History
1991 - 92 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
2006
Academic
Our Contemplative Practice Fellowship program awarded fellowships in two areas, Contemplative Practice Fellowships and Contemplative Program Development Fellowships. We awarded a total of 8 fellowships for 2006.
We convened Contemplative Practice in Arts Education, our first academic disciplinary meeting, in Boulder, CO, February 9th-12th.
We co-sponsored a one-day symposium, Mindful Learners: Uses of Contemplative Practice in the Classroom, at the CUNY Graduate Center on April 7th.
The Academic Program hosted its second Summer Session on Contemplative Curriculum Development at Smith College from August 13th - 18th, 2006. The Center welcomed 30 college and university professors and 10 returning professors from across the United States and Canada. Presenters included Marilyn Nelson, Contemplative Practice Fellowship Recipient and Poet Laureate of Connecticut, who spoke on the use of contemplative practices in her pedagogy and writing process.
On Sept 19th we hosted Research on Contemplation and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The gathering was led by Arthur Zajonc and Mirabai Bush.
On September 30th we co-presented Creativity, Consciousness and the Academy: Bridging Inner and Outer Dimensions of Learning, Teaching, and Research, a conference at the University of Michigan School of Music.
Social Justice
On February 25th, The Social Justice Program hosted Prof. Faith Adiele, author of Meeting Faith: The Forest Journals of a Black Buddhist Nun. She shared how the mindfulness she obtained and fears she overcame deep in the forest of Thailand have continued to give her strength and compassion, tools that helped her work as a community activist and diversity trainer.
On April 2nd, Raúl Quiñones-Rosado, author of Toward an Integral Approach to Liberation and Transformation, led a discussion drawing on liberation psychology, integral theory, and thirty years of community work, anti-oppression organizing and spiritual practice. His presentation introduced an integral framework for liberation and transformation that seeks to transcend dichotomous, fragmented and reactive approaches to personal, community, and societal change.
From May 30th to June 2nd, mentors and emerging community leaders gathered at Menla Mountain Training and Conference Center, Phoenicia, NY, to explore personal and organizational sustainability at Transforming Organizing Culture through Contemplative Practice. Thirty-nine activists and organizers participated.
On July 14th, we hosted a one day retreat with Terri Nash: A Day for Activists to Reflect, Renew and Regenerate.
On August 19th, Ryūmon Gutiérrez Baldoquin led a one day retreat, Opening to the World: Transforming Anger into Compassionate Action, focusing on how to approach anger in ourselves when struggling for justice.
Transforming the Culture of Organizing Through Contemplative Practice: A Gathering for Emerging Leaders was held at Menla Mountain Center in Phoenicia, NY, from October 12th-15th.
Law
From April 20th to the 23rd, the Law Program hosted Effective Lawyering; A Retreat for Legal Professionals, welcoming 74 retreatants to the Spirit Rock Meditation Center. The principal teachers for the retreat were Norman Fischer, James Baraz, and Mary Mocine, who led discussions on racism and the elimination of bias, joy in the law, and working with anger. Charles Halpern, Chair of the Center's Board, and Richard Boswell, Professor at UC Hastings, offered supplementary presentations on communications and advocacy.
The Law Program led a meditation workshop at the annual Joint Judicial and Management Conference held by the Superior Court and Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia on May 10th-12th. Half of the 100 conference participants, both judges and court personnel, attended. Center Chair Charlie Halpern and Gina Sharpe, an attorney and teacher at New York Insight, taught mindfulness practice and qi gong and introduced the work of the Law Program.
On November 14th, the Boalt Hall (UC Berkeley School of Law) Meditation Group welcomed Norman Fischer, a Contemplative Mind Board Member, as its special guest. Norman guided approximately 30 participants in a half hour meditation and offered comments about the cultivation of the inner life and its importance to one's training as a lawyer. Norman then hosted a discussion period, where many questions focused on the way to be an effective lawyer while maintaining an open heart.
On December 1st, Charlie Halpern and Douglas Chermak, Law Program Director, led a meditation training for lawyers and advocates from Bay Area Legal Aid, an organization of legal service providers in the San Francisco Bay Area. This was the first organization-specific training offered by the Law Program.
Other Work
From March 3rd - 29th, the A.P.E. Gallery in Northampton hosted an exhibition of the work of seven artists who share connections to the Center. The show's focus was the contemplative practice of visual arts, seen through varied interests and mediums.
