Meditation in the Classroom: Cultivating Attention and Insight

Goals: Care must be taken by the instructor not to overemphasize achieving the goal(s) of meditation. Often, when there is too much emphasis on trying to reach the goal, the benefits of meditating can be hindered. On the other hand, when the goal of meditation is held loosely, then the goal is more easily approached. For this class meditation activity, the instructor might loosely hold several interrelated goals for their students: cultivate experiences of first person attention, concentration, and awareness while simultaneously developing capacities for insight, imagination, exploration, and discernment of ideas related to class content and applications to everyday life. Another goal of the class meditation is to provide an opportunity for students to share and dialogue about their personal insights discovered during meditation

The Prayer of the Holy Name in Eastern and Western Spiritual Traditions: A Theoretical, Cross-Cultural, and Intercultural Prayer Dialogue

Investigates the Holy Name prayer from the perspectives of eastern Hindu and both eastern and western Christian spiritual traditions. Interpersonal prayer as spiritual communication; Historical and theoretical dialogue; Comparison of the method and function of Eastern and Western Holy Name prayer traditions

Journeying Into the Well: An Autoethnography of 35 Retreats Across Two Decades

In this autoethnography I narrate the story of my retreat experiences and spiritual practices at the Well Retreat Center over a span of two decades. The Well is both a geographical place in the Isle of Wright County in Virginia, and a metaphor for a spiritual journey into the inner Well of our being. I chronicle an amalgam of 35 retreats in one 24-hour retreat, narrating stories about: leaving home and settling in, dreaming and awakening, sunrise and sunset, walking in nature and walking the narrow path, discovering life behind a cracked door, and uncovering the mystery that lies at the bottom of a Well. I punctuate each story with questions for the reader to contemplate, inviting them to go deeper into their own inner Well, to contact and connect with the life-giving waters that nourish our growth, sustain our hope, and orient our lives toward loving compassion. Finally, I address issues of validity, limitations, and future research

Prayer Life of a Professor

[Abstract from pre-print] Borrowing from the ethnographic methodologies of Coles and Goodall, this autoethnographic account describes interconnections among a Professor\u27s personal prayer life, teaching, and research. The contextual frame for the story is episodes and observations from a 12-year span of time, encompassing post academic tenure and promotion to present. The recurrent theme is that prayer touches and transforms all life, including content and approaches to teaching, and the direction and substance of research

Searching for the Divine: An Autoethnographic Account of Religious/Spiritual and Academic Influences on the Journey to Professor

This autoethnographic account chronicles my academic and religious/spiritual path to becoming a professor of Communication. Spiritual influences and significant life events related to prayer, education, teaching, and research serve as sign posts marking the way. The journey begins with a child scientist experimenting with life—and an adolescent discovering the joy of reading through an illness. The journey continues with a crisis in undergraduate years followed by indoctrination stories of graduate school. Securing and retaining an academic position in Communication reveals the complexities of negotiating research and teaching in higher education. After tenure and promotion, a concurrent spiritual awakening begins a two decade “prayer research journey.” Finally, the journey continues with the most recent transition, moving from a social science research orientation to a new methodological orientation toward scholarship called autoethnography. Questions for meditation and reflection periodically punctuate the journey as a way to engage with the reader and facilitate reflection for life praxis

From Talking Stick to Listening Stick: A Variation on an Ancient Practice

Goals: The primary goal is to introduce students to the concept, experience, and application of the listening stick activity within the context of an undergraduate listening course. Students participate in a group listening stick activity that cultivates experiences of first person attention, focus, and awareness of self and others’ feelings and needs for the purpose of self-discovery and building small group cohesiveness. As a secondary goal, students learn how to apply the listening stick activity to interpersonal and small group situations in school, work, social, and spiritual settings for a variety of purposes including relationship building, problem-solving and decision-making

I’d Rather Teach Peace: An Autoethnographic Account of the Nonviolent Communication and Peace Course

This autoethnography narrates the story of how I taught the Nonviolent Communication and Peace course to undergraduate students at an urban university in the midst of a densely populated military region in the U.S. I describe what it feels like to be in the peace class from the student and professor’s points of view. I invite readers to consider creative options for teaching and learning about peace, including: insight meditation, cultivating peace attitudes/behavior from readings about inspirational peace people, developing nonviolent communication skills, and connecting students with their local world through a personal and creative peace project. Finally, I include reflection questions for those that want to delve deeper into peace. The Nonviolent Communication and Peace course syllabus is available from the author upon request

A Model of Interpersonal Christian Prayer

A model of interpersonal Christian prayer (ICP) was created based on a review and synthesis of traditional and social scientific prayer literatures. The ICP model accounts for global theoretical constructs such as active and receptive types of prayer and includes a subcategory of receptive prayer called radically Divine communication. The ICP model describes prayer progressions, specifically the developmental and cyclical nature of prayer. A list of 12 research questions based on the ICP model are provided. Two specific suggestions for future research dealing with the relational quality of prayer and intercultural receptive types of prayer are outlined