From the Editors

Dear Members and ACMHE Contacts,

Once again we’re uplifted and energized by the reports from you and your colleagues and astonished at the range and scope of the contemplative higher education enterprise. From Harvard Business School to Bhutan, the moment for bringing contemplative awareness into new and wider contexts has arrived.

As another academic year begins, we rededicate ourselves toward supporting this growing network. Membership has grown to 730 members. If you are not yet a member, please strengthen your connection by joining us. We are stepping up to provide additional resources and expanded opportunities to share questions and discoveries, and to connect you with one another more effectively.

Of course, for connection, nothing can replace being fully present at a Contemplative Mind event.  We want to extend a special invitation to come to our Retreat for Educators at the Garrison Institute, right before Thanksgiving this year. This four-day retreat with Arthur Zajonc and Mirabai Bush is an opportunity to deepen your practice and be with colleagues in a wonderful contemplative environment. You may feel that it is difficult to justify a retreat as professional development, but supporting your personal practice is crucial to developing your contemplative pedagogy. The retreat is designed for higher education professionals, but is appropriate for secondary school educators as well. Learn more and register here. 

At our events, we often hear participants express their desire to continue the conversations and collaborations after everyone has returned home. We hope to be able to support this wish through ACMHE.org. Our website has recently been updated with new networking features that allow you to easily create and join "circles," which are groups focused on particular topics (visit our circle for the 2011 Summer Session on Contemplative Curriculum Development). Members are invited to visit ACMHE.org, update your profile, connect to your colleagues, and join or create a circle that interests you (how about one on writing, social justice, or environmental studies?).

Carrie has recorded some video tutorials to help members use the new networking features of ACMHE.org. Learn how to log in and edit your user profile, and soon we'll have videos about making connections to other members, joining and creating circles, and adding events to the online calendar. We encourage all members to hop online, get connected, and let us know if you have any questions!

Sincerely,
    
Beth Wadham and Carrie Bergman
Program Associates
The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society
& The Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education

Cultivating the Executive Mind: Is Mindfulness the Key to 21st Century Economic Survival?  A Webinar with Jeremy Hunter, Assistant Professor, The Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management September 28, 2011, 3:00-4:00 pm EDT

Introducing Dick Sclove

We are delighted that Richard (Dick) Sclove joined The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society to direct the Teaching and Learning Centers Project (TLC—you have to love the acronym!). He is Founder and Senior Fellow of the non-profit Loka Institute, through which he has advanced institutional initiatives to broaden popular engagement in research and in technological decision-making in the U.S., Canada, Western Europe, East Asia, and Australia. He recently co-founded ECAST, the U.S.-based Expert & Citizen Assessment of Science & Technology network, and served as U.S. Advisor to World Wide Views on Global Warming, the first globe-encompassing citizen deliberation in world history (2009).

Dick is author of Democracy and Technology, and his articles have appeared in The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Technology Review, and Science magazine. He holds advanced degrees from MIT in nuclear engineering and political science and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Dick has been practicing meditation since 1984 and lived with his family at Bal Ashram in Benares, India during academic year 2006-07. He is something of a wizard with a camera, and we’ve been enjoying the amazing photos he includes in his reports. A warm welcome to Dick, and may the TLC project flourish under his direction.

University Teaching and Learning Centers (TLC) Project

Richard Sclove, Teaching and Learning Centers Project Director

A new project to support contemplative pedagogy on individual campuses is focusing on college and university teaching and learning centers (TLCs) as promising sites.

There are currently over 200 TLCs on college and university campuses in the US. TLCs at Vanderbilt University and Middlebury College have already demonstrated interest in encouraging contemplative pedagogy, though hosting speakers and developing web resources.

To plan the TLC project, the Center has convened a strategic planning workshop on Sept. 10, 2011 at Amherst College. The meeting includes representatives from Brown, Fairfield, Vanderbilt, Notre Dame, and the University of Virginia, as well as the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) in Higher Education network, the group that links TLCs nationwide.

The intended outcome of the workshop will be a three-year plan for developing contemplative pedagogy on campus via TLCs, as well as a list of schools that are willing to partner with the Center in implementing this strategy. In addition, the Center will use the results of this workshop to inform fundraising for this initiative.

The Center will also present two sessions on contemplative pedagogy during the 2011 Annual POD conference. We expect this to be an important venue for beginning to reach out to TLCs across the U.S. (See POD Conference Sessions under Upcoming Events, below.)

Contemplative Pedagogy and the African-American Higher Education Community

Beth Wadham, with appreciation to Renée Hill for meeting notes

Participants, left to right: Renée Hill, Suji Sutler, Brad Grant, Rhonda Magee, Veta Goler, Oliver Hill, Linda-Susan Beard, Cheryl Talley, Carolyn Brown, Zewe Serpell, Dick Sclove, Carolyn Jacobs. (Richard Sclove photo)

As a step towards exploring ways of ensuring that contemplative pedagogy develops with sensitivity to racial, ethnic, class and religious diversity, the Center convened a group of Contemplative Practice Fellows and other contemplative educators, including several from historically black colleges and universities, for a one-day workshop to focus on outreach to the African-American higher education community. Participants in the June 18th workshop at Howard University in Washington, DC included Carolyn Jacobs, Rhonda Magee and Brad Grant from the Center’s Board, as well as Professors Renée Hill and several colleagues from Virginia State University, Linda-Susan Beard (Bryn Mawr College) and Veta Goler (Spelman College).

The workshop prepared some of the participants for a panel presentation at the POD (Professional and Organizational Development in Higher Education Network) Conference, October 26-30, 2011 in Atlanta, GA. (See below: Upcoming Events.) The annual POD conference this year is being co-organized with the Historically Black Colleges & Universities Faculty Development Network (HBCUFDN).

The conversation was intended to increase understanding and possibly extend the range of practices used in higher education to be more inclusive, welcoming and rooted in the lives of diverse groups.

The group explored whether there are contemplative practices that might have greater familiarity and resonance for those with African American background, and whether there was a difference between the needs of students at historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) and predominately white institutions (PWI).

The group noted that contemplative practices in African-American contexts have tended historically to be more collective than individual, and that the inward contemplative experience is often engendered though an outward, expressive practice (such as drumming, song, dance, or story). Practice tends to be shared, part of a ritual, and relational.

