Contemplative Sciences Center, UVA

CONTEMPLATIVE SCIENCES CENTER

Combining contemplation, connection, and research to enhance flourishing

WELCOME!

The mission of the University of Virginia's Contemplative Sciences Center (CSC) is to fuse contemplation, connection, and research to enhance flourishing. Situated within the new Contemplative Commons, CSC creates opportunities that center mind-body practices for well-being, insight, and compassion in all aspects of life—social, emotional, physical, and professional. An innovator in multidisciplinary collaboration, the center's CIRCL lab conducts research on initiatives that combine contemplative and experiential learning to generate novel solutions to a wide range of personal and global challenges. Learn More about CSC.

View ongoing programming and events.

Contemplative Commons

403 Emmet Street S.
Charlottesville, VA 22903
phone: 434-982-6057
email: csc@virginia.edu
(Visitor Information)

The Contemplative Commons will be closed to the public during winter break:
Dec 20, 2025 - Jan 4, 2026.

Contemplative Sciences Center at the Contemplative Commons

Group of three students on UVA Lawn with the Rotunda in the background

The Contemplative Commons

Your space for joy, rest, growth, exploration, and learning

Contemplative Commons Golden Light Brown College

Ninfeo installation room with blue and green lighted blocks and person

Aerial view of the Contemplative Commons

Looking down into the Courtyard of the Commons

The Contemplative Commons under the moon from across the bridge

Man planing guitar at soft opening of Contemplative Commons

Brain Symposium Lecture in the Convergence Hall.

People embracing during Research Open House

Contemplative Commons from over the Dell looking toward UVA Grounds

Featured Event

Contemplative Listening In Sonic Immersion

Through December 19, 2025.
2:00 - 5:00pm

As part of the Technosonics 2025 Festival, the special exhibit, "Contemplative Listening In Sonic Immersion" will be available to experience at the Contemplative Commons extended showing, starting November 10, 2025. 2:00-5:00pm.

Learn More

Upcoming
Events
at the Commons

Students practice Ashtanga Yoga, reaching their arms up towards the ceiling in a room with wooden floors

Drop-in

Ashtanga Yoga: Mysore-Style

Mondays to Thursdays

6 - 9am

Drop-in

Ashtanga Yoga: Led Primary Series

Fridays

6:30 - 8am

John Bultman with several people around a table. Cups of chai are on the table.

Drop-in

Chai & Chats (Yoga Q&A)

Fridays

8 - 9am

a group of students sits on a wooden floor in the Contemplative Commons and meditates, overlooking the foliage below from the floor to ceiling window

Drop-in

Midday Mindfulness

Mondays to Fridays

11:30am - 11:50pm

photo divided into three images: sound bowls, tai chi pose, yoga pose

Drop-in

Friday Rest Fest

Fridays

1 - 4:30pm

CIRCL

CIRCL is a dynamic experimental space and a transdisciplinary research collaborative of faculty at UVA and beyond invested in humanistic, scientific, and creative understandings and applications of contemplation. Read about our studies. Learn More

Journal of Contemplative Studies

To support the dissemination of contemplative knowledge, CSC publishes the Journal of Contemplative Studies—a peer-reviewed, open-access journal that publishes original research and scholarship on topics related to contemplative practices. Learn More

A woman giving a lecture with a projected piece of art in the background

SALON

We convene monthly curated transdisciplinary public dialogues on topics related to contemplative research in the Contemplative Commons. Scholars, scientists, artists, and specialists from diverse perspectives are invited to share their work in the format of a facilitated dialogue to generate, leverage, and advance collective knowledge. Learn More