ABOUT CENTRE FOR CONTEMPLATIVE RESEARCH AOTEAROA—ASIA PACIFIC
The Centre for Contemplative Research Aotearoa, a charitable trust, was established in 2020 to found what is now the Centre for Contemplative Research at Jhampa Ling. This hermitage of CCR Asia Pacific is located in Matiri Valley, in the South Island of New Zealand.
We believe that the root causes of the world’s most pressing challenges are unhealthy minds that yield destructive behavior, including corruption, violence, environmental degradation, and social oppression. And we believe that these global problems can be solved if and only if we fathom the nature and potentials of consciousness.
B. Alan Wallace, PhD
Learn more about the Centre For Contemplative Research from our Founder and President.
Land Purchase
Due to the immense generosity of an Australian couple committed to the CCR vision, we have been able to purchase 500 acres of land in the remote Matiri Valley in the South Island of New Zealand (Aotearoa), as a home for the CCRA.
We have gathered a wonderfully enthusiastic team of volunteers from the Asia Pacific region and are now organised into three main teams. The Land Regeneration and Sustainability Team, the Building Team and the Giving and Philanthropy Team.
As these team names suggest, our efforts are focused on building relationships and raising the funds to sustain and regenerate the land, soil and waterways and to build the retreat cabins and their support buildings. We are doing all this with many peoples’ diverse and incredibly generous forms of support so expert meditators can come and focus their efforts to fathom nature of mind in collaboration with scientists as per the CCR vision.
Land Regeneration
To date there has been a lot of work done regenerating the land and waterways to prevent erosion and excessive land slips in this highly geo-active landscape. We have so far planted many small poplar trees on steep slopes, sprayed grass-seed mix onto even steeper slopes, repaired waterway culverts and drainage systems and graded or repaired roads damaged by lots of rain.
This image shows some of the extent of the regeneration through replanting of native species that awaits us in order to repair the land. We will practice carbon farming at the same time by drawing down excess carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in trees, grasses and soils.
Eco-friendly
In relation to Jhampa Ling’s future buildings, we have done extensive work researching passive house design principles. This will help us build cabins and support buildings (including a volunteer building), that not only work with the environment in look and feel but reduce the carbon footprint of the entire project to ideally achieve carbon negative status year on year. We will employ solar power, hydro power and capture rain water for drinking and washing in our eco-friendly and self sufficient cabins. In all, we aim to be taking out more carbon from the atmosphere than we add to it.
