Exercises in Contemplation and Meditation for use in ...



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The Little Book of Contemplation for College Students: Exercises, Recipes, and Transformative Experiences©

by Martin C. Fowler

Elon University

(rev. 01/26/17)

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

17 Exercises and Recipes

|Exercise / recipe |Page location |

|1. Permission to do Nothing |3-4 |

|2. Check in: The Body Roll Call |5-6 |

|3. Lectio Divina |6-8 |

|4. Check in: Monkey Island |8-10 |

|5. Gift of a Portrait |10—11 |

|6. Meeting of Eyes |11 |

|7. Fading Clock on the Wall |11-12 |

|8. The Empty Chair |12-13 |

|9. Dust Bunnies |13-14 |

|10. Time Running Out |14-15 |

|11. Hands of a Stranger |15-17 |

|12. The Surprise Party |17-18 |

|13. The Enemy in the Row Boat |18 |

|14. Blind Leading the Blind |19 |

|15.Donna Ladkin Inter-Subjectivity Exercise |20 |

|16. Icemaker and Icebreaker |20-21 |

|17. 3-2-1 Guides Shadow Exercises |21-22 |

|Bibliography |23 |

INTRODUCTION

I. The Origins of this Handbook. I put together this sampler of contemplation exercises drawn from those I have used for philosophy courses. I began this teaching contemplative practice after using the medieval text The Cloud of Unknowing in an Ethical Practice course during the Spring 2000 semester, and after doing Zen sitting sessions with the Iron Tree Blooming Meditation society on Elon's campus each week.

I began designing and trying out meditative / contemplative exercises ranging from simple silence to detailed imaginative scenarios. Some of them are undertaken in solitary isolation and others require interaction with others, but each is an experience by the entire class, instructor included. A teacher can't take a philosophy class on field trips, but it is possible to share "mind trips" (as one student put it) to explore assumptions and paradigms about ethics, knowledge, metaphysics, and social realties through contemplation.

If the instructor uses more than one exercise at time, he or she can move out of the classroom to have physical space and variety between sites for the exercises. That introduces the element of pilgrimage or journey between experiences. I’ve experienced how these exercises fit into a course curriculum, but an instructor with different course content may see new connections and create new contemplative exercises.

By "contemplation", I mean a wide range of brief and largely non-discursive exercises with potential to instruct and transform the student. If an instructor understands, practices, and becomes familiar with the meaning and impact of different contemplative exercises, they can provide a wide range of in-class experiences including solitary existential challenges, surprise encounter with another person, or non-verbal bonding with a group. Contemplation at best is not escapist but is full engagement with the world in ways that restore and free us. I've drawn upon a number of meditative traditions in selecting exercises for philosophy classes and have also improvised a number of scenarios with the needs of college undergraduates in mind.

II. Students and Teachers Need Contemplation. An administrator might question the choice to spend valuable classroom time on meditation (not merely "doing nothing" but worse still, doing it on purpose :-), so here are two powerful rationales for integrating contemplation into the curriculum.

III. Use of Contemplative Resources. I initially chose some contemplative exercises collected by the late Anthony de Mello, S.J. in Sadhana - A Way To God: Christian Exercises in Eastern Form (1978) Happily; Anthony de Mello had done skillful reworking of Christian contemplative exercises in a new format.

My concern was to utilize these exercises to not indoctrinate, proselytize, or otherwise preclude a student from entering the contemplative experience on his or her own terms. The teaching challenge is to present an exercise with understanding and respect for its integrity but also make it accessible to students who may or may not be religious. For example, an instructor wouldn't present contemplation on the passion of Christ and then expect a room of undergraduates to jump in as if they were only doing calisthenics.

Contemplation involves the entire person and respect for that person. For example, the "empty chair" exercise was originally about experiencing the invisible presence of Jesus, but it is also quite effective for imagining the presence of a distant or lost friend or loved one. It may simply mean imagining whomever one most needs to converse with. Some contemplation is didactic and directive, but there is also room for choice and surprise. The simplest of these contemplative exercises are ancient and shared by a number of faith traditions, Eastern and Western. The more elaborate partner, group-work, and fantasy scenarios are ones that I have crafted with philosophy undergraduates in mind.

IV. Methodology. It is most effective for the instructor to participate in the exercises with the students if possible. In contemplation, the teacher is on the same level as the students, but there is some coaching involved because contemplation is new to most students, and the instructor needs to do the following:

(a) Provide context and direction and

(b) Make a personal investment in the exercise as a full participant. This is not the place to play “sage on the stage” monitoring students from a perch. That’s tricky if you’re facilitating the exercise, of course, but how else can you share how it felt for you?

When these exercises are presented skillfully, students enjoy and benefit from them. When they're half-hearted, rote, or without concern for the students, these exercises will feel trite, pointless, and manipulative. If the instructor approaches contemplation as an integral part of the classroom experience AND the instructor is open to being surprised and transformed along with the students, then a class will risk contemplation in earnest as a community. Otherwise, a student will very likely see contemplation as a classroom novelty with no relation to the course or to the student's life.

