title: Contemplative Practices in Higher Education: Powerful Methods to Transform Teaching and Learning
author: Daniel P. Barbezat
description: <i>Contemplative Practices in Higher Education</i>represents an instant classic in a growing movement that promisesto bring greater depth, resonance, and engagement to collegestudents learning experience. Dan Barbezat and Mirabai Bushdocument a stunning array of contemplative applications, revealinga robust and innovative field of pedagogy.<br /><b>Daniel Goleman</b>, author, <i>EmotionalIntelligence</i><br /><br />In this book, Dan and Mirabai do an excellent job indemonstrating how these transformative contemplative practices canbe sensitively introduced to academia. I didnt developcontemplative practices until I was middle aged. I wish I had hadsuch practices in my college days.<br /><b>Ram Dass</b>, teacher and author, <i>Be HereNow</i><br /><br />An inspiring report from the frontlines of academe by twoquiet revolutionaries. A must-read for anyone who cares about thefuture of college teaching and who seeks a vision of what it couldbe.<br /><b>Jerome T. Murphy</b>, research professor and deanemeritus, Harvard Graduate School of Education<br /><br />This engaging and informative reflection on the uses ofintrospective and contemplative practices in higher educationreveals a quiet revolution whose time has come. Barbezat and Bushhave brought us a path-breaking book that speaks from and tomindful educators intent on helping students focus their attentionand resist distractions, find more of themselves in their academicwork, and bring more of themselves into the task of crafting livesof meaning, purpose, and compassion.<br /><b>Diana Chapman Walsh</b>, president emerita, WellesleyCollege<br /><br />This book is a hugely inspiring and practical resource foreducators, giving them a whole other dimension of experience fromwhich to bring to life the beauty of their subject and engage theirstudents in discovering that beauty for themselves. Contemplativepractices, integrated into the curriculum of higher education inthe ways the authors describe and advocate so skillfully andcompellingly, have the capacity to transform our relationship tolearning itself, in all its mystery, intimacy, difficulty, andwonder. <br /><b>Jon Kabat Zinn</b>, author, <i>Full CatastropheLiving</i> and <i>Mindfulness for Beginners</i> <br /><br /><i>Contemplative Practices in Higher Education</i> is trulya breakthrough book, showing how profound attentiveness,intellectual rigor, and self-knowledge can be seamlessly woventogether. It offers us a transformed view of a student, a teacher,the academy, and the world.<br /><b>Sharon Salzberg</b>, author, <i>Lovingkindness</i> and<i>Real Happiness</i><br /><br />Visionary, yet immensely practical and thorough! Can enhancethe skill, understanding and well-being of students and provide themissing half of education.<br /><b>Jack Kornfield</b>, author, <i>A Path withHeart</i><br /><br />At long last we have a comprehensive overview of theburgeoning field of Contemplative Pedagogy written by two of itsleaders and pioneers. This is a must-read for anyone interested inthe theory and practice of Contemplative Education.<br /><b>Harold D. Roth</b>, professor of religious studies andfounder and director, Brown University Contemplative StudiesInitiative<br /><br />Barbezat and Bush set forth a blueprint for a quietrevolution in educationplacing student experience at thecenter of our learning objectives, supporting students inreconnecting with themselves while enabling them to feel theirconnections with an ever more diverse world. As our problems growin complexity, the urgent need for such a revolution becomes clear.These pages hold the most practical approach yet for a way forward:transforming what happens in our classrooms, and actually changingthe worldone student at a time.<br /><b>Rhonda Magee</b>, professor of law and codirector, Centerfor Teaching Excellence, University of San Francisco<br /><br />This book tells the wonderful and creative way of expandingand increasing the possibilities of higher education throughcontemplative practices. The authors clearly reveal and express theimportant and meaningful ties between teaching and learning and thepower of contemplative practices, better connecting education tolife. The best educators often seek ways to expand and broadentheir reach and knowledgethis book will help them achievethat goal.<br /><b>Bradford C. Grant</b>, director, School of Architectureand Design, and associate dean, College of Engineering,Architecture, and Computer Sciences, Howard University<br /><br />A great guide to developing contemplative courses.Poetry and Meditation, the experimental course Itaught in Spring 2000 at West Point as a Contemplative PracticesFellow, changed much of what I thought I knew about teaching andlearning, and by doing that, changed my life.<br /><b>Marilyn Nelson</b>, chancellor, Academy of AmericanPoets<br /><br />The work represented in this book has been influential andinspirational in opening the doors to a new dimension of learning.The Institute for Jewish Spirituality has brought thesecontemplative practicestext study, reflection andyogainto courses in a leading rabbinical school in New York,and thus magnified the impact of its program of spiritual formationof future rabbis and cantors enormously, as well as bringingfaculty members together in generative cross-departmentalstudy.<br /><b>Rabbi Rachel Cowan</b>, Institute for Jewish Spirituality
zlib_text: MORE PRAISE FOR CONTEMPLATIVE PRACTICES IN  
  HIGHER EDUCATION
  “This book is a hugely inspiring and practical resource for educators, giving 
  them a whole other dimension of experience from which to bring to life the 
  beauty of their subject and engage their students in discovering that beauty for 
  themselves. Contemplative practices, integrated into the curriculum of higher 
  education in the ways the authors describe and advocate so skillfully and 
  compellingly, have the capacity to transform our relationship to learning itself, 
  in all its mystery, intimacy, difficulty, and wonder.”—Jon Kabat Zinn, author, 
  Full Catastrophe Living and Mindfulness for Beginners
  “Contemplative Practices in Higher Education is truly a breakthrough book, 
  showing how profound attentiveness, intellectual rigor, and self-knowledge can 
  be seamlessly woven together. It offers us a transformed view of a student, a 
  teacher, the academy, and the world.”—Sharon Salzberg, author, Lovingkindness 
  and Real Happine