WHAT IS CONTEMPLATIVE SCIENCE?

Contemplative science is defined as the scholarly and scientific investigation of contemplative practices. Such research may involve the study of general techniques that focus attention in a sustained fashion with the aim of deepening states of concentration, tranquility, and insight, broadening the field of awareness, or developing altruistic tendencies, including empathy, compassion, and selfless acts of love. It may involve the study of intentional first-person phenomenology resulting from the common, uncultivated, spontaneous experiences of absorption in an activity, to philosophical inquiry into the nature of mind, to the most profound experiences that have been deliberately and systematically cultivated in various religious traditions.

Contemplative research may also examine Mind and Body practices, including a large and diverse group of techniques, exercises, or other practices involving systematic training of mind, integration of embodied, embedded, and/or enactive forms of cognition, and techniques that manipulate bodily systems with the intention of healing or otherwise contributing to a flourishing physical, mental, and emotional constitution. Various forms of meditation, yoga, taiji, and qigong are examples of Mind and Body practices (see https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/mind-and-body-practices).

Contemplative research may also involve investigation into aspects of wellbeing, including a sense of purpose, meaning, ways of knowing and experiencing the world, altruistic forms of motivation, love, kindness, compassion, gratitude, forgiveness, and philosophical understanding of the self, no-self, wisdom, and the nature of suffering.

Contemplative research may also investigate the role of contemplative practices in the advancement of social justice, racial equity, and conflict resolution.

In the most general sense, “contemplative neuroscience” refers to the study of the underlying neurobiology, psychology, and phenomenology of human contemplative experience”.

What is contemplation and meditation?

Contemplation comes from the Latin, contemplatio and Greek, Theoria. The word, “Contemplation” often appears in the old Testament along with the word “meditation” and is seen in texts from all wisdom-based traditions and religions. Together, contemplation and meditation are most often described as any practice involving self-regulation of attention – used for spiritual purposes or philosophical understanding of the mind.

The word “contemplative” and “contemplation” come from the Latin, contemplatio and Greek, Theoria. Meditation is a translation for the word, Hāgâ in the Old Testament. It is also translated from the word, Melete (Grk) and Meditatio (Latin). From Hindu-Vedanta and Buddhist perspectives, meditation has become the translation for the Sanskrit and Tibetan words, Dhyāna(Sanskrit); Bhavana (Sanskrit); sgoms (Tibetan) (~6th century BCE) meaning “cultivation of familiarity” with mind and “mental development”. The word, “Contemplation” often appears in the old Testament along with the word “meditation” and is seen in texts from all wisdom-based traditions and religions. In the Classical period (5th-8th CE), contemplation and meditation were a general technique of focusing attention in a sustained fashion with the aim of deepening states of concentration, tranquility, and insight. Insight in the Christian theological tradition was with the nature of God. In Greco-roman philosophy, insight was obtained to reveal the nature of mind. Together, contemplation and meditation are most often described as any practice involving self-regulation of attention – used for spiritual purposes or philosophical understanding of the mind.