Introducing Prof. Daniel Barbezat as our new Executive Director

It is with great pleasure that we announce that the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society's Board of Trustees has formally confirmed the selection of Professor Daniel Barbezat of Amherst College as the new Executive Director of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society.

Professor Barbezat succeeds Arthur Zajonc, a professor of physics at Amherst College. Arthur directed the Center's Academic Program beginning in 2004 and served as Executive Director of the Center over the past two years. He has recently been appointed as the President of the Mind & Life Institute. We are delighted for Arthur in his new role and grateful that he will remain on our board of directors. Mirabai Bush, the Center's founding Director, will continue in her role as Associate Director.

Learn more about Dan and his new role here at the Center.

The Tree of Contemplative Practices

You may be familiar with meditation, prayer, and yoga, but what about lectio divina, tonglen, and contemplative art? The Tree illustrates the similarities and common roots of a variety of contemplative practices.

Recently Published

• Contemplation Nation: How Ancient Practices Are Changing the Way We Live Papers from The State of Contemplative Practice in America, a conference at the Fetzer Institute, June 2010; edited by Mirabai Bush. Over 400 pages of information on the applications of contemplative methods by secular, religious and spiritual organizations and professional sectors.

   

  "Mindfulness in Higher Education"
  by Mirabai Bush, Contemporary Buddhism, Vol. 12, 2011, issue 1, pp 183-197
  This paper explores the introduction of mindfulness into courses in higher education.Some of these courses are taught by Buddhist scholars; others are taught by scholars within other disciplines who themselves have a meditation practice.Those scholars included here represent a much larger number in diverse settings, including state universities, liberal arts colleges, Ivy League institutions, and historically black colleges.They teach in almost every discipline, including architecture, poetry, chemistry, economics, and law. The paper also places this movement into a short history of contemplative education and raises questions about its future impact on the academy. Read more.

News

• Arthur Zajonc, Director of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society and Professor of Physics at Amherst College, has co-authored The Heart of Higher Education: A Call to Renewal with Parker J. Palmer and Megan Scribner.
  
  Listen to Arthur on the WPR radio show "Science and the Search for Meaning," originally aired on December 19, 2010. Earlier in the year, Arthur was featured on Speaking of Faith; listen to the episode, rebroadcast November 13, 2011, here: Holding Life Consciously. The Speaking of Faith website also featured Arthur's Bell Sound Meditation practice.

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  Research on the Effects of Mindfulness, Meditation,
  and Other Contemplative Practices

  
  Looking for websites, books, and articles on studies of contemplative practice?
  Visit our page of research resources.
  

• Short Meditations for Work or Anywhere

  Download these guided meditations to your mp3 player or listen online. To listen, simply click on a practice and wait for it to load. To download, right-click (Mac users, CTRL-click) and select "save link as" or "save target as."

   

  Diana Winston Director of the Mindfulness Center, UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center

  Breathing Meditation (5 mins)

  Loving-Kindness Meditation (10 mins)

  Breath, Sound & Body Meditation (12 mins)

  Listen to more meditations by Diana at the MARC-UCLA website

  Mirabai Bush Founding Director, The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society

  Bare Attention Meditation (5 mins)

  Loving-Kindness Meditation (10 mins)

  Breath and Sound Meditation (10 mins)

  Arthur Zajonc Director, The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society

  Introduction to the 4-Part Bell Sound Practice (5 mins)

  The 4-Part Bell Sound Practice (10 mins)

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