I grew up in a Catholic family. Our parish was close to the center of our family life and both my parents were deeply involved in various aspects of the church. We were friends with all the parish priests and my father's family had deep ties, well back into the late 1800's, to Catholic Church politics and the political emergence of the Catholic vote in southwestern Connecticut.
I mention this because my own ambivalence about religious practice arises from long and deep experience with religious practice. Long ago I came to the conclusion that, despite some rather profound experiences- call them mystical or deeply moving, call them each a crisis or a bout of religious melancholy, those experiences were largely emotional and arose from things much more pedestrian than "God". But that being said, I was also thankful to have had the vocabulary and syntax of a life-long religious education to make sense of the experience, whatever the outcome in terms of my faith. I had been educated by the Jesuits to be a skeptic and yet would forever be shaped by the Catholic tradition.
At TAS, I teach Zen Sword and lead meditation. I counsel students, teachers, and parents, and try to set the general, day to day tone of our educational practice. No doubt my own quirks and flaws are at play throughout, and perhaps no where is this more evident in the Contemplation Concentration. It has taken some work to get it to this point, and there is a lot more to do.
Buffy (our art, cooking, and yoga teacher) and I, with some contribution from Matt (our reading specialist), decided that it was time to re-ground what we do at TAS in some deeper practices. Jen, the school therapist (currently on maternity leave), joined the school this year, bringing her own deep and daily practice as a lens for the complex problems that arise for our students. Zen practice, we all concluded, is developmentally correct for teenagers. It has the right mix of skepticism, discipline, moral probity, and reflectiveness for that time of life. Ten years of success at TAS has demonstrated this.
America is a tremendously dynamic, cosmopolitan country, with all the world flowing in and out. Religious practice in our country reflects this. Religious practice is so central to so many contemporary and historical questions that it seems essential to a well rounded education to have some direct experience with it. Most of our students do not have any. Merely providing some emotional support, some meditation, and some martial arts and yoga is not enough, however effective this might be.
Big questions- of existence, of love, of the why and what of one's life- must be grappled with in the years between childhood and adulthood. At this age the mind is evolving the ability to consciously involve itself in the world and be changed by it. A point of reference is crucial, as is the understanding that there are many other points of reference, both inside and outside of oneself. That is where the integration of our world view truly begins. Our contemplation program is an attempt to help this process along.
So many people become fearful during these years, and slowly circumscribe their worlds. TAS is dedicated to the proposition that being open to the world makes your life better and makes everyone's lives better, that openness is itself an act of courage.
Academic classes can only hint at what is out there. They are a menu, not a meal. If you look carefully at the CC program, you will notice that intellectual study is only one part. The rest is about seeking whole-life engagement with the self and others, with a lot of guidance. If adults do not actively participate in the spiritual and philosophical lives of the children in their care, then all the great questions of childhood and adolescence will be framed by other children and adolescents.
Please give our new program a good, long look.
Here is an interesting little item from the Times, on proofs of God and one's own journey.
I mention this because my own ambivalence about religious practice arises from long and deep experience with religious practice. Long ago I came to the conclusion that, despite some rather profound experiences- call them mystical or deeply moving, call them each a crisis or a bout of religious melancholy, those experiences were largely emotional and arose from things much more pedestrian than "God". But that being said, I was also thankful to have had the vocabulary and syntax of a life-long religious education to make sense of the experience, whatever the outcome in terms of my faith. I had been educated by the Jesuits to be a skeptic and yet would forever be shaped by the Catholic tradition.
At TAS, I teach Zen Sword and lead meditation. I counsel students, teachers, and parents, and try to set the general, day to day tone of our educational practice. No doubt my own quirks and flaws are at play throughout, and perhaps no where is this more evident in the Contemplation Concentration. It has taken some work to get it to this point, and there is a lot more to do.
Buffy (our art, cooking, and yoga teacher) and I, with some contribution from Matt (our reading specialist), decided that it was time to re-ground what we do at TAS in some deeper practices. Jen, the school therapist (currently on maternity leave), joined the school this year, bringing her own deep and daily practice as a lens for the complex problems that arise for our students. Zen practice, we all concluded, is developmentally correct for teenagers. It has the right mix of skepticism, discipline, moral probity, and reflectiveness for that time of life. Ten years of success at TAS has demonstrated this.
America is a tremendously dynamic, cosmopolitan country, with all the world flowing in and out. Religious practice in our country reflects this. Religious practice is so central to so many contemporary and historical questions that it seems essential to a well rounded education to have some direct experience with it. Most of our students do not have any. Merely providing some emotional support, some meditation, and some martial arts and yoga is not enough, however effective this might be.
Big questions- of existence, of love, of the why and what of one's life- must be grappled with in the years between childhood and adulthood. At this age the mind is evolving the ability to consciously involve itself in the world and be changed by it. A point of reference is crucial, as is the understanding that there are many other points of reference, both inside and outside of oneself. That is where the integration of our world view truly begins. Our contemplation program is an attempt to help this process along.
So many people become fearful during these years, and slowly circumscribe their worlds. TAS is dedicated to the proposition that being open to the world makes your life better and makes everyone's lives better, that openness is itself an act of courage.
Academic classes can only hint at what is out there. They are a menu, not a meal. If you look carefully at the CC program, you will notice that intellectual study is only one part. The rest is about seeking whole-life engagement with the self and others, with a lot of guidance. If adults do not actively participate in the spiritual and philosophical lives of the children in their care, then all the great questions of childhood and adolescence will be framed by other children and adolescents.
Please give our new program a good, long look.
Here is an interesting little item from the Times, on proofs of God and one's own journey.
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