One participant remarked that inasmuch as the contemplation is deeply rooted in human experience, it may be helpful to consider that practices don’t need to be taught as much as they need to be found. African-American professors and students can connect to practices already in use, such as spoken word, storytelling, gospel, the blues, “sharing of heart” and “getting real.” A contemplative approach can help to surface and raise up contemplative understanding that is already there.

The group generated a list of practices during the brainstorming session, but tempered it with the understanding that the successful teacher of contemplative practice is a practitioner first, and wondered whether “there can be a manual.”  It’s the attitude, the process of teaching that’s important. Contemplative teaching creates relationships in the classroom and a community of support. While one can learn methods, and know theories and pedagogy, it is important for teachers and professors to be grounded in their own practice and open to the culture of the students: begin where you are—and honor the cultural context of the people you are with. One of the take-home lessons that emerged: “Start with listening and respect; there is an opening for each different group.”

The meeting at Howard was a first step in the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society's new racial, ethnic and religious diversity initiative which will inform future practices and programs.

Contemplative Dimensions of Leadership
Leading from the periphery requires great mindful awareness

Published on May 29, 2011 by Arthur Zajonc in The Meditative Life, his blog at Psychology Today

Last week I came together for the third time with a remarkable group of around twenty leading academics from Boston area universities who teach leadership courses for those working in business, government, education and NGOs. At our first two meetings we had spoken together about the real and potential contributions of mindfulness to leadership and leadership education. We heard from each other about efforts to integrate contemplative exercises into courses on leadership, and also learned about the opening of a new Center for Mindful Leadership. For our third meeting the founder of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, Jon Kabat Zinn, who is a member of our group, kindly consented to lead a three-hour retreat and conversation on contemplation and leadership. On the morning of our meeting I sent around a letter concerning our theme. I’d like to include it here to invite you all into the question concerning the contemplative dimensions of leadership.

Celebrating Five Years: Contemplative Education Center at Mahidol University

Michael Ernest Jones, Chair of the PhD Program at the Contemplative Education Center, Mahidol University

The Contemplative Education Center (CEC)at Mahidol University, Salaya, Thailand is celebrating its fifth year as a center of contemplative and transformative practices.

The CEC represents a historic movement – a spiritual renaissance – of a traditional approach to passing on the wisdom of life. Over the past three decades in Thailand, a growing number of networks composed of spiritually minded individuals have been forming communities of practice with education as the centerpiece of their movement. This growing spiritual movement is rooted in historic Thai Buddhist practices whereby contemplation, spiritual law, and peaceful and skillful daily living were the core subjects taught by the village monks before contemporary education reform supplanted these routines. The chaotic life of sudden modern development has inspired an emergent trend towards embracing the values that had previously created a rich cultural and historical heritage of peace, freedom, and mindfulness, yet given a contemporary outlook.

This movement has infiltrated many levels of Thai society and particularly caught the imagination of many educators and academic institutions. A vibrant network of enthusiasts from a variety of disciplines in the fields of medicine, business, engineering, and social sciences saw the need for an institution to be a model for further developing a transformative approach to education in the form of contemplative education. This network of influential educators, doctors, and social scientists formed a plan to create a center that would promote the contemplative and transformative approach at every level of education in Thai society. Their ideas were proposed to Mahidol University, one of Asia’s leading medical, technical, and social science academic institutions and in July 2006, the Mahidol University Council resolved to establish a Contemplative Education Center.

Recognizing the importance of education for inner development, the goal of this establishment was determined to inspire schools to integrate contemplative, transformative, and innovative approaches into their curriculum across the nation. Additionally, in order to prevent isolation from the benefits of contemporary and collegial influences, the Center’s mandate includes advocating and promoting networking in the fields of contemplative and transformative education beyond Thailand regionally and internationally. And not only is the Center focused on learning and networking, but there is also a focus on collaborating with civic society to give communities skills to transform and grow across social, cultural, and personal boundaries.

Shaping Communities for the 21st Century
The mission of the Contemplative Education Center has been shaped to provide the means to transform oneself within an educational community that utilizes the spiritual heritage of Thailand interlaced with the spiritual foundations of global culture. The transformative measure of change will be found in the degree of personal happiness and meaning acquired that is not derived from the deprivation or harm to other beings. In these regards, the Center aims to be recognized as an essential link in the network of those institutions that influence the vital change necessary to establish a civil and sustainable future for all humans, notably through contemplative practices.

Contemplative practices are at the core of the academic program and are believed to be the sort of skills that are deemed essential for the 21st century. As part of the effort to create a dynamic learning community of practice, rigorous and innovative student research is shaped and supported by academic mentors who demand excellence and visible means to personal transformation, making significant contributions to the field, and becoming skilled practitioners of contemplative and transformative arts. Coursework, training, and workshops are employed to inspire the further development of personal meaning with the type of goodness and elegance that invigorates the lives of others; enlarges the contexts of awareness; ennobles social cultures with graceful diversity; enhances environments with enduring sustainability; and illuminates human wonderment with thoughtful design and execution of intuitive creativity.

Learning at the Contemplative Education Center is signified by the mindfulness and strength of character that allows one to apply 21st century life-long learning skills in the healing of the global ills that afflict humanity. The Center has a Master’s program in Contemplative Education and does training in many contexts – from large corporations (e.g., Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand) to community NGOs. The Center looks to spread its training to more corporate settings and offer graduate-level credit for participants.

In the works for 2012 are two new international graduate programs – a Master’s and a PhD program in Contemplative & Transformative Arts. These programs aim to prepare students for living creative, peaceful, holistic and sustainable futures in the rapidly changing 21st century. Interdisciplinary programs will incorporate art & movement; science & humanities, technology & community development, business & sustainable environmental development, and meditation & spiritual practices that serve transformation of self, understanding of other, and the creation of a compassionate and happier world together.

Happy Fifth anniversary CEC! May there be many more so that many more people will be served.

New Post Graduate Diploma in Guidance and Counseling at Royal University of Bhutan

Jane Carpenter, Associate Professor, B.A. Contemplative Psychology, Naropa University

Over the last three years, Naropa University, a contemplative university in Boulder, Colorado, has collaborated with the Royal University of Bhutan (RUB) to bring mindfulness curricula into the fields of education and psychology in Bhutan. This collaboration has included the development of a Post-Graduate Diploma in Guidance and Counseling as well as teacher trainings. Members of the Naropa faculty have had the opportunity to visit, teach, and coordinate trainings at the RUB over the last few years.

