Arriving at a Contemplative Path: A Note from the CCR’s Executive Director

“…from all the borders of itself, burst like a star: for here there is no place that does not see you. You must change your life.”

—Rainer Maria Rilke

Dear friends and supporters,

As we head into summer, we are eager to begin to share with you a variety of communications about happenings, histories, and the future of the CCR. We welcome those who have long been acquainted with our mission as well as those who are newer to our community into learning more about the rich mixture of people, events, and contexts that have defined the CCR’s trajectory.

Perhaps you are curious about the members of the team actively running the CCR today–those who contribute in heart and in mind to the potentially revolutionary project that it seeks to be, in keeping with the deep aspirations of its lineages and founders.

 

Arriving at a Contemplative Path

Today, as the CCR’s Executive Director, I thought I’d share a little about myself, as one who is deeply honored to have been entrusted with the responsibility of managing the day-to-day operations and planning for the CCR, under the guidance of our co-founders and Board. I hope this helps introduce you to why I am moved enough by our mission to have dedicated myself fully to its success, and serves as an invitation to you to connect as I would love to know you better as well.

Since Eva Natanya, CCR co-founder and my predecessor in the Executive Director role, first introduced me to you officially in the fall of 2022, my life has been fully intertwined with the mission of CCR—to ignite a revolution in the mind sciences and foster a renaissance in the world’s contemplative traditions. However, my connection with this aspiration is a longer story, and my path to this role has been both winding and serendipitous.

Having grown up in a very secular household in an American suburb, I was not exposed to contemplative practices in my youth, though I always felt inclined toward them and devoured books about hermitic, poetic, and meditative experience. I faced challenges, psychological and otherwise, that certainly would have been easier navigated with the support of meditation and other methods of contemplative inquiry. And somehow, I perceived and felt deeply that something was missing in our society, and that community and spiritual guidance had fallen away in favor of fearful conformity and cultural sterility. I knew deep down that I needed to seek wisdom beyond the standard Western narratives. I am grateful to the writers of novels, especially, for chronicling contemplative experience with incredible profundity in a way I found accessible as a point of entry. 

In college, this manifested as an exploration—through Anthropology—of what enables different societies to function and flourish. After college my path felt unclear, and I found myself in Tibet, tagging along on a trip with friends who were studying Tibetan Buddhism and society. There I was exposed to a culture that, despite extraordinary hardship, seemed to find a way to embody resilience and good cheer—in both the monastic and lay communities—in a manner that I had never witnessed before in my own culture. Inspired to try a 10-day meditation retreat after my trip, I was truly shocked to discover how transformative even a “short” retreat could be. It flung the door wide open for me into a curiosity about the expansive possibilities of mind training. 

Seeking further connection with such disciplines, I attended a conference about science and religion at my alma mater Columbia University, where CCR founder Dr. B. Alan Wallace gave a rousing keynote speech that captivated my attention and kindled an enduring interest in the potential to bring contemplative experiences into our contemporary culture, including through collaboration with scientific disciplines. I knew then that the equanimity and kindness I had witnessed within Tibetan culture, which was thoroughly steeped in contemplative tradition, could be taught, practiced, and evaluated in our global communities as well, and over the years I delved more deeply into various contemplative traditions. 

While my professional path wended away from academic study and into the realm of applied business, that choice was informed by the deep intuition that the skills I hoped to glean could be directed toward spiritual and contemplative impact someday. After graduating from an MBA program and spending fifteen years in the innovative worlds of data, technology, and startups, I witnessed firsthand how rapidly humanity can churn itself into states that foster incredible innovation, but that struggle to reflect or follow through on values and vision, and ignore the deepest questions of survival and betterment. I felt myself withering, immersed in an unhealthy lifestyle bereft of ultimate direction.

For me, the tumult of the COVID-19 pandemic prompted my return to dedicated study and practice of contemplative methods, as taught by the CCR’s founders, that could equip me with resilience and even inspiration in a time of duress. Locked down in my shoebox apartment in New York City, I found that my mind could both heal and blossom, and seemingly intractable habits could change. I suddenly found the courage to make previously daunting major life shifts, and took the decision to break from corporate life, spending many months in both individual and group meditation retreats, relocating to Crestone, and meeting more members of the CCR community. 

The capacity for personal transformation that contemplative practices facilitated in me unlocked a deep commitment to sharing the practices with others—and to trying to figure out more about how and why they can work, through the sophisticated methodologies and communication channels of our contemporary human world.

Humbled daily by the fact that I can direct my energy to rise to the challenge of growing the CCR, I am guided by our remarkable community and teachers, whose generous legacies I seek to honor. I feel that I found my way, against the odds we face in our world today, back to the methods that help me to access my own true compass. Now, I am committed to fostering the conducive conditions for advanced and novice practitioners alike to discover for themselves the insights that can chart a better course for us individually and collectively, through the CCR’s work. With gratitude and determination, I and CCR contributors embrace this opportunity, committed to spreading the seeds of genuine well-being sown by CCR.

 

Welcoming Growth

My focus has turned to building the necessary professional apparatus for full operational stability and sustainability. This includes the need to expand the staff to enable us to craft the programming that will move the world for the better in our time. 

In coming weeks, you will see a cadence of communications regarding staff, as well as our programs, initiatives, content, and beyond—including but not limited to sharing a new website and strategic framing for our work. I eagerly anticipate unveiling our enhanced language and website, and sharing more about how our small team can find the best opportunities for impact and growth, even as we evolve through the growing pains faced by fledgling organizations.

I welcome correspondence with any and all of you, and would love to schedule time to chat, if you feel moved to reach out: courtney.johnson@centerforcontemplativeresearch.org. I am eager to deepen our collective bond with this extraordinary organization and its transformative mission.