2005
The new Strategic Plan is implemented for 2005-07. Objectives: Expand the Academic, Law, and SJ programs; build networks and communicate our successes.
Academic
Columbia University hosts our “Conference on Contemplative Practices and Education” at Teachers College. Jon Kabat-Zinn delivers the keynote address, Education as if It Really Mattered: The Unification of Knowing through Contemplative. Arthur Zajonc gives a talk on contemplative ways of knowing, An Epistemology of Love.
Five Contemplative Practice Fellowships are awarded to support individual or collaborative research leading to the development of contemplative courses and teaching materials.
The first Contemplative Program Development Fellowships are awarded to three groups of faculty and administrators who are developing curricular initiatives in contemplative studies of both a formal and informal character.
The first residential Summer Session on Contemplative Curriculum Development is held from August 19-24, 2005 at Smith College. The summer session prepared participants to return to their classrooms with a deeper understanding of the practice of contemplative teaching. 32 professors from colleges and universities throughout the US and Canada attended the week-long session at Smith College.
In December, we held a regional meeting on Contemplative Practice in Higher Education at Mary Washington College for Fellows and others engaged in this work.
Law
The Bay Area Law Working Group meets monthly. The group explores issues such as living as a lawyer, operation of the legal system, and the law itself.
For the third year, Charlie Halpern and Law Program Coordinator Doug Chermak co-lead the Boalt Hall Meditation Group.
The spring Law Retreat is held at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Woodacre, CA, from April 14-17, 2005. Discussions include lawyering in the context of right livelihood, working with conflict, and working with judgments.
The Center held an Introduction to Meditation for Legal Professionals at the Wheelwright Center at Green Gulch Farm.
Social Justice
2005 was an active year for our new Social Justice Program, under the direction of Rose Sackey-Milligan. In addition, the Youth Program, directed by Dan Edwards, merged with the Social Justice Program in order to better share resources and event co-ordination.
In February, the SJP held a kick-off event at The Talking Drum Café, Holyoke, MA, where members of the local social justice community were introduced to the offerings of the Social Justice Program. Rose Sackey-Milligan also led a workshop at the Environmental Leadership Program’s Fellowship Orientation Retreat.
In March, the Center and SJP were represented at a 3-day national planning meeting at Howard University titled “Quality Public School Education as a Civil Right” for teachers, researchers, public officials, educational activists, school administrators, and others. SJP also began working with GreenFaith, an interfaith environmental organization, over a two year period to support to establish a contemplative organization.
In April, Youth Program Director Dan Edwards led a workshop at the New England Organization of Human Services Education conference. Rose Sackey-Milligan also led a workshop for 75 participants at the Northeast Clean Water Action conference; joined Boston-area activists and organizers at “Breadth and Vision”, a spiritual activism and meditation gathering sponsored by Social Justice Education, Jamaica Plain, MA; and helped to plan “Dismantling Racism in the Valley”, a summit at Hampshire College which brought together community organizations, high school and college activists and organizers, and faculty and staff of the Five Colleges.
Earlier in 2005, the Center received an invitation from Omega Institute for Holistic Studies to participate in their “Service Week”. During this week, selected non-profit organizations could use their facility, including lodging, classrooms, and other amenities for the week free of charge. In May, we extended invitations to Omega to a diverse group of activists and organizers representing 19 organizations, who were able to spend 75% of their time at the retreat in an unstructured way, to rest, relax, and rejuvenate. The rest of the time was used for round-table discussions on the challenges and successes of maintaining a consistency of practice, and how SJP can continue to support the integration of contemplative practices with social action at both the individual and organizational level.
In June, the Center helped steward a meeting hosted by stone circles on spiritual activism, which included 50 individuals in the field and also allies from other sectors (media, funding, academia, etc.) The purpose of the meeting in part was to articulate and document spiritual/contemplative approaches and practices in the social justice movement. Rose Sackey-Milligan, Mirabai Bush, and Board members Rachel Bagby and Rachel Cowan attended the gathering, and were energized to be in a space where the accomplishments of the movement thus far and the momentum toward future activism were so evident.
In July, the SJP was also led two workshops for the Environmental Leadership Program. We also co-sponsored “Awakening to Freedom: an Honest Conversation on Race and Privilege” with Hilda Ryumon Gutiérrez Baldoquin, a Soto zen priest, who facilitated two contemplative retreats, one for people of color and another for a multicultural group of social justice activists and community residents in Holyoke, MA.