An important aspect of Naropa’s contemplative approach is the willingness to extend ourselves and our mindfulness outwards. I was delighted, therefore, to continue the strong relationship between Naropa and the RUB and support it in launching the new Post-Graduate Diploma in Guidance and Counseling (PGDGC) last winter in Bhutan. One of the main reasons that we were invited was RUB’s strong interest in the contemplative approach to counseling and psychology as taught at Naropa.

Most of the Post-Graduate Diploma program’s participants are “teacher- counselors” or school counselors selected from schools around the country. The PGDGC is a low-residency program where students attend classes for three weeks during the winter and two weeks during their summer breaks, along with completing experiential and academic work throughout the year at their home sites.

I arrived in Samtse, Bhutan, on the Indian border, on December 24th, along with my Naropa colleague, Karen Kissel Wegela. We began our work by leading a five-day mindfulness retreat for RUB faculty and staff on December 25th. After the faculty retreat, we were greeted by Samtse College officials with a beautiful celebratory opening ceremony calling on the Buddhist lineage and the local deities to bless the launching of the Post-graduate Diploma in Guidance and Counseling.

The program began. We offered the students some key teachings on the counseling theory of Contemplative Counseling and Psychotherapy which were very well-received. It was particularly exciting for the students, faculty, and staff participants to discover that the teachings of their own Bhutanese Buddhist heritage were not only accessible outside of the monasteries but also practical in their work with clients. For example, when we taught the six realms of existence – as presented by Chögyam Trungpa, the founder of Naropa – as different psychological realms, the participants were astonished. These realms, which they had heard about their entire lives and had been used to discipline them as children, were actually useful in their awareness of their own and their clients’ experiences!

Going forward, these students will continue to explore the practicality of their Buddhist heritage with future Naropa faculty visits offering other opportunities to apply the contemplative principles to their counseling work in Bhutan. The future vision for the program includes opening it up to other professionals who serve the greater Bhutanese community, including medical professionals. The program is also laying the foundation for the development of a Master’s degree in Contemplative Psychology in Bhutan. This has been a rewarding collaboration for both universities, and we look forward to working closely together in the future.

University of Texas Students Write Book on Zen

Margaret Syverson

Photo by Ben Syverson

Recently published by Appamada, True Beginner's Mind is a book written by students in my UT Rhetoric and Writing class, Non-Argumentative Rhetoric in Zen. These students had no previous experience with Zen. Over the course of the fall 2010 semester, as they were reading Zen teachings, practicing meditation and inquiry, and keeping ongoing observations about their experience, they each drafted a chapter about their experience for this book.

The class focused on the special way that Zen uses language that differs from argument and persuasion, the customary approaches to rhetoric in the West. We focused on the uses of contradiction, negation, surprise, story, silence, and gesture as transformational uses of language, in contrast to the linear logic of western argument. In the class, students were first introduced to foundational teachings and influential teachers, followed by a look at how meditation practice impacts the brain, and concluding with a text that challenges many of the tacit assumptions about Zen held even among Zen practitioners and scholars, Dale Wright’s masterful Philosophical Meditations on Zen Buddhism. 

Each class began with 15 minutes of stillness and silence, followed by five minutes of personal freewriting that was private to the student. The rest of the class was structured around one major writing project and three kinds of inquiry. inquiry into rhetoric and writing, inquiry into the texts we were reading, and inquiry into the practice and traditions of Zen. In this way, students determined the direction of the class as it unfolded. The product of these inquiries forms the basis of the chapters of this book.

The students were responsible for all aspects of the development of the book. The cover and book design were done by Ben Syverson. It is obviously not as polished as the work of a professional writer, carefully honed by a professional editor. But we left the students’ work exactly as they produced, edited, and revised it, because the freshness and awkwardness and occasional errors convey something important in their own voices. 

We hope readers will enjoy their initial, sometimes hilarious misconceptions about Zen, and appreciate the sincerity and intrigue of their unfolding experience. The twenty-two essays are each very different; this was a surprise to the students themselves. Since they shared the same readings, the same class discussions, the same inquiry process and the same teacher, they expected their chapters would be roughly “the same” as well. 

This book is the result of the second experiment in my teaching of writing: crafting a book with students to help them situate their writing in the larger conversations on contemporary topics. The first book, Ethics and New Media, was created a couple of years ago, and was based on students’ original research into the ethical dilemmas with new media experienced by their peers. 

True Beginner’s Mind is the first book under the brand new Appamada imprint, which will publish books about contemporary Zen practice. It is in the Liberating Intimacy series, which is intended to present the voices of Zen students as they engage with Zen teachings, their meditation practice, and their teachers.

California State University Mindful Campus Faculty Group

Peggy Dufon

California State University-Chico’s Faculty Initiative for Transformative Learning has changed its name to The Mindful Campus Faculty Group. The Mindful Campus also includes a student group, led last year by Jennifer Christian, a senior in psychology. Each group focuses specifically on the needs of its membership and work together in a mutually supportive way to bring mindfulness and contemplation to our campus.

The 2010-2011 AY included many educational events for faculty, students and community. Funds from a CELT (Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning) Impact Grant enabled us to invite two speakers on contemplative pedagogy to our campus.

Anne Beffel, Associate Professor of Art at Syracuse University, public artist, and a Contemplative Practice Fellow, whose visit was co-sponsored by the Art Department, visited for two days, speaking to faculty from across the campus on “Mindfulness in the Art Classroom: Exploring the Intersection of Art, Social Psychology and Contemplative Practice” and working with art students.

Michelle Francl, professor of chemistry at Bryn Mawr College, and a Contemplative Practice Fellow, spoke on Contemplative Practices in the (Science) Classroom. Michelle also had an opportunity to meet with the chemistry faculty to discuss how she incorporates contemplative practice.

Because Chico State has a high degree of interest in sustainability, we asked Elizabeth Allison, PhD, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness at the California Institute of Integral Studies to speak on The Contemplation of Nature / The Nature of Contemplation: Strategies for Sustainability in an Age of Global Change.

Because of Chico State’s strong interest in Civic Engagement, Donald Rothberg, PhD, author of The Engaged Spiritual Life: A Buddhist Approach to Transforming Ourselves and the World, and a meditation teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, was invited to speak on Mindfulness, Contemplative Practice and Civic Engagement. His visit to Chico was co-sponsored by the Heart of the Lotus Sanga at the Sky Creek Dharma Center.