I have collected exercises, which I have found useful for philosophy students. Since they are prepared with love and care for particular groups, it makes as much or more sense to call each of then “recipes.” “Exercise” implies sweaty work, doesn’t it? I have also included some reflection and student feedback on them and some comments on how I've used them in the context of what I am teaching. Teachers in other disciplines would naturally experiment with the recipe for their students. Most of all, if you see an exercise that intrigues you, TRY IT OUT YOURSELF! The imaginative exercises which unpack a surprise or a "gotcha" are intended for one time use. Others (especially ones involving silence and mindfulness) can be deepened by practice. Most of them benefit by being introduced with a period of silence

THE EXERCISES AND RECIPIES

1. Permission to Do Nothing. It's my intuition that undergraduates, particularly first-year students, need sanctioned practice in contemplation and meditation as a bulwark against the cumulative busy-ness of campus life. They need permission to do "nothing." Even a mindful minute of silence is a great assist. This practice allows them to rest, to grow, and to reflect without having to justify their time in terms of yet another project or goal. Upper-classman can be more receptive to such exercises than younger students, but they all need sanctioned permission to "get it together" as part of their work, as part of their day, as part of who they are.

Although it's common knowledge that adolescents require more sleep than they're likely to get at college, their need for spiritual and psychic rest isn't nearly as honored. This rest can take the form of solitary Zen quietude, but it can also mean active refreshment and redirection of attention and being open to new experiences. Unfortunately, this need for psychic rest is not taken seriously in the classroom. It's seen as a purely personal matter like hygiene or diet. However, it is my experience that students concentrate better and participate more in class after a session of classroom contemplation.

The instructor benefits from this practice as much or more than the students. It helps to reduce stress and burnout, and it forges solidarity with students not available in other ways - a level of unspoken trust and community. By practicing contemplation together, the instructor and students build trust, respect, and consideration for each other. This confers benefits upon the rest of the classroom experience by breaking down isolation between individuals and meeting students' needs. If it’s a philosophy class, the topic of what counts as nothing, why nothing(ness) matters, or the aesthetic, personal, and spiritual meaning of disciplined emptiness are rich areas for sharing and reflection.

2. Check In: Body Roll Call. The use of guided meditation to focus on one's bodily sensations, particularly breathing, is basic to Eastern disciplines and has its counterpart in Orthodox Christian mysticism through hesychasm and the breath prayer. The exercise itself guides awareness steadily and unhurriedly through different parts of the body - in effect, allowing awareness and intelligence to be localized throughout one's body and not just "between the ears". This often results in relaxation even though no says "Relax!" Anthony Di Mello’s work is helpful here.

The Check In also illustrates how consciousness when directed with care can be co-present with one's entire person. It is a practical experience of a non-dualistic way of being present. The exercise requires that a person be aware of sensations in different parts of the body, in progression, so that each act of awareness anchors the contemplative in the present. One can then "get it together" in the most fundamental sense.

Here is the protocol. Take time and don't rush.

Have the students put their feet on the floor and sit up straight with eyes closed. Then direct them to notice how the back of the neck feels: that and nothing else. Is the skin warm or cool?

Then shift focus to the muscles in the shoulders the weight of the arms, and then nothing but the finger tips. If those fingertips revealed all they knew of the world, what kind of world would it be? Then focus on the feet – do the toes feel cramped or free to wiggle? Notice the legs, and how the torso is positioned in the seat. Now focus on, the head (especially the muscles in the face) and the rhythm of breathing itself. Attention is shifted in an unhurried way from one area of the body to another, allowing the student time to actually notice in detail and at leisure how they are really feeling. Not surprisingly, if they're sitting in typical classroom furniture, some of what they feel is physical discomfort.

REFLECTION: Most students find this exercise relaxing, though at no time are they instructed to "relax". In fact, a command to "relax" would have the opposite effect. A philosophy discussion can begin with the question of why this should be relaxing given that one is not trying to do it. Several students will have difficulty not falling asleep (especially the sleep-deprived ones). This is an opportunity to explain how the body takes the opportunity to meet its needs when it is allowed to do so. Another theme that can be explored is how awareness embraces one's entire physical being and is not entirely about words and images.

Typically, few students have any clear idea of how the body actually feels at any given time or why it should matter to be mindful of it. For some students, this simple exercise is one of the most memorable for them. It could also lead to a discussion of how too many of us treat our bodies as machines which only get noticed when they hurt, and then only so the hurt can be "fixed." Otherwise, we don't pay much attention to how we really feel at a given time.

3. Lectio Divina is interesting to lift out of its Benedictine context and apply in class to open the spiritual possibilities of reading. Outside this religious tradition, lectio divina is a spiritual and contemplative way to read for deeper understanding. This discipline incorporates reflection and meditation within the reading experience.

The turf issue is whether you can take a spiritual practice out of its faith tradition and core meanings without offering a superficial, misleading, or culturally misappropriated bit of spiritual booty. I think it can be done well and properly, however.

In our culture, this practice is also subversive pushback against a society which has made attention a market resource, resulting in endless distractions, claims upon attention, fragmentation of sustained awareness, and a misplaced trust in multitasking to handle this norm. Little mindfulness is possible without practices, which re-integrate and discipline mindfulness. Matthew Crawford’s text, “The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction (2015) explores this crisis of attention on a number of levels.

I begin by having students choose a section of a substantial philosophical text (e.g., Plato’s dialogue Phaedo) for reading and meditation. When they have more experience and confidence in this discipline, they can pick a passage at random and understand that choice is not integral to this exercise. They try not to set a goal for how much content they will cover.