On September 22-25, an intergenerational multi-ethnic gathering of 6 elder mentors and 34 northeast emerging community leaders, serving as activists and organizers, gathered at the Garrison Institute in Garrison, NY for “Transforming the Culture of Organizing: A Gathering for Emerging Leaders,” to explore the place of faith and the contemplative in past and current movements for social change. At the gathering’s end, three regional affinity groups were formed by participants in New York, Boston, and Western MA.
Starting in October, we provided 20 staff members of the New England Learning Center for Women in Transition with monthly hour-long workshops.
In November, SJP was invited to attend a meeting (Building Up a Dynamic Sisterhood) in Washington, DC convened by the SpiritHouse Project a national organization that uses research, action, the arts, education, spiritual reflection, and analysis to bring diverse peoples together to build a just and non-violent movement that propels us toward a beloved community. We also held two one-day Social Justice Program regional intensive retreats, for participants from Western Massachusetts and Boston.
In December, the SJP held a one-day workshop at Refugio, Brooklyn, to address how to use mindfulness practice to sustain activism in the face of suffering and burnout. Participants explored cultivating imagination, a calmer disposition, intuition, creativity, values, ethics, compassion, and positive well-being. SJP also hosted John O’Neal and Junebug Productions for an experiential workshop in story circles for activists and organizers at the Center for Contemplative Mind. Finally, we conducted a presentation to a class titled Leadership in Action with Spirit at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA.
Website
In June, we uploaded a new, totally redesigned website. We also created blogs for participants in the Garrison Social Justice Mentoring Retreat and the Summer Session for Contemplative Curriculum Development, to help them stay in touch with each other after the events were over.
Other Work
On June 10-12, Executive Director Mirabai Bush led a weekend workshop at Zen Mountain Monastery titled “Working the Edge: Practicing Right Livelihood.” This retreat explored the ethical dilemmas of our work lives and helped participants delve into the practical challenges and barriers encountered at work, and to investigate how work impacts the whole world.
On July 13-17, Mirabai co-led the conference/retreat, “Practice of Engaged Meditation: Waking Up In the World” at Hollyhock, Cortes Island, British Columbia. Tami Simon, Noah Levine, Charles Halpern, and Susan Halpern were the other co-leaders of the retreat, which was presented by the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, Sounds True, and the Hollyhock Leadership Institute.
On August 4th, Center staff introduced contemplative practices to the Northeast Inclusion and Diversity Steering Committee of National Grid (locally known as Mass Electric). They were celebrating the Committee’s one-year anniversary, and asked The Center to help them as they reflected on their year of service and the challenges ahead. The group of twenty-four was diverse, open, and thoughtful. Dan Edwards (Youth Program Director) and Mirabai Bush led them in mindfulness, deep listening, and contemplative compassion practice.
On August 15th, the Center brought Joseph Goldstein to Smith College to deliver a talk on meditation practice. The lecture was part of the Summer Session on Contemplative Curriculum development.
2004
Academic Program
Arthur Zajonc, Professor of Physics at Amherst College, became the Director of the Academic Program.
The Fetzer Institute funded two years of Contemplative Practice fellowships; we are now offering two types of fellowships for the new season: 1) Contemplative Practice Fellowships to support individual or collaborative research leading to the development of courses and teaching materials that integrate contemplative practice into college courses, and 2) Contemplative Studies Program Development Fellowships, offered as support to groups of faculty and administrators who are developing curricular initiatives in contemplative studies.
In May, at the invitation of Naropa University in Boulder, CO, the Center co-sponsored a meeting of Contemplative Practice Fellows and other professors from across the region. The meeting focused on the theme of exploring contemplation in education.
A meeting of the Contemplative Practice Fellows was held at Smith College, Northampton, MA, in November.
Social Justice Program
Rose Sackey-Milligan was hired as the new Director of the Social Justice Program.
Through a generous grant from the Nathan Cummings Foundation, we held a Social Justice Mentoring Retreat at the Garrison Institute in New York in September. We connected younger social justice workers with more experienced mentors in a cross-generational exchange on how to use contemplative practice as a tool to sustain ourselves and our social change work.
Contemplative Net Project
In 2004, the Contemplative Net Project ended its phase of information collecting and Maia Duerr, CNet Director, wrote A Powerful Silence: Meditation and Other Contemplative Practices in American Life and Work , which was the culmination of CNet's work over the past three years.
Law Program
Doug Chermak was hired as the coordinator for the Law Program.
The Bay Area Working Group, which began in 2004, continued to hold monthly meetings. The Working Group held a retreat in April 2004 at the Mount Madonna Center in Watsonville, CA.
