"We engage things in our bodies, senses, and memories, and that in and of itself puts us in touch with the deepest layer of meaning, of the essential content of art and craft," write Joanna Ziegler and Christopher Dustin in Practicing Mortality.  One of the Center's first Contemplative Practice Fellows (1997), Jody found both an academic home and a sense of personal connection through The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, a place where bodies, senses, and memories are valued as part of the search for meaning in living artfully.  She regularly presented at the Curriculum Development Summer Sessions, attended retreats, and was sought out as a mentor and advisor.  She will be remembered for her energy, enthusiasm, and open heart.    

Almost anyone who has attended an event sponsored by the Center knows of the contemplative pedagogy Jody developed--having students visit the Worcester Art Museum each week of the semester to view the same abstract painting, to answer the same question week after week: "What do you see now?"  Those who have heard Jody talk about this pedagogy and practice have also witnessed her enthusiasm when she reported the results, as she did at the 2009 Contemplative Heart of Higher Education Conference:

"What takes place is, well, really marvelous - for most students find themselves not only loving the picture by the end of the course, but taking possession of it, referring to it as 'my painting.' And so I can ask them, 'what has changed, then, if not the picture?' And my answer is obvious . . . to them: they have. And this is the place into which I can step, and wonder aloud: 'if your perceptions and opinions, indeed your preconceptions, of a work of art can change so dramatically, imagine what can happen with a human being?'"

Over the years, she framed the discussion of her pedagogy in different ways, discussing the importance of persistence, attentiveness, creativity, and ethics-always emphasizing the importance of relationship and a human's capacity for change.  She understood that students need to face their own preconceptions, fears, and difficult questions.  And she was attentive to facing her own.

In the more than ten months since her diagnosis with pancreatic cancer, Jody experienced the full range of human emotions: optimism, fear, anger, wonder, sadness, hope, and more.  Yet throughout her fight, she desired and sought to keep her focus on beauty and joy.  She kept fresh flowers, corresponded with friends, tried to be present each day in each interaction.  Even when the prognosis was bleak, she was attentive to living fully.  In July of 2010, she returned to southern France, where she planted flowers, delighted in food, shopped, and spent time with people she loved-and who loved her-dearly.

Even as she knew the time of her passing was drawing near, she still sought beauty, finding a place in a hospice facility where she had a view of a garden, the autumn leaves of oaks and maples in full color, and swans on Coes Pond-a place that allowed the company of friends and animals.  Loved ones hung paintings and photographs; brought flowers, cards, music, conversation, and gifts; some sat in silence, simply offering the comfort of presence and a gentle touch.

Jody's work-like her life-was guided by questions.  At her talk at the 2009 summer session, she asked, "Why are we here? Why undertake this work? What do I desire? What is this work?"

In the months before her death, she asked, "What are my goals?  Where do I fit in this universe?"  And less than two weeks before she passed away, she was asking similar probing questions, "How do we talk about the end?" and "How do I let go?"

On the night of November 4, in a candle-lit room with Bach's cello suites playing, Jody "let go."  She was surrounded by beauty and love.

May her legacy-enthusiasm for life, the capacity to ask difficult questions, a pedagogy of attention, a belief in relationships and connection-live on in and through those she inspired.

Friendship is a form of love that is freely given and received, and as such it requires attention and practice. We are born into a family and, if our childhood is fortunate, we are cared for by loving parents. We naturally return that love. In adolescence we learn the torments and delights of romantic love, and the forces of sexual attraction come to figure powerfully in our young (and not-so-young) adult lives. The loves found in family and sexual relationship are rooted in human and animal biology, even if they can be transformed and raised so that much more is at work. But the origins of friendship seem to me to be located elsewhere, in the heavens more than in the earth. The pure love of true friendship is precious and too rare. When found, it can lead us beyond ourselves into the heart of another human being, so that we grow into the world one friend at a time.

