JG
Javier García Campayo
Director · Chair of Contemplative Sciences
Professor of Psychiatry, University of Zaragoza. Directs the Master's in Mindfulness and coordinates the Aragón Mental Health Research Group (REDIAPP).
WHF x University of Zaragoza
Wisdom traditions, in dialogue.
The World Happiness Foundation Chair of Contemplative Sciences at the University of Zaragoza — a collaboration to bring the practice of many traditions into knowledge, service, and everyday life.
Zaragoza · Global
Background
Why this Chair, why now.
The World Happiness Foundation works alongside institutions, community leaders, and individuals to co-create initiatives that make it possible for 10 billion people to be free, aware, and happy by 2050. In these critical times, we need cross-sectional, multidisciplinary studies so societies can be fairer, lives happier and more conscious, and the planet healthier. This Chair, established in collaboration with the University of Zaragoza, is one of those initiatives.
Three intentions
Free · aware · happy.
Free to be
Help people be free to be — grounded in the traditions that have carried this wisdom for centuries.
Aware to evolve
Cultivate the awareness that lets us expand, evolve, and integrate learning into everyday life.
Happy to share
Live the happiness that becomes contagious — a joy shared across communities and generations.
Officially launched · 18 December 2025
A new chair for mind, consciousness and well-being.
On 18 December 2025, at the Sala Pilar Sinués of the Paraninfo of the University of Zaragoza, the University of Zaragoza and the World Happiness Foundation officially launched the Cátedra de Ciencias Contemplativas — an interdisciplinary initiative for the study of the mind, consciousness and well-being. Speakers included the Vice-Rector for Innovation, Transfer and Lifelong Learning Manuel González Bedia, WHF president Luis Miguel Gallardo, chair director and Professor of Psychiatry Javier García Campayo, and psychologist Paulina Lamas.
"The creation of new development paradigms demands science, rigorous research and a deep understanding of human purpose. Contemplative Sciences let us bring together the best of ancestral knowledge and contemporary scientific evidence to understand how the human being flourishes."
"Over the last 2,500 years, mindfulness practices travelled from northern India across Asia and finally into Western science and culture at the end of the 20th century. For the first time, the wisdom of contemplative traditions can be globally shared, understood and evaluated by science — giving rise to a new field: Contemplative Sciences, dedicated to human flourishing."
Objectives
What the Chair will do.
Annual Congress
An annual congress on Contemplative Sciences bringing together researchers, practitioners and traditions.
Training
Courses and practical training for students and professionals across disciplines.
Research
Advanced research projects and doctoral theses on the neuroscience of contemplative practice.
Culture & Arts
Cultural and artistic activities that share contemplative practice with the wider community.
Press conference · Paraninfo, Universidad de Zaragoza
Watch the launch.
A year of exploration
A dialogue across traditions.
Around the world there are, and have been, a great variety of traditions, philosophies, religions, and beliefs — a vast cultural wealth. Join our cycle of twelve presentations, with expert teachers of each tradition sharing their practices and how to integrate them into daily life. We look for points of union, and we build an enriching dialogue for all.
Director: Prof. Javier García Campayo · Faculty of Medicine, University of Zaragoza · Contact: jgarcamp@unizar.es
Cátedra WHF + Master de Mindfulness · Universidad de Zaragoza
I Congreso de Ciencias Contemplativas.
4–5 November 2021 Universidad de Zaragoza#cienciascontemplativas · #mindfulness · #meditación · #compasión
Two days weaving neuroscience with the great contemplative traditions — Zen, Sufism, Christian mysticism, Tibetan Vajrayana — under the direction of Prof. Javier García Campayo and Luis Miguel Gallardo. Keynotes, roundtables, simultaneous workshops, and a closing council on the science of happiness.