The fall Law Retreat took place at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA, in November.
Philanthropy Program
In January, the Center held a retreat entitled, "Philanthropy and the Inner LIfe: Contemplative Resources for Difficult Times", at Pocantico Conference Center in Tarrytown, NY.
Youth Program
In 2004 the Center developed the MPower component of the Youth Program. MPower was created to work with youth workers, training them in how to use contemplative practices to help adolescents build skills in four areas: awareness, equanimity, empathy, and foresight (predicting the consequences of behavior and learning to make responsible behavioral choices). The MPower program consisted of bi-weekly meetings and on-site trainings for individuals from 12 youth-focused organizations in the Springfield, MA, area. The trainings were conducted by Dan Edwards and Akim Ndlovu.
Website
John Berry became our new Website Coordinator.
We developed a new website for the Academic Program, featuring syllabi of Contemplative Practice Fellowship recipients and a bibliography of books that have been helpful to their teaching and course development.
Other Work
In February, Mirabai Bush and Maia Duerr participated in a symposium titled "Contemplation and Community" for college and university chaplains at the Garrison Institute in New York.
2003
Academic Program
The Center held a Regional Symposium on Contemplative Practice and Higher Education at Amherst College, Amherst, MA, in May. Over 120 people attended, including several of our Contemplative Practice Fellows, and we received positive feedback and requests for similar events in the future.
In June we convened the fifth Contemplative Practice Fellows meeting at Seasons Retreat Center for the most recent "class" of fellows. The meeting provided an opportunity for fellows and committee members to learn from each other's experiences, to practice together, to build community, and to look ahead at the future of our work in higher education.
Law Program
The Law Program held its first retreat on the West Coast, at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA.
The Law Program began bringing together the Bay Area Working Group, a monthly meeting of a diverse group of meditators with various connections to the law, including law professors, a retired judge, a practicing judge, a mediator, a law student, practicing attorneys, and others. The group is led by meditation teacher Zoketsu Norman Fischer.
The Center became an official organizational sponsor of a new initiative within the Harvard Program on Negotiation, the Harvard Negotiation Insight Initiative (HNII). This initiative, led by Harvard Law graduate Erica Fox, is intended to "explore the interface of contemporary negotiation theory and practice with alternative frameworks including some drawn from perennial wisdom traditions." Mirabai served as part of the working group.
Business
In April, our Executive Director Mirabai Bush and visiting teacher Steve Smith led a mindfulness retreat for executives of Hoffman-LaRoche at Medway, South Carolina.
On May 7, the Center co-hosted a half-day seminar at Stanford Business School. Presenters included Jack Kornfield, Charles Halpern, Bob Shapiro, and Rachel Remen.
In the summer, we worked with Healing the Heart of Diversity to integrate contemplative practices and diversity training at a division of the Bureau of Consumer Protection of the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, D.C.
Mirabai also advised Jeremy Hunter, of the Peter F. Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University on developing a course for business executives.
Contemplative Net Project / Social Justice Program
In January, the Center held a gathering for social justice workers, activists and organizers at Essex Conference Center, Massachusetts: "Inviting the World to Transform: Building a Community of Change.".
In February, we completed work on a Survey of Transformative and Spiritual Dimension of Higher Education, a project of the Fetzer Institute. The report served as the basis for Fetzer to discuss strategies to support transformative, spiritual, and contemplative dimensions of higher education.
Also in February, CNet Director Maia Duerr offered a workshop at the Worcester Peaceworks Conference.
In March, we held a retreat and digital storytelling workshop for CNet research participants at the Fetzer Institute in Kalamazoo, MI. The goal of this retreat was to help participants find a medium to express the power of their work to the general public and also to share these skills with others in their programs
Maia's article on "The Contemplative Organization" appeared in the October 2003 issue of the Journal of Organizational Change Management.
During the year, the CNet team conducted three on-site case studies of organizations to help us create a more in-depth look at "contemplative organizations."
Work began on the Contemplative Toolbox, a collection of resources and information for bringing contemplative practices into organizations.
Youth Program
In February, Program Director Dan Edwards co-developed Hip Hop Hope, a music project at Power of Hope's camp in Bellingham, WA. Dan also served as co-director of Power of Hope's youth empowerment camps in June and August.
In April, the Youth Program collaborated with Gandara Mental Health Center to provide a series of after-school programs for kids in Springfield, MA.