I (or the student facilitator) prefaces the reading with a minute of group silence. I have a Tibetan singing bowl for that purpose. If the classroom is not sufficiently quiet, we choose another location. That ensures that the mind is prepared to receive.

However, it is also important for the heart to be prepared. The students need to care about receiving what the reading offers. One intentionally values receiving more than distractions. Electronic devices need to be firmly and gently kept unavailable. Each student is silently saying that he or she is more grateful for what the words have to share than for any distractions. Gratitude allows one to be more receptive.

An individual leads the lectio divina for the class using a suggested portion of the text. The three readings aim at different levels of receptivity to the text: being surprised, responding to the surprise, and then experiencing the surprise with new depth and insight.

1. First Reading: The facilitator reads the passage aloud, slowly and carefully, sharing it with the class like unwrapping a gift. This is the lectio portion of understanding what the text has to say.

Then comes a slow silent reading of the passage by all the students. The tempo is deliberately much slower than their usual reading. As the students read silently, they are prepared to notice the word, phrase, sentence, or idea that captures their attention.

2. Second Reading: After this time of silent reading, the facilitator reads the passage aloud once more.

Students now meditate on the part of the text that has spoken them. They silently repeat it, noticing what thoughts come to mind when they do so, whether it’s being reminded of something or a hope. This requires patience and persistence. We have distractions between our ears too. This is traditionally called contemplatio – a waiting on God.

Not rushing ahead, but allowing time for silent reading, the facilitator then invites students to share what has captured their attention. This is meditatio – what does the text say to oneself about ones life? They are NOT called upon to explain or justify their response. The facilitator then offers the singing bowl (or some other agreed-upon talking piece) to the first student.

When one holds the bowl, that student has others’ undivided attention and is not interrupted. If the student does not wish to share, he or she holds the bowl in silence for ten sections and then passes it to the next student. When responding after another student has spoken, one share ONLY after expressing gratitude to the prior student (by name) for what he or she has shared.

3. Third Reading: The facilitator slowly and carefully reads the passage aloud to go to a deeper level. The students silently read the passage again. In a religious context, this is called speaking to God or experiencing God’s presence. The nonreligious “speaking to God” about text is not substituting speaking to oneself or speaking to others. It is practicing a mindful presence to the spirit of the gathering and how that presence (larger than and other than oneself) transforms the student’s understanding about something. It’s letting the passage become part of who one is or wishes to become.

The students write about this where they sit. This is oratio – how does one answer God – or answer the insights one has unexpected received? Whether they write about it religiously or non-religiously is up to them. If they choose to share this with a classmate, it should be at a location away from the group.

REFLECTION: Be cautious not to culturally (mis) appropriate the spiritual vector of this exercise. Provide room for that, and allow students to discover it for themselves. Students keep a private blog about the exercise. A blank space in the blog is provided for actio: what will I change about how I think, speak, or behave as a result of this experience?

4. Check in: Monkey Island The Buddhist description of the unenlightened and undisciplined psyche is "monkey mind." This is a disinterested observer analogue of the "body roll call" exercise, but the aim of thought awareness is not to "go within" as though entering a private chamber. The inspiration for this exercise comes from a classic of Christian mysticism, The Cloud of Unknowing. Don’t rush to push and scatter intruding thoughts. Simply look over their shoulders. Or, as Rumi suggests in his poem, printed below, be hospitable to whatever arrives. To avoid that, have the students move their chairs so that each of them faces an open window. Say to the students:

"For the next (3-5) minutes, let your thoughts come and go in your own monkey island of climbing, jumping, screeching thoughts. Be an attentive but disinterested observer of your own thoughts as you gaze out the window. For example, you think about what's going to happen later today, how you happen to feel right now, or what you've been worrying about. Don't try to quiet or eliminate your thoughts. This isn't about thought-control. This is monkey watching. Watch them come in, and treat each one with respect and hospitality. Stay for a while, and then leave. Let as many of them arrive as necessary. Don't feel abandoned when they scamper away. If you don't think of anything at all, just look out the window. Don't be surprised when a monkey drops from the tree unexpectedly."

You can invite students to share their thoughts with each other in pairs, or go ahead and share their experience (rather than content) with the class.

REFLECTION. This might lead to a discussion of introspection or the nature of thinking, but the chief value of the exercise is to show students a means to handle worry and anxiety. They can "look over the heads" of their troubling thoughts, even when they seem to have a life of their own.

Worrying means treating a thought as prisoner when that thought should be allowed to come and go as a guest. Or it can mean feeling like a prisoner of a thought. By shifting from captor/prisoner to observer, the worry is free to stay and free to go from ones awareness and life. This exercise trains students to "check in" with their thoughts in good humor just as they can "check in" with different parts of their body. Thereby, they experience that they are much more than the number of monkeys on the island at a given time. I tell students that, if you can't sleep because of worries, don't fight those thoughts. You can't win a fight with yourself. Just quietly observe the coming of going of your nighttime thoughts. By inviting students to share their thoughts, they realize that they have much in common with other students. Most of them find this discipline difficult at first. It is good to practice this in class several times.

RUMI:

This being human is a guest house.

Every morning is a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

Some momentary awareness comes

As an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all

Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,

Who violently sweep your house

Empty of its furniture.

Still, treat each guest honorably

He may be clearing you out

For some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,

Meet them at the door laughing.

And invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes

Because each has been sent

As a guide from beyond.

5. Gift of a Portrait This exercise is a one-to-one encounter. Students pair up and face each other with desks facing each other. They remain silent for this exercise too. Each student has a blank sheet of paper. Each also has some crayons or colored pencils. Each silently and carefully draws a portrait of their partner.

In response to protests that they don't know how to draw, that they're no good at art, that they can't possibly do this “task,” reassure them that all they are asked to do is to notice and include all the details. They are fully competent to do that. Details may include a hairstyle, an earring, whether your partner is right-handed or not, the number of buttons on a shirt, posture, etc. Verisimilitude is nice but not required. Next, think of an object that reminds you of your partner and find a way to include that in the picture as well. This should not be rushed. Take at least 15-20 minutes. Then sign your name to the picture and then give the pictures to each other as a gift.

The students can then ask each other questions about their gift portrait.

Sometimes I tell students that their homework is to complete their gift portrait and bring it back to class for credit. They should think up another object that they would put in the portrait. The idea is for them to spend time and attention with their gift portrait. They can then share with the artist or with the class (depending upon the maturity of the group).

REFLECTION. Words encourage us to see others as labels within a collection of labels. We "know" someone then only as an example of some generalization. Drawings encourage us to notice the concrete particulars about a person that we otherwise overlook. The brain engages the other person in a new and different way. Receiving a portrait of yourself that you can hold in your hand, even it is looks a bit like a cartoon, is a startling kind of gift to contemplate. One feels gratitude but also uncertainty. You can probably think of questions you'd ask:

(a) Why did you feel inadequate or incompetent to make a portrait?

(b) How did you feel when you saw your portrait? What did you notice first?

(c) How did you feel taking time to notice all the details about another person?

(d) Is your self really a portrait that others make of you, one way or another, or is the "real you" buried inside where no one can see?

(e) In a world of phone cameras, is there still a place for drawing portraits of people? What is that place?

6. Meeting of Eyes. I use a Tibetan singing bowl as a chime to mark the 60 second intervals in this exercise. Any bell works fine. It is a contemplative experience of intimacy. Students pair off as A and B, with their desks facing each other. Both students must remain silent. A closes his or her eyes and B opens his or her eyes. B then simply observes A's face for 60 seconds.

Next, B closes his or her eyes and A opens his or her eyes. A simply observes B's face for 60 seconds.

Finally, A and B BOTH open eyes and look at each other for a full sixty seconds. They then finish by shaking hands.

REFLECTION - The last sixty seconds of this exercise feels like eternity for A and B. Shaking hands with each other at the close relieves the tension. It is a difficult exercise to do without averting your gaze or laughing. We react to each other, seek to control each other, we judge and to classify others without knowing who they are and without allowing ourselves to known.

If two male students are put into this exercise, they may squirm since sustained eye contact usually means either aggression or attraction. But there's a third option: sincere interest and appreciation. That takes a bit of courage.

This generation has the additional deficit of classmates who walk around looking at their iPhones or talking on cellphones instead of interacting with faces around them. This experience can be a gateway to many different topics. What's the relationship between proximity and intimacy? When can they co-exist and when do they compete?

This can springboard a discussion of inter-subjectivity and why we feel as we do under the pressure of another person's full attention. A face merely observed can be an "it", but a face observing you feels like a "thou". Two male student partners might have the most difficulty with this, but even that discomfort can be instructive for other reasons, if the discussion is about gender issues.

7.Fading clock on the wall. This is an imaginary scenario. Don't rush it. Say to the students:

"Close your eyes and imagine a clock on the wall across from you. It has a white face and black numbers on it. You can see the minute hand going around rapidly. Now, imagine that the minute hand is spinning only half as fast... and then see it slowing to a crawl.

Finally, see it come to a complete stop. Now imagine that the minute hand disappears so that only the hour hand remains. Now the hour hand also disappears, leaving only numbers on the face of the clock. Now the numbers fade away too, leaving only the blank face of the clock which now disappears from the wall. As you stare at the wall, it begins to dissolve and you see blue sky and see that you're standing on the beach. You feel warm sand under your bare feet and hear the sound of waves crashing on the shore. As you inhale, the air smells salty. You begin walking down to the shore line where you see the tide receding and sea shells left in the sand. Each has a number that used to be on the clock. As the waves rush in to shore, they cover each one of them in the sand. You can hear sea gulls at the far ends of the beach. Look out over the ocean and try to see the horizon, and feel the sun's warmth on your eyelids as the cool salt water cascades over and around your feet. Take a deep breath and open your eyes."

REFLECTION: This doesn’t work by imagining a digital clock – one needs the relentless cyclical movements of an analog time piece, I think.

This is another relaxation experience without being told to "relax". Students often think of pace, tempo, and time as external task masters beating the drum as slaves row in unison. This experience brings control of pace, tempo, and time within themselves. Topics to discuss: time and duration, . the meaning of schedules and deadlines (where did "dead" come from, anyway?)

Undergraduates (especially first-year students) are adjusting to being responsible for keeping up with fixed schedules. It's not a coincidence that a common college nightmare is arriving late for class or missing a test. They may feel controlled by clocks and calendars, and this feeling contributes to a contemporary version of quiet desperation" which Thoreau observed in the society of his era.

