Who we are and what we do
The root of our work as a charity (and as a practice community) is an aspiration to cultivate genuine wellbeing—eudaemonic happiness—and to assist numerous others in that quest. To achieve this goal, we organise educational events and create digital resources centred around contemplative life and four different ways of approaching it: through broadening, deepening, applying, and integrating. Here are the four pillars of our programming, described one by one:
Breadth
Explore the richness, the history and the philosophy of various contemplative traditions across the world.
Depth
Deepen your practice of quintessential methods of meditation, cultivating a calm and clear mind and an open heart.
Apply
Explore the different ways of applying common human values and contemplative practice to modern issues.
Integrate
Consider how to deepen the experiences of wisdom and compassion in the midst of daily life.
Courses & Retreats
Upcoming Events
Meet the CCN Teachers
Dr. B. Alan Wallace
Lama Alan Wallace is a prominent voice in the emerging discussion between contemporary Buddhist thinkers and scientists who question the materialist presumptions of their 20th-century paradigms.
He left his college studies in 1971 and moved to Dharamsala, India to study Tibetan Buddhism, medicine and language.
He was ordained by H.H. the Dalai Lama, and over fourteen years as a monk, he studied with and translated for many of the generation’s greatest lamas. In 1984 he resumed his Western education at Amherst College, where he studied physics and the philosophy of science.
Michael Lobsang Tenpa
Michael Lobsang Tenpa is a certified Cultivating Emotional Balance teacher, meditation instructor and Buddhist translator. Born in Siberia, he got his BA and MA in South Asian Studies at the diplomatic college in Moscow and, after 9 years of Buddhist monastic training, went on to become a teacher and a translator in the Tibetan contemplative tradition.
In addition to his Buddhist studies and translator work, Tenpa has been working with secular ethics and secular mindfulness courses for more than a decade.
Dr Eva Natanya
Eva Natanya is a scholar of Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, an academic lecturer, writer, translator, and retreat leader.
Following a nine-year career as a professional ballet dancer with both the New York City Ballet and the Royal Ballet of England, she earned an MA in Christian Systematic Theology at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA, and a PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Virginia.
For over twenty years, she has studied meditation, yoga, and philosophy in both the Christian and Buddhist traditions with master teachers in the United States, England, and India.
Glen Svensson
Glen has been a student and practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism since 1995 and graduated from the seven-year Masters Program in Advanced Buddhist Studies of Sutra and Tantra at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa (Pomaia, Italy) in 2004.
Since 2005 he has taught and led meditation retreats in India, Europe, North America and Australia with a clear and structured teaching style emphasizing the integration of philosophical view, meditation and daily life conduct.
On Demand Teachings
Online courses for gradually mastering different aspects of contemplative practice.
Donations
The CCN General Fund covers the annual costs of running the organisation, developing digital content and keeping our community afloat. We are grateful for your generosity!