Contemplative Ecology Seminar

Contemplative Ecology: A More-than-Sustainable Future--Draft Syllabus
11.09
©Guy Burneko, Ph. D.
The Institute for Contemporary Ancient Learning
Seattle, WA
www.beyondthematrix.com/inst

Course Description and Course Hypothesis:
Mainstream environmentalism calls for finding ways to continue to live as we have done, but in ways that sustain the resources of Earth. This seminar proposes that sustainability rests in a transformation of consciousness altogether, along the lines of what Thomas Berry calls reinventing the human. This implies living in resonance with the self-organizing patterns of cosmogenesis, in the archetypal, quantum, ecosocial and macrocosmic environments, not seeking solely and objectifyingly to manipulate the world for gain. The heart of this transformation in our way of life and in the structures of ego and consciousness is in finding satisfaction and delight in experience-as-such before it is dualized into subjects looking over the shoulder of every object for rewards external to the interaction itself. Contemplative traditions show us ways this nondualization takes place, and notable among them are philosophical Daoism and Neo-Confucian thinking that teach the heart/mind (xin) of the sage contemplative is the heart/mind of Heaven and Earth. One significance of this nonobjectivizing alignment or coinherence of self with the greater Self of universe-unfolding (Heaven, Earth, and Humanity) is that it allows seamless participation in/as the coevolutionary process trending towards the kind of self-organizing systems creativity-optimization described by Morin’s complexity theory and Kauffman’s idea of reinventing the sacred. It also demonstrates eco-contemplative conduct as a self-similar fractal or microcosm of cosmogenesis. In short, in contemplative – though not necessarily inert or quiescent – orientations, we find the kinds of intrinsic reward that surpass, or dehabituate, compulsions toward external gain. And thus we stamp less of an egocentric footprint on the natural systems of Earth to the degree we attune, resonate and integrate ourselves with, and as, cosmic cocreativity.

Facilitator Bio:
My foremost relation with this material comes from having lived in China and Alaska as well as diverse US settings including my present home in Seattle. I have been an amateur explorer, and I love the terrains of cosmos and Earth. Connected with this have been publications such as “Ecohumanism: The Spontaneities of the Earth, Ziran, and K=2,” in the Journal of Chinese Philosophy, a book on consciousness and culture titled By the Torch of Chaos and Doubt, another book underway on the theme of contemplative cosmogenesis, and a forthcoming essay, on Contemplative Ecology. My previous graduate teaching has been in transdisciplinary and intercultural liberal studies including Whole Systems Design and Environment and Community programs.

Requirements, Objectives, Activities, Criteria:
The major aim is an animating, creatively critical and knowledgeable interaction on the theme of a contemplative reorientation for extreme-long-term sustainability. A related aim is individual and community learner praxis bearing on contemplative sustainability. I’ll ask each participant to be present to online discussions with substantive comments at least 3 times weekly, or oftener, to read the assigned materials listed below, to write two critical/interpretive papers (20 pages, total), and to complete and report on a paired or group experiential activity directly relevant to the course—this may be an ecosocial project, ritual or celebration, a shared contemplative practice and/or a scientific experiment. I will look for creative thinking more than an accumulation of data. The criteria are graduate level exposition and participation – e. g., think about the possibility of writing for publication in doing your papers. I’ll look for a developing thesis or hypothesis, effective use of our readings and other resources, and a creative, sustained, thoughtful interaction with the material wherein you develop your own ideas. Make the course materials your own in a way others can share, and place your thinking in a creative and a critical context with what others have written. Find in the seminar what makes your heart sing and articulate it with suitable references and composition. Sing your song.

