Contemplative Studies

The history of human consciousness is vast. This course traces one thread of the study of consciousness through meditation. Every culture developed ways to recognize and cut through the mind's delusions to directly experience a wider reality that enhanced compassion and response-ability. In the words of Professor Hal Roth below, we will engage in a "careful, systematic investigation of contemplative experience from a combined third-person and first-person perspective." From a first-person perspective each student is required to commit to a meditation practice throughout the semester to become a scientist in the laboratory of the mind. From third-person perspective, we study twentieth- and twenty-first century teachers who interpret ancient wisdom systems through Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, secularism, and the arts and sciences. The course has academic, experiential, and fieldwork components that require reading texts, writing weekly responses, practicing meditation in and outside of class, and a field trip.