Meditation: Practice and Theory

Philosophy 339 / 339H
Fall 2008

Professor: Marvin Belzer
mbelzer@bgnet.bgsu.edu
Shatzel 325
372-7216

Office hours: W 2-4.30

Class meetings
Class will begin promptly each Wednesday night at 6 p.m at the UCF center (corner Ridge and Thurstin). Please do not arrive late. Class will not meet on Oct. 8 (the night prior to Fall Break). The final class meeting will be Dec. 10 during the last week of scheduled classes, at which time all course work should be completed. This course does not have a final exam.

Goal #1
The most important goal of the course will be to learn and develop the practical skills of insight (mindfulness) meditation. We will work to achieve this goal in the following ways:

1. Regular sitting and walking meditation practice in class at UCF (corner Ridge and Thurstin) on Wednesday nights.

2. Daily meditation practice, beginning with 15 minutes a day and working up to 45 minutes per day (not necessarily all during one period). If you do not have a suitable quiet place to do this, you will be able to use the UCF room weekdays during the day.

3. Participation in a silent weekend retreat September 26-28, 2008. The retreat will be held at The Lady of the Pines retreat center in Fremont, Ohio. The retreat will begin Friday, September 26, at 6p and continue through Sunday, September 28, at 3p. We will coordinate transportation to Fremont (which is about 30 miles from Bowling Green); this coordination will take place in class Wed., Sept. 17 and Wed., Sept. 24.

4. Participation in at least two of the following 8-hour Saturday retreats, including at least one of the first two: Saturday, Sept. 6; Saturday, Sept. 20; Saturday, Oct. 18. These will begin at 10a and conclude at 4p, to be held at the UCF Center (where we hold the Wednesday class).

I would like to emphasize that the development of your own meditation practice during this semester is the focus of this course. In this respect, the course differs radically from most philosophy courses. What I mean by "developing a practice" is to make meditation a part of your normal day.

Attendance and practice components 1-4 are required parts of the course. They are not optional. This course will be suitable for you only if you are prepared to spend time and effort actually practicing meditation during this semester --in class, on retreats, and DAILY (on your own -- every day).

Goal #2
A secondary goal is to develop competence in communicating about one's experiences in meditation as well as about one's practice itself; and to gain an understanding about (a) how diverse meditation traditions have emphasized the importance of a moral foundation for a meditation practice and the value of altruistic motivation; (b) the goals specified in various traditions; (c) the relationship between meditation and psychotherapy; (d) the variety of meditation techniques and practices that have been developed; and other matters. There also are various optional personal goals that can be set. We will achieve our goals through:

5. Participation in both small-group discussions and full-class discussions in class on Wednesday evenings.

6. At least two small group meetings scheduled outside of class meetings during the regular school day, with the first of these taking place Sept. 8-10, and the second taking place during the week following the weekend retreat. Sign-ups for these two rounds of small meetings will take place during the class meetings Sept. 3 and Sept. 24; if you are absent during these class sessions it is your responsibility to contact me in order to get into one of the small groups. No make groups will be held to meet this requirement.

7. Reading, and being prepared for weekly discussions of, the texts for the course (TBA). The texts are: Henepola Gunaratana, Mindfulness in Plain English; and Jack Kornfield, A Path with Heart.

8. A weekly one page (at least) journal turned in each week of the first half of the semester (before Fall Break); participation in an online discussion board during the second half of the semester (after Fall Break).

9. Write 2 short papers (4-5 pages), due dates TBA (both after Fall Break).

10. Your choice: (a) participation in 5 relational practice ("hot seat") groups to be held in Oct./Nov. after Fall Break outside of scheduled class time (this will be explained in class), (b) an exam in Nov. based on the material in the texts, and (c) some special project of your own design (possibly a longer paper), related to the themes of this course and approved in advance by me. You will be asked after Fall Break to tell me which option you are choosing. Students taking the course for Honors credit need to do two of these options.

Grades
Normally meditation is not taught in a context in which grades are assigned, and I would not consider trying to grade the content of one's meditation experience or the quality of one's practice. To repeat, I will not be evaluating the quality of your meditation practice. This is an extremely important point, in part because according to a great deal of literature on meditation, development and progress in meditation often are contrary to our expectations. For example, at times we may experience a lot of joy and blissful feelings, but then these disappear -- and there are times when, according to the literature, this is definitely progress! The point is that, from the beginning, there is no need for you to be evaluating or grading your own experiences, just as I will not be.

Because the course is a regular University course, however, I will assign grades at the end of the course. There are 304 points possible. For an A one needs 275 points; for a B 255 points; for a C 230 points; and one needs at least 180 points to pass the course. One can adjust one's participation in the various aspects of the course based on the grade for which one aspires.

Grades will be based on work in the following areas. As you can see, you can get a lot of points simply by showing up for things (including showing up for your own daily meditation practice). On the other hand, you definitely have to show up in order to get the points. And it always is your responsibility, not mine, to make sure you sign the attendance sheets for each activity. These sheets will be authoritative relative to points given; and as should go without saying, it never is acceptable to sign another person's name to any attendance sheet.

45 points: Attendance in class (approx. 3 points each week)
45 points: Daily practice minima, reported weekly on Weekly Report Forms, as described below (3 points each week)

45 points: Weekly journal (first half) and weekly participation in online discussion (second half) (approx. 3 points each week)
70 points: Attendance at retreats as described above (40 points weekend retreat; 15 points for each Saturday)
12 points: Attendance at the two required small group meetings as described above, see item 6 above. (6 points each meeting)

42 points: Writing assignments, see item 9 above. (21 points each assignment).
45 points: See item 10 above (your choice). Honors students will be asked to decide how much value each of the two chosen options will have.

Weekly Report Forms
You will be asked to report each week whether or not you accomplished the practice minimum every day during the preceding week. For example, in class on Sept. 3 you will be asked to report on your practice for the week beginning August 27. I will distribute these forms in class on Sept. 3. This aspect of the course admittedly is a bit annoying, but it definitely is part of the course. I know from past experience that it can help students develop a consistent daily practice. The requirement is designed to help you pay attention actually to doing your daily practice. The daily practice minima for each week of the semester are as follows.

Daily Practice minimum requirements