Ed Finn: Introducing the Center for Science and the Imagination On Monday, September 24, 2012 we started something new at Arizona State University: the Center for Science and the Imagination. Our mission is to foster creative and ambitious thinking about the future. We want to bring writers, artists, scholars, scientists and many others together in collaboration on bold visions for a better future. But more than this, we want to share a sense of agency about the future, to get everyone on the plane thinking about how our choices inflect the spectrum of possibilities before us. One of our axioms in pursuing this project is the recognition that humans are story-driven. We understand ourselves, the world and even the passage of time as narratives. Hieroglyph, which will be starting up later this fall, pairs science fiction writers like Neal Stephenson and Cory Doctorow with scientists to collaborate on ideas for techno-optimistic stories set in the near future. Our second initiative is equally exciting, and it launched on Monday.
ACMHE Home Page Overview The Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education (ACMHE) is a multidisciplinary academic association with a membership of educators, administrators, staff, students, researchers and other professionals committed to the transformation of higher education through the recovery and development of the contemplative dimensions of teaching, learning and knowing. The ACMHE promotes the emergence of a broad culture of contemplation in the academy, connects a broad network of academic professionals with online resources, and stimulates scholarship and research concerning contemplative pedagogy, methodology and epistemology within and across disciplines through initiatives and events including the annual ACMHE conference. ACMHE Membership Benefits New Member Directory. Member benefits are accessed through the online Member Portal. Membership Dues Dues are self-selected and range from $35 to $125 per year. Mission Vision History Founded May 1, 2008
The Tree of Contemplative Practices The Tree illustrates some of the contemplative practices currently in use in secular organizational and academic settings. This is not intended to be a comprehensive list. Below the Tree you will find links to descriptions of many of these practices as well as a more in-depth description of the Tree and image files for downloading. Some of the practices on the tree link to further information–either on our website, or on Wikipedia. © The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society Concept & design by Maia Duerr; illustration by Carrie Bergman Understanding the Tree On the Tree of Contemplative Practices, the roots symbolize the two intentions that are the foundation of all contemplative practices. The branches represent different groupings of practices. Because this illustration cannot possibly include all contemplative practices, we offer a free download of a blank Tree that you can customize to include your own practices. Downloading and Reprinting the Tree For printing:
Contemplative Practices for a Technological Society - Cultivating Mind Body Practices to Invent Our Future - April 11-13, 2013 - The Inn at Virginia Tech and Skelton Conference Center - Blacksburg, Virginia Thank you to everyone who made the conference a success! The conference organizers would like to express our gratitude for your participation and support. Some presentations that were given at the conference can be found on the Schedule page. Please note that not all presenters want their presentations available to the general public. We have video interviews for several conference speakers and attendees. We are still constructing this site. Individually and collectively, these interviews make a very powerful statement about the impact of contemplative practice. Welcome Along with the marvels of the 21st century come hurry, distraction, and distress and a compelling question: How can we reconnect with our own humanity in the midst of a rapidly evolving technological society? See About the Conference for a more detailed description. Download a conference flyer: CPTSFlyerHR.pdf - High resolution CPTSFlyerLR.pdf - Low resolution Keynote Speakers Sponsors
Suggested Retreat Locations | Contemplative Studies Initiative These retreat centers are categorized by affiliation. All following descriptions are from the linked sites. Click to jump to the appropriate category. BuddhismZen (Rinzai, Soto, Korean Son, Other)VipassanaTibetanIntegratedChristianityCatholicEastern OrthodoxOtherJudaismYoga/VedantaSufismDaoismOther Buddhism Rinzai (Zen) Bodhi Manda Zen Center in New MexicoBodhi Manda Zen Center is a Rinzai Zen practice center located in a high desert river canyon in the Jemez Mountains, 60 miles northwest of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Soto (Zen) Green Dragon Temple in San Francisco, CAGreen Gulch Farm Zen Center, also known as Green Dragon Temple (Soryu-ji), is a Buddhist practice center in the Japanese Soto Zen tradition offering training in Zen meditation and ordinary work. Korean Son (Zen) Other (Zen) Vipassana (Insight) Insight Meditation Society in MassachusettsThe Insight Meditation Society was founded in 1975 as a nonprofit organization to uphold the possibility of liberation for all beings. Tibetan Sufism
Affiliate & Related Sites | Contemplative Studies Initiative Organizations The Frederick P. Lenz Foundation for American Buddhism promotes the benefits of Zen Buddhism, meditation, yoga and related Buddhist practices in a manner complementary to our modern American society. They fund a variety of Buddhist and/or Contemplative programs throughout North America, including the Contemplative Studies Initiative at Brown. The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society works to integrate contemplative awareness into contemporary life in order to help create a more just, compassionate, and reflective society. The Mind and Life Institute aims to establish mutually respectful working collaboration and research partnerships between modern science and Buddhism — two of the world's most fruitful traditions for understanding the nature of reality and promoting human well-being. The Santa Barbara Institute is dedicated to interdisciplinary research and education to advance understanding of the nature and potentials of consciousness.
