The Institute was inspired by the Monastic University of Nalanda, the world’s first university and the first institution of higher learning to offer public education in the health and mind sciences.
Founded in the fifth century to advance the Buddha’s mission to end suffering, Nalanda spread the civilizing arts and sciences of ancient India throughout the world.
With its curriculum set by the great physician-philosopher Nagarjuna, Nalanda quickly grew to include seven colleges, an infirmary, an observatory, three libraries, numerous chapels and shrines and its own farms, accommodating up to ten thousand students, faculty and staff. Its scientific tradition was preserved in the colleges and medical schools of Tibet, a time-capsule for the world’s oldest systems of integrative medicine and positive psychology.
Transplanted back into India after the 1959 Chinese invasion, this rich legacy has been seeding Western psychology and healthcare for years and has taken root in the New World at Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science.
Now located in New York CIty, Nalanda Institute is a non-profit community working to build a sustainable future by infusing ancient contemplative science into contemporary culture and ways of life.
Based on a tradition evolved at Nalanda University in ancient India and preserved in Tibet, teaches a rare system of active, contemplative insights and methods called the gradual path, tailored to life in the everyday world.