Contemplation + Psychedelics: An Interview With Stuart Ray Sarbacker
What is the relationship between the types of experiences that arise out of the use of psychedelics and more endogenously derived types of religious experiences?
SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE: The Contemplative Mood of Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain: Toward an Embodied Ecocentric Epistemology
Nan Shepherd (1893–1981) was a Scottish novelist, poet, educator, and mountaineer. Her primary work of nonfiction, The Living Mountain, concerns the Cairngorm mountains of Scotland. More than a work of natural and cultural history, in this book Shepherd also recounts engaging in intentional practices for cultivating attention and sense perception. These practices culminate in states of absorption, changes to her sense of self, and encounters with “the total mountain” as an interconnected living system. Although these practices and goals are uniquely her own, this paper will also consider the potential influence of a Victorian-era publication summarizing Buddhist teachings. In contrast to previous scholarship on Shepherd, this paper contends that we would do well to resist characterizing Shepherd’s experiences in the Cairngorms in Buddhist terms. Concluding reflections suggest how this project contributes to current scholarly definitions of contemplation by taking seriously the challenges of operationalizing contemplation to be more inclusive of sources outside of major religious traditions.
SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE: The Persistence of Habit: Tantric Engagements with Dharmakīrti’s View of Yogic Perception
After a century and a half of focus on Buddhist doctrine, academic attention is increasingly being paid to practice. What remains undertheorized, however, is the relation between the two. An example of this is the idea that tantric practice is simply a ritual technology, separate and autonomous from doctrinal formulation. This is a persisting academic trope, one that conceptualizes doctrine and practice dichotomously.
Contemplation + Medicine: An Interview With Pierce Salguero
I saw that the two were completely inseparable. I was at the monastery seeing people incorporating traditional medicine into the monastic lifestyle. And then I was at the traditional medicine schools, incorporating meditation and ritual into the healing practices.
SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE: Self-Transformative Research: Effects on Researchers of a Holistic Collaborative Study of Spiritual Exemplars
After a century and a half of focus on Buddhist doctrine, academic attention is increasingly being paid to practice. What remains undertheorized, however, is the relation between the two. An example of this is the idea that tantric practice is simply a ritual technology, separate and autonomous from doctrinal formulation. This is a persisting academic trope, one that conceptualizes doctrine and practice dichotomously.
ISCR Conference 2025
Abstracts and Proposals Due April 30th, 2025 The 3rd Conference of the International Society for Contemplative Research (ISCR) will be held on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from November 3-6, 2025. The ISCR 2025 Conference is an international conference for rigorous interdisciplinary investigation of contemplative practices in diverse contexts. This year’s…
SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE: Riven: A Mysticism of Place in Times of Grief
After a century and a half of focus on Buddhist doctrine, academic attention is increasingly being paid to practice. What remains undertheorized, however, is the relation between the two. An example of this is the idea that tantric practice is simply a ritual technology, separate and autonomous from doctrinal formulation. This is a persisting academic trope, one that conceptualizes doctrine and practice dichotomously.
SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE: Contemplative Life amidst Mass Extinction: Catholic Revisions of Spirituality, Law, and Multispecies Justice
After a century and a half of focus on Buddhist doctrine, academic attention is increasingly being paid to practice. What remains undertheorized, however, is the relation between the two. An example of this is the idea that tantric practice is simply a ritual technology, separate and autonomous from doctrinal formulation. This is a persisting academic trope, one that conceptualizes doctrine and practice dichotomously.
Contemplation + The Body: An Interview With Donata Schoeller
At first glance, it seems like just a matter of degree—listening a little longer, giving a bit more time. But it’s not just a quantitative difference; it’s a qualitative transformation. Something deeply different happens when we give each other more time to make sense, more time to dwell with what feels unresolved.
SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE: Supreme Patriarch Suk Kai Thuean’s Method of Visualizing the Elements
After a century and a half of focus on Buddhist doctrine, academic attention is increasingly being paid to practice. What remains undertheorized, however, is the relation between the two. An example of this is the idea that tantric practice is simply a ritual technology, separate and autonomous from doctrinal formulation. This is a persisting academic trope, one that conceptualizes doctrine and practice dichotomously.
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