Brown University

Whether it is pursued through work in established departments and programs, through an independent concentration, or through the new concentration we are developing, Contemplative Studies consists of two fundamental and complementary elements: 1. developing a third-person philosophical and scientific understanding of the variety of contemplative experiences; 2. developing critical first-person understanding of the great variety of ways that these contemplative states are attained through religious practice, through the creation and appreciation of literature and art, through dramatic arts and music, and through a number of other human endeavors and examining the influence of contemplative experience on the ethical life.

In an effort to accomplish this, the student’s work in Contemplative Studies should be grounded in the required seminar on the foundations of the new field of Contemplative Studies. In UNIV0540, “Introduction to Contemplative Studies,” students explore the philosophical and scientific understanding of contemplative states and the methodologies for attaining them found primarily in the world’s contemplative traditions. Additional work should include courses that feature critical first-person investigations of contemplative practices . Such courses include Professor Thalia Field’s EL 176 (“Still and Moving Minds: Contemplative Practice in Literature”) Professors Gander and Bernstein’s EL 176 Section 10 (“Poetry, Mind, and World, Outside and Inside”), Professor Emigh’s TA 127 (“Non-Western Theatre and Performance”) and Professor Roth’s Religious Studies 0500 (“Theory and Practice of Buddhist Meditation”), and Religious Studies 0290D (“Engaged Buddhism”). Students are also encouraged to develop their own contemplative practice.

 

In addition to UC 0540, students doing a Contemplative Studies concentration would also be required to complete ten courses drawn from offerings from throughout the Brown curriculum that are relevant to the study of human contemplation in its varied forms and relevant to the particular interests of the student. Such a concentration should include three major tracks:

• HUMANITIES : the study of the role of contemplation in philosophy, the major religious traditions of the world, in world literature, and in a variety of other related disciplines;

 

• SCIENCE: the study of human consciousness and of the nature and significance of the varieties of contemplative experience found predominately in neuroscience and psychology; the interface between contemplative epistemologies and new developments in theoretical physics; the study of consciousness and culture; applications of contemplative practices to medical science and community medicine;

 

• CREATIVE ARTS: the study of the role of contemplation in the visual and fine arts, creative writing, and in the various performing arts of dance, drama, and music.

 

While many of these courses will be ones taught by the core faculty and thus contain contemplative elements, some will not be. They will be made relevant to the concentration by the particular focus the student chooses. For example, a student might focus on the study of the physiology of contemplative states of mind in a course on neurophysiology. As the concentration evolves, we would hope that more faculty members would become interested in teaching courses that include a contemplative component, or ones explicitly devoted to the study of human contemplation.

In order to foster the critical first-person pedagogy of the concentration and to promote the developing self-knowledge of students, we propose to offer an ongoing set of lectures and workshops in the great variety of contemplative practices and their critical study that will help to give continuity and integration to the program. Contemplative practitioners from the core faculty, guests from the area contemplative community and renowned scholars of Contemplative Studies and practitioners of the Contemplative Arts will be invited to campus. In addition to this, students will be given advice and support to explore, on their own, the great variety of contemplative communities currently extant.