Day 1 · Thursday 4 Nov
Foundations & Traditions
- 09:00–09:30
Opening panel — Javier García Campayo & Luis Gallardo - 09:30–10:30
Keynote — "Neuroscience and Contemplative Sciences", Perla Kaliman (UC Davis · UW–Madison) - 12:00–14:00
Roundtable — "The contribution of contemplative traditions" · coord. Manu Mariño with Berta Meneses, Lama Yeshe Chodron, Jose Antonio Vázquez Mosquera, Wadud Sabaté - 16:00–20:00
Four simultaneous workshops: Zen · Sufi · Christian meditation · Vajrayana
Day 2 · Friday 5 Nov
The Science of Happiness
- 09:00–10:00
"Contemplative Sciences of Happiness" — Dr. Manas K. Mandal, Saamdu Chetri, Rekhi Singh - 10:00–14:00
Simultaneous workshops (repeat of Day 1) - 16:00–18:00
Debate tables — coord. Luis Gallardo with Juan Arnau, Javier García Campayo, Francisco Marco - 18:30–19:15
Practice — "The Heart of Silence", Manu Mariño - 19:15
Closing — Luis Gallardo & Javier García Campayo
A one-of-a-kind faculty
Teachers, scientists, guides.
LM
Luis Miguel Gallardo
Founder & President, World Happiness Foundation
Founder & President of World Happiness Foundation and World Happiness Fest.
PK
Perla Kaliman
Center for Mind and Brain · UC Davis
Researcher at UC Davis and the Center for Healthy Minds, University of Wisconsin–Madison.
MM
Manu Mariño
Instituto de Ciencias Contemplativas
Meditation teacher in the Insight Meditation tradition. Master in Mindfulness.
BM
Berta Meneses Rodríguez
Filippine religious & Zen master
Zen teacher; Head of Studies at l'Escola Ntra Sra de Lourdes, Barcelona.
LY
Lama Yeshe Chodron
Founder · Centro Arya Tara
Dudjom Tersar lineage of the Nyingma school, Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism.
JA
José Antonio Vázquez Mosquera
Catholic monk · Asociación Cristianía
Cistercian monk for 16 years. MA in Counselling, expert in Mindfulness (UCM).
AW
Abdel Wadud Sabaté
Naqshbandi Sufi Order
Disciple of the Naqshbandi Sufi order (1997), leads the Barcelona Sufi Centre.
DM
Dr. Manas K. Mandal
IIT Kharagpur · NIAS Bangalore
Distinguished Visiting Professor. Former Distinguished Scientist & DG Life Sciences, DRDO, India.
SC
Saamdu Chetri
Bhutan · GNH pioneer
Key figure in consolidating Bhutan's Swiss-supported development programme and Gross National Happiness.
RS
Rekhi Singh
Happiness & Well-Being teacher
Master in the teaching and diffusion of happiness — 'happy people are more successful.'
JA
Juan Arnau
Astrophysicist & Doctor in Philosophy
Researcher at CSIC (López Piñero Institute), Associate Professor at Universitat de València.
FM
Francisco Marco
Emeritus Professor · U. Zaragoza
Chair of Ancient History since 1990; emeritus since 2019. 'The vision of the divine: examples of mystical religiosity.'
Contenido de los talleres
Four traditions, one afternoon.
Deep-dive workshops that don't summarise — they practice. Choose one path, or return the next day for another.
Christian
Meditation & contemplation in the Christian tradition
A brief tour of the contemplative maps of Christianity — Evagrius Ponticus, Cassian, St. Bernard, St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross — with the emphasis on practising, together, the many methods of meditation and contemplation this tradition offers.
Sufi
The art of healing the soul in Sufism
The search for excellence, perfection of character, illumination — an intrinsic human longing. This session introduces how Sufism tends the soul of the seeker, then moves into a dhikr (remembrance) and sama (listening): the recitation of divine names inside a ritual dance that draws the initiate into detachment and union.
Vajrayana
The power of transformation in Vajrayana Buddhism
Practise the most characteristic forms of Tibetan Vajrayana — visualisation, sound, pure perception and dissolution into emptiness. Methods designed to loosen dualistic perception, refine inner energy, and reveal innate wisdom, so the practitioner may benefit all beings without exception.
Zen
Zen meditation
The empty heart of wisdom. Zazen practice: posture as body-wisdom, abdominal breathing, attention without object, without grasping. Stages of the path — from the awakening of the senses to yoriki, samadhi and satori — and their effects in daily life.
"Only those who know inner peace can offer it to others."
Contemplative Sciences
Practice, in the company of teachers.
Explore the full Academy — courses, coaching, and the wider Happytalista community.