Wisdom

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Main Course Links

Google Forms, Class Audio, and Peerceptiv

  • Peerceptive Sign up for Peerceptiv today! The class code is "hire12". Cost is $6.95 for the semester. Choose research option "yes"
  • You will receive 5 points for signing up and completing payment by Friday. .
  • Tell Me - A general form for telling me anything anonymously or not.
  • Audio From Class
  • To access audio from class, fill in the weblink following this example: alfino.org/audiofromclass/447TJAN12.m4a
  • Note the use of a "T" for Tuesday's class or "W" for Wednesday's class.

Resources for Projects and Practica

Practica

  • The goal of this practicum is to cultivate a basic ability to quiet your mind through a self-paced introduction to mindfulness meditation. As with the yoga practicum, you will be investigating the potential connection between having a quieter mind and wisdom. If the initial meditations are productive, you might add "loving kindness and compassion" meditations to the practice.
  • Resources for Metta Bhavana (Loving Kindness and Compassion) meditations
  • The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society. [1]
  • A "progressive Christianity" site's resources. [2]
  • "The Buddhist Centre" [3]
  • Yoga Practice
  • The goal of this practicum is to heighten your practice of yoga and, in conjunction with some reading and reflection, try to determine whether and how the physical and emotional well-being promoted by yoga practice helps with wisdom. For example, you may have a problem or issue in your life that requires wisdom. How does this problem look at a really good yoga session? Or you may notice a change in your interactions with others that you see wisdom in, especially on the heels of a good yoga session.
  • This practicum works with your choice of yoga practice, preferably a practice that involves 2-3 sessions per week. Most Americans like studio yoga, but for this practicum it might be good to try adding a shortened version of your studio practice as a morning or evening practice, especially if you are only going to yoga once or twice a week. This home practice can be as short as 10-20 minutes. I recommend that you read Fahri, Donna, "Cleaning up Our Act" from Bringing Yoga to Life (linked from courses.alfino.org) or other online reading about yoga philosophy. Over the course of the month you may want to try visiting one or two yoga studios that have less "exercise" oriented yoga.
  • Wisdom journals based on spiritual practice from your religious tradition
  • Students can work with a spiritual advisor (either from the community or Campus Ministry) and report weekly on their spiritual practice and it's potential relationship to wisdom.
  • Prayer and religious contemplative practices are historically powerful methods for cultivating wisdom. Consider this practicum especially if you have a strong spiritual practice or would like to intensify or renew your faith life.
  • Seneca Meditations
  • The goal of this practicum is to adopt Seneca's daily meditation practice as described in De Ire (On Anger). The excerpt is here Seneca Meditations Excerpt, but it occurs in the middle of a long essay on Anger, in which Seneca argues against anger as an acceptable or wise emotion to allow. (Check out this 24 minute you tube from popular philosopher Alain de Botton on Seneca's view [4].
  • Read about Seneca and several of his essays and epistles (choose from topics below), then make a daily practice of reviewing your attitudes, motivation, and interactions with an eye to self-criticism in the spirit of stoicism in general and Seneca in particular. Seneca's essays are online at: Book 1 [5] and Book 2 [6]
  • Read a few pages from Haphram's article on Seneca's view of gratitude (linked from courses.alfino.org)
  • "A Perfect Day" Journal and Reflection
  • note to follow

Projects

General Links to Wisdom related Resources

  • Friends of Wisdom site, Nicholas Maxwell: [7]
  • Review of a recent book by biologist David Sloan Wilson on group selection and altruism. [8]
  • Some details about aging from Atul Gwande's new book, Being Mortal: Media:AgingDetailsGwandeBeingMortal.pdf
  • Americans as outliers, Pew research. [9]
  • Mischel impulse control video. very cute. [10]
  • New Yorker article on delayed gratification [11]
  • Wiki page on "deferred gratification" [12]
  • Mather Amygdala Study Article
  • Forest of Friendship, Baggage Carousel of Jerks[13]
  • So You Think You're Smarter Than A CIA Agent, [14]
  • Sikh Wisdom: [15], [16]
  • Ngram for wisdom and related terms [17]
  • TED talk on misdirection: [18]
  • multi dimensional scaling [19]
  • Video for the Trolley Problem [20]
  • Wisdom Self-test

Notes from Previous Version of the Course

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