In a discussion of Thoreau (or even Kant's epistemology), this exercise introduces the idea of time as a category of thought with which they can form a chosen relationship. It's no longer just "the way things are." Students can then reflect and discuss to what extent their sense of being "time-poor" is socially induced or self-induced.

8. The Empty Chair. This exercise is about reconciliation, and it is one of the most potent contemplative exercises. Be aware of its emotional power before you decide to use it. Arrange the class in a circle. If the class is too large, use two rooms with a different circle of students in each room What's important is that each student can face an empty chair without feeling crowded or too conspicuous. Draw the blinds or turn down the lights.

If you like, open the exercise with a story: "A woman who visited a very sick man in the hospital who did not seem to have any other visitors. Still, the woman noted that he kept an empty chair next to his bed. She asked him why. He explained that, from time to time, he imagined that Jesus would arrive and sit down in that chair and talk with him. That kept him company on long, lonely days. When the woman returned to visit the man the next day, the nurse met her in the corridor and explained that the man had passed away that morning. 'It was very odd” remarked the nurse. “When we found him, he was partially out of the bed with his head resting on the chair.'

The student then imagines that someone he or she needs to speak to is sitting in that chair and begins a silent conversation with that person. Take at least five minutes with this or as long as 20 minutes. Explain that a Christian might imagine facing Jesus. But you could also imagine someone you've lost, or an old friend you've not seen in a long time. Just sit and "listen." The empty Elijah chair at Passover, and other symbolic absent-yet-a-presence experiences come to mind.

Begin your silent conversation when you feel like it. This is using your imagination in the service of reconciliation to heal pain caused by separation from others. It creates a shared experience. Take a deep breath and open your eyes. Give silent and respectful notice to the students to regroup as a class at the end of the exercise.

If you want to focus on forgiveness, imagine someone whom you need to talk to but never took the opportunity to do so.

REFLECTION: Be prepared to attend to students for whom this exercise is unexpectedly emotional. It is more powerful than they might anticipate. Our minds and hearts fill in what we really need in that empty chair. There is nothing there, but it is nevertheless very full. This is a good place to begin a discussion about ethics (forgiveness, reconciliation) or about the power of imagination to meet unspoken needs. The fact that it is not a "real" conversation does not lessen its meaning .If this is a class in which you're discussing literature and the arts, so that the meaning of imagination is central, consider how imagination in the creative constructive service of real relationship and real need differs from imagination in the dismissive sense of "just a fantasy" or "just make-believe."

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” ― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

9. Dust Bunnies. This is a two-person exercise about mutual support and freedom. Have students pair up and stand facing each other with their arms outstretched toward each other. One is A and the other is B. Both close their eyes.

Instructions to A: "Allow the back of your hands to rest in B's supporting palms. Think about the things you are most worried about now and imagine that each of them is a dust bunny in the palms of your hands. Take your time.

Instructions to B: When A is ready, lift A's hands up to eye level and both of you blow on A's palms to blow away all the dusty bunnies. Both A and B take a deep breath and open their eyes.

Then repeat this, reversing roles:

Instructions to B: "Allow the back of your hands to rest in A's supporting palms. Think about the things you are most worried about now and imagine that each of them is a dust bunny in the palms of your hands. Take your time.

Instructions to A: When B is ready, lift B's hands up to eye level and both of you blow on B's palms to blow away all the dusty bunnies. Both A and B take a deep breath and open their eyes.

REFLECTION: "Absolution" is a theological term which refers to being freed of sin, but there is another level of mutual support whereby we free each other of our burdens. A communal covenant in Hebrew scripture is the year of Jubilee. Every fifty years, all debts are abolished and all slaves go free.

This is more modest, but still important: This spontaneous interdependence is easily overlooked in an undergraduate's struggle between independence and dependence as warring dualities. This exercise would work well with a discussion of Stephen R. Covey's The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. For example, we try to defeat our worries exclusively through private introspection instead of relying upon each other to deal with them effectively. Have A and B discuss how they experienced this exercise from their own perspectives. This can be a good segue into a discussion of mutual aid and why this is rarely a norm in classroom experience or elsewhere in a competitive and mistrustful society.

10. Time Running Out. This is a variation on an ancient exercise used by Anthony de Mello and others. I've included two different scenarios for an instructor to choose. Although the exercise is framed as a private meditation upon mortality, the real punch is reserved for the last few seconds in which a small group of students see each other in a new way. It reframes how they view each other and the prospect of time running out.

CAUTION: If you have students with suicidal ideation or clinical depression, you may wish to discretely excuse them from this exercise.

Instructions: Have students stand in a small circle of four people. After students close their eyes and breathe deeply, say:

"Imagine that you are walking from your car to the doctor's office for an appointment after some medical tests that you have taken. You received a call from the nurse informing you that the doctor wants to speak with you about the results and prefers to speak with you in person. That makes you very nervous.

You enter the reception area and sit down. Notice the details. How do the other people behave? What magazines are in the waiting room? Do you hear the little aerator pump in the lighted aquarium? What do the walls look like? Finally, you enter the office. What does the doctor look like? You sit down across from the doctor. On the corner of the desk, you see a file with your name on it. The doctor looks at you with real concern and then says softly that the test results have arrived.

