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Improvisation, Meditation, and Integral Theory: New Horizons in Contemplative Education
Format: Website
Publication Date: 2013/05/15/
Publisher: Center for Contemplative Mind in Society
Sources ID: 83436
Visibility: Public (group default)
Abstract: (Show)
[Improvisation, Meditation, and Integral Theory: New Horizons in Contemplative Education] will present core ideas from my new book, Improvisation, Creativity, and Consciousness: Jazz as Integral Template for Music, Education, and Society (SUNY/Albany, 2013). The book is the first to apply to music principles of an emergent, consciousness-based worldview called Integral Theory and poses potentially important ramifications for contemplative education—which I regard as among the most exciting and promising developments in the academic world. Central is the interplay between improvisation and meditation as contrasting yet complementary epistemologies that promote creativity-consciousness development. The jazz tradition boasts a long legacy of innovators who have engaged with contemplative disciplines in order to more fully integrate the heightened episodes of consciousness invoked in their improvisatory excursions into their music and lives. In addition to yielding a rich process template for contemplative development, the jazz-inspired integral framework also offers a sophisticated theoretical framework that may be important to contemplative education’s next evolutionary strides. Among the areas addressed by the integral framework are the value of integration of theory and practice, trans-traditional models of contemplative/consciousness development that recognize powerful connecting threads across lineages while also celebrating differences, and tools that help aspiring contemplatives navigate their way through the often-overwhelming smorgasbord that defines contemporary spiritual life.