Facilitating and Promoting Dialogue
The goal of the foundation is to facilitate and promote a dialogue between sciences, humanities, and contemplative traditions, thus furthering the field of contemplative sciences, with the aim of contributing to human flourishing, well-being, and the common good.
Our Activities
Research and Field Building
Setting up and executing projects in basic research, applied research and field building.
Building Communities of Practice
Promoting and building communities of practice of scientists and professionals
International Conferences
Organising international conferences.
Collaborating
Collaborating with institutions and organisations, which pursue similar activities.
Fundraising
Raising funds for these activities and events.
Internal Business Management
Executing the business and administration of all promotional activities including
publications and dissemination activities.
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Partnership Events 2026
✓ Dalai Lama’s 90th birthday event (19th March, Brussels, Belgium)
✓ Tibetan Translation and AI workshop (16th – 19th April, Padova, Italy)
✓ Buddhism and AI Collaborative Summer Initiative (1st – 12th July, Rangjung Yeshe Gomde, Austria)
✓ 2nd International Conference on Environmental Mindfulness (ICEM) (17th-19th September, Rome, Italy)
Partnership Events 2025
✓ Caring Minds Initiative workshop (13th – 16th February, Rangjung Yeshe Gomde, Austria)
✓ 9th Pioneers of Change Summit (13th – 25th March, online)
✓ Mind & Life Dialogue XXXIX 2025 (13th – 18th October, Dharamsala, India)
Partnership Events 2024
✓ Land Art Event “Road to Montegrande, regarding Francisco Varela” (18th January – 18th February, Elqui Valley, Chile)
✓ “The Elephant in the Room. Investigating Consciousness Beyond Reductionism” Conference (21st – 23rd February, University of Padova, Italy)
✓ Varela International Symposium: “Sentience and Intelligence: AI, the More-Than-Human, and Us” (24th – 26th May, Upaya Zen Center, Sante Fe, New Mexico, US, hybrid event)
✓ Training Embodied Critical Thinking and Understanding International Programme (May – December 2024)
✓ Dialogue between scientists and Tsoknyi Rinpoche (24th – 26th May, Brussels, Belgium)
✓ 2nd Annual International Society for Contemplative Research Conference (19th – 23rd June, Padova, Italy)
Partnership Events 2023
✓ The Computational Approach to Neurophenomenology workshop (6th – 10th March, The Lorentz Center, Leiden, The Netherlands)
✓ Varela International Symposium: Worldmaking / Sensemaking: Intersubjectivity, Cooperation, Precariousness (25th – 28th May, Upaya Zen Center, Santa Fe, New Mexico, US, hybrid event)
✓ Cortona Week 2023: Science and the Wholeness of Life (16th – 23rd July, Certosa di Pontignano, Italy)
✓ Enactive Ethics of Responsibility workshop (25th September, University of Pardubice, Czech Republic)
✓ 1st International Conference on Environmental Mindfulness (ICEM) (13th – 16th November, Rome, Italy)
Our History
Stichting Mind and Life was founded on the 30th November 2016 in Amsterdam. We have been collaborating with our original founder organisation, Mind & Life Europe (MLE) in Switzerland, to bridge and integrate contemplative wisdom and practices with modern research capabilities and bring a new wave of initiatives into the European science community. After some restructuring between 2021-2023, today we operate as an independent foundation in order to develop collaborations and partnerships with like-minded organisations in the Netherlands and throughout the European Union.1991
Stichting Mind and Life 