A. FIRST VARIATION: You will lose your sight in two months.

B. SECOND VARIATION: You will die in two months.

What does it feel like in the pit of your stomach right now? Would you want other people to know? The doctor says that there is nothing that medical science can do for you at this point. As you leave the building and walk back to your car, you notice other people walking down the street. How does it feel? What do you want most to see? You return to campus and phone your parents and then go to dinner. As you eat, you see the other students who don't know anything about your situation. You can't sleep that night, so you go outside and lie down on the grass look up at the stars. How do you feel? What would you most want to do in the next two months? What do you wish you had done? "

Breath deeply, open your eyes, and look at the people in your group for 60 seconds.

REFLECTION: This need not be morbid, but it is sobering, both in what students share from their own experience and in how they subsequently experience each other anew in that small circle.

For philosophy classes, it can be preface (or follow-up) to discussion of existentialism or one of Plato's dialogues dealing with the trial, imprisonment, and death of Socrates. The exercise embodies the idea that learning how to live is, in part, learning how to die. The challenge is to make the discussion earnest but not grim; real but not overwhelming. Each of us needs to share what we think death means, but our society provides few opportunities to do so. It is a naturally contemplative interlude in our otherwise busy lives.

A more basic issue is how cultures honor or deny the need to contemplate together the prospect of time running out and what it means to the students.

Variations on this exercise in contemplative literature emphasize mindfulness and the need to reconsider how we take the world and each other for granted. The exercise also confronts an undergraduate's typical assumption that death is a remote event in the distant future. A discussion of free will and choice can also be enriched by students considering what real choices remain in the face of (an unexpectedly) limited time to live.

11. Hands of a Stranger. This is a simple but powerful visualization exercise about time and aging. Have students choose partners. They stand facing each other. They then reach out and take each other's hand. (It's usually the right hand).

Instructions: "Take 60 seconds and contemplate your partner's hand and your own and don't think of anything else. Notice whether your partner has long or short fingers – large or slender fingers? Is your partner's hand cool or warm? Is the grip strong or pretty noncommittal? Is there any jewelry? Now notice the ways in which your partner's hand is different than your own. If you knew nothing about the partner except this hand, what would you conclude about this person? Now, close you eyes and try to picture exactly the way your partner's hand looks.

Now switch hands. Contemplate your partner's other hand and imagine as clearly as you can how it must have looked when your partner was 4 years old. Contemplate your other hand too and imagine how it looked when you were four years old. See these hands much smaller, with tinier fingernails and smoother skin. Imagine them a littler dirtier than they are. Close your eyes and imagine that you and your partner are 4 years old.

TAKE A DEEP BREATH.

Now close your eyes. Think of your partner's hand and yours as very old – the hands of the 80 year-old persons you're becoming, one year at a time. The hand is more gnarled and wrinkled and perhaps not so warm. There are liver spots and the veins seem very close to the surface of the skin. Now imagine your hand is also very old. This is really how you expect your hand to look at the age of eighty. Take your time. Imagine that your entire hand feels like it has a headache – that's arthritis. You can't clasp your partner's hand quite so firmly without pain. So, be careful how you hold your partner's hand too.

Keeping your eyes closed, when you are ready, unclasp hands and place the palm of your very old hand on your partner's cheek. What does this feel like? Take a deep breath, put your hands down, and then open your eyes."

REFLECTION - We are each of us much more than the person we happen to be right now. The spotlight on the "right now" is so bright that we forget to look outside its halo to see the rest of ourselves. It. So long as childhood and old age are strangers, we remain strangers to ourselves. This exercise can illustrate a discussion on the philosophy of the self or the nature of change. In epistemology, the sense of touch is not emphasized as much as vision. Vision objectifies the world, whereas touch is a form of communion. Another good discussion question: Why do we often imagine ourselves aging alone rather than aging along with others?

How we experience and feel about age can have a place in many classes. This can be a meditative segue into discussion of ageism and our presumptive bias that whatever age we happen to be (or happen to be inside our heads) is the "right age" and that every other age is therefore a 'stranger."…and you don’t talk to strangers, right? A stranger might be a friend you haven't met yet, or perhaps an old friend that you don't yet recognize.

12. The surprise party. I devised this exercise with a "gotcha" at the end. Students tend to remember this one vividly. Unlike the others, it has an eerie dreamlike "Twilight Zone" quality. Not all contemplation is soothing and tranquil. Everyone in class closes their eyes. Dim the lighting to add to the effect.

Instructions: "Imagine that it is your birthday and that you receive a visit from an elderly person. (If you're male, imagine that it's an old man. If you're female, imagine that it's an old woman). This person seems familiar, like a long-lost relative whose name you can't quite remember. The elder knows your name and announces that a birthday party has been prepared in your honor, and your visitor offers to escort you to the party.

Inexplicably, you trust this person, and start walking across campus, making small talk in the hopes of remembering this person's name. You can't remember which side of the family this person belongs but you feel strangely but nicely at ease chatting with your escort.

You arrive at an old house on the edge of campus. Your escort asks you to put on a blindfold for the surprise. You agree and are guided inside where you smell the old wood and know that it's an older house. You hear dozens of people, young and old, inside talking and laughing. (If you're male, all of the guests are male; if you're female, all of the guests are female). Your escort leads you to the dinner table and you hear a baby crying in the background, some children playing tag behind you, and some older people talking about family and business at the other end of the table. The guests address you by name and ask about you. They bring up family stories, events from your childhood (things you didn't think anyone else knew about), and they ask you about your plans.

