without whom I would never have begun this project, let alone completed it. To all beings, my mothers*, most importantly my own mother, Mavis Jacobsen, who, at 90 years, is still my strongest supporter. * “One of the unique aspects of Tibetan culture is that for hundreds of thousands of people have been meditating on the thought ‘every single being has been my mother’” (Thurman, 2015) Table of Contents: Page Abstract 5 Introduction 7 Section 1: “Why Mindfulness Matters to Me” - One Teacher’s Story 9 Section 2 “In Case You Need Convincing” - Mindfulness Research 26 Current Research Involving School-Age Children 31 Current Research Involving Teachers 36 Current Research Involving College Students and Pre-Service Teachers 42 Conclusion 45 Section 3: “Getting Started” - Resources for Teachers 50
Cultivating a Contemplative Classroom Climate 52 A. Cultivating Nature Awareness Through Sensory-Based Contemplative Activities 57 ‘Touching the Earth’ Meditation 60 Nature Awareness: Literary Resources 64 Cultivating Environmental Awareness and Appreciation of Indigenous Ways of Knowing 65 B. Cultivating Somatic Awareness Through Contemplative Physical Activities 68 ‘Inner Smile’ Meditation 69 ‘Peace’ Meditation 70 Awareness of Breathing 73 Pranayama: 9 Breaths 74 Anapanasati: Mindfulness of Breathing 76 C. Cultivating Social, Psychological, and Emotional Awareness Through Active Imagination 76 The Wise One 76 Phenomenological / Poetic Awareness of Felt Sense 78 D. Cultivating Awareness and Creativity Through Contemplative Activities 82 Contemplation of Space in 10 Directions 82 Contemplative Photography: Clearing Your Mind’s Eye 84 Cultivating Mindful Awareness of Colour 85 Cultivating Awareness of Music: Gesture Drawing and Free Writing 87 Writing as Contemplative Practice 88 Multimodal Exploration of Dreams 89
involved in various martial arts; following his initiative, I spent several years exploring a variety of these practices, learning different forms of tai chi and qigong, and experimenting with aikido and jujitsu. Eventually, we both earned our black belts in wing chun kung fu. Through these experiences, I learned to value the calm, alert mindfulness and sensitivity to one’s sparring partner cultivated by the tai chi ‘pushing hands’ and wing chun ‘sticky hands’ practices that has also been shown through research (Vago and Silbersweig, 2012, p. 10). It wasn’t until I discovered the more vigorous ashtanga yoga style in 2003 that yoga eclipsed martial arts as my regular physical practice. My involvement with these physical practices has influenced me to have a strong commitment to including somatic awareness in any mindfulness training program, and integrating body awareness activities as classroom contemplative practices whenever possible. MBSR and various other programs include yoga postures and body scan awareness practices; some also incorporate tai chi or other movement meditations. I am particularly encouraged by recent research into treatment for high school students at risk for mental health challenges which integrates mindfulness treatment into the milieu of mixed martial arts and yoga training (Milligan et. al, 2016). The meditation process outlined in the earliest Buddhist discourse on mindfulness, the Satipatthana places the body first in its delineation of the four objects of mindfulness in this method, the remaining three being feelings, states of mind, and mental contents (Thera, 1980, p. 57). In my teacher’s monastic training, the first meditation given to novices when they were ordained was a meditation on the body (Rinpoche, 1983, p. 9), and subsequently, body work also became a foundation of the contemplative work he shared with his students. To support our study of the body, we spent many hours engaged with an Anatomy Coloring Book (Kapit and Elson, 1977); as a result of my experience with this absorbing activity, I am not
conserving such space... - Rainer Marie Rilke (Gass, trans., 1999, p. 140) C. Cultivating Social, Psychological, and Emotional Awareness Through Active Imagination The Wise One I like to introduce students to a variety of guided visualizations or fantasy journeys to uncover memories, explore symbolism, evoke insights, and promote creativity. These are sometimes based on my own experiences such as scuba diving or hiking, and sometimes on scripts created by others, such as the following example, which comes from a fascinating book by Marlene Halpin (1982), a Dominican Sister with a doctorate in philosophy from the Catholic University of America. She introduces each exercise with a brief set of instructions to help the listeners settle into a calm and settled frame of mind and follows it with detailed descriptions of the psychological insights of clients using the visualization in her therapeutic practice. In the following example, ellipses and bolded questions indicate points at which the teacher should pause in reading to allow participants a few moments to explore the visualization. Picture yourself out in the country on a lovely summer day. You are alone and feeling quite well. A well-defined path is just to your right. It disappears among the trees. You decide to take a walk following the path… It’s pleasant in the There are the usual sounds of birds and insects. A rabbit runs across your path. Sunlight makes pretty shadows among the leaves. You continue to walk along the winding pathway...
demonstrate how quickly one can learn the necessary skills and create work that demonstrates tremendous sensitivity. Contemplative Photography: Clearing Your Mind’s Eye In The Practice of Contemplative Photography, Karr and Wood (2011) provide numerous examples and exercises designed to strengthen a photographer’s connection with nonconceptual awareness through a practice. “First we learn to recognize naturally occurring glimpses of seeing and the contemplative state of mind. Next we stabilize that connection through looking further. Finally we take photographs from within that state of mind” (p. 41-42). The following instructions are an excellent introduction to mindfulness through photography. Try this: Go outside and pick three points in a loose triangular arrangement. Look at one object, then move on to the next, then move on to the third. Repeat this over and over again in a relaxed fashion. Eventually, your mind will begin to clear of all the extra “noise,” and only those three things will become the focus of your attention. As you move your focus from one object to the next, notice what differences you begin to see between them--textures, colors, patterns, and so on. Also, what things nearby have been trying to distract your attention? What sounds have you heard? Notice those, too. By doing this you can increase your awareness and your perception of things around you. (Tharp and Manwaring, 2012, p. 31) Excerpts from the following non-fiction texts are also recommended as additional supportive readings: Reading Pictures: what we think about when we look at art by Alberto Manguel (2002); About Looking (1991) and Ways of Seeing (1972) by John Berger; How to Look at a Painting by Francoise Barbe-Gall (2006); On Photography by Susan Sontag (2001). These all promote close viewing and deeper thinking about perception.
suffering. The value of various contemplative practices is slowly being confirmed by conventional science with the consequence that such practices are increasingly seen as ‘worthwhile work’. I hope that along with this trend there will be a rediscovery that “Good work takes time because good things are complex and demanding of us and our attention and devotion” (Seidel and Jardine, 2014, p. 84). In proposing to bring contemplative practice into our schools, we return to the roots of this word, from Greek skhole, “spare time, leisure, rest, ease, idleness...originally, a holding back, a keeping clear” (online etymological dictionary, 2016). I am reminded of Mary Rose O’Reilly, (1998) who opens her inspiring book, Radical Presence: Teaching as Contemplative Practice by quoting another inspirational educator, Parker J. Palmer, -- “To teach is to create a space” (p. 1). It is my hope that by sharing my own journey as an educator and meditator, and offering a few suggestions in answer to the question of how to create a contemplative classroom space, fellow teachers who read this project will be inspired to engage with their students in a wide range of creative ways, living ever more deeply into their own questions. References Abbs, P. (1974). Autobiography and the training of teachers. Higher Education Quarterly, 29(1), 104-112. Abram, D. (1996). The spell of the sensuous: Perception and language in a more-than-human world. New York, NY: Pantheon Books. Alberta Education. (2013). Ministerial Order on Student Learning. Retrieved from