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Webinar Archive

"The Neuroscience of Somatic Attention: a key to unlocking a foundational contemplative practice for educators"
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
with Dr. Catherine Kerr, Department of Family Medicine at the Warren Alpert School of Medicine and Brown Contemplative Studies Initiative, Brown University



"Sentipensante Pedagogy and Contemplative Practice"
Thursday, February 23, 2012
with Laura Rendón, Professor of Leadership and Educational Policy Studies, University of Texas San Antonio
 and Vijay Kanagala, Postdoctoral Associate, University of Texas San Antonio



"Contemplative Pedagogies in Geosciences"
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
with Jill Schneiderman, Professor of Earth Science, Vassar College



"Cultivating the Executive Mind: Is Mindfulness the Key to 21st Century Economic Survival?"
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
with Jeremy Hunter, Assistant Professor, The Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management



"Integrating Trial Advocacy and Mindfulness Theory & Practice"
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
with David M. Zlotnick, Professor of Law, Roger Williams University School of Law 

Video: Integrating Trial Advocacy and Mindfulness Theory & Practice

Additional Q & A
Questions that were unable to be addressed during the webinar:

David, what do you recommend students do to get mindful quickly when things go awry at trial?
In advance, come up with a mantra for recognizing that we do not have control, then use it before trying to fix the situation. 

Did you use mindfulness practice when you were an AUSA, or did you come to that later?
No. I wish I had known about this then. 

I had a student from my Contemplative Lawyering class try, on his own, to incorporate some of the practices into his trial advocacy class, and he came away feeling as if they made him "too calm" or "too relaxed" to be as on top of his "persona" as he wanted to be.  (His professor suggested this might have been so). Any thoughts on how to help students who have this concern?
We did talk about this in class a few times. Mindfulness is not specifically about "relaxation," it's about being present. Since we usually sit quietly, the two become associated. That’s why I did exercises that interrupted the simulations focused on anger, etc., to deal with what was actually happening in the trial.

Do you have any Canadian colleagues who work in this area?
No, I do not have any Canadian contacts. 

Do the students continue their mindfulness practice after the course concludes?
Some have reported that they have done so.

 

"The Contemplative Spirituality of Toni Morrison"
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
with Linda-Susan Beard, Associate Professor of English, Bryn Mawr College 

Video: The Contemplative Spirituality of Toni Morrison.

 

 

"Contemplative Activism: Meditations Adapted From Tibet to Empower Service and Action"
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
with John Makransky, Associate Professor of Buddhism and Comparative Theology, Boston College

Video: Contemplative Activism: Meditations Adapted from Tibet to Empower Service and Action.

For more information: see FoundationForActiveCompassion.org, with links for Social Service, Social Justice, Dharma Teaching, etc.

For workshops, retreats and meditation groups: go to FoundationForActiveCompassion.org, see links for Calendar and Meditation Groups.

For a directory of socially engaged Buddhist organizations: Google “Socially Engaged Buddhist Directory”

Suggested readings:

  • John Makransky, Awakening through Love: Unveiling Your Deepest Goodness (Wisdom Publications, 2007).
  • Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche and David Shlim, Medicine and Compassion: A Tibetan Lama’s Guidance for Caregivers (Wisdom Publications, 2006).
  • Tulku Thondup, The Healing Power of Mind: Simple Meditation Exercises for Health, Well-Being and Enlightenment (Shambhala, 1996).
  • Pema Chodron, Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living (Shambhala, 1994).
  • Chagdud Tulku, Gates to Buddhist Practice: Essential Teachings of a Tibetan Master (Padma Publishing, 2001)

 

"Architecti et usus meditatio: Vitruvian Echoes in Contemplative Practice"
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
with Peter Schneider, Professor of Architecture and Chancellor's Scholar, College of Architecture and Planning, University of Colorado Denver

This webinar explores the effects of Vitruvius’ 1st century BCE descriptions of meditatio and contemplatio as they ripple through the history of architecture’s practices. Vitruvius’ words establish meditatio–from the Greek medesthai–as the essential mode that the way that architects do their work: the singular practice of attending to what they are doing while they are doing what they are attending to. Contemplatio–as it was understood in Vitruvius’ time–is also a term that has its origins in architecture’s ancient practices. The connection Vitruvius makes between architecture and contemplative practice is consequently historically grounded, and has much to teach us. The webinar will also explore the rich possibilities inherent in the practices of meditatio and contemplatio in contemporary higher education: of learning by attentively doing the things that one wants to learn about.

