Syllabus

Overview

This one-credit course has, as its primary learning objective, enabling students in their first year of college to incorporate a range of contemplative practices into academic life. It will employ three educational modalities:

1. classroom and experiential exposure to a selection of those activities noted in the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society’s (CCMIS), “Tree of Contemplative Practices”;
2. an introduction to select disciplines that stimulate embodied contemplation and promote awareness of the natural, social, and academic environment into which undergraduates are embedded -- e.g., wandering the library “stacks”; contemplative reading; poetry writing; photography; and martial arts that encourage hard, soft, and spontaneous movement; and
3. guided reflection on nine specific educational maxims that seek to promote integrated learning during the initial year of post-secondary education.

Learning Objectives

By the end of the course, students should be able to:

1. define contemplation;
2. describe the general aims of the first-year experience at Notre Dame;
3. name and discuss the merits and limitations of those contemplative modalities listed in the CCMIS “Tree” as well as others introduced in the class;
4. develop a plan for utilizing selected contemplative exercises during the first year of college life and beyond; and
5. discuss the relative benefits of contemplation in the first year of college life.

Required Textbooks

Kautz, Richard A., A Labyrinth Year: Walking the Seasons of the Church (Morehouse Publishing, 2005). (preview)

Franck, Frederick, The Zen of Seeing (Vintage, 1973).

Goethe, Johann W. von, Maxims and Reflections (Penguin Classics, 1999). (read online)

Herman, Nicholas, (Brother Lawrence),  The Practice of the Presence of God: The Best Rule of Holy Life (Electronic Edition  1.0 Prepared by John Harris – Christian Classics Ethereal Library, 1994). (read online)

McDowell, Robert, Poetry as Spiritual Practice: Reading, Writing, and Using Poetry in Your Daily Rituals, Aspirations, and Intentions (Free Press, 2008). (preview)

Zehr, Howard, The Little Book of Contemplative Photography (Good Books, 1969).

Supplies

You will need the following for this class:

• a small lined notebook;
• a small unlined sketchbook;
• access to a digital camera (the one typically found in a cell phone will do);
• colored pencils;
• and a pen.

Grading

This is a “Pass/Fail” course. Satisfactory completion of all course requirements will result in the grade of “Pass".