When in his mid-thirties, the renowned Islamic scholar Jelaluddin Rumi was surrounded by adoring and devoted students. He nonetheless felt profoundly alone. All of Islamic knowledge was his, yet is lacked a true companion. Unknown to Rumi, the older mystic Shamsi Tabriz had journeyed into the desert seeking an answer to his heart's longing as well. After long fasting and prayer it is said that Shams's search for a companion at his own level of attainment was answered by a voice. "What will you give?" "My head," replied Shams. "Jelaluddin of Konya is your Friend," responded the voice. The deep friendship between these two lasted four years, until Shams's mysterious disappearance or death threw Rumi into the dark depths of despair. Music and song, which he had long rejected for a life of scholarship, now became is sole comfort. Wandering through Konya, it is said that Rumi paused and in the midst of loss, began to speak the poetry that we so love today. The words of Rumi's poetry are the ripe fruit of friendship and loss. Through his friendship with Shams, Rumi grew to know the secrets of union through love. Rumi often ended his poems with the words, And these are the words of Shamsi Tabriz.

Why should I seek more?
I am the same as he.
His essence speaks through me.
I have been looking for myself.

Friendships, whatever their origins, require faithfulness and practice. At first we may not see friendship as part of the meditative life, but I would like to suggest that the practice of friendship is one of our most important contemplative exercises. I would go so far as to say that all preceding practices are but a preparation for the practice of friendship. Recall the lines of Rilke, "For one being to love another, that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is a preparation." The love exchanged in true friendship is, I believe, a particularly precious practice field, one through which we approach our true humanity. What are the practices of friendship? We are helped here by the opening lines of Rumi's poem "The Waterwheel."

Stay together, friends
Don't scatter and sleep.
Our friendship is made
of being awake.

In friendship, as elsewhere, we tend to fall asleep. We take our friends for granted, drift apart, and before long, it is too late to recover the lost friend. Our friendships are made, as Rumi reminds us, "of being awake." Meditation is the practice of true wakefulness, and what better place for being awake than to our friends.

The practice is this. Having settled the mind and prepared the inner room for contemplative attention, place the friend before you. Allow all hindrances to fall away; jealousies, arguments, and neglect are not important. Remind yourself of a moment when he or she appeared to you as they truly are, free of pretense and history. Hold that higher nature before you; rejoice and support it. May this "pearl of great price" find greater strength and brilliance so that it can shine through and animate the life of the friend.

When together next, recall your practice, and listen deeply for the voice of the person you sensed and supported in your practice. Deep, non-judgmental listening is a gift we too seldom offer each other, and the practice of friendship is weak if it lacks this element. You may well find the tenor and tone of the conversation shift so that you each speak more freely from the heart, and discover truths together that each of you alone could never have brought to light. Such truths can change everything. Born in loving conversation -- in what Rumi and Shams called sohbet -- and carried out into the world with the support of a friend, such truths can find their way not only into poetry, but they can also shape the future. The many decades of friendship, for example, between Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony brought the vote to women in 1920.

Mindfulness: Foundation for Teaching and Learning

This 3-day Mindfulness in Education Network event is co-sponsored by the Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education.The weekend begins with a keynote address from Susan Kaiser Greenland, mindfulness educator, researcher and author. 

On Saturday morning a plenary panel will examine the role of mindfulness in learning.Panelists include: Bradford Grant, Professor and Director, Howard University School of Architecture and Design, Wayne Kinder, Leader of Wellness Works in Schools, and Diane Reibel, Director of the Mindfulness Institute at the Jefferson-Myrna Brind Center for Integrative Medicine and Research Associate Professor, Thomas Jefferson University.The afternoon program offers a range of interest group sessions.

Sunday, March 20, from 9 am - 3pm is a "Day of Courage and Renewal," offering practices exploring the inner landscape of the teaching life, based on the principles described in Parker Palmer's Courage to Teach.

For more information and registration please visit the Mindfulness in Education Network website at www.mindfuled.org

Amherst College will host a series of talks and presentations entitled "Throughout the Curriculum: Contemplative Practices in Higher Education" featuring about 10 professors using contemplative pedagogies across many disciplines -- Physics, Economics, English, Environmental Science, Chemistry, Law, Philosophy, Architecture, Music and Psychology.  The presentations will be open to the public and several sessions will offer panels with open discussion. As the event draws nearer, check the ACMHE website for more information about the schedule.

Regional Conference at Whidbey Island

July 1 - 3, 2011
Whidbey Institute at Chinook in Clinton, Washington

Members of our West Coast network are especially invited to attend this conference presenting initiatives in contemplative pedagogy and exploring the ways they serve the academy.  All are welcome.