Video: Webinar: Architecti et usus meditatio: Vitruvian Echoes in Contemplative Practice.

 

"Contemplative Pedagogy and Deep Listening"
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
with David Haskell, Professor of Biology, University of the South, Sewanee, TN

This webinar explores the use of contemplative practices in two different classroom contexts: hunger awareness and acoustic openness. Contemplation can provide students with the interior resources to hear both the pain of the world and the world's beauty. These practices can also give us the groundedness from which to discern how we should respond to world's problems and joys. David Haskell will discuss the ways in which he has used contemplative practices in environmental studies classes that examine hunger and in biology classes that introduce students to bird song and soundscapes. In both subject areas, he combines contemplative practice with action in the local area, either work with the hungry or scientific exploration of acoustics.

Video: Contemplative Pedagogy and Deep Listening.

 

"Contemplative Neuroscience"
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
with Richard J. Davidson, Vilas Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin-Madison

This webinar provided an introduction to the emerging field of contemplative neuroscience.  This emerging field is harnessing the concepts and methods from the modern study of neuroplasticity and applying them to the alterations that might be produced through contemplative practice.  While the field is in its infancy, there are several promising findings that have emerged that suggest that the regular practice of certain forms of meditation produces changes in brain function, brain structure and behavior.  Collectively, this new corpus of research suggests that qualities like happiness, kindness and equanimity should be regarded as the product of trainable skills that can be enhanced through contemplative practice.

Note: Due to a technical glitch during the presentation, we were unable to display or record Dr. Davidson's PowerPoint slides. The audio from his talk is available below.

Video: Contemplative Neuroscience

Recommended Reading: The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality by the Dalai Lama

 

"No Time to Think: The American University and its (Anti-)Contemplative Roots"
Wednesday, May 19th, 2010
With David M. Levy, Professor, The Information School, University of Washington

David Levy writes, "Ten years ago I moved from a well-known high tech think tank to my first academic job, discovering along the way that the extreme busyness, overload, fragmentation, and acceleration of contemporary culture are just as prevalent within the ivy tower as beyond it. Universities are no place to think, I concluded, any more than hospitals are places to be sick. In this presentation I will explore how this state of affairs has arisen by examining the complex debt that the modern university owes both to industrial culture and to ancient Greek philosophy. And I will suggest that we are now uniquely positioned to bring the contemplative element (back) into the academy, both because we are better able to see the consequences of certain industrial-era attitudes on current academic practices, and because we are in a position to recover and renew the Greek philosophers’ conception of education as a process of radical growth and transformation."

Video: No Time To Think: The American University and its (Anti-)Contemplative Roots

 

"Contemplative Arts and Society"
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
With Anne Beffel, Associate Professor of Art, Syracuse University

Anne Beffel is a practicing “public artist” and professor of art at Syracuse University. She creates opportunities for empathetic exchanges through art. As a 2008 Contemplative Practice Fellow she created the course Contemplative Arts and Society to explore the intersection of art, contemplative practice, and social psychology. In our April webinar, Beffel discussed students’ experiences with a number of contemplative and creative art practices in preparation for designing their own “daily practices,” which they document using media arts.

Video: Webinar: Contemplative Arts and Society

 

"Consciousness-In-Action"
Wednesday, March 24, 2010 
With Raúl Quiñones-Rosado, Ph.D. and Rose Sackey-Milligan, Ph.D., Co-Directors, c-Integral

This presentation provides an overview of consciousness-in-action, c-Integral's unique approach to personal and social transformation. The presenters introduce some of the key concepts, principles and applications of this transformative path. They also speak to the value of contemplative practice in addressing complex identity and social justice issues for individual and collective liberation from oppression, a necessary stage as we move toward integral well-being and development.