We also worked with the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA, to develop a mentoring program for young people ages 19-25.
In September, Dan Edwards spoke at "Nurturing the Spirit of Youth," a conference at Kripalu Center in Lenox, MA.
Other Work
The Center helped to conduct a winter session on leadership for students at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts.
Mirabai delivered the keynote address at "Works of Love: Scientific and Religious Perspectives on Altruism," sponsored by the Metanexus Institute at Villanova College, Philadelphia, PA.
We began a quarterly e-newsletter, full of news, events, and resources, beginning with a summer 2003 issue and continuing to the present.
2002
Academic Program
The Academic Selection Committee met in April to select the 2002-2003 Contemplative Practice Fellowship recipients. There are currently 89 fellowships to 100 professors in 73 colleges and universities.
The Academic Committee met for two days in New York City, 14-16 February 2002, to build a plan for action beyond the fellowships. David Scott, former Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, joined the committee.
During the 2001-2002 academic year, the Center also participated in a number of research projects and initiatives addressing the role of contemplative practice and spirituality in education. Our participation in these activities is broadening our understanding of the field and informing our planning. The Center continued to serve as a special advisor to the research project originally begun by Howard Gardner, Harvard; Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, Claremont; and Bill Damon, Stanford.
Law Program
A community of 40 lawyers, law professors, and judges from the Boston area came together in March 2002 for a Contemplative Law Weekend at Trinity Conference Center in Connecticut. The gathering was a first-of-its-kind event focusing on a specific urban area and wove together meditation, yoga instruction, practice, and contemplative writing with discussions about the integration of contemplative practices with law. The weekend fostered many close connections and began a conversation about how to develop and support the growing contemplative law community in Boston.
The circle continued to widen in May at the Fetzer Institute when the Law Program hosted "Law and Contemplative Awareness: An Exploratory Gathering" for 30 lawyers, judges, mediators and other innovators. The connections between the contemplative and spiritual dimensions and law and social justice were explored in various forms, and the group shared a range of practices together as a way of deepening our experience of the inner life. David Link, President of Fetzer's new International Centre for Healing and the Law, attended part of the event and generated much enthusiasm for future collaborations with the Law Program and with individuals at the gathering.
A March symposium co-hosted by the Harvard Negotiation Law Review and the Center featured the publication of Contemplative Practice Fellow and past law retreat participant Len Riskin's important piece on the connections between mindfulness meditation and Alternative Dispute Resolution. The symposium brought national scholars on the subject of law and contemplation together with the Harvard community interested in both negotiation and contemplation.
The Contemplative Net Project
The Contemplative Net Project identified and organized a picture of what exists in the emerging field of contemplative practice integrated into secular society. The first stage of the project explored the relationship between contemplative practice and social change. This mapping is facilitating the Center's role as a resource for those already doing this important work as well as those considering such work.
Youth Program
The Center collaborated with the Youth Action Coalition in Amherst, MA to provide mindfulness workshops for their May 10th youth conference titled "GET UP GET DOWN." The Center was invited to set a tone of contemplative awareness throughout the conference. Meditation and Creative Movement workshops were offered by Rich Fournier, Chaplain at Mt. Holyoke College, and Akim Ndlovu and ChiKako Iwahoru, contemplative performance artists from New York. Dan Edwards, youth program director for the Center, co-facilitated a Mindful Rap workshop with Akim.
Dan has been meeting with Springfield Community Outreach Partnership Center and the Holyoke Youth Alliance. Dan has also maintained an active relationship with Power of Hope, where he continues to be a counselor/facilitator, working with them to design an East Coast program.
Other Work
The Center welcomed David Brown to the Board of Directors.
The Center worked with the Mind and Life Institute project to develop a curriculum based on meditation and emotional intelligence for teaching ethics in secular educational settings. Mirabai has attended planning meetings with advisory team members in Massachusetts.
2001
Academic Program
Contemplative Practice Fellowships were awarded to 6 professors from American colleges and universities. Research is underway to document their successes.
Law Program
Mirabai Bush and Sunanda Markus presented a one-day workshop at Yale Law School on contemplative practices and law. The October Law Retreat brought 45 law students, lawyers, and law professors together in Western Massachusetts to do sitting and walking meditation, yoga, and engage in facilitated conversations about the integration of contemplative practices and a life in the law. Following closely on the heels of September 11th, the retreat provided an opportunity to re-evaluate professional directions and to connect more deeply with peers.
Business Program
A retreat for Pharmacia and Monsanto employees was held at La Salle Retreat Center in St. Louis in April.