By this time, you're very embarrassed that you can't seem to place any of these relatives, especially since their voices all sound so familiar to you. On the other hand, you feel very much at home, even while wearing your blindfold. One older person shares that you both have the same first name. Finally, the birthday cake is brought out and you're allowed to remove your blindfold and blow out the candle. You look down at the cake and blow out the candle, and then you look up and are startled to recognize that every person in the room is YOU, but at different ages. One by one, say "thank you" to each person in the room, beginning with the oldest and ending with the baby in the high chair."

REFLECTION - We don't often think of ourselves as different people throughout life. Like most family reunions, this one is a feat if it manages to get the whole crowd under one roof. Most of us think of ourselves strictly in terms of who we happen to be at the moment, although the "real" you is spread out over decades, and not so thinly. If the real you is really many different ages, what about your parents? What about your instructor? Does any age deserve to be called the "real" age or the "best" age, or an undesirable age?

13. The enemy in the row boat. This is another very powerful exercise that may affect some students strongly. After having students close their eyes and breathe deeply, dim the lighting, and say the following:

"Imagine that you're sitting on a dock on the ocean, and that it's early in the morning about 3:00 a.m. You've come outside to hear the surf and look at the stars because you're having trouble sleeping. You can hear the waves slap against the pilings of the pier, and you notice that a thick corded rope is tied around one of the posts. When you look closer, you see that the rope is connected to a row boat about 12 feet away. In the row boat a person is seated who does not say anything but looks at you. This is the last person in the world you wanted to see. It's someone who has hurt you. You get increasingly anxious when you see who is in the boat, especially because this person says nothing. Then you take a deep breath, and you unwind the rope from the post and let the boat float away. The boat and the passenger become smaller and then fade away as the sun rises in the east and it becomes dawn. As you look around, there is no trace of that person and the boat. You notice that your hands are bruised by the rope, so let it drop, turn around, and leave the beach behind you. How do you feel?

There are undoubtedly many ancient stories on this theme. The enemy in the row boat is my version of this experiential story of forgiveness from two perspectives.

*************************************

"Now take a deep breath, and imagine that it's the middle of the night again. You are seated in the rowboat, and the tow rope is tied to the pier. You are unable to leave the pier because something is gnawing at your conscience. As you look up, you are surprised to see the last person in the world you wanted to see. This is someone you hurt and you feel very bad about it. You don't know what to say, so you keep silent, wishing that you could just float away. Suddenly, that person on the pier lets the rope drop, and you can finally float off as dawn breaks, no longer tied to the pier. How do you feel?"

REFLECTION: This exercise is the one that students most often remember from the course. It can be a very powerful experience, especially for the unexpected switch in perspectives from the dock to the boat. One of the most difficult psychological and ethical challenges that is raised by the hurt we cause each other is that of forgiveness. We usually associate the act of forgiveness with religious thinkers, but it is also important to everyday life. I would not recommend starting a semester with such a demanding exercise. It should be reserved for a time in which the students can stay with the exercise without being rushed or distracted. If the course deals with global issues or history in which people do terrible things to each other and must find a way to go on living in community, this is a good contemplative opportunity to process that dilemma. Be prepared to honor the students' need for quietness and reflection afterwards, if necessary. A later discussion of justice vs. mercy can be deepened by this exercise.

14. Blind Leading the Blind. The metaphor of "blind leading the blind" is usually invoked to illustrate the folly of the unqualified and lost being led by the unqualified and lost. However, the experience is very different when the blind participants put their hands on each other's shoulders and do this in a circle. The contemplative exercise then becomes a meditation on the meaning of community and belonging.

Have the students stand in a circle facing the center of the room. Then ask them to all turn left and to place their hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them. Each person is looking at the back of the head of the person in front of them. Next, have them put their hands over the eyes of the person in front of them.

Then they start walking…

They all walk in the same circle, so no one can get lost. On the other hand, none of them can see where they’re going so they still feel lost. How can people be both lost and found at the same time? What's interesting is that no matter what tempo the instructor or participants set for this circular promenade, no one ever falls down, even though no one can see where they're going.

After a few trips around the room, ask one of them to think of a good song that the others can join in while they're walking. They discover that they soon walk in rhythm to the song. Then ask them to open their eyes and sit back down.

REFLECTION: This is a meditation on the human condition from a comic perspective that nevertheless hits close to home. Each of us relies upon the other to find our direction in life and into the future. And no one can see the future. Notwithstanding this blindness, we follow each other in trust or collusion, sharing our blindness but secure that we’re on the journey together.

Students might object that the group never really "gets" anywhere at all. They only walk in circles. That's true. They also point out that the person behind keeps them from seeing where they are going. That's exasperating and unfair. It's much easier to decide where to go when no one depends upon you. They're right about that. But, as soon as those hands go around your eyes, you know that someone trusts you, thereby making it a bit more difficult to find your way for both of you. Of course, you're doing the same thing to the person in front of you. Are we all equally blind? Parce reincarnation, each of us is alive for the first time, so no one is an expert at being human. But aren't they just walking in small circles? That's how life is dispensed – one day after another. And the song make a difference even if you hadn't known that a song was needed. (It's a little earlier to make a song when everyone has their eyes closed but ears open.

15. Donna Ladkin inter-subjectivity exercise. As far as the phenomenology of self goes, the challenge is to jump out of ego and control into a shared inter-subjective space. Donna Ladkin has an excellent exercise for this – best done outside. She describes it in Rethinking Leadership (2011).