Video: Webinar: Consciousness-in-Action

Recommended Reading:

Consciousness In Actionempty
Raúl Quiñones-Rosado
Consciousness-in-Action: Toward an Integral Psychology of Liberation & Transformationempty

 

 

 

 

"Contemplative Environmental Studies: Pedagogy for Self and Planet"
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
With Paul Wapner, Associate Professor and Director, Global Environmental Politics Program, School of International Service, American University

How can higher education best address global environmental challenges? How can we equip our students to engage in environmental work, and how can we undertake meaningful scholarship that can actually contribute to global environmental wellbeing?  This webinar will explore these questions through the lens of Contemplative Environmental Studies.

Video: Webinar: Contemplative Environmental Studies: Pedagogy for Self and Planet

Living Through the End of NatureRecommended Reading:
Paul Wapner,
Living Through the End of Nature: The Future of American Environmentalismempty

 

 

 

"Visualizing Contemplation"
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Joel Upton, Professor of Art History, Amherst College

A presentation on the expression of contemplation through architecture and the construction of meditative spaces. Upton writes, "Using images and schematic drawings, I will offer an exemplary model that draws on meditative space as one might find it in Japan generally and in the sub-temple of Daisen-in at Daitoku-ji in Kyoto. Although I will give a Japanese name, "ainoma," to the conceptual reality that informs this space, I will relate this particular visualization of contemplation to the more familiar language of Simone Weil and Henry David Thoreau."

Video: Webinar: Visualizing Contemplation

 

 

"Contemplative Practice in the Science Classroom: Practical approaches to the impractical / Impractical approaches to the practical"
October 22, 2009
Michelle Francl, 2008 Contemplative Practice Fellow, is professor of chemistry at Bryn Mawr and a writer for Nature Chemistry.  She teaches writing and chemistry and embeds contemplative practices into both.  Her courses demonstrate the value of this approach for learning and doing science, where practice provides nascent scientists with another set of ways to reflect on their work in relationship to the larger world.  She explores the use of many practices adapted for classroom use including “stilling” (breath and body awareness), contemplative writing, “beholding” and lectio divina, and finds that a curriculum that includes contemplative practices has the potential not to merely produce science, but to form scientists.

Video: Webinar: Contemplative Practice in the Science Classroom

Link: http://tinyurl.com/contemplativescience: Michelle's website, containing practices and other resources for use in the classroom.

 

"Mindful Shopping: How Smart Consumption Can Benefit Beings"
September 23, 2009
Daniel Goleman, Ph.D., presented a talk on current developments in consumer-friendly tools that provide greater transparency regarding the health and environmental effects of the manufacturing, packaging and transportation of products, and discussed how changes in consumer behavior and responsibility are necessary for truly sustainable change.

This webinar will not be posted online, but a recording is available for single-viewing/classroom use.
Please contact Carrie Bergman at carrie@contemplativemind.org for instructions on how to access the video.

Links:

 

"Developments in the Field of Contemplative Studies"
May 27th, 2009
Hal Roth (Professor of Religious Studies and East Asian Studies at Brown University) hosted an hour-long program about the field of Contemplative Studies and the experience of establishing the Contemplative Studies Initiative at Brown.

Video: Webinar: Developments in Contemplative Studies

 

"The Science of Meditation"
March 11, 2009
Al Kaszniak (Professor and Head of Psychology, University of Arizona) and Arthur Zajonc (Academic Program Director of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society and Professor of Physics, Amherst College) hosted an hour-long program about current research into the physiological and psychological effects of meditative practices.

Video: Webinar: The Science of Meditation

 

"An Introduction to Contemplative Pedagogy"
February 18, 2009
A presentation by Arthur Zajonc (Academic Program Director of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society and Professor of Physics, Amherst College) and Mirabai Bush (Senior Fellow of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society).

Video: Webinar: Introduction to Contemplative Pedagogy