Contemplative Studies – Requirements & Expectations for Full Credit:
To earn the full 16 credits per quarter
in this program, you must complete the list of requirements and meet
the student conduct expectations as described below. Meeting deadlines
is essential. Please, no late work. These are the requirements and expectations
for credit in Contemplative Studies. Please note:
16 quarter hours = 48 hours commitment per week.
- ILC - Study plan for the quarter including components of classroom participation.
- Log – List of hours and activities to be maintained throughout the quarter.
- Journal Writing – You are to keep an academic journal that reflects on your engagement with your contemplative, artistic, and academic work—classroom and individual for the program. This is your private document, but excerpts will be due at mid-term and end of quarter (Thursday noon of weeks 5 and 9). Excerpts to submit consist of 4 journal entries, verbatim OR edited, 75-200 words per entry, typed, double- spaced. What you turn in should be something you want to share with your faculty and learning community. These excerpts are required and will be appreciated as a record of your learning process.
- Portfolio – Each student will create a portfolio that will include the above elements as well as mid-quarter and final peer and faculty reviewed evaluations, a program description for ILC components; and all required assignments as described below for each component of study.
Texts and Requirements:
1) Core texts to be read and explored by everyone:
-Educating for Wisdom and Compassion: Creating Conditions for Timeless Learning by John P. Miller
-Writing Begins with the Breath
by Laraine Herring or Writing About Art by Henry Sayre
Requirements: A 400-600 word reflective
exploration of three ways that Educating for Wisdom and Compassion
influenced your quarter of contemplative study. The style and
craft of your writing should reflect your understanding and incorporation
of either Sayre’s or Herring’s books about writing. This essay is
due in the faculty mailbox by 12:30 pm Thursday of week eight along
with your final self-evaluation, including two peer-reviewed drafts
of the self-evaluation and this essay, as well as a one paragraph program
description of your individual study.
2) Guest artist and scholar lecture series texts:
-Smile of the Buddha: Eastern Philosophy and Western Art from Monet to Today by Jacquelynn Baas, Robert A. F. Thurman (Foreword)
-From Sand Creek: Rising in This Heart Which Is Our America by Simon J. Ortiz
-Chicana Art: The Politics of Spiritual and Aesthetic Altarities by Laura E. Pérez
- Making Love with Light: Contemplating Nature with Words and Photographs by John Daido Loori
-The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
-The Mirror of Simple Souls and
seven inner chapters of The Chuang Tzu (handouts)
Requirements: Attendance and an inquiry
to be handed in to the faculty mailbox (Sem2 A2117) by 12:30 Thursday
of each week, that addresses five questions regarding the presentation:
1) Who presented?, 2) What was presented?, 3) Why was it presented?,
4) How does it matter?, 5) How was your perception of this artist influenced
by your reading of the required week’s texts?
3) Seminar texts:
-Educating for Wisdom and Compassion: Creating Conditions for Timeless Learning by John P. Miller
-Angelic Mistakes: The Art of Thomas Merton by Roger Lipsey
-Making Love with Light: Contemplating Nature with Words and Photographs by John Daido Loori
-Sketchbook: A Memoir of the 1930s And the Northwest School by William Cumming
-The Green Snake and the Beautiful
Lily by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Plus selections from:
-Secular Conscience: Why Belief Belongs in Public Life by Austin Dacey
-Embracing Mind: The Common Ground of Science and Spirituality by B. Alan Wallace and Brian Hodel
-Sounds of the Inner Eye: John Cage,
Mark Tobey and Morris Graves by John Cage, Mark Tobey, Morris Graves,
Kunsthalle BremenRequirements: Attendance, active participation
and a preparatory image response or essay to be shared at the beginning
of each seminar.
Seminar Image/Passage Inquiry
– This is your TICKET to seminar. If you don’t have it you won’t
be able to participate in the seminar. The seminar image inquiry assignment
requires that you prepare for seminar by reading each week’s readings
carefully and getting curious about an image or word image—a passage
of the text-- related to this reading. For example, you might
want to work with key excerpts from required readings or from those
referenced in this reading. You might want to work with images
of Mark Tobey’s “white writing” or Merton’s sumi paintings.