Philanthropy Program
The Working Group on Philanthropy and the Inner Life held their final meeting in June and agreed then to give their remaining funds to the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society for the Center's continued work in Philanthropy. The Center produced a report written by Jenny Ladd on the final gathering sponsored by Philanthropy and the Inner Life in Hawaii, December 2000.
The Contemplative Net Project
The Project received support from the Ford Foundation and the Fetzer Institute for its initial year of research. A team of staff and consultants conducted 40 initial interviews and began coding the findings.
Environmental Activism Program
Mirabai lead a meditation for the Social Ventures Network at Hollyhock.
Other Work
Mirabai Bush participated in a panel discussion at Tricycle Magazine's annual conference. She also participated in the Mind - Life Institute's planning meetings for a curriculum for secular ethics being supported by H.H. the Dalai Lama.
The Center created its Advisory Council, comprised of 23 esteemed leaders from many fields.
2000
Academic Program
In the fourth year of Academic Fellowships, the center awards 21 fellowships to academics from a broad range of disciplines.
The Center continues its support of the "Humane Creativity and the Contemplative Mind" project at Harvard, Stanford and Claremont. Members of the board meet with researchers from the project. The Center provides the group with 35 names of contemplative practitioners for interview/research purposes.
Staff of the Center, some Academic Fellows and Yale Law Retreat participants attend and lead panels on contemplative topics at a conference entitled "Going Public with Spirituality in Work and Higher Education" held at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
The Center Continues to explore and develop collaborations toward a Five College Consortium, Mirabai presents the work of the Center to professors and Chancellor David Scott. Mirabai serves as an advisor to Scott's staff in preparing the proposal for funds for the Contemplative Chair. Jon Kabat-Zinn gives the first lecture; Daniel Goleman gives the second.
Environmental Activism Program
Steve Smith represents the Center at the annual Green Group meeting. He leads meditation and mindfulness practices.
The center provides meditation for the Environmental Leadership Program meeting.
Contemplative Law Program
Two Yale Law Retreats are held:
At Whispering Pines Conference Center, in addition to 20 Yale students and faculty, 7 students and 1 faculty member from Columbia Law School also attend. Meditations and talks are led by Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg and Grove Burnett.
At Trinity Conference Center, meditations and talks are led by Joseph Goldstein and Grove Burnett. Steven Schwartz and Jack Himmelstein assume leadership roles, as do other members of the Law Steering Committee.
Philanthropy Program
The Philanthropy and the Inner Life Retreat is held at Kona Village Resort, Hawaii.
At the request of the Independent Sector, the Center helps plan a session on "Leadership with Spirit" at the Alliance of Nonprofit Management Association in Boston. The Center arranges for Lama Surya Das to lead meditations and to participate in open dialog with participants.
Youth Program
The Center provides contemplative counselors for Project Avery - a summer camp for children of incarcerated parents in California.
1999
Academic Program
In the third year of Academic Fellowships, the Center awarded 21 fellowships to academics from a broad range of disciplines.
The Center supports Frederick Buell to write "The Contemplative Practice Fellowship Program" a detailed report of the Academic Fellowships including the recipients, projects and reflections.
Mirabai Bush and Joseph Goldstein speak before 100 attendees at a conference, "Mindfulness and Education" at the University of Massachusetts.
Business Program
The Mindfulness Program at Monsanto continues, and the Monsanto staff writes its own mission statement, and takes an active role in organizing the group to sustain weekly sittings, one-day retreats, and three-day residential retreats.
Mirabai and Steve Smith give a talk on "Mindfulness and Business" and lead meditation at Monsanto in Chicago and at Searle in Skokie.
Environmental Program
For the third year, the Green Group holds a contemplative retreat. Steve Smith represents The Center by teaching meditation and helping to facilitate a contemplative dimension to the groups' discussion.
Contemplative Law Program
A second Yale Law retreat is held at Pocantico and includes lawyers from Hale and Dorr. Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein lead meditations.
A talk on meditation by Joseph Goldstein is held at Yale Law School.
The Center participates in a panel discussion on "Spirituality and the Law" at the meeting of the American Bar Association.
Philanthropy
The Center becomes a founding member of the Working Group on Philanthropy and the Inner Life.
Prison Program
"Contemplative Practice in Prison and Beyond" initiated by the Prisons Working Group Project at Upaya, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Forms the National Network of Contemplative Prison Programs.