The weekend will begin with registration, welcome dinner and keynote address  on Friday, July 1^st  at 5 pm. Saturday's program includes speakers, panel presentations, discussion circles and meditation and movement sessions.  The conference will close on Sunday, July 3, at 12 noon.

Speakers and facilitators will include Arthur Zajonc, Professor of Physics at Amherst College and Director of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society; David Levy, Professor at the Information School, University of Washington; and other leaders in contemplative higher education.

Accommodations for Friday and Saturday nights are available at the Whidbey Institute and nearby Aldermarsh.

Program costs:

With accommodations: $400 ($350 ACMHE members)

Without accommodations: $270 ($220 ACMHE members)

More information and registration will be available on the ACMHE and Contemplative Mind websites (www.contemplativemind.org and www.acmhe.org) in January 2011.

August 7 - 12, 2011
Smith College, Northampton, MA

This week of rigorous investigation, reflection, writing and discussion, guided by experienced scholars and contemplative teachers, prepares participants return to their classrooms and institutions with a deeper understanding of contemplative teaching and methods of course development.

Faculty includes:

Arthur Zajonc, Professor of Physics, Amherst College

Linda Susan Beard, Professor of English, Bryn Mawr College

Judith Simmer Brown, Professor of Religious Studies, Naropa University

Additional faculty will be announced.

Program cost: Includes tuition, meals and accommodations at Smith College: $775 ($725 for ACMHE members)

Applications will be accepted beginning January 1, 2011 and are due no later than May 1, 2011. Please visit the websites at www.contemplativemind.org or www.acmhe.org for additional details.

October 7 - 10, 2011
Amherst College, Amherst, MA

The Annual Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education Conference focuses on how contemplative practices cultivate capacities of attention, equanimity, wisdom and compassion, which are central to the lives of students and educators.

The 2011 conference theme and call for papers will be announced in January 2011 on the website at www.acmhe.org.

November 17 - 20, 2011
Garrison Institute, Garrison, NY

Our retreats offer instruction in a variety of contemplative practices, including methods that can be adapted for classroom use. Retreats are designed for participants with a wide range of experience in contemplative practice.

For more information and registration, visit www.contemplativemind.org and www.acmhe.org in January, 2011.

Scientific Explorations of Compassion and Altruism at Stanford University

By Beth Wadham

On Friday, October 15, 2010, Arthur Zajonc moderated the conference on "Scientific Explorations of Compassion and Altruism" to a capacity crowd at Maples Pavilion at Stanford University.  The full-day conference, hosted by the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE), brought together researchers in psychology and neuroscience with the 14^th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso.  His Holiness the Dalai Lama is a funding benefactor of CCARE, and this was his third visit to Stanford to participate in dialogues on understanding and developing compassion and altruism. 

Dr. Gary Steinberg, Director of Stanford Institute for Neuroinnovation and Translational Neuroscience (SINTN), and Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery offered introductory remarks.  He expressed his support for a greater understanding of the impact of neuroscience on society and for developing new methods for "instilling compassionate behavior without necessarily spending 20 years meditating as a monk."

There were two sessions in the morning and two in the afternoon.   Links to video recordings of all the sessions are provided below.

The first session, "The Role of Compassion in Education and the Wider Social Context" included remarks from Jim Doty, founder and director of CCARE, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and Arthur Zajonc.  The session's exploration of how we can cultivate altruism and compassion, "these prized dimensions of humanity," as Arthur Zajonc describes them, will be of particular interest to members of the academic community.  Panelists Linda Darling Hammond, Professor of Education, and Dr. Philip Zimbardo, Professor of Psychology Emeritus, both of Stanford University, examine how compassion and altruism can be brought into social and educational systems and what the benefits might be.

The second session, "Research and Experiments on Compassion," includes presentations from Karl Deisseroth, Associate Professor of Bioengineering and of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University; Bill Harbaugh, Professor of Economics, University of Oregon; and Brian Knutson, Associate Professor of Psychology, Stanford University.

The third session, also on "Research and Experiments on Compassion," features Phillippe Goldin, Research Associate, Department of Psychology, Stanford University;  Erika Rosenberg, Consulting Scientist, Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis; and Jeanne Tsai, Associate Professor of Psychology, Stanford University.

The fourth session, on "Exploring Scientific Questions for Future Research on Compassion and Altruism" features Jim Doty of CCARE and Paul Ekman, Professor of Psychology, Emeritus, University of California, San Francisco.   In the course of all the sessions, His Holiness poses questions and offers his own perspective.