Or, you might want to find images inspired by Morris Graves’ bird
paintings being done by contemporary artists. If you are inspired to
create your own art, you may bring this to seminar to display on the
walls surrounding the tables where you must also place a found image
that inspired your work. Along with whatever image or passage of text
you have found and reproduced for us to see, you must craft an inquiry
statement to place next to this image. This piece of writing should
be a succinct—200 words of less—description of your process of engagement,
curiosity, and research. What image or passage were you drawn
to explore and why? How does the image or passage relate to the
assigned seminar text? What about this image or passage would
you like to discuss with peers and faculty during seminar? Be
sure to do sufficient research and cite your sources using a scholarly
format both for the image and your writing. Your inquiry should
be peer reviewed by two peers; it should be typed, double-spaced and
spell-checked. Another option is to have it peer reviewed by one peer
and by a tutor in the writing center. In both cases, you are to summarize
the comments and include with the drafts you turn in. The first
draft of the seminar image/passage inquiry is due each Tuesday for the
peer review. We will begin seminars by viewing each student’s
image/passage and inquiry, which will be placed on the seminar tables.
A second copy of your final draft and your image (along with the
first draft and peer comments) must be turned in to the faculty at the
start of Wednesday seminars: this is your “ticket.”
4) Yoga nidra/iRest studio workshop texts:
-Yoga Nidra: The Meditative Heart of Yoga by Richard Miller
-Embracing Mind: The Common Ground of Science and Spirituality by B. Alan Wallace and Brian Hodel
-Yoga, Power, and Spirit: Patanjali
the Shaman by Alberto Villoldo
Requirements: Attendance, active
participation and the presentation week 10 of a creative or scholarly
expression of what you learned from the practice, including an artist’s
statement and/or bibliography. A detailed syllabus for this component
of Contemplative Studies is attached. An option exists
for participation in an ongoing yoga nidra/iRest research project, which
will be discussed in class.
5) Special events and texts:
a) Field trips to the Northwest Museum of Art (LaConner) including the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, Monday and Tuesday, 28-29 April; and to the Froelich Gallery (Portland), Thursday 5 May.
-Sounds of the Inner Eye: John Cage, Mark Tobey and Morris Graves by John Cage, Mark Tobey, Morris Graves, Kunsthalle Bremen
-Sketchbook: A Memoir of the 1930s And the Northwest School by William Cumming
-Joe Feddersen: Vital Signs
(due out from UW Press in late May)
Requirements: Attendance, active participation,
and a brief 200 word reflection that addresses: 1) What did you see?,
2) When did you (or would you have liked to) experience a contemplative
state of mind?, 3) How does what you saw or otherwise experienced matter?,
4) How was your perception of the art you experienced influenced by
your reading of the required field trip texts? Due in faculty mailbox
by 12:30 Thursday of the week following each event.
b) Performances/lectures/workshops and texts:
-Austin Dacey, director of Center for
Inquiry (Alumni Lecture), 9 April, noon Friends of the Library, 6-10
p.m. Longhouse with the EWS program, Religion and Society. Texts:
Secular Conscience: Why Belief Belongs in Public Life by Austin
Dacey and the first chapter of Embracing Mind: The Common Ground
of Science and Spirituality by B. Alan Wallace and Brian Hodel.
-James Luna, visiting performance artist
(Diversity Series Lecture), 22 April, 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. LH 1; Artist's
Performance, 25 April, time TBA, Longhouse. Text: From
Sand Creek: Rising in This Heart Which Is Our America by Simon J.
Ortiz
-H.H. Dalai Lama and accompanying Tibetan
monks. Lecture and/or workshops with H.H. Dalai Lama and accompanying
Tibetan monks. Details TBD. Text: How to Practice by H.H. Dalai
Lama. For schedule of events and tickets see http://www.seedsofcompassion
- Neil deGrasse Tyson (Unsoeld Lecture),
Tuesday, 29 April, time TBD, CRC. Text: The Sky is Not the Limit
or/and One Universe: At Home in the Cosmos by Neil deGrasse
Tyson.
-Dave Stringer, contemplative musician. Kirtan
(performance), 20 April, evening in CRC 316; chanting workshop on 21
April, morning in CRC 316. Text: This Is Your Brain on Music:
The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel J. Levitin.
Requirements: Attendance and an inquiry,
to be handed in to the faculty mailbox (Sem2 A2117) by 12:30 Thursday
of the week following each event, that addresses five questions regarding
the presentation: 1) Who presented?, 2) What was presented?, 3)
Why was it presented?, 4) How does it matter?, 5) How was your perception
of this artist influenced by your reading of the required special event
texts?
6) Individual study project texts:
Texts to be determined by the student,
but at least two texts by others who have explored the student’s area
of inquiry must be included in the ILC.
Requirements: Participation in the week one Tuesday 1-3 program orientation and Individual Learning Contract workshop, including the completion of an ILC for internal program use only by Tuesday of week two. Presentation of work completed during week 10 class periods. All students completing an individual study component must maintain a log of hours appropriate to credit expected and a journal of weekly activities.