Claire Petitmengin is Professor Emerita at the Institut Mines-Télécom and member of the Archives Husserl (Ecole Normale Supérieure) in Paris. Her research focuses on lived experience and micro-phenomenological methods enabling us to become aware of experience and describe it.  Conducted by Erin Burke, a doctoral candidate at the University of Virginia and a Research Assistant at the Journal of Contemplative Studies. JCS: What does contemplation mean to you?  CP: I would first say I don’t use this word very often—contemplation.  JCS: That’s interesting—do you prefer a ..read more

Samuel Grimes is the Shinjo Ito Postdoctoral Fellow in Buddhist Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of the article, “Portrait of a Poison: Datura in Buddhist Magic,” in the Journal of Contemplative Studies: Special Issue on Psychedelics, Contemplation, and Religion. Conducted by Adam Liddle, a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Contemplative Sciences Center and the Associate Editor for the Journal of Contemplative Studies. JCS: What was the driving question in your article on the substance, Datura?  SG: The reason I’m looking at Datura at all is th ..read more

Erik Braun is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia and author of The Birth of Insight: Meditation, Modern Buddhism, and the Burmese Monk Ledi Sayadaw (2014). Conducted by Adam Liddle, a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Contemplative Sciences Center and the Associate Editor for the Journal of Contemplative Studies. JCS: What is contemplation? EB: Before our conversation started, I was thinking about the issue of contemplation as a term of art in Buddhist Studies. I realized that, while the term is very familiar, I don’t often encounter ..read more

We invite reviews of films in Contemplative Studies. Rigorous and insightful reviews are an integral part of JCS’s mission to inform and connect scholars and practitioners in the field of Contemplative Studies. Proposals are invited to review new films, as well as foundational works of filmmaking released in the last few years. A few possible titles for which we are looking for reviewers include: The Mountain Path. One Mind Productions, Edward Burger, 2021 Free: Duc in Altum. Bosco Films, Santos Blanco, 2023 Dark Red Forest. Autlook Films, Huaqing Jin, 2021 Zen for Nothing. Zeitgeist Films, W ..read more

Muhammad Faruque is the Inayat Malik Assistant Professor and a Taft Center Fellow at the University of Cincinnati and a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University. He is the author of Sculpting the Self: Islam, Selfhood, and Human Flourishing (2021). Conducted by Erin Burke, a doctoral candidate at the University of Virginia and a Research Assistant at the Journal of Contemplative Studies. JCS: What is contemplation?  MF: Contemplation for me is a cognitive, spiritual activity in which the mind, body, and spirit work in unison to transform the self. There are a number of terms to t ..read more

In April 2023, the Contemplative Sciences Center at the University of Virginia hosted its first Generative Contemplation Symposium in Charlottesville, Virginia. This gathering convened experts in Contemplative Studies – scholars, philosophers, cognitive neuroscientists, artists, and Buddhist practitioners – to present their research, reflections, and theories on contemplative practices. In four thematic sessions on attention, non-dual experience, dreams and illusions, and self-emergent visions, these leaders in the field discussed the effects of contemplation on human experience and possibilit ..read more

Anne C. Klein is a Professor in the Department of Religion at Rice University, co-founder of the Dawn Mountain Center for Tibetan Buddhism, and author of Being Human and a Buddha Too (2023). Conducted by Adam Liddle, a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Contemplative Sciences Center and the Associate Editor for the Journal of Contemplative Studies. JCS: What is contemplation? What do you mean when you talk about contemplation or the contemplative? How do you understand it? AK: Well, contemplation means a lot of things. It’s like the word “dance”—the twist, waltzing, ballet, moon walk ..read more

Post by Dr. Frances Garrett at the University of Toronto In December when my cousin Kristin died, I was living in a windswept cedar-shingled house perched on a stone foundation 3,500 miles away, near the cold and rocky beaches of Nova Scotia. Kristin and I grew up together, spending summers at the family cabin on the cold and rocky beaches of the Pacific Northwest, and she had been sick for a year when she died. I was at a weekend retreat at the 1440 Multiversity near Santa Cruz meeting with participants of the Flourishing Academic Network, when they found a tumor in her lungs. She called me ..read more

Martijn van Beek is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Aarhus University in Denmark. He specializes in ethnographic and phenomenological perspectives on meditation. Conducted by Erin Burke, a doctoral candidate at the University of Virginia and a Research Assistant at the Journal of Contemplative Studies. JCS: What is contemplation? MVB: In my BA course at Aarhus University on Contemplative Life in Context, in Theory and in Practice, my colleague from the philosophy department, Professor Thomas Schwarz Wentzer teaches a class in which he goes through the not ..read more

Martijn van Beek is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Aarhus University in Denmark. He specializes in ethnographic and phenomenological perspectives on meditation. Conducted by Erin Burke, a doctoral candidate at the University of Virginia and a Research Assistant at the Journal of Contemplative Studies. JCS: What is contemplation? MVB: In my BA course at Aarhus University on Contemplative Life in Context, in Theory and in Practice, my colleague from the philosophy department, Professor Thomas Schwarz Wentzer teaches a class in which he goes through the not ..read more