Frequently Asked Questions
What do you mean by the term "transpersonal"?
Transpersonal literally means "beyond the personal", and refers to a transcendent domain of human awareness that lies beyond the individual self, or ego. Transpersonal education thus includes a variety of modalities for contacting and integrating transpersonal experience into one’s overall studies and life as a whole. These include meditation, contemplative inquiry, artistic expression, movement, and community service and engagement. Benefits commonly associated with these practices are heightened mental clarity, ability to focus, inner calm, self-awareness, compassion, creativity, and insight.
What do you mean by meditation and contemplative inquiry?
Meditation and contemplative inquiry are part of a broad continuum of methods for cultivating transpersonal experience. While the terms are often used interchangeably –meditation is a form of contemplation, and vice versa - the present context distinguishes these practices in order to illuminate their unique functions. Meditation involves silent, sitting practices that, through withdrawal from ordinary mental and physical activity, allow awareness to venture inward and experience deeper levels of the self. Through regular contact with interior, silent levels of awareness, one transcends the buzz and chatter of the mind that characterizes much of ordinary existence, and can bring more awareness and freedom to whatever activity one pursues. Meditation enables us to be free from our thoughts and conditioned tendencies, and to witness them as a flow of activity atop a foundation of silence.
Contemplative inquiry also strives to cultivate inner silence and heightened awareness in activity, but differs from silent, sitting meditation in that it occurs within the context of activity. Examples included contemplative reading, where a deeper and meditative approach to a text can reveal deeper meanings in it, and contemplative movement or dance, where the physical body transcends conditioned movement patterns and is directed by more subtle impulses in consciousness. Any activity or life experience can be approached with a contemplative/meditative intent, which points to the close relationship between the two kinds of practices. It is important to realize the context when distinctions are drawn, or when the terms are used synonymously. In the Contemplative Studies project of the American Council of Learned Societies, for example, meditation is viewed as one of a range of contemplative disciplines. Others might view these disciplines as forms of meditation.
It sounds like you are talking about spiritual education - is this the same as transpersonal education, and if not, how does it differ?
If one defines spiritual education as learning and development that is shaped by contact with transcendent domains of awareness, then that is synonymous with transpersonal education. However, the term spiritual can also suggest affiliation with a particular spiritual or religious teaching, which is of course highly problematic in the educational world. Transpersonal education is rooted in processes that transcend the boundaries that separate the various spiritual pathways, and in so doing accesses common ground that invites a cross-traditional exploration, inquiry and analysis. Here the term transpersonal is useful in the connections it invites to the academic sciences and humanities. By creating a bridge between diverse spiritual practices, and between spiritual/transpersonal experience and conventional forms of knowledge, we can begin to understand how these areas both unite and differ. An entirely new educational landscape emerges that promotes unprecedented kinds of transformation and development, and helps dissolve the boundaries between spiritual pathways and other fields of knowledge that are so problematic in our world.
Why is transpersonal education so important?
Virtually all of the challenges confronting modern society point to the need for foundational changes in how individuals think and act, which means a change in consciousness. It is not enough to define education solely in terms of practical mastery in one or more fields; internal mastery is also needed, where individuals transcend the sense of separateness that prevails in our times, and they experience more expansive and integrated modes of awareness. Our educational systems have both the capacity and the responsibility to provide this kind of development, providing they first undergo change in this direction within themselves. This is where STATE comes into play.
The idea of bringing spirituality into education seems like an almost impossible task. What will transpersonal education look like, and can you cite examples of precedents?
While there is no doubt this is an ambitious project, recent initiatives in the educational
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The Center for the Contemplative Mind in Society facilitated the ACLS program and continues to spearhead retreats and academic conferences that are increasing the awareness of transpersonal education in the educational world. Funding for this initiative has been provided by The Nathan Cummings Foundation, and the The Fetzer Institute.
If these kinds of initiatives are already underway, why is STATE necessary?
To date, most of the above-mentioned initiatives involve isolated courses that provide students a one-time, introductory exposure to transpersonal/spiritual experiences. However, in order for significant development in this direction to occur, multiple courses and programs are necessary, as is the case with any academic discipline. Transpersonal experience needs to be integrated into the educational core, which rarely happens. One exception to this is found in the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Jazz and Contemplative Studies curriculum at The University of Michigan School of Music. One of STATE's objectives will be to promote the further design of transpersonal curricular models in a variety of fields.
So STATE's orientation is largely toward meditation and Eastern thought?
STATE's orientation is
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Where does creativity come into play in transpersonal education? And what about conventional academic rigor-isn't this inherently in conflict with creative and transpersonal experiences?
Transpersonal and creative experiences do not conflict with conventional academic studies, but in fact can enhance these studies. They provide an expanded continuum of experiences that enables students to engage more deeply, and find more meaning, in their studies. Creative activities, which are inherently active and hands-on, are one part of this expanded continuum. Business organizations, for example, have
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Moving toward the more silent aspects of this continuum, meditative or transpersonal disciplines have been shown to promote a variety of benefits that enhance learning and overall life. These include mental clarity, ability to focus, inner calm and well-being, heightened intuition and insight, and concern for the broader social and physical environment. (see Testimony and Research pages [coming soon]). Moreover, because transpersonal practices are also often connected to elaborate theoretical, historical, and cultural frameworks, they yield a variety of intellectual connections that extend directly from an inner experience. In other words, whereas conventional education focuses largely on rational, empirical approaches to disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge; transpersonal ways of knowing allow an entirely new approach to interdisciplinarity emerges, where these areas are connected at the foundational realm of consciousness, not just at their surfaces. A new paradigm of educational rigor emerges, in which creativity, spirituality and conventional studies all play important roles.
What will STATE actually do to accomplish its mission?
The main thrust of STATE's action plan is twofold. On one level, student chapters will be established at as many college campuses as possible. The purpose of these chapters is to form local networks that will raise awareness about the importance of transpersonal education. This awareness-raising will involve a wide range of extracurricular and curricular activities. Extra-curricular activities might include group meditations, recreational events, publications (e.g. a "zine"), guest speakers, community service projects and retreats. Curricular activities, in which faculty will play a key role (although students can be the mobilizing force and also provide important input; some curriculum committees have student members), will involve the actual design of courses and even degree programs with transpersonal components.
These kinds of initiatives will be supported by STATE activities at a national and international level. The very existence of STATE, particularly when student chapters are formed at many campuses, will convey a strong statement throughout the educational world that students want transpersonal development as part of their education. Directly in line with this is the
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