We also sponsored seven workshops on mindfulness practices for the campus and community, which included Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, Qi Gong, Contemplative Writing, Mindful Belly Dance and Healing Music.

In May, we held a campus day of meditation entitled Pause: Calm Your Body, Clear Your Mind. The event was held on the final day of classes and particularly targeted students, who were preparing for final examinations, although faculty, staff, and community members were also invited to attend. The event was held in Selvester Hall overlooking the creek, which could be used as the focus point by those who so desired. Seven meditation teachers from a variety of religious and secular traditions volunteered their services to teach meditative and contemplative techniques. Approximately 60 to 70 people attended, many staying for multiple sessions. Many expressed their gratitude for the opportunity to meditate together on campus and their desire for a permanent meditation space and future such events. In addition to calming our bodies and clearing our minds, we were able to enhance our sense of community.

Calls for Papers

The International Symposia for Contemplative Studies seeks to encourage and help shape a cohesive interdisciplinary field of contemplative studies in which basic and applied science, scholarship, education, and contemplative traditions collaboratively develop an integrated way of knowing in which first- and third-person perspectives are equally and synergistically included.

The Mind & Life Institute, serving as the coordinator of this collaboratively organized International Symposia, is soliciting proposals for concurrent symposia, workshops, panels, roundtables, paper presentation sessions, and poster sessions. Each of these types of sessions will be allocated 1 ½ hours of time within the program. Submissions may focus on conceptual, theoretical, empirical, and/or methodological issues. Proposals that are integrative and cut across traditional disciplines are particularly encouraged, although discipline-specific proposals also are sought.

For more information and submission guidelines and instructions, visit: http://contemplativeresearch.org/proposals

Submissions will be accepted through September 30, 2011. Notifications of acceptance will be issued starting October 15, 2011. Accepted presenters will receive a discount code with their acceptance to register for the discounted pricing of $475.

Paideusis invites submissions for a special themed issue on relationships among
Contemplative Practice, Education, and Socio-Political Transformation

See: http://journals.sfu.ca/paideusis

Deadline: January 15, 2012

Issues and questions authors might consider include the following:

• What complexities attend the inclusion of contemplative practices in educational settings?
• What characterizes a practice as contemplative?
• What characterizes, or could characterize, or should characterize a pedagogy as contemplative?
• Are contemplative practices inherently political? If so, in what sense(s) and/or in what ways? To the extent that contemplation and political action can be considered to be separate, in what ways do contemplative practices facilitate or inhibit socio-political transformation?
• How might contemplative practices work to remove or at least reduce (rather than reproduce and reinforce) forms of social inequity and systemic discrimination operative in a given context?
• To what extent (if at all) do contemplative practices presuppose commitment to a particular world view and related narrative of the limitations and potential of human life?
• What roles should science and technology play/not play in developing contemplative pedagogies?
• Does contemplative education require a spiritual component, or can there be purely secular programs of contemplative education? 

For this issue, Paideusis will consider articles and essays related to the theme. We encourage submissions from scholars, professionals, and educators at any level and in any philosophical tradition. All full paper submissions will be blind reviewed. At any time before the final deadline, contributors are invited to upload submissions to the Paideusis website at http://journals.sfu.ca/paideusis/index.php/paideusis. Final date for all submissions for this themed issue is January 15, 2012.

Guidelines for submission are available on the Paideusis website. Contributors unsure of the fit of their intended submission with the theme of this issue are encouraged to send the co-editors, Dr. Daniel Vokey (daniel.vokey@ubc.ca) and Dr. Claudia Eppert (eppert@ualberta.ca), an abstract describing their intended submission and a brief bio outlining their background relevant to that topic.

Upcoming Events

Webinar: Cultivating the Executive Mind: Is Mindfulness the Key to 21st Century Economic Survival?

with Jeremy Hunter, Assistant Professor, Peter F. Drucker School of Management
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM EDT

Peter Drucker, the founder of the discipline of modern management, asserted that making knowledge workers productive was the key to economic survival for the developed economies. Though knowledge workers use their minds to make a living, are they ever taught to use their minds more effectively? This webinar discusses the decade-old mindfulness program at the Drucker School of Management designed to teach managers to manage themselves.

Jeremy Hunter, PhD has been affiliated with the Peter F. Drucker School of Management since 1999, where he teaches in the Executive Management and MBA programs and has been voted Professor of the Year by students in both courses. Dr. Hunter received his Ph.D. from University of Chicago, an M.P.P. from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, anda B.A. in East Asian Studies from Wittenberg University.

Webinars are free of charge and open to the public. You may register here. We record our webinars, and past webinars may be viewed on acmhe.org/pastwebinars.

Mindfulness in Education:
A Foundation for Teaching and Learning

October 14-16, 2011
Atherton, CA

The Association for Mindfulness in Education is please to announce that registration will soon be open for their 2011 conference, co-sponsored by the Stanford School of Education, and the Stanford Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 2 units of Continuing Education Credits will be available through the Stanford Continuing Studies Department.

Mirabai Bush, founding director of the Center for Contemplative Mind, The Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education, and co-creator of Google's Search Inside Yourself course will deliver the keynote address. Deborah Schoeberlein, author of Mindful Teaching and Teaching Mindfully: A Guide for Anyone who Teaches Anything, and Linda Darling Hammond Ph.D., Professor of Education at Stanford University (where she has launched the Stanford Educational Leadership Institute and the School Redesign Network) will be plenary speakers. Special sessions will be organized for educators of young children, elementary school, middle school, high school, incarcerated students, international students, and other topics. Margaret Cullen of SMART and Amy Saltzman of  Still Quiet Place will lead a Sunday day-long with a dual focus on deepening personal practice and sharing practice with youth.

ACMHE and George Mason University to Co-Sponsor Conference on“Writing and the Contemplative Mind”

October 21-22, 2011
George Mason University, Fairfax, VA

A first collaborative conference between the Association and George Mason University will be held at Mason’s Fairfax, Virginia campus October 21 and 22, 2011. The University’s Center for Consciousness and Transformation will host this two-day event that explores the intersection of mindfulness and writing.

Featured speakers include poet and essayist Jane Hirshfield, who completed extensive studies in Zen Buddhism and three years of monastic practice at a Zen center in California. Jane is author of Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry, as well as several volumes of poetry collections, including the newly released Come, Thief: Poems.

