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 • February 20, 2026

    ISCR 2025 Contemplative Studies Update

    The phenomena we study tend not to present a linear arc from life to death but a cyclical co-emergence of decomposition and re-emergence. 
  • JCS Editor • October 30, 2025

    Fall Contemplative Conferences

    ISCR & AAR 2025 Conferences

    The ISCR 2025 Conference is an international conference for rigorous interdisciplinary investigation of contemplative practices in diverse contexts. This year’s theme is The Arc of Life and Death. The conference will feature pre-conference workshops, plenary sessions, contemplative practice periods, individual presentations,…
  • JCS Editor • March 27, 2025

    Call for Submissions

    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…
  • Ame Wren • January 9, 2025

    Sharath Jois

    The Active Series

    On November 8, 2024, the Contemplative Sciences Center hosted teacher, practitioner, and lineage holder of Ashtanga yoga, Sharath Jois, for an event revealing his new series, The Active Series, and accompanying book by the same name. The event was cohosted…
  • JCS Editor • October 18, 2024

    Contemplative Studies Panels at AAR Conference

    November 23-26, 2024

    The Contemplative Studies Unit at the American Academy of Religion is sponsoring three panels at the annual conference in San Diego, CA from November 23-26, 2024: Confucian Contemplation: Historical Landscape and Contemporary Significance. Saturday, 12:30 PM – 2:30 PM. Convention…
  • JCS Editor • November 16, 2023

    ISCR 2nd Annual Conference

    The International Society for Contemplative Research is holding their 2nd annual conference in Padova, Italy from June 19 – 23, 2024. The deadline to submit abstracts is January 31, 2024. Please visit www.iscrconference.org or email admin@contemplativeresearch.org for more details.
  • Close Up Photo of Marble Surface
    JCS Editor • October 26, 2023

    Contemplative Studies Panels at AAR Conference

    November 18-21, 2023

    The Contemplative Studies Unit at the American Academy of Religion is sponsoring five panels at the annual conference in San Antonio, TX from November 18-21, 2023: Spirit Medicine toward Ethical and Decolonial Psychedelic Research and Praxis. Saturday, 9:00 AM –…
  • JCS Editor • May 10, 2023

    CONFERENCE RECAP

    Generative Contemplation Symposium at University of Virginia, April 2023

    The Contemplative Sciences Center (CSC) at the University of Virginia (UVA) hosted its first Generative Contemplation Symposium in Charlottesville, Virginia from April 20-21, 2023. This gathering convened religious studies scholars, philosophers, cognitive neuroscientists, artists, and Buddhist practitioners to present their…
  • JCS Editor • March 16, 2023

    CONFERENCE RECAP

    International Society for Contemplative Research (ISCR) 2023

    The International Society for Contemplative Research (ISCR) held its inaugural conference in San Diego from February 2-5, 2023. The conference promoted interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration amongst diverse fields including Neuroscience, Psychological and Social Sciences, Education and Developmental Sciences, Philosophy, Religion…
  • 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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