For the past three years, Stanford University's Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) and the Telluride Institute have joined forces to present Telluride's Compassion Festival.
The program entered its fourth year this week, with a four-day Summer Research Institute presented by CCARE, featuring conversations among leading researchers working in what is being called "the science of compassion."
One of this year's speakers is Dr. Clifford Saron, an Associate Research Scientist at UC Davis in California. His primary body of work is with the Shamatha Project, which focuses on the psychological and physiological effects of meditation and other contemplative practices. (A similar project on the international level has been proposed by scholar and Buddhist translator B. Allan Wallace.)
Dr. Saron joined us to talk about his work, its objectives, and how purposeful contemplation may help humans comprehend and cope with suffering in the world. He speaks tonight (Tuesday, July 23) at the Palm Theater in Telluride, along with a panel of other researchers for a culmination talk entitled "The Science of Compassion: News From the Front."