Richard J Davidson A Magical App For Exploring A Philip Glass Remix By Beck Philip Glass is the pop music of classical. His repetitious phrases hit you like a Justin Bieber hook, grind into your ears like electronica, and eventually lull you into hypnosis. Liberal use of cellos ensures that you can be super pretentious about it, too. Not so long ago, Beck remixed some of Glass’s tracks, reeling in several fellow musicians to help create a two-disc homage to the master of minimalism. “The musical album has essentially disappeared from popular culture, and people’s attention spans continue to shorten,” REWORK_ producer Ahna Girshick tells Co.Design. It’s an interesting experience. “With the visualizations, we had to find a delicate balance. On an 8.9-inch iPad screen, I’m not sure I’d call the experience immersive, but it’s certainly a satisfying way to fidget while listening to Beck’s take on Glass. If you’d like to try REWORK_, it’s available in the iTunes store now. Download it here. *You aren’t.
The Last Professor In previous columns and in a recent book I have argued that higher education, properly understood, is distinguished by the absence of a direct and designed relationship between its activities and measurable effects in the world. This is a very old idea that has received periodic re-formulations. Here is a statement by the philosopher Michael Oakeshott that may stand as a representative example: “There is an important difference between learning which is concerned with the degree of understanding necessary to practice a skill, and learning which is expressly focused upon an enterprise of understanding and explaining.” Understanding and explaining what? This view of higher education as an enterprise characterized by a determined inutility has often been challenged, and the debates between its proponents and those who argue for a more engaged university experience are lively and apparently perennial. How has this happened? People sometimes believe that they were born too late or too early.
Full text of "Guerilla Open Access Manifesto" Guerilla Open Access Manifesto Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves. The world's entire scientific and cultural heritage, published over centuries in books and journals, is increasingly being digitized and locked up by a handful of private corporations. Want to read the papers featuring the most famous results of the sciences? You'll need to send enormous amounts to publishers like Reed Elsevier.
Aaron Swartz death: #pdftribute hashtag aggregates copyrighted articles released online in tribute to internet activist. Photograph by Nick Gray viaWikimedia Commons. The untimely death of 26-year-old Internet folk hero Aaron Swartz has inspired a movement: Academics, researchers, and activists are releasing their copyrighted work online, for free. It's a fitting tribute to the copyright reform and Internet freedom activist, and it's catching on fast. Participants are using the #PDFtribute hashtag when linking to their work. Those links are aggregated here and here. The idea took off after Jessica Richman and Eva Vivalt, who'd independently thought up a similar tribute, came up with the hashtag and got Anonymous to help spread the word. If you’re curious why this protest tribute is so fitting for Swartz, read his 2008 manifesto on open access: Those with access to these resources — students, librarians, scientists — you have been given a privilege. #PDFtribute speaks to Swartz’s life work but also to the circumstances surrounding his suicide.
Contemplative Teaching and Learning Update, January 2013 The Garrison Institute is offering a CARE for Teachers training in Oakland, California to teachers, school leaders and other educators in the San Francisco Bay Area. This unique opportunity will be offered at no-cost to a limited number of educators from the Bay Area. CARE for Teachers is an innovative professional development program that promotes core skills and dispositions teachers need to create and maintain supportive learning environments while sustaining their well-being and love of teaching. Cutting-edge neuroscience confirms that practicing mindfulness facilitates awareness and self-regulation and develops the capacity for a calm, focused mind — a mind with the openness, responsiveness and sensitivity for optimal teaching, guiding, and learning. For teachers, these resources can provide the inner strength to be powerfully present and emotionally responsive. The training will take place in the offices of WestEd in Oakland, California on March 2-3 and 23-24.