Another keynote presenter at the conference will be 2008 Contemplative Practices Fellow of the ACHME, Michelle Francl. Drawing upon her experiences as a science writer, a newspaper columnist, and co-director of the freshman writing program at Bryn Mawr College, Francl’s presentation is entitled “Writing, Contemplative Practices, and the Whole Person.”

National Public Radio book review commentator Alan Cheuse will also be one of the featured speakers at the conference. He is well-known to audiences nationwide for his regular contributions to NPR’s “All Things Considered.” Cheuse is author of many novels, including the newly released Song of Slaves in the Desert, and he is a professor in the creative writing program at George Mason University.

The conference will feature a choice of workshop experiences related to the interface of reflective practices and writing, and it will provide the opportunity to meet like-minded people who are interested in the intersection of the contemplative mind and the practice of writing. The conference will be held at the Mason Inn, a beautiful new hotel and conference center on the grounds of the university. See www.acc-masoninnandconferencecenter.com

For details about the program and speakers, discount lodging at the Mason Inn, and conference enrollment, visit the web site www.writing-contemplative.com.

Contemplative Mind Panel Presentations at the Annual POD (Professional and Organizational Development Network) Conference

October 26-30, 2011
Atlanta, GA

Two proposals for panel presentations have been accepted to the Professional and Organizational Development Network (POD) Conference. POD has a membership of 1800 and includes faculty, academic administrators, and staff of teaching and learning centers. The presentations will promote the inclusion of contemplative pedagogical methods within teaching and learning centers.

The first, “Design & Use of Contemplative Pedagogy for Higher Education,” features Daniel Barbezat as the lead presenter and panelists from Vanderbilt University’s Teaching and Learning Center.

The second presentation, “Contemplative Pedagogy and Diversity: Creating Collaboration and a Research Agenda,” has a special designation as a collaboration between POD and the Historically Black Colleges & Universities Faculty Development Network (HBCUFDN). It addresses this year’s conference focus on the central role of diversity, and includes panelists of contemplative educators from HBCUFN.

3rd Annual ACMHE Conference: The Contemplative Campus

November 11-13, 2011
Amherst College, Amherst, MA

The conference will focus on contemplative approaches to teaching, learning and knowing taking place campus-wide in institutions of higher education. Contributed papers, a poster session, and artistic presentations as well as plenary speakers, panels and practice sessions will explore the ways that contemplative practices serve higher education. As educators and administrators integrate these practices into classrooms, studios, and co-curricular initiatives, they are learning how they develop greater mindfulness, open heartedness, and insight. Additional program details will be posted to the website soon. Please register by September 30, 2011.

Attendance and Conference Fees:

A limited number of registrations are available with meals included:
$325 / $255 non-member regular / non-member grad student, part-time, or retired. 
$275 / $205 member regular / member grad student/part-time or retired. 
The fee includes reception Friday evening and lunch, dinner and breaks through mid-morning on Sunday.

Without meals:
$275 / $205 non-member regular / non-member grad student, part-time or retired
$225 / $155 member regular / member grad student, part-time or retired
This fee includes reception and breaks but no lunch or dinner on Saturday. However, many restaurants are within easy walking distance of the Amherst campus. 

Contemplative Retreat for Educators

November 17-20, 2011
Garrison Institute, Garrison, NY
With Arthur Zajonc and Mirabai Bush

Our 2011 retreat is designed for secondary school, college and university educators and will offer instruction in a variety of contemplative practices, including contemplative methods adapted for the classroom. These practices cultivate capacities central to teaching and learning--focused attention, kindness and compassion, and contemplative inquiry. Much of the time will be spent in silence, including some silent meals. The final day of the retreat will include discussion of contemplative pedagogy and the relationship of the contemplative perspective to teaching, learning, and knowing.

Our retreats for educators are designed to appeal to participants with a wide range of experience in contemplative practice, from beginners to seasoned practitioners.

Retreat Fee for ACMHE members: $600 single room/$450 double room
Fee for non-members: $650 single room/$500 double room (ACMHE members receive a $50 discount on all ACMHE events.)
A limited number of spaces are available at a $385 scholarship rate.

International Symposia on Contemplative Studies

April 26-29, 2012
Denver, CO

The inaugural 2012 International Symposia for Contemplative Studies, facilitated by the Mind & Life Institute, is a collaborative effort among Centers and Laboratories around the world to explore the correlates and consequences of contemplative practice. The Symposia brings together world-renowned researchers, scholars, teachers, and students in keynote addresses, concurrent master lectures, panels, workshops, and poster presentations.

Contemplative Environmental Studies at the Lama Foundation

July 1-8, 2012
The Lama Foundation, San Cristobal, NM
Registration available after January 1, 2012. Save the date!

Environmental challenges call into question not simply our technological, economic, and political capabilities, but also our fundamental understandings of who we are as a species and how we fit into the broader more-than-human world. Please join us next summer (2012) for a workshop/retreat aimed at better understanding the relationship between environmental engagement and internal growth. Through a combination of focused conversations, artistic exercises, discussions with distinguished scholars, nature walks and regular meditation and other contemplative practices, we will collectively probe the deeper possibilities for personal and environmental commitment.

The Institute will take place in the mountains of northern New Mexico at the Lama Foundation, a breathtaking, secluded, retreat center at 8,500 feet which gets its water from a spring, its energy from the sun and much of its food directly from its gardens. With 100 acres and surrounding on three sides by National Forest land, as well as having a venerable tradition of spiritual exploration (Ram Dass wrote Be Here Now at Lama), the Foundation provides an ideal setting for the Institute.

Many of us have been living split lives: as academics and political actors concerned with environmental issues, on the one hand, and spiritual practitioners, on the other. This Institute provides the opportunity to integrate our professional and personal lives in ways that will enliven our work and advance the awakening of consciousness.

Retrospectives

West Coast Regional ACMHE Conference
Whidbey Institute, Clinton, WA
July 1-3, 2011

Beth Wadham, photos by Carrie Bergman
Read the full report (.pdf)

The first gathering on the West Coast of the ACMHE network brought together over 70 participants for a weekend of practice, presentations, and collegiality. We were graced with unusually brilliant sunshine and treated to the extraordinary hospitality of the Whidbey Institute. It was delightful to join with our existing members and partners from the region as well as meet new friends, including many from Canadian universities.

