CBD 2026: Tibetan Contemplative Practices as Catalysts for a Revolution in Education in the Age of AI and the Attention Economy with Chiara Mascarello, PhD

Drawing on the main models underlying the dynamic structure of contemplative practices in Tibetan Buddhism, this talk explores how we might reconsider the most pressing needs of education in the age of the attention economy and artificial intelligence, and reimagine educational methods accordingly. From cultivating attention as a shared, ecosystemic practice to deepening emotional understanding and training metacognition, from debate as a process of sense-making and critical thinking to the centrality of communal life in the emergence of shared meaning, Tibetan contemplative traditions can offer key directions for a model of contemplative-humanistic education: a formative space that seeks to respond with sensitivity and transformative depth to the questions of the contemporary age.

Chiara Mascarello, PhD, has pursued research in Buddhist philosophy and Tibetan language at Sera Jey Monastic University in India, the UMA Institute for Tibetan Studies in the United States, and the University of Hamburg, Germany. Since 2013, she has worked as a Tibetan translator and interpreter, and she is currently Assistant Professor at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. She is a founder and board member of the MA Program in Contemplative Studies at the University of Padua, a member of Mind & Life Europe, and a member of the Steering Committee of the international Contemplative Education Network. After co-directing the Italian Buddhist Union’s Research Center for five years, she now serves as a Scientific Consultant, supporting its mission to promote education and research in Buddhist studies, contemplative studies, and consciousness studies. Her research focuses on Indo-Tibetan Buddhist contemplative literature, its contemporary transmission, and its dialogue with current studies of consciousness.

Among her most recent publications are Self-Awareness in Tibetan Buddhism: The Philosophical Relevance of Rang rig and Its Contribution to Contemporary Debates on the Nature of Consciousness (2025), and F. Tormen and C. Mascarello, “Recognizing Cognitive Models as Models: Critical Meta-Awareness as a Key to Exploring Buddhist Practices and Their Contemporary Applications,” Mindfulness 16 (2025).

This session is part of the FREE Contemplation by Design Summit, Oct. 14-25, 2026.

This keynote is part one of a two-part series with Contemplation by Design Summit. To extend the knowledge and skills you develop during this keynote lecture, please consider attending Chiara Mascarello's iPause Guided Practice session titled, Resiting in Presence: A Contemplative Practice Inspired by Tibetan Buddhism on Oct. 20 from 7:30-8:15am.

You are welcome to join one or both or Chiara's sessions in the Contemplation by Design Summit.

The full summit schedule for this year will be posted at: https://med.stanford.edu/contemplation/summit.html.