Youth Program
The Center supports the work and participation of several Youth Leaders who contribute contemplative practices to the following gatherings and conferences:
- "Whidbey: Critical Times/Creative Choices" at Whidbey Island Institute
- "Power of Hope" at Whidbey Island Institute
- "Questers: The IONS Discovery Program for Young Adults" at IONS
- "Theosophical Conference on Youth and the Environment"
- Global Kids' "Peaceful Images Project."
Other Programs, Conferences, and Publications
"Humane Creativity and the Contemplative Mind" - The Center hosts a retreat for Howard Gardner, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and others.
"Bill Moyers Series: Living with Death" - Mirabai facilitates the discussion with Judith Moyers at Nathan Cummings.
"Wisdom of the Heart" - Mirabai facilitates a meeting of cross-cultural spiritual practices for opening the heart at Fetzer.
"Practicing Wisdom: Our Common Work" - Mirabai gives a workshop on Contemplative Mind practices and social change at IONS.
"SVN at Mohonk: Creating Sustainable Communities for the New Millennium" - The Center leads opening meditation and workshop entitled "Spiritual Opportunities and Challenges in Times of Significant Change".
"Fetzer Staff Retreat" - Mirabai plans and facilitates.
"Inspired Leadership Retreat" - the Center organizes and leads a retreat with Steve Smith to deepen the connections among participants.
Mirabai and Grove Burnett of Vallecitos lead talks and meditations at a retreat for biotech scientists in Wisconsin.
1998
Academic Program
The Center receives 127 Fellowship applications and selects 16 Fellows and an alternate list of 12 for its second year of awards.
Business Program
Monsanto plans to meets again with the Center for a contemplative retreat in April.
Environment Program
Jointly with NRPE and Nathan Cummings Environment Program, the Center holds an environmental retreat at Sundance, Utah.
Contemplative Law Program
The Center continues its collaboration with Yale Law School in designing a Contemplative Law Program. The program is related to an initiative concerning 'Healing and the Law', being developed by Fetzer.
As planned in 1997, the Center holds a retreat for 40 students and faculty members. Joseph Goldstein of the Insight Meditation Society leads the retreat.
Philanthropy
The Center holds a second gathering on Philanthropy and Spirituality in Sedona, AZ.
The Center holds two additional contemplative philanthropy meetings: A Gathering on Spirituality and Philanthropy is held in Berkeley and is sponsored by the Center, Tides Foundation, Sister Fund, Resourceful Women, Fetzer Institute and Nathan Cummings Foundation, and The Independent Sector is held in Denver, and led by Charlie Halpern and Steve Smith.
Media
The Center co-sponsors a journalism retreat with Fetzer Institute, a "a three-day gathering of leading figures in the mainstream and alternative print and broadcast media to experience a number of forms of contemplative practice, learn about and discuss the emerging story of spirituality In America, and share stories, questions and concerns about their inner journey relates to their outer work in the media."
1997 - The Center is Formed
In a meeting of the Executive Committee at the Nathan Cummings Foundation in New York City, it is decided that The Project on Contemplative Mind will become a non-profit entity with a tax-exempt 501(c)3 status and board of directors.
The Working Group holds an annual meeting at Airlie House in Virginia. The group welcomes new members and continues to refine its contemplative way of meeting. Discusses rich diversity of its membership, deepens engagement with its core issues, and processes for clear, critical discussion.
The mission statement is written: The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society works to integrate contemplative awareness into contemporary life in order to help create a more just, compassionate, and reflective society.
Contemplative Practice Fellowships
Contemplative Practice Fellowships are funded through the Nathan Cummings Foundation and Fetzer Institute and administered by American Council of Learned Societies and The Center. 136 college and university faculty from around the U.S. apply for 16 Contemplative Fellowships of up to $20,000 each to "create curriculum in diverse disciplines that encompass and encourage the study of contemplation."
Business Retreat
A second Monsanto retreat, "Deep Thinking Skills" is held for 35 executives and managers at Wilderness Lodge in Missouri. Steve Smith, Marcia Rose and Mirabai Bush lead the retreat.
Environmental Retreat
A retreat is held for 16 members of the Green Group at Fetzer Institute. The Green Group consists of 23 CEOs of the major national environmental organizations. The Center collaborated with the National Religious Partnership for the Environment.
Contemplative Law
The Center holds the first meeting of the Contemplative Law Steering Committee, which designs a retreat for first year law students and law faculty at Yale Law School to take place in October 1998. The retreat for 40 individuals will explore the interface of contemplation and law as it relates to the themes of:
- Listening
- Winning and non-winning
- Action and non-action
- Separation and connection
Read the report on the 1997 Law Retreat.
