Sunday, 22 July 2012
The Mind & Life Institute, a nonprofit organization founded by the Dalai Lama, neuroscientist Francisco Varela, and entrepreneur Adam Engle in 1987, has received a grant of $3,000,000 in support of the organization’s new strategic vision. New initiatives to be funded by the grant include a project to develop an integrated approach to addiction treatment, a research program to study positive qualities such as compassion and ethical conduct, and the further development of its global network of scholars, researchers and contemplative practitioners.
“It is with humble thanks that we accept this donation. Historically, Mind and Life has acted as a support organization,” explained Arthur Zajonc, the institute’s new president, “providing service to an external research community, both logistically through event coordination and financially through grant programs such as the Varela Awards. We are happy to continue providing this support, but this grant will allow us to look toward a future where Mind and Life can evolve into a fully-fledged research institute.”
The donation to Mind and Life will be distributed as grants of $1,000,000 per year for three years, contingent upon annual review, with an aim to encourage the long-term sustainability of these new programs.
About the Mind & Life Institute
The Mind & Life Institute is a Hadley, MA-based nonprofit organization dedicated to building a scientific understanding of the mind through the investigation of contemplative practices in order to reduce suffering and promote well being. Mind and Life facilitates annual dialogues between neuroscientists, social scientists, contemplative scholars, and the Dalai Lama, and has produced a series of highly regarded books based on those dialogues.
Other Mind and Life programs include the Mind and Life Summer Research Institute and accompanying Varela Awards for contemplative scholarly research, the Mind and Life Contemplative Research Fellowship, a Visiting Scholars program and the International Symposia for Contemplative Studies. For more information, visit
www.mindandlife.org