Jun 9, 2026

In a time of overlapping crises and constant change, many of us are asking how to meet the world’s challenges without burning out or shutting down. This heartful online conversation explores how mindfulness and contemplative practice can nourish the people working for human rights, diplomacy, and social transformation, so that dignity, care, and connection can become a lived reality in everyday life.

Host Alejandro Chaoul will be joined by three pioneers at the intersection of inner work and social change: Jon Kabat-Zinn, who helped bring Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction into mainstream medicine and public life; Rhonda Magee, whose work brings mindfulness into law, higher education, and movements for justice; and Mara Arizaga, who leads the Well-Being Unit and Mindfulness Initiative at the UN Human Rights Office. Together, they will reflect on the recent UN General Assembly event “United and Present: Global Solutions from Within” and share practical ways that inner practice can support wiser, more compassionate action in our institutions, communities, and daily lives.

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Resource: The Universality of Meditation, a 2025 report prepared under the United & Present Initiative led by the United Nations Human Rights Office

About the Presenters

Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., did his doctoral work in molecular biology at MIT in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate Salvador Luria and is a professor of medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he founded the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society in 1995, and (in 1979) its world-renowned Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Clinic. He is the author of numerous influential books on mindfulness, including Full Catastrophe Living, Wherever You Go, There You Are, Mindfulness for Beginners, and the more recent Mindfulness Meditation for Pain Relief and expanded anniversary editions of earlier works. His books, published in more than 45 languages, have helped bring mindfulness into mainstream medicine, psychology, education, business, law, social justice work, and beyond, and he continues to teach and offer talks and retreats worldwide, including extensive online offerings during the Covid-19 pandemic. More about Jon Kabat-Zinn.

Rhonda V. Magee is a professor emeritus and founding director of the Center for Contemplative Law and Ethics at the University of San Francisco, and the founder of the Mount Iris Meditation Community, a meditation community dedicated to “Soulhearted Mindfulness” for healing ourselves and transforming the world. Professor Magee is a leading mindfulness teacher and practice innovator with a focus on applying mindfulness to the hardest challenges of our times. She is an internationally-recognized teacher, guide and mentor, focused on integrating mindfulness into higher education, law and social change work. A prolific author, she draws on law and legal history to weave storytelling, poetry, analysis and practices into inspiration for changing how we think, act and live better together in a rapidly changing world.

Mara Lisa Arizaga is head of the Well-Being Unit at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), where she led the OHCHR Mindfulness Initiative, launched in 2021 to promote mindfulness practices and mental well-being across the UN system, and where she now leads the United & Present Strategy, which aims to support the integration of well-being, presence, resilience, and inner capacities into institutional culture and multilateral work. A certified mindfulness teacher and leadership coach, she holds a doctorate from the University of Bern and the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris, where her research focused on the transmission of contemplative traditions to the West. Her work focuses on supporting well-being, resilience, and compassionate leadership in human rights settings.

Alejandro Chaoul, Ph.D. (host) serves as director of research for Ligmincha International. He has studied in the Tibetan traditions since 1989, including since 1991 in the Bön Tradition. He holds a Ph.D. in Tibetan religions from Rice University and is scholar and founding director of the Mind Body Spirit Institute at the Jung Center of Houston. For the last more than 25 years he has been teaching and researching the benefits of Tibetan mind-body practices for people touched by cancer. He is a Contemplative Fellow at the Mind & Life Institute, and is the author of Chöd Practice in the Bön Tradition (Snow Lion, 2009), Tibetan Yoga for Health & Well-Being (Hay House, 2018), and Tibetan Yoga: Magical Movements of Body, Breath, and Mind (Wisdom Publications, 2021).