Mind and Life Institute
The Mind and Life Institute was established in 1987 to support rigorous dialogue between Buddhist contemplatives and Western scientists, with a particular focus on the scientific study of consciousness, emotion, and contemplative practice. The founding vision came from three parties: Adam Engle, an American lawyer interested in Buddhist-scientific dialogue; Francisco Varela, whose cognitive-scientific work had long integrated contemplative perspectives; and Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, whose own scientific curiosity made the dialogue possible. The institute organized a series of intensive week-long meetings — Mind and Life Dialogues — where small groups of scientists presented research to the Dalai Lama and engaged in sustained philosophical discussion. These dialogues produced both academic publications and the conditions for new research programs in what came to be called contemplative science.
In the AI Story
Varela's involvement was central. He co-organized several of the earliest dialogues and served as scientific coordinator for many subsequent ones. His cognitive-scientific framework — particularly neurophenomenology's integration of first-person and third-person data — provided the methodological bridge that made rigorous Buddhist-scientific collaboration possible. Contemplatives could contribute trained phenomenological expertise that cognitive neuroscience lacked; neuroscientists could contribute measurement tools and physiological frameworks; the two could constrain each other in the way Varela's method required.
The institute's influence has been enormous, though often invisible in mainstream cognitive science. The laboratory studies of long-term meditators that became widely known in the 2000s — Richard Davidson's work at Wisconsin, Cliff Saron's Shamatha Project — developed within the Mind and Life network. The framework for contemplative practice as a scientifically tractable object of study, rather than a religious commitment, was substantially shaped by these dialogues.
The institute continues after Varela's death in 2001, organizing dialogues, funding research, and maintaining the framework of Buddhist-scientific collaboration. Its intellectual legacy is visible across contemplative neuroscience, philosophy of mind, and the increasingly mainstream integration of first-person methodology into consciousness research.
Origin
The institute emerged from a 1983 conversation between Francisco Varela and Adam Engle, both of whom had been considering how to facilitate sustained scientific dialogue with the Dalai Lama. The first Mind and Life Dialogue took place in Dharamsala, India, in 1987. The institute was formally established as a nonprofit in 1990. Varela remained central to its intellectual development until his death.
Key Ideas
Buddhist contemplatives as trained phenomenologists. The institute framed Buddhist monastics not as religious figures but as practitioners with specialized first-person expertise relevant to cognitive science.
Dialogue as research methodology. The structured dialogues themselves produced research — by forcing scientists to articulate their frameworks to non-specialist but philosophically sophisticated interlocutors, and by surfacing first-person data that laboratory methods missed.
Contemplative science as research field. The institute's influence made meditation and contemplative practice tractable objects of empirical study, contributing to the rise of mindfulness research and contemplative neuroscience.
Institutional home for neurophenomenology. Varela's method required trained phenomenologists; the institute's network of contemplatives provided them.
Durability beyond founder. The institute has continued and grown since Varela's death, demonstrating that the intellectual structure he helped build was robust enough to survive his absence.
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Further reading
- Harrington, A., & Zajonc, A. (Eds.) (2006). The Dalai Lama at MIT.
- Varela, F. (Ed.) (1997). Sleeping, Dreaming, and Dying: An Exploration of Consciousness with the Dalai Lama.
- Houshmand, Z., Livingston, R., & Wallace, B. A. (Eds.) (1999). Consciousness at the Crossroads.
- Goleman, D. (2003). Destructive Emotions.