Philanthropy
60 philanthropists gather in Santa Fe for a contemplative meeting to explore the connection between philanthropy and spirituality. The meeting is sponsored by The Center, Tides Foundation, the Sister Fund, Resourceful Women, Fetzer Institute and Nathan Cummings Foundation. The Center provides the facilitation and a meditation leader, Steven Smith, and produces a report on the meeting.
Youth Program
Mirabai and members of a youth organization from Springfield, as well as George Mumford and many other friends of The Center, participate in the Tibet House conference, "Peacemaking: The Power of Nonviolence" led by Nobel Peace laureates, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Rigoberta Menchu, and José Ramos-Horta.
1996
The Working Group meets at Upaya Retreat Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
The Group identifies the following priorities:
- Philanthropy and spirituality - through supporting ongoing dialogues
- Academic Fellowships - through fellowships administered by the ACLS
- Youth Program - through participation in "Peacemaking: The Art of Nonviolence"
- Business Retreats - through collaboration with Monsanto
- Environmental Program - through a retreat for the Green Group
Mirabai turns her full time efforts to The Project on Contemplative Mind and passes her work in Guatemala to others at SEVA.
"Deep Thinking Skills", a retreat for 15 top Monsanto executives, is held at Fetzer Institute.
The Project on Contemplative Mind participates in a series of focus groups conducted by John Doble Research to explore whether ordinary Americans are engaging in contemplative practice, and if so, which ones, and what language used to express the activity.
ACLS President Stan Katz agrees to partner with the Center to create Contemplative Practice Fellowships.
1995
Charlie Halpern requests that Mirabai Bush, Project Director of SEVA Foundation, organize and facilitate the next meeting of the Working Group. The meeting is held at Fetzer Institute in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Mirabai's facilitation of mindfulness activities focuses the group's process and clarifies its intentions to move from exploratory conversation to concrete plans of action.
The Executive Director of Fetzer Institute and the President of Nathan Cummings Foundation, Rob Lehman and Charlie Halpern respectively, agree to sponsor The Project on Contemplative Mind in Society under the administration of the SEVA Foundation. Mirabai prepares a detailed and illustrated report entitled "the Meeting of the Working Group."
The Group decides potential areas of exploration and activity are:
Education: Plan a first-ever conference on the relation of contemplation to a variety of fields; a journal, curriculum development, campus meditation centers.
Environment: Continue retreats combining practice and discussion of activist leaders.
Death and Dying: Innovate programs of contemplative education and support for the dying, their caretakers and families.
Media: Create electronic and print media that explores the way contemplative perspectives bring meaning into aspects of everyday life.
Charlie Halpern visits Bob Shapiro, CEO of Monsanto, and initiates a challenging phase of the project's work: to situate contemplative practice within a for-profit corporate context - especially within a corporation mired in public, environmental controversy.
Founding white papers were written by Steven Rockefeller, Bob Thurman, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Daniel Goleman, and Brian Stock.
1994
The Working Group meets at Pocantico, New York, to discuss the role of meditative practice in the fields of health, media and communications.
The intention is "not to isolate meditation, but to reflect on the contemplative traditions as powerful techniques that have potential for beneficial change in American society."
1993
The Working Group on Contemplative Mind forms on the occasion of a meeting entitled "The Role of Meditative Activities: The Self, Consciousness and Social Transformation," initiated by Charlie Halpern of the Nathan Cummings Foundation.
Mirabai Bush prepares an evaluation of the two retreats held in 1991 (above), entitled "Nourishing the Roots of Social Activism and Reclaiming our Common Strength for the Common Good" for the Nathan Cummings Foundation and the New World Foundation. Charlie Halpern contributes the foreword.
1991-1992
In 1991, the formation of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society was precepitated by two key retreats:
- "Compassionate Awareness and Social Action", Sharon, Massachusetts. The retreat was sponsored by SEVA Foundation, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and the Insight Meditation Society, and led by Ram Dass, Joseph Goldstein, and Sharon Salzberg.
- "A Retreat for Environmentalists", Malibu, California. The retreat was sponsored by the Natural Resource Defense Council, the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, the Ojai Foundation, and the Nathan Cummings Foundation, and led by Thich Nhat Hanh.
This time was also marked by a growing interest in the philanthropic community of the significance of dharma practice and social change.