Even if you don't have a chance to view the full sessions, you won't want to miss concluding remarks from Arthur Zajonc near the end of Session 4 (Session 4, 50 minutes in), speaking about the new attention to the inner life by scientists as "a new marriage" between science and spirituality.  He speaks of the potential for an integrated education in which external and internal development have equal emphasis, and concludes with a prayer of service.  In closing, His Holiness remarks that as this group has gathered for academic work over the years, they have developed genuine friendship.  Then there is a ritual placing of scarves, and Arthur and the Dalai Lama are forehead to forehead.

Session 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_xqCg2nIQ8

Session 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmE1L3mX_84

Session 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_AGhAP7pzc

Session 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyfkU8ihdAA

The Contemplative Academy at Amherst College

By Carrie Bergman

The Contemplative Academy, the second conference of the Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education (ACMHE), filled Amherst College's Converse Hall for the weekend of September 24-26, 2010. 130 educators from the US, Canada, Mexico, England, Italy and Dubai attended two and a half days of lectures and presentations exploring the integration of contemplative approaches in higher education.  This year's conference offered 68 presentations, as well as poster sessions and plenary and keynote addresses-an increase over the previous year and one more indicator of how the contemplative education movement continues to grow.

In the conference's opening address, Arthur Zajonc, Professor of Physics at Amherst College and Director of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society and the ACMHE, recalled a conversation with Jerome Murphy, a longtime Dean of the School of Education at Harvard. Murphy stated that his experience with contemplative education began when a TA-a longtime meditator-had, with his permission, introduced contemplation into their leadership seminar with an intriguing result. In previous years, Murphy's students had always complimented the course, finding it very stimulating and well-presented; but once meditation practice was incorporated, the feedback shifted. Now the students were telling him, "This course has changed my life."  But what exactly had contemplative practice contributed to their experience?

As Zajonc observed, a contemplative approach to education integrates intellectual enterprises with students' daily lives. It is a form of experiential learning:  we find new ways of discovering the "answers" traditionally sought through study and research, and our lives become a response to the questions that we carry with us. Contemplative inquiry is an invitation to growth, change, and transformation. But what ongoing responsibility do educators and institutions have to the students they encourage to undertake a serious contemplative practice? And how can we more clearly articulate contemplative modes of inquiry and the benefits of such methods?

Keep reading...

The Sixth Annual Summer Session on Contemplative Curriculum Development at Smith College

By Beth Wadham

The sixth Summer Session, August 8-13, 2010, was the largest yet, with over 40 higher education professionals from the US and Canada, Australia, Japan, Sweden and Saudi Arabia. They gathered at Smith College for a five-day exploration of how contemplative pedagogy can inform course development across disciplines and in within specific fields.   Many also came seeking integration, a way to make whole something that appears fragmented.  In their quest to bring professional vocation and personal meaning into a closer relationship, and to bring a more holistic education to their students, they sought an expanded understanding of learning and teaching, and exposure to new methods.

A faculty of fellows and other leaders in contemplative education, who have been using contemplative methods for many years, gave presentations each morning.  The afternoons were available for independent study, work in small groups or contemplative practice sessions with Arthur Zajonc and Mirabai Bush, Directors of The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society.  The evening programs ranged from a presentation on research supporting contemplative methods to a Funk Buddha hip-hop performance. 

Contemplative Pedagogy: Principles and Design

Arthur Zajonc led off the week with an overview of contemplative higher education in "Contemplative Pedagogy: Principles and Design."  He characterized the situation today as consisting of a number of solo courses taught by over 150 contemplative practice fellows and others; a small but growing number of collaborative faculty networks in a variety of institutions; a handful of programs and concentrations; and a professional membership organization: the Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education.   

Keep reading...

Contemplative Environmental Studies: Pedagogy for Self and Planet

By Paul K. Wapner
Associate Professor of International Relations, American University

The Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education, and the Fetzer Institute sponsored a workshop last summer titled, "Contemplative Environmental Studies: Pedagogy for Self and Planet."  The workshop brought together professors from over 30 colleges and universities to discuss and develop pedagogical orientations toward addressing global environmental challenges. 

