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REQUIREMENTS OF THE PROPOSED CONCENTRATION
Whether it is pursued through work in established departments and programs, through independent study, 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 a required sequence of two semester long seminars. In the first, “Introduction to Contemplative Studies,” students would explore the philosophical and scientific understanding of contemplative states and the methodologies for attaining them found primarily in the world’s contemplative traditions. The course would, in effect, present the basic parameters of what some are now calling “Contemplative Psychology” and of what might be called “Contemplative Neuropsychology.”It would also examine the possible relationship between contemplative epistemologies and new developments in theoretical physics. This course, which is currently being considered by the College Curriculum Committee for an initial offering in the spring of 2006, would be taught by Hal Roth with the assistance of psychologist Luiz Pessoa.
We eventually hope to develop a second seminar that would take the knowledge of contemplative experience gained in the first and investigate how these experiences can be created in a wide variety of human endeavors found in Literature, the Creative and Dramatic Arts, Music, and Psychotherapy. Entitled, “Exploring the Contemplative Life,” the course would be taught by various members of the core faculty who would explore with students the contemplative dimensions of their work. One core faculty member would take responsibility for the overall coordination of the course, including scheduling and the evaluation of the students’ work. Ongoing critical first-person investigation of contemplative practices would be an integral part of both these seminars, much in the way that it is in Professor 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 188.017 (“Theory and Practice of Buddhist Meditation”).
If we were to establish a new concentration, we would also require that students complete an additional ten courses drawn from offerings from throughout the Brown curriculum that are relevant to the study of human contemplation in its varied forms. Such a concentration would 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;
- THE 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.
Concentrators would be required to take at least three courses in each of the three tracks and to focus on one track in particular.
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 practicum of mentored conscious development and discussion that will 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 contribute to this forum. In addition to this, students will be given advice and support to explore, on their own, the great variety of contemplative communities currently extant. Our Center for Contemplative Studies will offer advice on local resources available for contemplative practice.
The parameters of the new field of “Contemplative Psychology” has been sketched out in two works by Han F. DeWit: Contemplative Psychology, Marie Louise Baird (trans.) (Pittsburgh: Duquesne UP, 1991) and The Spiritual Path: An Introduction to the Psychology of the Spiritual Traditions , Henry Jansen and Lucia Hofland-Jansen (trans.) (Pittsburgh: Duquesne UP, 1994). Other contributions to this field include Robert K.C. Forman, Mysticism, Mind, Consciousness (Albany, SUNY Press, 1999), John Welwood, Toward a Psychology of Awakening (Boston: Shambala, 2000). The most important works of “Contemplative Neuropsychology” are the above mentioned works of James Austin and Richard Davidson.
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