Required Readings, Sources; (The amount of weekly reading will be tuned and moderated according to learners' individual interests and topics of general interest, TBD):

Berry, Thomas. The Dream of the Earth. San Francisco: Sierra Club, 1988

Burneko, Guy. “Ecohumanism: The Spontaneities of the Earth, Ziran, and K=2” Journal of Chinese Philosophy 31:2 (June 2004). 183-194

_____. “Contemplative Ecology” TBD

Callahan, William A. “Cook Ding’s Life on the Whetstone: Contingency, Action and Inertia in the Zhuangzi” in Roger T. Ames, ed., Wandering at Ease in the Zhuangzi. Albany: SUNY, 1998: 175-95

Coyle, Daniel. “On the Zhenren” in Roger T. Ames, ed., Wandering at Ease in the Zhuangzi. Albany: SUNY, 1998: 197-210

Csikzentmihalyi, Mihalyi “Play and Intrinsic Rewards,” Journal of Humanistic Psychology 15. 3: (1975): 41-63

(From) Guenther, Herbert V. From Reductionism to Creativity: rDzogs-chen and the New Sciences of Mind. Boston: Shambhala, 1989: Foreword, Introduction, Chapter 13, Epilogue, ix-8, 223-248, 276-83

Jones, David and John Culliney. “The Fractal Self and the Organization of Nature: The Daoist Sage and Chaos Theory” Zygon 34:4 (December 1999). 643-654

Laughlin, Charles D. and Jason C. Throop. “Imagination and Reality: On the Relations between Myth, Consciousness, and the Quantum Sea” Zygon 36:4 (December 2001): 709-36

(From) Kauffman, Stuart. At Home in the Universe: The Search for the Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity. New York: Oxford UP, 1995: Preface, Chapter, vii-viii, 1-30; read any parts you care to of Kauffman’s Reinventing the Sacred (not required, listed below).

Morin, Edgar. On Complexity, Trans. Robin Postel. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2008

(TBD From) Tucker, Mary Evelyn and John Berthrong, eds. Confucianism and Ecology: The Interrelation of Heaven, Earth, and Humans. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press/The Harvard University Center for the Study of World Religions, 1998
OR
(TBD From) Girardot, N. J., James Miller and Liu Xiaogan, eds. Daoism and Ecology: Ways Within a Cosmic Landscape. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press/The Harvard University Center for the Study of World Religions, 2001



Course Itinerary:

Weeks I - IV, Please begin reading Berry, Kauffman and Morin (BKM). What they have to say will offer a matrix for subsequent discussions. Focus on “functional cosmology,” the “spontaneities of the Earth,” the theory of self-organizing systems and “complex thought”

V Callahan, BKM; Think about how Chinese philosophy optimizes situations in the context of self-organizing spontaneity and anthropocosmic resonance

VI (From) Tucker & Berthrong (TBD), BKM; What might be the sustainably ecosocial and ecocosmic significance of the trinity of Heaven, Earth and Humanity? Of Neo-Confucianism in general? Read in Wang Yangming (below, but not required) if you have the time and interest

VII (From) Girardot, et al.(TBD), Csikzentmihalyi, BKM; Play and contemplative conduct as intrinsically rewarding; What might be the ecocultural (egocultural?) implications of “flow”; Please let me have your first paper.

VIII Coyle, BKM; What do zhenren and sages have to say to us about sustainable, and noninstrumental participation in the self-organizing processes of the universe? To what extent is ego/intentionality a necessary constituent of sustainable self-eco-organization, to what degree and in what ways can it be transformed? Breathe from your heels.

IX Jones and Culliney, Girardot et al.(TBD), Tucker & Berthrong (TBD), BKM; Is the fractal self green?

X Guenther, BKM; How does contemplative consciousness/conduct reveal “experience-as-such”?; and how does the self-organization of such experience conduce to resonance with the holomovement? What is green about yoga?

XI Laughlin and Throop, BKM; Here is enough rope to hang yourself.

XII Burneko, BKM; Is this a logic of discovery or of verification? What are the implications of the question, and how do they bear on the prospects for extreme long term ecohumane sustainability?

XIII Berry, Burneko, Cheng in Tucker & Berthrong, KM; What is the significance of intercultural learning and experience for “functional cosmology”?; Can the spontaneities of the Earth be taught? Cultivated?

XIV Jones and Culliney, Tucker & Berthrong, (TBD), Girardot et al. (TBD) BKM; What are the ethical implications?; What is ethics/ethos?; Please submit reports on your projects

XV “Play,” Tucker & Berthrong (TBD), Girardot, et al. (TBD); Please let me have your reports, final papers and any late work. And thank you!




Selected Eclectic, Recommended and Background Readings + Websites to be provided