Contemplative Currents

    Contemplative Currents is an online magazine for public scholarship that advances contemplative knowing, practicing, and living.

    Contemplation +

    is an ongoing series of dialogues that explores intersections of contemplation with diverse topics.

    All Dialogues

    What is Contemplation?

    is a series that interviews leading scholars in Contemplative Studies to address this driving question.

    All Interviews
  • JCS Editor • October 16, 2025

    Special Issue Announcement

    Special Issue #09: Contemplative Computing

    The JCS Editors are delighted to announce Special Issue #09: Contemplative Computing, with guest editors Angela Orebaugh (University of Virginia), Alex Soojung-Kim Pang (Stanford University), and Gunter Bombaerts (Eindhoven University of Technology). This Special Issue invites scholars to explore the…
  • JCS Editor • August 29, 2025

    Special Issue Announcement

    Special Issue #08: Contemplation in Education and Human Development

    The JCS Editors are delighted to announce Special Issue #08: Contemplation in Education and Human Development with guest editors Robert W. Roeser (Emory University), Brendan Ozawa-de Silva (Emory University), Yuki Imoto (Keio University), and Kimberly Schonert-Reichl (University of Illinois, Chicago)….
  • JCS Editor • July 31, 2025

    Special Issue Announcement

    Special Issue #7

    The JCS Editors are excited to announce Special Issue #07: Micro-Phenomenology, Heart Openings, and Contemplative Practice with guest editors Christian Suhr and Martijn van Beek. In recent years, micro-phenomenological interviews have been used across a range of disciplines to understand the rich textures of human experience,…
  • JCS Editor • November 14, 2024

    Call for Papers

    Special Issue #6: Confucian Contemplation

    The JCS Editors are excited to announce a call for papers for a Special Issue focusing on Confucian Contemplation with guest editors Bin Song (Washington College) and Judson Murray (Capital University).
  • JCS Editor • February 29, 2024

    New Special Issue Article

    Portrait of a Poison: Datura in Buddhist Magic

    “Portrait of a Poison: Datura in Buddhist Magic,” by Samuel M. Grimes, University of California, Berkeley Abstract: The psychoactive plant Datura metel appears across a range of traditions in premodern South Asia preserved in texts. Among those traditions is the…
  • JCS Editor • September 27, 2023

    Call for Papers

    Special Issue #5: Contemplation in Africana Traditions

    The JCS Editors are delighted to announce a call for papers for a Special Issue devoted to Contemplation in Africana Traditions with guest editors Oludamini Ogunnaike (University of Virginia), Georgette Mulunda Ledgister (Harvard Divinity School), and Funlayo E. Wood (Harvard…
  • JCS Editor • September 13, 2023

    Call for Papers

    Special Issue #4: Philosophy and Contemplation in Tantric Buddhism

    The JCS Editors are delighted to announce a call for papers for a Special Issue devoted to Philosophy and Contemplation in Tantric Buddhism with guest editor Yaroslav Komarovski (University of Nebraska – Lincoln). This JCS Special Issue gives attention to intersections and…
  • JCS Editor • May 24, 2023

    Call for Papers

    Special Issue #3: Contemplative Ecology

    The JCS Editors are delighted to announce a call for papers for a Special Issue devoted to Contemplative Ecology with guest editors Douglas Christie (Loyola Marymount University), Simone Kotva (Cambridge University), Ariel Evan Mayse (Stanford University), and Devin Zuckerman (University…
  • JCS Editor • March 23, 2023

    Propose a JCS Special Issue

    The JCS Editors invite proposals to guest edit a Special Issue by filling-in the Special Issue Proposal Form via the Submissions page. JCS Special Issues invite and collate select articles on a coherent theme that collectively contribute to Contemplative Studies….
  • JCS Editor • July 9, 2026

    Author Insight

    An Article With Muhammed Faruque

    It is one thing to speak of interconnectedness at a theoretical level, but quite another to demonstrate, in practice, that it can be—and indeed is—achieved.
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  • JCS Editor • June 25, 2026

    Contemplation + SENSEmaking

    An Interview with Wolfgang Buttress

    Over the course of about a decade, I began to understand something fundamental: I wasn’t separate from nature—I was part of it.
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  • James MacNee • June 18, 2026

    Workshop on Metaphor in Tibetan Contemplative Literature

    How do metaphors—and the poetic utterances they inhabit—participate in projects of transformation and cultivation within Tibetan literature? In short, how do metaphors work contemplatively?
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  • JCS Editor • April 30, 2026

    Contemplation + SENSEmaking

    An Interview With Eve Ekman

    I discovered that the mere reflection upon our emotions was an intervention towards well-being.
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  • JCS Editor • April 16, 2026

    Contemplation + Indigeneity

    An Interview With Lance Henson

    Contemplation for me involves being in touch with not just the world, but all of the worlds—the dream and the spiritual worlds—and understanding your place within them. 
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  • JCS Editor • March 27, 2026

    Contemplation + SENSEmaking

    An Interview With Adam Lobel

    As far as there being categories of East and West, of philosophy versus spirituality or religion, I can’t even draw the boundaries anymore. 
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