The conference opened with a plenary panel, “Classroom as Alchemical Container: Educator as Alchemist,” with Heesoon Bai, Tom Culham, Sean Park, Charles Scott, Shahar Rabi and Saskia Tait from Simon Fraser University and Avraham Cohen, from the City University of Seattle (Vancouver, BC site). The group has been working together in the philosophy of education department, and invited those assembled at Thomas Berry Hall to participate in a “checking in” exercise exploring the complexity of the phenomena called consciousness. Each person, in a short phrase, shared (disclosed) some aspect of their inner experience. The exercise allowed for the perception of a “field of intersubjectivity” and how it was affected by each disclosure.

In response to a question about how the exercise might be relevant to the context of a course, Heesoon Bai replied that if one can allow that the classroom is a “container (alchemical),” then it has in it mostly things that are invisible. The alchemist, or educator, can discover and begin to work in a skillful way with the “dark matter, or gross matter” in the container. This container also holds energy, which can “get really hot,” so it almost “cooks” in the process of transformation—and the teacher needs to manage the energy the way a flame is regulated by the amount of oxygen admitted.

Continue reading the full report (.pdf)...

7th Annual Summer Session on Contemplative Curriculum Development
Smith College, Northampton, MA
August 7-12, 2011

Beth Wadham, photos by Carrie Bergman
Read the full report (.pdf)

The Summer Session has grown over the years to serve 40 participants, which means that introductions during the opening circle have taken on the qualities of a “Zen exercise” in brevity. One-two sentences each, to say name, department, institution, and, at Mirabai Bush’s request, “Why you really came.”

The invitation to go directly to the essence of the matter started the group off well for a week of extraordinarily honest and engaged connection. Participants came seeking “tools to help student’s wake up,” “put heart into teaching,” “to be with others who are thinking and feeling contemplatively,” as well as “to escape from the Texas sun.”

Daniel Barbezat, Professor of Economics at Amherst College, introduced his presentation on “The Paradox of Self-Control” with his own admission that paradox, and living in contradiction is not easy. It’s often unpleasant. On this particular morning, Dan had been preparing to say farewell to his youngest child upon her departure to college. He stood before the group sad, happy and confused. Sad to say goodbye, happy for her independence, confused about whether he wanted to be here or home and wondering what at it all means. This, he asserted, is what economics is like.

One way to reduce scarcity, he began, is to “get more stuff.” Another is to want less. To understand supply and demand, Dan finds it essential to look at our wanting. Without understanding wanting, he remarked, we can’t understand scarcity.

In his economics classroom, he invites his students to examine, “What is your deepest, truest wanting?”  This identification of preferences is at the heart of economics. Wanting arises constantly and is simultaneously contradictory. The paradox is you can’t always get what you want, not least because your wants themselves are often in conflict.

He engages students in an exercise, without giving much context, and only afterward presents the theoretical models that demonstrate economic behavior. In this way, they can see if their own experience maps (or not) with the theory. While as a teacher, he can’t control the outcomes in this process, he respects the integrity of this approach and finds the degree to which “students are sovereign to their own experience” make it worth the risks involved.

Continue reading the full report (.pdf)...

Join the Summer Session Circle

We've set up a circle on acmhe.org to serve as a container for discussion and information-sharing about the 2011 Summer Session on Contemplative Curriculum Development. Log into your account and visit the circle to view videos of the presentations, download Powerpoints, browse the photo album, and continue the conversation.

Recent Publications

Willoughby Britton and Harold Roth and two undergraduate students at Brown University have a research article accepted for publication in the journal, Psychosomatic Medicine.

RE: Manuscript Number PSY10-526R2
“Mindfulness Training Improves Interoceptive Awareness to Sexual Stimuli: Implications for Healthy Female Sexuality.”
Authors: Gina Silverstein, Annie Brown, Harold Roth, Willoughby Britton.

Willoughby writes, “I think it’s noteworthy that the first and second authors are undergraduates, and Psychosomatic Medicine is a top tier medical journal (impact 4.2). We are very proud. This is also the first article to demonstrate that meditation training increases interoceptive (i.e. body) awareness. Increased body awareness is associated with a host of positive psychological health variables (decreased depression, anxiety and negative self-evaluation, and increased well-being and self compassion. And this research is taking place in a regular college classroom (not a clinic).”

Maughn Gregory sent notice of his recent publications relevant to Contemplative Mind:

• Gregory, M. “Philosophy for Children and its Critics: A Mendham Dialogue,” Journal of Philosophy of Education, Vol.45, No. 2 (2011), 199-219.
• Gregory, M.: Review of Martha Nussbaum, Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities in Studies in Philosophy and Education, Vol. 30, No. 4 (2011), pp. 419-427.
• Weinstein, J. “Teaching Philosophy to Children” Interview of Maughn Gregory on Prairie Public Radio show, “WHY: Philosophical Discussions about Everyday Life,” broadcast July 10, 2011 with international online simulcast. The Podcast is available at www.philosophyinpubliclife.org.
• Naji, S.: “Philosophy for Children: Where Are We Now? An Interview with Maughn Gregory,” posted on the “Philosophy for Children in Iran” website at http://p4c.ir/Index/E-ver/Intreview/maughn-inter.htm, May 2011.

Yuichi Handa has a new book: What does understanding mathematics mean for teachers?  Relationship as a metaphor for knowing. Routledge: New York & London (2011).

Abstract:
In a number of European languages, including French, Spanish, German, and even Latin, there is a distinction that is made in ways of knowing that in the English language has become collapsed into the singular word ‘know.’  To take for example, the French, there is savoir and connaitre. To know in the savoir sense is to know things, facts, names, how and why things work, and so on, but to know in the connaitre sense is to know a person, a place, or even a thing—namely, an other— in such a way that one is ‘familiar with,’ or ‘in relationship with’ this other. In mathematics education, the focus generally tends to be on how learners and teachers know mathematics in the savoir sense, and rarely (if explicitly) in this other connaitre manner. Of course, part of the reason for this may be in the absence of a clear image of what a connaitre manner of knowing mathematics would look like. In light of such a state of affairs, I ask the following question: what might it mean to say that a person is in relationship with mathematics, or knows mathematics in a way that would not preclude a connaitre manner of knowing?

