Mind & Life Institute

Mind & Life Institute Bridging science and contemplative wisdom to foster insight and inspire action toward flourishing.
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At the Mind & Life Institute, we bring science and contemplative wisdom together to better understand the mind and create positive change in the world. At this critical moment in history, it’s clear that efforts to address mounting global challenges must take into account our inner lives, and how individual well-being contributes to collective flourishing. At the heart of today’s global challenges

is a profound crisis of disconnection. From loneliness and isolation to racism and tribalism, our disconnection from one another is causing tremendous suffering for people and the planet. Building on our 35-year legacy, we seek to better understand the role of the human mind in creating these problems—and its potential to solve them. Through grantmaking, convenings, and strategic partnerships, we seek to foster healthy human connections. We recognize that Mind & Life is part of a growing global movement for social change. In this spirit, we welcome new partners—as together—we strive to create a world that truly embraces our shared humanity.

06/17/2026

What helps people heal when life moves too fast for grief, reflection, or even rest?

On the newest episode of the Mind & Life podcast, humanitarian practitioner and mindfulness teacher Paula Ramírez Díazgranados joins Jon Kabat-Zinn, Liane Stephan, and guest host Jamie Bristow for a conversation about mindfulness in the context of conflict, displacement, trauma, and collective healing.

Drawing on her work with refugees and internally displaced communities, Paula reflects on what emerges when people are given space to pause, reconnect, and remember the resources that helped them survive.

As she shares, mindfulness is not about escaping difficult realities. It can help us reconnect with ourselves, with one another, and with the relationships that sustain us through times of profound challenge.

🎧 Listen to the full episode to explore how mindfulness can support not only individual flourishing, but collective and planetary health: https://podcast.mindandlife.org/jamie-bristow-mini-series-episode-5/

This episode was supported by the generosity of the BESS Family Foundation—dedicated to fostering kindness and caring for the Earth and all beings through mindfulness and meditation practices.

What holds us together in an age of fracture?Last week at , researchers, contemplatives, scholars, practitioners, and c...
06/15/2026

What holds us together in an age of fracture?

Last week at , researchers, contemplatives, scholars, practitioners, and changemakers gathered at the Garrison Institute to explore this question through research, contemplative practice, dialogue, and community.

Together, we examined the forces that divide us, the conditions that foster connection, and the possibilities that emerge when we meet one another with curiosity, rigor, and care.

As participants return home, we're still soaking in the insights, questions, and relationships that took shape throughout the week. Beyond the plenaries, breakout groups, contemplative practices, and poster sessions, the 2026 Summer Research Institute unfolded in conversations over meals, walks around the property, moments of contemplation, and new collaborations that we hope will continue long after the week has ended.

Thank you to everyone who joined us for “Depolarization: Cultivating Connection in a Divided World.” We hope you traveled home safely, and we look forward to seeing how the ideas, friendships, and partnerships sparked at SRI continue to grow 🌱

“You cannot solve problems as an individual. You can only solve them with collective intelligence, with collective wisdo...
06/10/2026

“You cannot solve problems as an individual. You can only solve them with collective intelligence, with collective wisdom.”

That’s how mindfulness teacher and systems change practitioner Liane Stephan describes one of the defining challenges of our time on the newest episode of the Mind & Life podcast.

Liane joins Jon Kabat-Zinn, Paula Ramírez Díazgranados, and guest host Jamie Bristow for a conversation about mindfulness, resilience, and what becomes possible when we move beyond the myth of separation.

As Liane suggests, the challenges we face today—from ecological crisis to social fragmentation—cannot be solved alone. They require new ways of listening, relating, and working together.

🎧 Listen to the full episode to explore how mindfulness can support not only individual flourishing, but collective and planetary health: https://podcast.mindandlife.org/jamie-bristow-mini-series-episode-5/

This episode was supported by the generosity of the BESS Family Foundation—dedicated to fostering kindness and caring for the Earth and all beings through mindfulness and meditation practices.

Some highlights from so far ✨This week, we're gathering at the Garrison Institute to explore "Depolarization: Cultivat...
06/09/2026

Some highlights from so far ✨

This week, we're gathering at the Garrison Institute to explore "Depolarization: Cultivating Connection in a Divided World," the 23rd Mind & Life Summer Research Institute.

Together, participants have been exploring how the environments we create shape belonging, what research can teach us about bridging divides, and how contemplative traditions cultivate wisdom, compassion, and connection in practice.

These conversations remind us that isn't only a personal experience—it is something that can be nurtured in our relationships, communities, and institutions.

And we're not even halfway through the week yet.

There's a lot of here at the Garrison Institute as we prepare for the 2026 Mind & Life Summer Research Institute.Tomor...
06/06/2026

There's a lot of here at the Garrison Institute as we prepare for the 2026 Mind & Life Summer Research Institute.

Tomorrow, researchers, contemplatives, cultural thinkers, and policymakers will gather for "Depolarization: Cultivating Connection in a Divided World"—a week of rigorous inquiry, contemplative practice, and exploration of one of the most urgent questions of our time: What holds us together in an age of fracture?

Over the coming days, participants will explore how connection is disrupted, what restores it, and how insights from science, contemplative wisdom, and lived experience can help shape more compassionate cultures, institutions, and futures.

