Press Releases

Frederick P. Lenz Foundation Awards Fellowship Grant to Naropa University
Fellows to Study American Buddhism

BOULDER, Colo. (November 14, 2007)— Recently awarded a three-year grant by The Frederick P. Lenz Foundation For American Buddhism to support visiting fellows and a distinguished speaker series, Naropa University proudly advances its position as a center for the study of contemplative spiritual traditions.

The fellowship program and associated lecture series will enable fellows with strong academic credentials to make use of the university’s resources while developing a program of study in American Buddhism. Simultaneously, Naropa students will benefit by meeting and learning from guest teachers and practitioners. The announcement was previewed while Naropa faculty and administrators attended a Lenz Foundation conference for grantees in early October.

The Frederick P. Lenz Foundation Residential Fellowship Program for Buddhist Studies and American Culture and Values will provide for three residential fellowships at Naropa University in each academic year beginning in September 2008 and continuing through 2010-2011. Scholars, artists, social activists and practitioners may apply for a one-semester stay at the university, during which time they will study with Naropa faculty and work on a project involving Buddhist thought and practice.  Fellows will be expected to implement their projects after returning to their home institutions or communities. Naropa will be accepting applications for the inaugural year through February 15, 2008. Application information is available at www.naropa.edu/cace.

In addition, the Lenz Foundation will fund a lecture series intended to attract speakers from a range of Buddhist lineages and fields of study. Naropa plans to invite distinguished scholars and practitioners who will expand the spiritual and meditative practice lineages currently represented on campus.

Drawing heavily upon the Buddhist heritage of its founder, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Naropa’s focus on contemplative teaching styles and practices makes it an ideal environment within which the visiting fellows can research Eastern spiritual traditions and apply these to pressing issues in American culture and society.

Vice President for Academic Affairs Stuart Sigman, a co-author of the grant proposal, says that the fellowship program and lecture series indicate the Lenz Foundation’s confidence in Naropa as a leader in contemplative education. “Last summer, the university hosted 14 faculty members from universities throughout the United States and Canada for a seminar on contemplative pedagogy, also funded by the Lenz Foundation. We received accolades from the participants for the care with which our own faculty is advancing a holistic approach to higher education teaching, and I’m pleased that we will be repeating the workshop in Summer 2008 as well as providing support for those wanting to explore the broad field of Buddhism more deeply through a semester-long residency beginning in Fall 2008.”

Accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, Naropa University is a private, nonprofit, nonsectarian liberal arts institution dedicated to advancing contemplative education.  This approach to learning integrates the best of Eastern and Western educational traditions, helping students know themselves more deeply and engage constructively with others. The university comprises a four-year undergraduate college and graduate programs in the arts, education, environmental leadership, psychology and religious studies.

The Frederick P. Lenz Foundation For American Buddhism, based in Los Angeles, is dedicated to promoting the benefits of Zen Buddhism, meditation, yoga and related Buddhist practices as a pathway to self-realization and the harmonious blending of the material and spiritual in contemporary American society. The Foundation encourages the study and practice of these disciplines so that Americans with a Western mind set may come to appreciate these ancient gifts of Eastern thought, and utilize them in a way that is relevant to American culture and values.