Most who know of Naropa University are likely familiar with its extraordinary history, including its role as a key origin point of the broader mindfulness movement as we know it today. This view rightfully emphasizes Naropa’s momentous past, but what is sometimes less widely appreciated is the many ways in which Naropa continues to contribute to the burgeoning mindfulness movement throughout society— significantly shaping its present and future too. There are many routes through which this is occurring, from contemplative education to mindfulness-based psychology to mutually enriching blends of social justice and contemplative practice.
As pivotal as all these different routes of Naropa’s influence are, there’s no denying that scientific research and thinking has played an outsized role in the modern mindfulness movement. Studies on meditation, yoga, and other contemplative practices have grown not only the reach of contemplative ideas and training throughout society, but also their accessibility and applied relevance to diverse areas such as mental health treatment, workplace wellness, and social justice activism. Bearing this in mind, I’m thrilled to highlight some of the latest contributions from our community to contemplative science—the field of research dedicated to investigating contemplative qualities and practices.
If you could peer into the minds and brains of contemplative scientists today, you might be surprised by the questions and ideas buzzing around inside them. The topics, themes, and patterns that are emerging are not always obvious from a distance, but they end up defining the cutting-edge of research and application for contemplative practices and experience. Part of what may be surprising is that, although these reflections appear to be primarily about the present and future, answering them in any satisfying way commonly involves looking backwards in time.
Since the earliest days of contemplative science, long before I started contributing to the field, insights from ancient wisdom traditions have been significantly informing investigations on mindfulness and related practices. In fact, these influences are deliberate and direct, primarily involving the contributions of Buddhist scholars, practitioners, and teachers whose training is not scientific, despite the aims of contemplative science being clearly secular. Given this, I sometimes compare the field of contemplative science to one giant, collaborative translation project—one already encompassing an abundance of ideas, with countless more still waiting to be bridged and explored.
For instance, wisdom and compassion are traditionally represented by two wings of a bird in the teachings of Mahayana Buddhism. Without compassion, it’s said that wisdom becomes cold and cerebral—without wisdom, compassion can be overly sentimental or otherwise ineffective. Only when joined together can the bird fly. The two wings of wisdom and compassion give rise to bodhicitta, or awakened heart-mind, an emergent quality of being that allows one to work sustainably toward the thorough alleviation of suffering within oneself, others, and the world.
Interestingly, this metaphor is not only instructive for contemplative practitioners. It also provides a looking glass for reflecting on the past, present, and future of contemplative science and Naropa’s role in it. For example, even though scientific attention on mindfulness continues to grow, many contemplative scientists, including me, have pivoted our primary focus from studying mindfulness to compassion training. This shift has been at least inspired by recognition of the vital importance of balancing training geared more toward wisdom, via mindfulness, with those fostering qualities such as lovingkindness and compassion.
The preliminary findings are revealing how compassion training can lead to changes in how compassion is expressed in social interactions, shifting the relative balance of focus on oneself and others in ways that support both personal and social wellbeing.
Returning to our traditional metaphor, neither wisdom nor compassion alone brings flight. Accordingly, I’d like to share three ways Naropa has recently contributed to the evolving landscape of contemplative science by guiding the field away from a focus on wisdom or compassion, toward one centered simultaneously on both wings of the bird. The first has to do with the development of our Naropa Mindful Compassion Training, called WELCOME, a training co-developed by numerous Naropa faculty members across a range of disciplines. WELCOME blends lessons from compassion science with systematic training in secularized practices from ancient wisdom traditions, leading to exciting synergies and fresh ideas I can take back to my lab.
Over the years, this has led to multiple grant-funded, original research projects on compassion and its training. Most recently, with funding from the Mind and Life Institute, we conducted a randomized controlled study on our Mindful Compassion Training, WELCOME. The grant allowed us to offer nearly 80 people the chance to take the training for free, in exchange for participating in our research study. And while the majority of studies have assessed either personal or social benefits of training in compassion, this project relied on daily diaries to examine the effects of our training on experiences of compassionate care in daily social life. Analyses are still ongoing, but the preliminary findings are revealing how compassion training can lead to changes in how compassion is expressed in social interactions, shifting the relative balance of focus on oneself and others in ways that support both personal and social wellbeing.
Finally, and perhaps most exciting, we recently shepherded a groundbreaking Special Issue of a peer-reviewed journal on the concept of skillful means—a core Mahayana Buddhist principle that unites compassion with wisdom. This project, supported by a generous donation from former Naropa board member, Carolyn Jacobs, PhD, is the fruit of a collaborative effort that began with a seminal Think Tank in 2020. The project evolved from there, eventually encompassing the efforts of esteemed scientists and scholars worldwide and culminating in a publication that features 20 original papers from notable scholars in the field co-edited by myself and Judith Simmer-Brown, PhD. The varied contributions help to advance a fresh perspective on compassion and its training.
These three contributions, each relating to the intersection of wisdom and compassion, represent just a few of Naropa’s recent contributions to contemplative science. Blending past, present, and future, they highlight Naropa’s enduring role in the ever-growing mindfulness and contemplative movement—opening new avenues for training, research, and applied understanding. I’m deeply grateful to all the benefactors, colleagues, and collaborators who have made these advancements possible, and look forward to continuing this exciting journey of discovery together. After all, these milestones mark not just contributions to a field or movement, but also showcase the Naropa community’s unwavering commitment to a wiser and more compassionate world.