We live at a unique time on earth.  Climate change, loss of biological diversity, fresh water scarcity and similar environmental issues are undermining the quality of life for many and, in the extreme, threaten the fundamental organic infrastructure that supports all life on the planet.  Our predicament is further complicated by the fact that these issues call into question not simply our political, economic and social institutions, but also our fundamental understandings of who we are as human beings, and how we fit into the broader more-than-human world.  How do we, as educators, approach the magnitude and stakes involved with global environmental dangers?  How do we teach about such issues in meaningful ways?  How do we appreciate and communicate the profundity of such challenges without getting overwhelmed or otherwise falling into despair and hopelessness?

We wrestled with these questions at the Lama Foundation, in the Sangre de Christo Mountains of northern New Mexico.  Sleeping in tents, eating local food, using electricity powered by the sun, and drinking water from a spring, we tried to remind ourselves of and celebrate our interdependency with the earth, and to live through the questions mentioned above.  Critical to our efforts was exploring the place of contemplative practices in our research and teaching.  Each day, we meditated, practiced yoga, and undertook art exercises aimed at heightening our appreciation for the relationship between internal and external experience and change.  Furthermore, we shared lessons learned from our own teaching and programmatic development at our home institutions.

One of the highlights was learning from our guest teachers, Richard Falk, David Abram and Nicole Salimbene.  Each of these people offered wisdom about how to address environmental challenges mindful of social justice, ecological consciousness, and artistic sensibility. 

The workshop's ultimate aim was to provide support for colleagues who recognize the importance of contemplative practices in coming to terms with ecological challenges, and to fashion a discipline in which contemplative practices are embraced as forms of inquiry in the ongoing effort to make sense of, and respond meaningfully to, environmental issues in our students and ourselves.  Toward this end, we created many opportunities for formal and informal exchange, and developed tools for continuing, what Thomas Berry has called, the "great work." 

One of the conclusions of the workshop is that environmental dangers both pose profound challenges and offer significant opportunities.  In terms of opportunity, they call on us to explore more deeply our humanity.  For example, they offer the chance to notice the deep sadness that accompanies knowledge about environmental issues, and the love for what is being lost.  Furthermore, they heighten our sense of planetary interdependency and consciousness, and enable us to dignify the suffering of others with our sustainability efforts.  During the workshop we shared our experiences with coming to terms with the many dimensions of being human in the context of our unique socio-ecological moment. 

Most participants came away with a deeper appreciation for the importance of environmental education, and the indispensability of enlarging the palette of pedagogical tools to include contemplative practices.  That is, we developed an understanding of both the biophysical and existential dimensions of environmental issues, and sought wisdom about how to teach and productively appreciate the connections between them.  We left feeling more hopeful about the promise of environmental studies in higher education, and more committed to advancing the field and the field's contribution to responding global environmental affairs.   

The emergence of recent and anticipated publications on contemplative pedagogy in higher education demonstrates a growing interest in contemplative theories and practices.

	Keith Kroll, Professor of English at Kalamazoo Community College, is editor of a special issue on Contemplative Teaching and Learning in New Directions for Community Colleges published this autumn by Wiley. It includes articles from Rick Repetti, Dan Huston, Kate Garretson, Clifford Scott and others.
	A Kindle edition of the Teacher's College Record special issue on Contemplative Practices and Education, edited by Clifford Hill is now available on Amazon.  This collection of articles by Mirabai Bush, Arthur Zajonc, Ed Sarath, Harold Roth, Daniel Holland, Jackie Seidel and others was first published in 2006.   Many of the articles included in the volume are also available online at The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society's website under Academic Program Reports.
	SUNY Press has offered an advanced contract on a book, Contemplative Approaches to Learning and Inquiry across Disciplines, to be edited by Olen Gunnlaugson, Assistant Professor in Leadership and Organizational Development within the Department of Management at Université Laval, in Quebec City. David Lee Keiser is proposing a book on suffering or dissatisfaction in teaching, which will contain chapters by teachers and professors who embody and/or exemplify a mindful approach to teaching and who have experienced dissatisfaction, broadly defined, in their pedagogical roles.  Interested contributors: view a .doc of the proposal   David K. Scott, Chancellor Emeritus, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Patricia Wallace, Professor of English, Vassar College will be editing The Contemplative Academy, a book based on the 2010 Conference at Amherst College and sponsored by the Association for the Contemplative Mind in Higher Education.