Primarily through phenomenological reflection with a touch of empirical input, I flesh out an image for a person’s connaitre knowing of mathematics. In this undertaking, I turn to a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to human science research and writing that pairs the interpretive/hermeneutic tradition with the descriptive/phenomenological orientation in researching pedagogically related phenomenon. Because my own interests are educational—and in particular, pedagogical in nature—I turn to mathematics teachers and teacher educators to help clarify this image of a connaitre way of knowing. This inquiry then serves the purpose of opening up alternative ways of thinking and talking about ways in which a person can “know” a subject (in this case, mathematics), which in turn, offers reconsideration for what it may mean to be a teacher of that subject.

Read the .pdf: What does understanding mathematics
mean for teachers?

Contemplation Nation, a new anthology edited by Mirabai Bush, offers papers presented at the 2010 Conference on The State of Contemplative Practice in America at the Fetzer Institute. Religious and spiritual teachers, as well as thought leaders from various secular arenas including law, business, and health, reflect on the state of contemplative expression in their respective sectors. These papers offer a range of definitions and provide perspectives on the maturation and practical application of contemplative practice in the United States over the past several decades. Authors include Rhonda Magee, Susan Burggraf, Patricia Jennings, and Mirabai Bush.

Britta Hölzel and Sara Lazar. Photo by Daniel Ontaneda.

Britta Hölzel’s group just wrote a paper about the mechanisms of mindfulness meditation. Here is the reference: Hölzel, B.K., Lazar, S.W., Gard, T., Schuman-Olivier, Z., Vago, D.R., & Ott, U. (in press). "How does mindfulness meditation work? Proposing mechanisms of action from a conceptual and neural perspective." Perspectives on Psychological Science.

Abstract: Cultivation of mindfulness, the non-judgmental awareness of experiences in the present moment, produces beneficial effects on well-being and ameliorates psychiatric and stress-related symptoms. Mindfulness meditation has therefore increasingly been incorporated into psychotherapeutic interventions. Although the number of publications in the field has sharply increased over the last two decades, there is a paucity of theoretical reviews that integrate the existing literature into a comprehensive theoretical framework. In this paper, we explore several components through which mindfulness meditation exerts its effects: 1. Attention regulation, 2. Body awareness, 3. Emotion regulation (including reappraisal and exposure, extinction, and reconsolidation), and 4. Change in perspective on the self. Recent empirical research provides evidence supporting these mechanisms, including practitioners’ self-reports and experimental data. Functional and structural neuroimaging studies have begun to explore the neuroscientific processes underlying these components. Evidence suggests that mindfulness practice is associated with neuroplastic changes in the anterior cingulate cortex, insula, temporo-parietal junction, fronto-limbic network, and default mode network structures. We suggest that the mechanisms described here work synergistically, establishing a process of enhanced self-regulation. Differentiating between these components seems useful to guide future basic research, and to specifically target areas of development in the treatment of psychological disorders.

 

Newly Appointed Brown Neuroscientist Shows Meditation Enhances Control over the Alpha Brain Wave

In a study published in the journal Brain Research Bulletin and covered yesterday in the New York Times Science Section, cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Catherine Kerr, newly appointed by the Brown Contemplative Studies Initiative and the Warren Alpert School of Medicine, and her coauthors conclude that an eight-week course in meditation may modulate a key brain wave called the alpha rhythm, which helps regulate the transmission of sensory input from the surrounding environment. Dr. Kerr will begin her appointment in the Department of Family Medicine this summer and will be teaching two new courses at Brown, "The Cognitive Neuroscience of Meditation" (UNIV 1000) next fall, and "Meditation and the Brain" (UNIV 0090) with Dr. Willoughby Britton of the Medical School's Department of Psychiatry and the Contemplative Studies Initiative in this year's Summer Session. The Contemplative Studies Initiative at Brown, which coordinates the scientific, humanistic, and artistic study of contemplative experience across the curriculum, is widely regarded as a pioneer in this rapidly developing new field. The Times article on Dr. Kerr's study can be found at nytimes.com/

Meditation & Chronic pain on FOX 25 Morning News
Updated: Monday, 09 May 2011, 10:09 AM EDT
Published: Monday, 09 May 2011, 7:56 AM EDT
http://topics.myfoxboston.com/m/40127397/meditation-chronic-pain.htm
Featuring Dr. Catherine Kerr and Dr. Stephanie Jones.

Catherine Kerr will give a presentation of research at the upcoming annual conference of the Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education, November 11-13, 2011

ABC News: Re-Wiring Your Brain for Happiness: Research Shows How Meditation Can Physically Change the Brain. By Dan Harris and Erin Brady, July 28, 2011
http://abcnews.go.com

“Ethical Consciousness in the Classroom: How Buddhist Practices Can Help Develop Empathy and Compassion” was published in the Journal of Transformative Education, 2010, 8(1) 22-41. The author is Vaishali Mamgain, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Southern Maine. The abstract follows.

Some members of the academic community have turned their attention to the use of contemplative pedagogy and find it is a powerful approach that benefits students not only in their education but also in their lives. In traditions such as Buddhism, contemplation has been used as a basis for the development of ethical consciousness and this article suggests that the academic community ought to foster this. This can be done intellectually by not shying away from teaching and discussing virtue ethics. Experientially, professors can help students cultivate a deep sense of ethical consciousness by using contemplative practices that develop heart-felt empathy and compassion. Explicitly introducing central Buddhist virtues (and the practices that develop them), might help students transform their lives. However, with no practical instruction on how to develop empathy, loving- kindness, and compassion, students may find that meditation and contemplative practices do little more than help them rest and relax. 
Keywords: personal transformation, reflective learning, critical reflection 

Christian McEwen’s World Enough and Time: On Creativity and Slowing Down was published September 1, 2011 by Bauhan Publishing in New Hampshire. For more information go to: www.bauhanpublishing.com

Brenda Miller has a new book of essays out about the contemplative life: Listening Against the Stone: Selected Essays, released by Skinner House Books in July. For more information go to: www.brendamillerwriter.com

Lisa Napora’s article “Meditation in Higher Education: The Question of Change, a Current Problem, and Evidence Toward a Solution” came out this summer in a special issue of Biofeedback, Volume 39, Issue 2, focused on meditation and yoga in education. This article examines the process of systemic change in the higher education system, suggests a reframing of meditation in the classroom as a solution to a current societal problem, and advocates for the ability of meditation to address some of the practical concerns of education today.

