied and enactive approach as an alternative. It led to the emergence of the new kind of AI robotics, with the embodied enactive robots learning from the experiences of their interaction with the ...
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Understanding the World

Friday , 25.05.2018 , 20:36
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Understanding the World

 

In early May, Mind & Life Europe Board and Association members Elena Antonova, Amy Cohen Varela and Charles-Antoine Janssen attended as observers the second in a series of dialogues entitled ‘Fundamental knowledge: Dialogue between Russian and Buddhist Scholars’ in Dharamsala, India, at the behest of the Dalai Lama. This meeting gathered Russian philosophers and scientists from the fields of neuroscience, genetics and physics with Buddhist scholars under the title “Understanding the World”. The first meeting in ...
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Initiative for Contemplative Phenomenology (ICP)

Friday , 25.05.2018 , 10:40
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Initiative for Contemplative Phenomenology (ICP)

 

We interviewed Michel Bitbol, Mind & Life Europe Association Member and French researcher in philosophy of science, on the MLE community he is leading with Natalie Depraz and Claire Petitmengin, the Initiative for Contemplative Phenomenology (ICP). You have said that “philosophy is a bridge” in the dialogue between science and Buddhism; can you tell us something about this idea?  The dialogue between science and Buddhism represents an extraordinary opportunity of renewal for human cultures and wellbeing. But it ...
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