1. Have students face each other in pairs. Decide who’s A and who’s B.

They hold out their arms and touch the backs of their hands against the backs of the other person’s hands.

2. B closes his/her eyes. A then leads B with neither saying a word.

3. A then closes his/her eyes. B then leads A with neither saying a world.

4. Then both A and B close their eyes (backs of hands touching). And you simply say to them “Move!” They work out the give-and-take improvisation and find they can do this…and nobody ever stumbles or falls down.

REFLECTION: Selves communicate as part of one understanding and can figure out paths and direction without rules or hierarchy. Inter-subjectivity has different levels and meaning and is an experiential form of belonging. Why does it work so well when both are blind and neither has the role of “leader” or “follower”

16. Icemaker and Icebreaker. The classroom example of active listening also involves students in pairs. I made this recipe up from scratch as a foil for active listening practice.

1. A will tell B what A plans to do over Thanksgiving. B is then instructed to ignore A completely; look out the window, check the iPhone, stare into space or otherwise disengage. Give them a full minute of this “quality time.”

Afterwards, both A and B both share what that experience feels like.

Next, both A and B are instructed in listening as an active skill. A few basics:

They sit facing each other, making eye contact the whole time, leaning forward slightly. Non-verbal in body language, one unambiguously communicates that one is not going anywhere else and that you are there for the other person’s company. This person has your full attention and presence. Single-tasking of this sort is much harder than multi-tasking for students.

The hard part is for B to then focus upon what A is saying as though this is the first and last conversation they will have that day. No worry or concern of B’s matters here. B is 100% committed to understanding what A is saying and to discerning how A feels about it. This is not “acting as though you are interested.”

You decide that this matters and give it 100% of your attention and care.

You’ll have a hard time getting them to stop the interaction after a minute. They’ll want to continue and that says something in itself.

17. 3-2-1 Guided Shadow Exercise. Laura Nigro introduced me to this experiential / contemplative exercise she learned from the work of Diane Musha [Hamilton]. This exercise is a progression through a silent dialog with another person in our life. In distinct steps, we’ll move through writing in 3rd person voice, then 2nd person voice, and then 1st person voice. ‘S/he’, ‘you’ then ‘I’.

INSTRUCTIONS: Think of someone (or something) in your life that really upsets disturbs you. Really! It could be a positive or a negative disturbance. You don’t need to understand WHY, just that they DO. Just that it rocks your world somehow. Sit across from an empty chair for this.

• FIRST - Sit across from an empty chair that is facing away from you. Take 5 minutes in your journal to describe him / her / it and how they upset you. Write the story about this IN THE 3RD PERSON (using the pronouns ‘he’, ‘she’ or ‘it’). Use any or all of your 5 senses to relate what exactly is bothering you about them.

• NEXT - Sit across from an empty chair which faces you. The next step is to move into 2nd PERSON and talk directly with this party in a one-to-one exchange with them. Write what you need to say to it / them, as if you’re actually talking to them directly. So now use the word ‘you.’ Take another 5 minutes.

• LASTLY, sit in the empty chair yourself. Now, we let THEM talk directly to us, writing in the 1st PERSON with the pronoun ‘I’ whenever that party is doing the speaking. When that party is referring to you, use the word ‘you.’ Take 5 min.

REFLECTION: Note what shifted for you energetically and perceptually as you adopted three different perspectives on the same situation. You might take ownership of the perspective you live within, or you might not. If we take the 1st perspective as reality, then we are likely to feel disturbed and negative as we project onto other people. The psychological energy we’ve been using away from keeping these projections in place outside of ourselves, and reclaim it to do other, more useful things with that energy. Sometimes this movement of energy can lead to greater understanding, awareness, and insights. Sometimes to greater compassion for the person onto which we’re projecting our “stuff.”

The bottom line is not asking “who has the right perspective and the last word on what this experience means?” It’s noticing the cost and opportunities of living within each perspective. The first one is very labor-intensive. You have to decide whether it’s worth the work.

CAUTION: Again, none of these exercises are idiot-proof nor teacher-proof. These 17 examples are NOT a list of protocols that someone can read off to a group, read without heart, spirit, and the intuitive wisdom earned by some spiritual discipline of ones own, AND then reasonably expect the experience to be transformative. The recipes will fall flat and all that’s left is a little teacher trick and class diversion. You want much more than that, and so do your students.

Bibliography

Here is a short list of authors and works which have helped me in my meditative practice and learning to cook with contemplation:

de Mello, S.J. in Sadhana - A Way To God: Christian Exercises in Eastern Form (1978)

Ladkin, Donna Rethinking Leadership (Edward Elgar Press, 2011)

Anonymous. The Cloud of Unknowing . (Harper Collins Spiritual Classic, 2004). This guide to contemplation was written in the 14th century.

Hamilton, Diane Musha. The 3-2-1 Shadow Process – 1 Minute Module. See

Note the bibliographic references to shadow work, including sources by Carl Jung.

Rumi, Mawlana Jalaluddin Muhammad Balkhi – inspiration for the Mevlevi order of Sufis, better known as the Whirling Dervishes of Sufism

This poem on radical hospitality or the self as guest-house has been published many times in English. See

For a partial bibliography of translations and commentaries.

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