Who Do
You Think You Are, and What (in the World) Are You Doing? The workshop's purpose
is to provide us with the opportunity to look within in order to better know ourselves—to
identify the various familial, cultural, religious, ethnic, gender, and societal
influences that have nurtured and/or limited our development. Such awareness empowers
us to choose to embrace, discard or balance these influences-to see more clearly
who we are, what we do, and why we do it. As we learn to better understand and
accept ourselves, we cannot help but extend our understanding and acceptance,
and inevitably, our compassion and love, to loved ones, neighbors, colleagues
and fellow humans-to all that we encounter.
This
awareness or consciousness is not a "quick fix" that changes one's life after
reading a book or attending a class. Rather, it is a choice—a commitment
to practice, to pay attention to one's self and to the world, not through the
conditioned blindness of what Thomas Merton called "the anonymous authority of
the collectivity," but through a conscious, genuine, ongoing, and integrated life
of learning and growth. "Who Do You Think You Are, and What (in the World)
Are You Doing?" is, for those who would choose to attend and participate,
an engaging and fun introduction to, or reaffirmation of, the choice to consciously
live a life of one's own-to better know, understand, and finally be him- or herself.
We will do this through a combination of readings, presentations, oral and written
exercises, and meditations that incorporate the work of Mary Catherine Bateson,
Ram Dass, Father Thomas Keating, Thomas Merton, Thich Nhat Hanh, M. Scott Peck,
James Fowler, Daniel Goleman, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ken Wilber, and others. A bibliography
is included.
Week
#1: 15 BILLION YEARS, GIVE OR TAKE A FEW / OPENING COUNCIL / COURSE STRUCTURE
AND GUIDELINES
An overview of the multi-disciplined view that we will be taking, including the
contributions (and complications) of psychology, sociology, theology, biology,
physics, and anthropology to our current states of consciousness as human beings.
The overview completed, we will engage the experience of freedom and power inherent
in composing the story of one's own life, using Mary Catherine Bateson's essay,
"Composing a Life," as a foundation. The ability to compose one's story over a
lifetime of continuity and discontinuity will enhance our understanding of subsequent
course issues. An introduction to mindfulness (insight) meditation.
Week
#2: WHOSE STORY IS THIS?
We
will delve further into Bateson's essay, and consider the power of multiple interpretations
of our lives. We will look at the difference between "conversion" narratives and
"end-in-the-beginning" stories, and how they can help us make sense of our own
lives. Mindfulness (insight) meditation continues.
Week
#3: WHO WE ARE, THEORETICALLY
With
our new perspectives on our life stories, we will return to our collective roots,
with a brief look at the history of the universe (from approximately 15 billion
years ago up to the present day), with stops along the way for the appearances
of earth and humans, the resulting conversations between science and religion,
and selected other events of note. This done, we will introduce/revisit the developmental
work of Piaget, Erikson, Kohlberg, Gilligan, and others, and introduce the work
of Ken Wilber, who asserts (with others) that each of us accomplishes (more or
less) in our first fifteen years essentially the same developmental tasks that
our species has "completed" since its initial appearance. Mindfulness (insight)
meditation continues.
Week
#4: WHAT WE'RE MADE OF AND WHERE WE MAY BE GOING [WILBER, ABHOE 1-2]
Our introduction
to Ken Wilber continues with the concept of "holons" (whole/parts) and the twenty
tenets that govern them (essentially, everything that we know is a holon—both
a whole and a part of something larger). The twenty tenets are essentially rules
for evolution or extinction. We will be concerned primarily with human holons
(human beings), but will see that these tenets apply to everything. Introduction
to mantra (concentration) meditation.
Week #5: A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMANS / TIME LINE REVISITED [WILBER 3-4]
Foraging
(hunting/gathering), horticultural, agricultural, and industrial/information societies:
a look at the means of production, gender roles, science and religion. Our meditation
will juxtapose concentration meditation with Herbert Benson's "relaxation response"—essentially,
a scientific validation of the positive effects of meditation.
Week
#6: WILBER'S FOUR QUADRANTS AND THE BIG THREE [WILBER 5-6]
We will
welcome this week, Wilber's work with holarchies (hierarchies of holons), and
his four quadrants—individual, collective, interior and exterior—which
are present in everything. We will see this all begin to make sense when we overlay
what we know of psychology (individual/interior), biology (individual/exterior),
anthropology (collective/interior) or sociology (collective/exterior) on the quadrants.
Our exploration will include historical, practical, and theoretical applications
of the four-quadrant model. Our meditative practice introduces Father Thomas Keating's
work with Centering Prayer, a Christian contemplative approach to meditation.
Week
#7: FOUR QUADRANTS AND BIG THREE, CONTINUED [WILBER 7-8]
Our continuing
exploration of Wilber's model includes its consistency with "the big three"—beauty,
goodness, and truth; also known as art, morality, and science; or I, we, and it
perspectives. More specifically, we will examine the problems that existed prior
to the differentiation of these three spheres (e.g. Church influence on government
and science), the benefits inherent in their differentiation (e.g. separation
of church and state), and the subsequent problems that have arisen as their differentiation
has led to dissociation (modern science's occasional reduction to scientism or
pure empiricism as the only way of knowing). Meditation will consider a focus
on sacred scripture, using the work of Eknath Easwaran as a model.
