Center for Contemplative Mind in Society

Our retreats for educators are an opportunity to cultivate awareness and inquire deeply into our professional lives. At the core of contemplative methods is a practice of one’s own. Much of the time on retreat will be spent in focused, guided inquiry and in silence, including some silent meals. Participants will examine their work deeply, enabling them to reenter their professional lives from a place of greater skillfulness and insight. The final day of the retreat will include discussion of contemplative pedagogical methods and the relationship of the contemplative perspective to teaching, learning, and knowing. These practices cultivate capacities central to all of higher education—focused attention, deepened understanding of course material, greater kindness and compassion, and enhanced contemplative inquiry and insight.
Our retreats are designed to appeal to participants with a wide range of experience in contemplative practice, from beginners to seasoned practitioners. Registration is open to college and secondary school educators, administrators and staff.

The Summer Session on Contemplative Pedagogy is an annual week-long intensive workshop which prepares participants to return to their institutions with a deeper understanding of the practice of contemplative pedagogy and methods adapted for classroom and co-curricular use. Summer Session participants devote their week to rigorous investigation, reflection, writing, and discussion, guided by distinguished scholars and experienced contemplative educators.
We invite educators from all disciplinary and inter-disciplinary perspectives in arts, humanities, sciences, humanities-related sciences, and social sciences, and higher education professionals in mental health, counseling and administrative offices to apply.
The Summer Session offers presentations on the design principles of contemplative pedagogy; the relation between course content and contemplative practice; and the benefits of stabilized attention and other qualities of mind fostered by meditative exercises. We will explore the rationale for contemplative approaches and how to communicate with students and colleagues about their inclusion. Practical issues such as evaluation and grading will also be considered. There will be a presentation of recent research on the effects of meditation and discussions on how contemplative practices affect teaching, learning and campus culture. Each day will also include contemplative practice time, and will introduce participants to a variety of practices that have been adapted successfully for secular educational settings.

CMind's initiative, the Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education (ACMHE), a multidisciplinary professional academic association of academic scholars and administrators, has convened conferences annually since 2009. These gatherings explore the many ways that contemplative practices serve teaching, learning and knowing in higher education.

The Journal of Contemplative Inquiry (ISSN: 2333-7281) promotes the understanding, development, and application of contemplative and introspective methods in order to serve a vision of higher education as an opportunity for cultivating personal and social awareness and an exploration of meaning, values, and engaged action. The development of critical first-person perspectives and alternative ways of knowing allows everyone in higher education to examine their own experience in relationship to the material they study, transforming their understanding of how their work, study, and actions affect the wider world.