For now, we're taking in the quiet before the conversations begin and looking forward to welcoming everyone tomorrow!

06/05/2026

Can we be healthy in an unhealthy world?

Renowned meditation teacher, author, and creator of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Jon Kabat-Zinn joins Paula Ramírez Díazgranados, Liane Stephan, and guest host Jamie Bristow in the latest episode of the Mind & Life podcast. Tune in for a conversation on mindfulness beyond stress reduction—what becomes possible when contemplative practices are brought into relationship with our communities, institutions, and beyond?

As Jon suggests, personal well-being cannot be separated from the well-being of the systems we depend on. In a time marked by conflict, ecological crisis, and growing social fragmentation, mindfulness may have a larger role to play than helping individuals cope. It may help us remember our interconnectedness and respond with greater wisdom, resilience, and care.

🎧 Listen to the full episode to explore how mindfulness can support not only individual flourishing, but collective and planetary health: https://podcast.mindandlife.org/jamie-bristow-mini-series-episode-5/

This episode was supported by the generosity of the BESS Family Foundation—dedicated to fostering kindness and caring for the Earth and all beings through mindfulness and meditation practices.

“Inner development and outer systems change are integrally related. They are actually inseparable.”That’s how researcher...
06/03/2026

“Inner development and outer systems change are integrally related. They are actually inseparable.”

That’s how researcher and educator Megan Seneque describes the relationship between personal and societal transformation on the last episode of the Mind & Life podcast.

Megan joins Martin Kalungu-Banda, Katrin Kaufer, and guest host Jamie Bristow for a conversation on Theory U, awareness-based systems change, and what it takes to create meaningful change in a complex world.

She goes on to unpack how lasting transformation isn't only about changing systems "out there." It also requires creating the conditions for learning, awareness, and new ways of relating—personally and collectively.

What if inner and outer change aren't separate challenges at all, but part of the same journey?

🎧 Listen to the full episode to explore how awareness, relationships, and collective learning can help shape more compassionate and resilient futures: https://podcast.mindandlife.org/podcast/podcast-episodes/

Presencing Institute

05/28/2026

“We collectively create results that we individually don’t want.”

That’s how Presencing Institute co-founder Katrin Kaufer describes one of the central challenges facing our world on the latest episode of the Mind & Life podcast.

Katrin joins Martin Kalungu-Banda, Megan Seneque, and guest host Jamie Bristow for a conversation on Theory U, awareness-based systems change, and how we respond to a world where the past is no longer a reliable guide for the future.

🎧 Listen to the full episode to explore how awareness, relationships, and collective learning can help shape more compassionate and resilient futures: https://podcast.mindandlife.org/jamie-bristow-mini-series-episode-4/

05/28/2026

This week we honour the 25th anniversary of the passing of Francisco Varela (September 7, 1946 – May 28, 2001), who remains one of the most visionary and influential figures in the history of cognitive science.

Varela studied biology at the University of Chile, before completing a PhD in biology at Harvard University. In the wake of the 1973 military coup led by Augusto Pinochet, he spent seven years in exile in the United States before returning to Chile as Professor of biology at the University of Chile. During this period, he immersed himself in the practice of Tibetan Buddhism, studying with Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, and later Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche. In 1986, Varela settled in France, teaching cognitive science, epistemology, and neuroscience at the École Polytechnique and University of Paris, and then serving as Director of Research at the CNRS in 1988. In 1987, he co-founded the Mind and Life Institute with Adam Engle and the 14th Dalai Lama, initiating a series of intimate dialogues that unfolded a sustained exchange between Buddhist contemplative traditions and contemporary science.

Through his pioneering empirical research and profoundly transdisciplinary theoretical work, Varela transformed how we think about mind and life. His book The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience (1991), co-authored with Eleanor Rosch and Evan Thompson, introduced the "enactive" approach, proposing that mind and consciousness arise from dynamic interaction between an acting organism and its environment. His earlier contributions, Principles of Biological Autonomy (1979) and The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding (1987, 1998), co-authored with Humberto Maturana, helped establish the concept of autopoiesis and reshaped our understanding of living systems as self-producing and relational.

We remember him with gratitude, not only for a mind that crossed boundaries with ease, but also for a legacy that continues to animate new ways of thinking about consciousness, life, and experience.

05/22/2026

“The work was no longer just out there. The work was on me as well.”

That realization came to leadership and organizational development practitioner Martin Kalungu-Banda while working in the Zambian presidency—and it became a doorway into a deeper understanding of systems change.

On the newest episode of the Mind & Life podcast, Martin joins Katrin Kaufer, Megan Seneque, and guest host Jamie Bristow to explore Theory U, awareness-based systems change, and the role of inner transformation in addressing complex societal challenges.

As Martin shares, meaningful change doesn’t begin only with new strategies or policies. It also asks something of us personally: how we listen, how we relate, and how willing we are to examine ourselves while working to transform the systems around us.

🎧 Listen to the full episode to explore how inner and outer transformation can work together to create meaningful change: https://podcast.mindandlife.org/jamie-bristow-mini-series-episode-4/

Presencing Institute

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