Week
#8: THE EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS [WILBER 9-11]
We
will see that, according to Wilber, the developmental work of Piaget, Erikson,
Kohlberg, et al. works—as far as it goes, but there is further to go. Wilber
addresses this "further to go" with four steps, what he calls "fulcrums," beyond
where the generally accepted theorists (above) leave off. We will look at the
six recognized fulcrums and the four that are less well known. Our meditation
practice will explore mindfulness as a moment-to-moment activity—a way of
living—as opposed to something to be done a few minutes per day.
Week
#9: THE EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS, CONTINUED [WILBER 9-13]
Once we
complete our discussion of Wilber's fulcrums, we will investigate what his theory
of the evolution of consciousness means for us in real terms. We will consider
the evidence he provides for his "transpersonal" stages of consciousness, what
his opponents have to say, and what he has to say in response, all within the
context of "what does this mean for me?", a question that has relevance only to
those of us who are interested in our true potential—what the U.S. Army might
call being all that we can be. Our meditation will call on students to practice
using the approach with which they are most comfortable.
Week
10: WHAT WE FACE TODAY [WILBER 14-15]
Here
we will look at a big picture of contemporary life in terms of what Wilber refers
to as "flatland" (a world devoid of any real depth); the split between ascenders
(those who believe in a transcendent Spirit) and descenders (those who believe
in an immanent Spirit); the Perennial Philosophy (Plato, Plotinus, Aurobindo,
Huxley, Lovejoy, Smith, et al.); and the "dignity and disaster of modernity."
Our meditation practice will introduce self-inquiry or pointing-out instructions,
consistent with the Advaita (nondual) approach.
Week
11: WHAT WE FACE TODAY [WILBER 16-18]
The
"television receiver" metaphor will facilitate the move from Wilber's work toward
the question that arises (often subconsciously) at every stage of development:
"How willing am I to believe in what I have not yet experienced?" This question
then leads us to James Fowler's work with stages of faith (which, while it has
its most basic application to religious faith, is in no way limited to that realm).
As we will see, an individual with no religious affiliation may live his or her
life at a higher level of faith development than someone who regularly attends
a place of worship-or not. We will see the difference between religious (or any)
belief and faith. Our meditation practice will include an overview of the
basic sources of mindfulness and mantra meditation and how they are practiced
in various traditions (both secular and religious). We will continue with self-inquiry.
Week
12: THIS CRAZY IMPERMANENCE
With
the help of Ram Dass's On the Nature of Change and Facing Death, we will
explore impermanence as it pervades our human experience. In its simplest form,
we will see how our desire to attach ourselves to what we consider pleasurable,
and our desire to avoid pain, are together manifestations of our denial of the
transient, impermanent nature of "things." This will encourage us to consider
what, if anything, does not change—a question directly tied in with our self-inquiry:
Who am I, really? We will introduce the concept of integral practice to our meditation.
Week
13: DYING AND DEATH
We
will examine contemporary attitudes toward dying and death, using the work of
Ram Dass, Joan Halifax, Stephen Levine, Sherwin Nuland, Alan Wolfelt, Sogyal Rinpoche,
and others. Our examination will consider Western culture's denial of death from
the standpoint that we all are, in the very broadest sense, terminal patients.
In addition, we will explore how death awareness can enhance life, and how conscious
dying may help us understand our true nature. Meditation will include a guided
meditation on dying and death.
Week
14: DYING AND DEATH, CONTINUED
In
both continuation and conclusion of our discussion of dying and death, we will
focus on what dying and death offers us each day of our lives. In light of our
limited life spans, what is truly important? Meditation will again focus on dying
and death.
Week
15: OKAY, SO WHO AM I, REALLY? / CLOSING COUNCIL
We
will end with a discussion of individual worldview and the prospects for transformation
in light of the previous fourteen classes. We will clarify the difference between
transformation and translation, as Wilber uses the terms, and consider the benefits
of integral practice and what it might mean for each of us and all of us.
Thomas
Merton's essay, "Learning to Live," along with excerpts from his "The Inner Experience"
will help us begin the process of tying together these strands of story, evolution,
consciousness, and faith. Among the large themes that Merton addresses are, as
the title implies, what it means to live a life fully, what the purpose
of education really is, and ultimately, what really matters beyond the "anonymous
authority of the collectivity." We will begin a final discussion of the meditative
experiences.
We
will complete the process of tying together the work of the previous weeks with
the specific intention of coming to terms with what all of this (or any part of
it) means to and for each of us. We will, within and without the context of religion,
summarize what we believe and that in which we have faith. We will have the opportunity
to discuss Wilber's transpersonal stages of consciousness and what they may or
may not mean for us and our children (and their children, etc.). We will have,
with a sincere effort, come closer to an answer to the question, "Who am I, really?"
NOTE:
The week-by-week breakdown of topics to be covered is an estimate, and will be
affected by the response to the material and the interaction among the class members.
This outline is ambitious, to say the least.
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