Contemplative pedagogy
If we think ecologically about rhetorical situations, how do we cope with that understanding in our pedagogy?
This techne draws inspiration from classical yoga philosophy (Vedanta), a system of epistemology and ontology which is directly informed by a deep ecological understanding of the world, to discover methods for approaching our individual processes of writing. This techne is rooted specifically in training from the Sivananda lineage, an international organization which is explicitly informed by the ancient texts of Vedanta philosophy.
Vedanta philosophy bridges a quantum understanding of reality into a pragmatic and intelligible world. Though a manifestation of the cutting edge of science and technology, the insights of quantum physics are largely unintelligible to the general public. Vedanta takes into account the expansive possibilities lurking in the micro-chasms and macro-chasms of the world, but it also serves as a method of experiencing life… and writing.
This move towards non-linearity is parallel to the shift seen in the post-process world. The system of Vedanta is just one of many contemplative traditions with roots in the ancient world which modern scholars are currently tapping into.
Literature
In 1998, Mary Rose O'Reilly wrote Radical Presence: Teaching as Contemplative Practice. O'Reilly's mission is to integrate the role of teaching into the spiritual path of life. She does not ground this purpose within any one doctrine or dogmatic principle, but explores many universal contemplative practices which can be fruitfully imported into the teaching of writing. O'Reilly seeks to the create a teaching space which is not separate from spirituality; one that is full of compassion, isn't afraid to slow down and create silence as a precursor to listening, presence, and meditation:
The goal of spiritual direction is to support the transformation of the one seeking direction. By 'transformation' I mean movement toward truth, true self, authenticity. Transformation occurs in a kind of spiral. At the outer whirl of the spiral, a lot of analytical activity may occur: the badgering and bossing of certain Mother Superiors and Zen masters, therapy talk, analytical discussion, the passing on of the precepts of a tradition or the practical application of them to daily life. At the innermost point of the spiral, though, is a silence: a place of presence. Transformation happens in the badgering and bothering (and correcting and grading); it happens as well on the ground of silence. Good teaching or counselling--and I am thinking here more of what goes on in individual mentoring than in the classroom--begins in the contemplative practice of both companions, although this inward attention may not enter explicitly into their time together; the session may be devoted to analyzing an essay or sorting out a financial aid crisis. (30)
In order for any of us as individuals to critique the cultural myths that oppress us--and I include white males in this community of suffering--we are called to an elemental act of mediation. We have to have a few conversations with the pain in our gut; we have to know the world outside and the world within, value both and give both their due. For anyone enduring the pain of dissonance, this is a brave act of integration and a generous contribution to the community. (34)
Though informed specifically by classical yoga philosophy, the goals of this techne are very much in line with O'Reilly's mission. Yoga is a spiritual practice, and not discriminatory of any religion/ethnicity/social status.
In 2014, Daniel P. Barbezat and Mirabai Bush published Contemplative Practices in Higher Education as a resource for teachers of all disciplines. The book is divided into two parts: a theoretical and practical background, and a guide to contemplative practices. This book is a project of The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society (CMind), which seeks to "transform higher education by supporting and encouraging the use of contemplative/introspective practices and perspectives to create active learning and research environments that look deeply into experience and meaning for all in service of a more just and compassionate society."
The framework of the book is aptly depicted through The Tree of Contemplative Practices:
Barbezat and Bush offer research on the merits of contemplative education, in addition to a general guide to mindfulness, contemplative reading and writing strategies, compassion and loving kindness, and experiential education. Their goal is to provide "simple, yet radical change" in all classrooms.
This text is a helpful overview to contemplative pedagogy which is ostensibly secular; there is no explicit alignment with any ancient texts. Given the authors' broad scope, the depth at which the methods are discussed is necessarily limited.
In 2015, Christy I. Wenger published Yoga Minds, Writing Bodies: Contemplative Writing Pedagogy as an attempt to ground her writing pedagogy within her knowledge as a yoga teacher. Wenger focuses on the integration of body and brain; the body as a real site of knowledge (4) and the distinguishing factor of contemplative education. Wenger identifies with the Iyengar tradition of yoga, but she situates herself within the scholarship of composition and rhetoric as a priority over her place within the ancient tradition of yoga. Wenger's goal is to integrate of the writer on the page and the writer in the brain, and she focuses on notions of embodiment in place of explicitly invoking the spiritual undercurrents of yoga. She uses the term "spirit" "in a wide sense to include secular notions of the divine, which are often linked to the heart, the feeling center (179)."
Key to understanding the philosophy of yoga is recognizing its premise that when we cultivate mindfulness of our thoughts and feelings, we can choose our behaviors and move beyond the habitual action-reaction cycle, which dictates how we tend to respond to situations. A re-theorization of the writing subject as a writing yogi, a contemplative writer skilled in embodied imagining, is needed in composition studies precisely because the dominant action-reaction chain that dictates how we approach students’ and teachers’ subjectivity is unresponsive to matter, and mindlessly so. (42)
Wenger's emphasis on embodiment as situtated within the field of rhetoric and composition is definitley helpful, but the severing of spirituality as the purpose of embodiment leaves her work vulnerable to appropriation in ways similar to the way yoga is often translated in the Western world: as a place to go and work on your abs (essay).
My mission is to ground a theory of writing within classical yoga philosophy to create a set of heuristics which move a step beyond embodiment and mindfulness as discrete entities.
