Mind and Life Europe

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Mind and Life Europe

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Mind & Life Europe builds and supports Contemplative Science and Contemplative Studies

Mind and Life Europe builds and supports Contemplative Science and Contemplative Studies at an international and interdisciplinary level. Established in response to increased interest from individuals and institutions, Mind and Life Europe assesses needs, implements strategies, and facilitates programs to help advance study of consciousness and contemplative practices, specifically in Europe.

29/10/2026

"And I feel like this is much more of an interdependent way of doing science where it’s not about control; it’s about dialogue," shares neuroscientist, scholar, and practitioner Prof Marieke van Vugt.

In her presentation at the "Compassion in Action" conference at the European Parliament this year, Prof Marieke van Vugt described the academic integration of contemplative practices in the early 2000s as a challenging feat, markedly a time in which discussing meditation or consciousness was often regarded as taboo or “career suicide” for Western scientists. She also discussed the scientific research demonstrating the benefits of contemplative practices for attention, altruism, and pain management; and ongoing initiatives striving to involve monastics more actively in the process of enquiry to ask new, and likely more important, questions reflecting both scientific and contemplative perspectives.

🎥 Watch her full talk here: https://ow.ly/aBvz5101kK0

28/10/2026

“I think that today’s topic, Compassion in Action, is very much needed," states Geshe Tenzin Damchoe. "Compassion is the seed of happiness.”

🎥 Watch his full talk at the European Parliament in Brussels, in which he explores the preservation of Tibetan Buddhist culture and the Dalai Lama's views on human nature, compassion, and interdependence: https://ow.ly/JAgH5101iah

26/10/2026

Join us for Making Room for Contemplation, a free, online space for contemplative practice offered to anyone and everyone on a monthly basis.

In each of these sessions, Edel will deliver an introductory talk about contemplation, followed by a silent meditation and/or dialogical practice, and conclude with a Q&A and discussion.

Our next practice session will take place on Tuesday 27th October from 7:30pm to 8:45pm.

🧘 Learn more and register here: https://ow.ly/NYF85100VzN

26/10/2026

What can vulnerability, science, and religion teach us about how we make worlds together?

In our recent Mind Matters Book Launch, Prof Donna Haraway and Prof Scott Gilbert explored the unexpected alliances between biology and religion, the interdependence of living beings, and the possibilities for revising our standard narratives about the ethical, religious, and biological grounds on which we form worlds together to enact more caring futures for the planet.

🎥 Watch the recording now: https://ow.ly/ysYb5100VhS

23/10/2026

New episode of The Enactive Fold, the Mind & Life Europe podcast, out now!

“A Symphony Without a Conductor: Agency, Emergence, and the Transdisciplinary Legacy of Autopoiesis” features Prof Bruce Clarke, one of the world’s preeminent historians of systems thinking, second-order cybernetics, and the Gaia hypothesis; and Dr Martin E. Rosenberg, a scholar of emergence, jazz improvisation, neuroplasticity, metaphor, hypermedia, and even the game of chess.

One would be hard pressed to summarise such an eclectic and far-reaching conversation. Interspersed with many a story, our conversation took us through the finer points of agency and autopoiesis, metaphor and meaning, systems theory and jazz improvisation, jagged ontologies and cognitive multiplicities, boundaries and permeability, epistemic humility and surrender.

🎧 Listen now: https://ow.ly/fzyW50ZZCki

22/10/2026

What can psychedelics teach us about meaning-making?

We are honoured to welcome neuroscientist and world-renowned psychedelic researcher Dr Chris Timmermann for our first MLE Friends Talk this fall. Drawing on neuroimaging and EEG work with short-acting psychedelics, Dr Timmermann will explore how cognitive flexibility might lead to meaningful experiences and lasting therapeutic change through the complementary processes of deconstruction and reconstruction of meaning.

📅 Taking place on 29th October at 18:00 CEST.

👉 Learn more here: https://ow.ly/JKMW50ZZhrb

21/10/2026

“His Holiness the Dalai Lama is the one who has brought the academic world and the spiritual world together,” says Geshe Tenzin Damchoe, from the College for Higher Tibetan Studies.

At our “Compassion in Action” conference, Geshe Tenzin Dhamchoe reflected on the Dalai Lama’s early life when he served as the resident spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet before 1959, after which he led the Tibetan government in exile represented by the Central Tibetan Administration in Dharamshala, India. He also spoke of the Dalai Lama’s advocacy for love and compassion irrespective of religion or blind faith, arguing that human nature is at its heart compassion and kindness instead of aggression and anger, contrary to the belief of some leading scientists.

🎥 Watch his full talk here: https://ow.ly/GYem50ZZgrK

19/10/2026

What do we really mean by contemplation, and why exactly do we do it? 🪷

Dr Edel Maex will be exploring these very questions in our upcoming Making Room for Contemplation session on Tuesday 27th October, at 19:30 CEST. This Mind & Life Europe series offers a free, online space for contemplative practice on a monthly basis, open to anyone and everyone who might be interested.

In each of these sessions, Edel will deliver an introductory talk about contemplation, followed by a silent meditation and/or dialogical practice, and conclude with a Q&A and discussion.

🧘 Learn more and register here: https://ow.ly/quxW50ZXvrM

17/10/2026

“Once these desires can be relinquished, a space is opened up for mobility and receptiveness, notably a receptivity to what is unfamiliar to us,” shares Ms Amy Cohen Varela, Chairperson of the MLE Board. “When this open space is achieved within us and between us, dialogue becomes transformative, giving rise to insights that may derive from the dialogue partners, but that are novel inventions springing from the nature of the conversation itself beyond what one single mind can imagine.”

Acknowledging the critical times in which we are living, and the rapidly shifting social orders and ecologies of our planet, Mind & Life Europe remains committed to fostering a space for such dialogue and transformation, rooted in the vision of shared humanity and bond of friendship between Francisco Varela and the Dalai Lama nearly 40 years ago.

🎥 Learn more about the origins of Mind & Life and true dialogue in Amy’s talk here: https://ow.ly/cHFL50ZXv3n

15/10/2026

Announcing our very first Call for Papers! We’re excited to offer not only one, but two editions of Hyphae open to all of you to launch Mind & Life Europe’s new academic journal. Our featured topics include “Enacting the Symbolic: Dream, Myth, and Ritual” and “The Embodiment of Love in Transformative Experiences”.

The first edition dives into the dream world as it relates to waking life. For instance, by emphasising neurophenomenology, we hope to explore how first-person dream narratives and third-person neurodynamics might mutually inform one another. And, we also engage with diverse wisdom traditions on the topic of dreams, myths, and rituals. How do they symbolise life and contribute to our world-making?

The next issue will explore love. How does love transform us? What about the ‘dark’ aspects of love, such as grief, obsession, or dependency? This may of course relate to contemplative, reconciliation, and ethics. This rich theme promises to give us an enjoyable and meaningful discussion.

👉 Authors are welcome to send in papers for both of these issues now! See our page for details: https://ow.ly/6kGZ50ZXtUH

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Bahnhofsplatz 18
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8400

Website

http://www.mindandlife-europe.org/

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