About the CCR
The Center for Contemplative Research (CCR) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit religious organization founded in 2020 by scholars B. Alan Wallace, PhD and Eva Natanya, PhD. The CCR maintains its primary center in Crestone, Colorado, with another center under development in Tuscany, Italy and a center in the planning stages in New Zealand.
Our Vision
The founding vision of the CCR posits that the problems of human civilization stem from mental afflictions, and that to address the crises humanity faces and bring about a new era of human flourishing, we must address their root causes in the mind.
The CCR sees a future guided by collaborative, cross-cultural, and interdisciplinary inquiry, where scientists and contemplatives work together in mutual respect to fathom the nature and potentials of the mind and seek to discover and implement the sustainable causes of personal and social well-being.
Our Mission
The mission of the CCR is to develop, apply, and proliferate methods of contemplative science — through expert training, collaborative research, and accessible education — to further the exploration of the nature and potentials of consciousness, deepen empirical understanding of genuine well-being, and offer accessible tools for flourishing to the world.
Interdisciplinary, Inter-Contemplative, Interfaith
Contemplative scientists at the CCR investigate the nature of the mind by integrating secular and religious approaches while upholding the ideals of empiricism, replicability, convergence of evidence, and peer review—ideals that can be found in scientific and contemplative traditions alike.
The CCR’s founders, contemplatives-in-training, and staff are largely trained in the Buddhist tradition, particularly as it has flourished in Tibet over the past millennium. Tibetan Buddhism’s emphasis on specific mind-training techniques makes it particularly well suited for empirical investigations that prioritize first-person approaches. CCR founder B. Alan Wallace is one of the world’s most renowned scholars of Tibetan Buddhism and commentators on the possibilities of collaboration among wisdom traditions and scientific disciplines.
In harmony with our Buddhist roots, the CCR’s vision and mission are profoundly interdisciplinary, interfaith, and multicultural in nature. We work with accomplished scholars across fields, including the hard sciences and social sciences, and seek to encourage dialogue across contemplative traditions, honoring each of their unique potentials for contemplative discovery.
Our approach to inter-contemplative dialogue and research is both vast and specific, seeking the common ground that is reached through the rigorous and replicable investigations enabled by sustained contemplative practice, not merely from a comparison of texts, rituals, or belief systems. We seek to overturn dogmatism in both religion and academia, and to arrive at the deepest truths of existence through radical empiricism—while never abandoning our discerning trust and confidence in the honesty and integrity of the great contemplatives, philosophers, and scientists who have preceded us, pointing the way to what they have seen.
Our mandate from His Holiness the Dalai Lama
ཨ་རིའི་ Colorado ཁུལ་དུ་སྒྲུབ་གྲྭ་གསར་འཛུགས་དང་སྦྲགས་ཚན་རིག་དང་མཉམ་འབྲེལ་བྱེད་པའི་ཚོགས་སྡེ་ཞིག་ཀྱང་འཛུགས་སྐྲུན་བྱ་འཆར་ལ་ལེགས་སོ་དང་། སྒྲུབ་གྲྭར་ནང་པའི་ལྟ་སྒོམ་སྤྱོད་གསུམ་ཙམ་མིན་པར། རྒྱ་གར་གྱི་གནའ་རབས་གྲངས་ཅན་ནས་བཟུང་སྟེ་དར་བའི་ཐུན་མོང་བའི་སྤྱོད་པ་འཚེ་བ་མེད་པ་དང་། ལྟ་བ་རྒྱུ་འབྲས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་བཞག་དང་། སྒོམ་པ་ཞི་ལྷག་བཅས་ལ་ཐོས་བསམ་སྒོམ་པ་དང་། དེ་བཞིན་ནུབ་ཕྱོགས་ཡེ་ཤུའི་ཆོས་ལུགས་ཀྱི་ལྟ་སྒོམ་སྤྱོད་པར་ཡང་ཐོས་བསམ་སློབ་གཉེར་ཡོད་ན་དགེ་མཚན་ཆེ་བར་མངོན།
Regarding the plan to create a retreat center in the American State of Colorado that will also be a Center for Contemplative Research in collaboration with the scientific community, I say, “Excellent!” It is clear to me that it will be of even greater benefit if this retreat center offers training not only in the view, meditation, and way of life of Buddhism, but also in the widespread, shared, non-violent way of life that has been taught in India from the ancient Sāṃkhya school onwards. There should be teaching, reflection, and meditation with respect to the view, including the presentation of cause and effect, and with respect to meditation, including śamatha and vipaśyanā. Likewise, there should also be instruction and reflection on the view, meditation, and way of life taught in the western traditions of Christianity.
—Tenzin Gyatso, the XIVth Dalai Lama
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