Founder Haridas Chaudhuri
Our Story
For over five decades, we’ve cultivated scholars, healers, seekers, and changemakers through a radically holistic education rooted in consciousness, depth psychology, and spirituality. This is education, fully realized — where intellect meets soul, and learning becomes a path to transformation.
CIIS was founded in 1968 by Dr. Haridas Chaudhuri and his wife, Bina Chaudhuri, as a small institute with a big vision: to give people of all backgrounds and beliefs the opportunity to transform self, society, and earth through integral education and evolution of consciousness.
In San Francisco, during the 1960s, Eastern spirituality and Western psychology converged to birth a new integral consciousness (body, mind, and spirit) and a new model of well-being (self, society, and Earth).
"The educational system, as it operates today, does not take into account the whole person, nor does it take into account the whole world."
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The First School of Its Kind
Hear from Dr. Debashish Benjari, Haridas Chaudhuri Professor and East-West Psychology Chair as he shares the story of how CIIS was founded.
Our North Star
At CIIS, our North Star is the evolution of consciousness—for individuals and for the collective. We are guided by the belief that healing, transformation, and higher awareness are not only possible, but necessary. Through a fusion of academic rigor, spiritual wisdom, and social responsibility, we prepare conscious leaders to shape a more compassionate and awakened world.
CIIS' Seven Commitments
We commit to living our seven cherished values, and in so doing lay the foundation for a strong and unified community built upon wisdom, trust, and collective spirit.
Commitment 1
Embody integral approaches to learning and research
CIIS is committed to studies and practices that cross traditional disciplinary boundaries. We value the intellectual, emotional, spiritual, imaginal, creative, somatic, and social dimensions of human potential.
Commitment 2
Affirm and elevate spirituality
We affirm the importance of the spiritual dimension of life. CIIS is committed to expressing and embodying studies and practices of multiple spiritual and wisdom traditions.
Commitment 3
Advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and social and ecological justice
CIIS strives to reflect the diversity of the world's peoples, cultures, and spiritual traditions. We embrace traditions that support emancipatory movements such as feminism, and social and political liberation.
Commitment 4
Embrace multiple ways of knowing, learning, and teaching
CIIS honors many learning modalities and ways of knowing, providing a rigorous and transformative education across all learning approaches.
Commitment 5
Cultivate innovation and sustainability
Recognizing that business as usual threatens the integrity of life on Earth and perpetuates structures of oppression, we strive to generate creative alternatives leading to a just and flourishing world.
Commitment 6
Nurture and support a flourishing and cohesive community
CIIS is committed to providing a welcoming community for all people, recognizing that acceptance is vital to providing an effective, visionary, and nurturing environment for integral education.
Commitment 7
Foster transformative integral governance
CIIS strives to create holistic organizational interaction among all members of its community. This commitment stands as a constant challenge to try new forms, procedures, criteria, and language that reflects a more progressive and collaborative decision-making process.
What is Integral Education?
Venture beyond the boundaries of traditional academia through coursework and research that combines Eastern, Western, and Indigenous spiritual and intellectual traditions for broader understanding.
The Sri Yantra, A Sacred Symbol
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Dr. Chaudhuri chose the Sri Yantra symbol as a representation of this Integral philosophy. It is a physical representation of Truth as it exists simultaneously in the transcendental and in the everyday.
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The Board of Trustees formally elevated the Sri Yantra as the University’s sacred symbol and adopted the creation of a new University seal that incorporates the Sri Yantra.
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Watch Now – Meaning of the Sri Yantra
Watch Now – Meaning of the Sri Yantra
About Our Founding Symbol
East-West Psychology Dr. Debashish Benjari on the meaning and history of the Sri Yantra.
A Written History of CIIS
It was fall 1950 when a Stanford University professor and an Indian philosophy scholar joined forces to start an innovative school grounded in integral philosophies — the first ever.
Hear more about our written history as told by CIIS' 5th President Robert McDermott.
Venerable Professor Dr. Rina Sircar's Imprint on CIIS
Dr. Rina Sircar is one of the earliest and the first female teacher who brought the wisdom teachings and meditation practices of the oldest school of Buddhism to the United State.
The Professor Rina Sircar Legacy project was made possible by a generous contribution from John Paul Lenney and Mary Pax Lenney.
