Café Contemplative
Naropa Extended Campus and the Center for the Advancement of Contemplative Education (CACE) presents Café Contemplative.
Welcome to Café Contemplative, a space for all to explore the profound potential of contemplative practice and transformation. Join a diverse community committed to fostering mindfulness, compassion, wisdom, and wakefulness throughout our lives. Through engaging talks, workshops, trainings, and more, we offer numerous pathways for cultivating and deepening these shared values, qualities, and aspirations.
Mindfulness Is for Everyone Series
Welcoming Beginner’s Mind: An Evening in Dialogue with Gaylon Ferguson
December 10, 2024 // 6:00–7:30pm MT // Free Online Talk
How can we welcome our current experience without striving to ‘achieve’ mindfulness or meditation? In this dialogue with Gaylon Ferguson—distinguished meditation teacher, former Naropa faculty member, and author of Welcoming Beginner’s Mind: Zen and Tibetan Buddhist Wisdom on Experiencing Our True Nature—we will explore this nuanced question and its implications for the modern mindfulness movement. Gaylon will be joined by Jordan Quaglia, Research Director of Naropa’s Center for the Advancement of Contemplative Education. Together, they’ll discuss meaningful questions at the intersections of contemplative practice, spirituality, and society. Audience members will be invited to attune to their moment-by-moment experience, guided by Gaylon in welcoming, an accessible and inclusive contemplative exercise distinct from conventional mindfulness and meditation practices.
Featured Past Events
Roots of Liberation: Integrating Ancestral Wisdom and Contemplative Practice for Ecological Healing and Collective Transformation
It’s no secret that Mother Earth is in need of healing—a process contingent upon collective transformation at multiple levels. Our interrelated disconnection from the earth, nature, and one another not only leads to ecological destruction but also significant human suffering, eroding connection to place, community, and our authentic selves. In this talk, Betsy Gonzalez Blohm shares contemplative practices for reconnecting to the roots of our ancestral wisdom. She also explores the synergy between mindfulness-based approaches and what is needed to support sustainable, life-giving service toward ecological healing and collective liberation.
What Is—and Isn't—a Contemplative Practice? Mindful Brains, Present Minds, and Wakeful Beings
In this talk, Dr. Jordan Quaglia offers how a clear definition of contemplative practice is not only possible—it matters. By clearly describing the essential elements and boundary conditions of contemplative practices, we find a much more diverse and wide-ranging landscape of possible practices and approaches to contemplative training. On a personal level, this can inspire us to rethink, refine, and expand our own practices. Collectively, this new approach reveals pathways for fostering a more inclusive mindfulness movement throughout society.