Daryl Nardick, Senior Project Consultant at the Center for New Designs in Learning & Scholarship Georgetown University and David Levy, Professor, the Information School at the University of Washington, along with colleagues wrote about students' relationship with their personal technologies. The Chronicle of Higher Education published “No Cellphone? No Internet? So Much Less Stress” last month: http://chronicle.com/article/No-Cellphone-No-Internet-So/127391/.

Sharon Solloway, Professor of Mindsets and Mindfulness Practice, Bloomsburg University, has an article in the Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, vol. 7, number 2 entitled "What Does One Do… to Safely Enable and Hold Transformation in a Formal Learning Environment?" This article was an invited response to "The Learning Environment: A Container for Transformation." 

Solloway, S. G. (2010). What does one do . . . to safely enable and hold transformation in a formal learning environment? Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, 7(2), pp. 62-74.

A Guidebook of Promising Practices: Facilitating College Students' Spiritual Development  is now available for download at:
http://spirituality.ucla.edu/publications/promising-practices/default.php
If you'd like to purchase bound copies for $3.89 you can do so through
Amazon: http://amzn.com/1456456857.

Promising Practices summarizes campus-wide initiatives and institutional practices from colleges and universities across the country, and features examples of practices that can facilitate students' spiritual development. This guidebook can serve as a companion to Cultivating the Spirit: How College Can Enhance Students' Inner Lives by Alexander W. Astin, Helen S. Astin, and Jennifer A. Lindholm (Jossey-Bass, 2011). Promising Practices is designed for use by administrators, faculty, student affairs professionals, and student leaders who are committed to supporting students' spiritual development.

Announcements from Members

Cynthia Huntington, poet and professor of English at Dartmouth College taught a week-long workshop, "Writing Into the Silence" at the Fine Arts Work Center Summer Programs in Provincetown, MA in July 2011. This was a generative writing workshop incorporating contemplative practice. The workshop was repeated in Vermont during August.

Joe Martin, Senior Lecturer in Theatre at Johns Hopkins University, and Fellow in Arts and Peace at the Center for Global Peace at American University’s School of International Service in Washington DC, has been selected for a Fulbright Specialists project in East Jerusalem and the West Bank at Al Quds University, from late June to August 2011, according to the United States Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

Martin, also a theatre director, will be consulting with Al Quds University on the establishment of a new theatre program, will do a training intensive workshops, and direct a touring production of Athol Fugard’s The Island with INAD Theatre in Beit Jala, with performances and a forum at Al Quds University as well. Martin’s work can be viewed at www.joemartin.us

Nancy Morrison and Sally Severino presented a workshop entitled “Do People Do Bad Things?” at the annual conference of The Institute on Religion in an Age of Science in Chautauqua, NY, June 18-25, 2011.

Their upcoming workshops include:
10/8/11: “Attachment: Healthy, Unhealthy, Healed,“ retreat at The Madonna House, Albuquerque, NM

10/22/1: “Intersubjectivity in Empathy and Shame: Neuroscience, Psychopathology, and Treatment,” at the conference of The New Mexico Psychoanalytic Society, UNM Continuing Education Building. Albuquerque, NM

10/23/11: “Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Are You Just Neurons After All?” Health Seminar, First Presbyterian Church, Albuquerque, NM

10/29/11: “Sacred Desire: Growing in Compassionate Living” workshop, New Mexico Conference of Churches statewide gathering, Albuquerque, NM

Terry Murray, Assistant Professor in the Humanistic/Multicultural Education Program at SUNY New Paltz, has been exploring approaches to integrating contemplative practices in his college course work over the past 10 years.

The impacts of his course, “Education of Self for Professionals,” are described in his article, "Knowing Self Through the Journey: Graduate Students' Experiences of Self Knowledge Development," Journal of Adult Development (2009) 16:108-128.

In 2008 and 2009, Terry worked with faculty and staff in the Beacon City School District to address the academic, social and emotional needs of incoming freshmen identified as struggling learners. This initiative is described in a edited collection to be released in 2012: "Mirrors and Master Switches: Using Interactive Root metaphors to Support Students' Academic, Social and Emotional Growth and Development," Breaking the Mold of School Instruction and Organization: Innovative and Successful Practices for the Twenty-First Century, Vol. III. Honigsfeld, A. & Cohan, A. (Eds.).

During this period, Terry also explored the use of labyrinths as both models and metaphors for his teaching, group facilitation, and community work. As a culminating activity in the “Education of Self for Professionals” course, students constructed and walked a classic 7-circuit labyrinth. As labyrinths have re-emerged as powerful contemplative tools, Terry has had the opportunity to design and coordinate the construction of two field stone labyrinths: at the entrance to Heritage Middle School in Cornwall, New York, and on the grounds of the Grail Center in Cornwall on Hudson, New York. Both are open to the public and provide a powerful vehicle for supporting and guiding the journey within.

Donna Strickland, Assistant Professor of English at the University of Missouri is delighted to share the news that her collaborative grant proposal (supported by ACMHE), “Contemplative Studies in Higher Education: Balancing Old and New Technologies,” has been funded by the “Mizzou Advantage” initiative at her university.

The project will involve the establishment of a research think tank and learning/outreach center that will offer contemplative practices as a way of intervening in the disruptions to health and cognition that otherwise connective social technologies have introduced and support, and sponsor meetings and brainstorming sessions toward qualitative and empirical research studies on the effects of contemplative practices on higher education and communication. The goals of this center will be to enhance the experience of all students and to disseminate research on the effects of contemplative practices in higher education, including in the development of writing and communication skills that incorporate the benefits of new technologies as they actively work to mediate the challenges.

A physical center will be established on campus to centralize the practice and study. The Student Health Center has committed $50,000 toward renovating a space on campus that will include a practice area for comfortably practicing a range of contemplative practices, including yoga and mindfulness meditation; a seminar room area for holding research meetings, faculty workshops, and academic classes that combine contemplative practices with the study of traditional subjects; and an area for offering biofeedback (which may also be used as an office area for center‘s directors and graduate assistants).

Forgetfulness

Billy Collins

The name of the author is the first to go
followed obediently by the title, the plot,
the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel
which suddenly becomes one you have never read,
never even heard of,

as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor
decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,
to a little fishing village where there are no phones.

Long ago you kissed the names of the nine Muses goodbye
and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,
and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,

something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps,
the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.

Whatever it is you are struggling to remember,
it is not poised on the tip of your tongue,
not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.

It has floated away down a dark mythological river
whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall,
well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those
who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.

No wonder you rise in the middle of the night
to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war.
No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted
out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.