ABOUT CCR
The Center for Contemplative Research (CCR) is a nonprofit religious organization that provides the training and ideal environment for full-time, dedicated contemplatives to engage in long-term meditation retreats and collaborate in rigorous research with leading scientists and philosophers from a variety of fields, including physics, neuroscience, psychology, and phenomenology.
We believe that the root causes of the world’s most pressing challenges are unhealthy minds that yield destructive behavior, including corruption, violence, environmental degradation, and social oppression. And we believe that these global problems can be solved if and only if we fathom the nature and potentials of consciousness.
REVITALIZING ANCIENT TECHNOLOGIES
The Center for Contemplative Research is positioned to help spark a revolution in the way science looks at the mind. Revitalizing the advanced practice of contemplative technologies that have been tested for over 2,500 years, now, in conjunction with carefully designed scientific studies, we
- pioneer groundbreaking methodologies in the field of contemplative science
- offer unprecedented opportunities for collaboration between scientists and contemplatives in dedicated research observatories
- foster a living practice of universal ethics, rooted in nonviolence and compassion
- nurture a true renaissance within the world’s great contemplative traditions.
EXPANDING THE SCOPE OF SCIENCE
In order to expand the scope of science beyond the objective world of atoms, cells, planets, and stars to include the subjective world of consciousness, emotions, wisdom, and well-being, the CCR is re-shaping the burgeoning field of contemplative science by focusing on the development of contemplative technology: rigorous, replicable methods of first-person, introspective inquiry, designed to yield insights into the nature and potentials of consciousness that can be intersubjectively corroborated among expert meditators.
We’re demonstrating that contemplative science can yield genuine discoveries about the nature of the mind while upholding the ideals of science, including empiricism, replicability, convergence of evidence, and peer review.
With the help of our generous supporters,
we’re providing unprecedented opportunities for longitudinal studies involving professional-level training in mental balance, allowing researchers to explore — and exceed — the traditional boundaries of their fields. The CCR will apply contemplative insights to the following domains:
- SCIENCE: generating new methods and measures in the cognitive sciences, physics and neurophenomenology.
- EDUCATION: demonstrating the full potential of training in motivation, attention, discerning mindfulness, and emotional balance to improve learning outcomes.
- MEDICINE: exploring practical methods for realizing exceptional levels of physical and psychological well-being and resilience.
- ETHICS: reviving for the modern world the universal principles of nonviolent and benevolent conduct with respect to ourselves, human society, and the biosphere.
- BUSINESS: enhancing professional performance and problem-solving acuity based on introspective awareness and training in mental balance.
What is the true nature of reality?
What are the causes of suffering?
What is consciousness?
What are its potentials?
What happens at death?
These are some of the greatest questions of all time, and understanding the mind is central to each of them.
The Center for Contemplative Research is committed to advancing science and combining contemplative and scientific disciplines to develop novel and rigorous methods to study the mind and consciousness directly – by looking right at it, with finely tuned, unwavering attention. Download our Overview Brochure to guide our work and enhance the global impact of our discoveries.
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
FROM MEMBERS OF THE CCR SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD: PERSPECTIVES ON CONSCIOUSNESS.
Steven Chu
1997 Nobel Laureate, 12th U.S. Secretary of Energy, Professor of Physics and Molecular & Cellular Physiology, Stanford University
Marcelo Gleiser
2019 Templeton Prize winner, Theoretical Physicist, and Director of the Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Engagement at Dartmouth College.
Elisa H. Kozasa
Professor and Neuroscientist, Brain Institute of Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, Brazil
Claire Petitmengin
Professor Emerita at Institut Mines-Téléco and Member of the Archives Husserl, École Normale Supérieure, Paris.
FROM CCR PROFESSIONAL CONTEMPLATIVES: PERSPECTIVES ON CONTEMPLATIVE TECHNOLOGY.
Doug Veenhof
Doug is a Buddhist teacher, award-winning journalist and resident teacher at CCR North America, offering guidance to meditators.
Joseph Cadiff
Joe is a scholar, full-time practitioner at CCR North America, and a teacher of Buddhism and yoga.
Andrea Vazquez
Andrea is a full-time contemplative at CCR North America, well-versed in the study and practice of Buddhism.
Patrice Kennedy
